Newcastle United’s form this season has been something of a roller-coaster. Just last season, the Magpies managed to secure a Champions League place for the first time since the 2002/03 season.
It was a feat which at the start of the campaign was deemed unreachable, but Eddie Howe managed to prove his doubters wrong and achieve a fourth-placed finish with his squad.
The next closest team were Liverpool, who found themselves just four points shy of a fourth-placed finish.
This achievement allowed Newcastle to sign players such as Sandro Tonali, Tino Livramento and Harvey Barnes. However, despite these new additions ramping up the depth of the squad, The Magpies are still yet to find their form from last season.
Indeed, this is largely due to the injuries that the side have sustained, but even with the players they have available, they should be doing better. They currently find themselves in ninth place, 11 points adrift of the top four spots.
Although there is an abundance of players within the Newcastle squad that have performed below par this season, there are two names in particular which stand out ahead of the rest.
Those players are Miguel Almiron and Dan Burn. The pair were essential to last season’s success at the club but neither have performed as well as fans expect them to.
According to Sofascore’s player ratings algorithm, Burn was the worst player on the pitch on Saturday against Luton Town in the 4-4 draw and only managed to garner a rating of 5.4. Almiron wasn’t far off him either, with the Paraguay international only amassing a rating of 6.8.
Why Miguel Almiron should be benched
According to Transfermarkt, the 2022/23 season was the most prolific of Almiron’s career since the 2017/18 season when he still played for Atalanta in MLS.
During this season, he managed to contribute to a total of 26 goals in just 38 games. However, his 2023/24 campaign has started off much worse than what Howe expected of him.
So far, the attacker has only contributed to seven goals. When compared to Sean Longstaff who is, by trade, a midfielder, the 26-year-old has managed to garner one extra goal contribution, making his total eight.
This outlines how lacklustre Almiron has been thus far and his performance against Luton did him no favours. The attacker was taken off the field in the 63rd minute after failing to register a dribble or even a shot on target, as per Sofascore.
Whereas, despite not having the best of games himself, Jacob Murphy still managed to successfully dribble past an opponent twice. The performance was summed up aptly by Lee Ryder of the Chronicle, who handed the South American a 4/10 match rating while writing: ‘Never looked happy from the offset. Taken off after ineffective display.’
Miguel Almiron vs Luton
Minutes played
63
Touches
39
Accurate passes
29/34 (85%)
Shots
0
Expected assists (xA)
0.03
Key passes
1
Possession lost
7x
Stats via Sofascore.
In order to keep his starting spot in the team, the Paraguay international will seriously have to buck his ideas up.
The regression of Dan Burn
Although Almiron was among the worst players on the pitch, he wasn’t the worst. This accolade goes to Burn who had yet another defensive calamity.
Much like Almiron, last season was one of the best of the towering defender’s career. He was one of the first names on the team sheet for Howe and was arguably the best player in Newcastle’s lineup, a point backed up by the fact he didn’t miss a single league fixture in 2022/23.
However, after yet another horrendous display against Luton Town in which he lost possession of the ball 16 times and was dribbled past a total of four times, he was also taken off the pitch in the 63rd minute. He was notably at fault for giving away a penalty in the second half.
Comparing those statistics with the rest of The Magpies’ starting defence makes Burns’ display look even worse, as, none of the other defenders were dribbled past even once.
It feels as if rather than being one of Newcastle’s best defenders, he has now become a liability.