I put this damning Newcastle United stat to Eddie Howe - and he referenced something he 'hates'
Eddie Howe admits Newcastle United must improve their set piece output after going months without scoring from a corner.
The Magpies are without a victory in their last five Premier League matches having lost to Chelsea - who they host in the fourth round Carabao Cup tomorrow night - at the weekend.
And a damning statistic to emerge from the defeat is United’s ineffectiveness from corners. Howe’s side have had 50 in the league this campaign yet scored none, which is the worst ratio in the division.
In response, Howe told NewcastleWorld: “I wasn’t necessarily aware of that stat presented like that but I was certainly aware we haven’t scored from a corner.
“I think we’ve had chances, I hate to use XG but to try to be clever in my response, our XG from set plays isn’t too bad - it’s competitive so we should have scored at least one.”
Newcastle scored from 15 set pieces last season, putting them joint fourth with Liverpool and Luton Town. Howe believes those routines are missing important personnel but conceded they have to evolve.
Howe continued: “I think it is a two-fold thing because I am well aware that we haven’t been as potent as we have been previously. I think we’re missing a couple of key corner takers, Tripps [Kieran Trippier], for me, has been a consistent source of goals for us, an outstanding delivery whether that is wide free-kicks or corners.
“Also the height we have in the team we’re missing a little bit of that we’ve had previously and strength of headers really. I think Sven [Botman] has always been a big miss for us, not so much of him being a focal target but 6ft4, 6ft5 and when you add Dan Burn and other players into the mix to go with his height you become a lot stronger team from set plays. Callum Wilson will add to that as well.
“I think a mixture of those two things but we have to do better, it has to be a source of goals. I think it always has been for us historically so we’re constantly tweaking what we’re doing and that will probably no doubt have to evolve again.”
Twelve of the 20 teams in the Premier League have employed dedicated set piece coaches. Newcastle haven’t yet followed suite but the responsibility is left to assistant coach Jason Tindall and first-team set piece analyst Kieran Taylor.
“It’s something we have discussed, looked at and talked with the club about,” Howe said when asked about adding a set piece coach to his backroom team.
“I think we have a set play analyst who is very good, Kieran [Taylor] does a lot of work with Jason [Tindall] regarding our set plays, they work incredibly hard to try and improve our product from our corners and set plays but also from a defensive viewpoint which we’ve not been too bad.
“A lot of work goes into them, we practice them a lot. Sometimes you go on runs where you score and sometimes you go on runs when you don’t but we do know it is an area we need to contribute to.
“It can win you games and it can really make the difference, as other teams have found out this year.”