The surprise leader as we rank every Newcastle United player by minutes played in pre-season

Newcastle United rounded off a successful pre-season campaign with a 2-1 win over La Liga side Athletic Bilbao.

Eddie Howe’s side faced seven opponents in pre-season - starting with Gateshead and ending with Bilbao at St James’ Park.

In between, the Magpies faced 1860 Munich and Mainz 05 in Austria before taking on Burnley and Benfica in Portugal.

United hosted Serie A outfit Atalanta on Friday and Bilbao less than 24 hours later, which attracted a combined crowd of over 86,000.

Newcastle won five and lost two but as we all know, results in don’t matter in pre-season.

It’s all about the minutes and here, NewcastleWorld ranks each Magpies player in order of minutes played:

25. Jacob Murphy - 352 minutes

Was withdrawn on 82 minutes against Atalanta. | Getty Images

The breakout star of pre-season with Howe now likely to keep hold of the 19-year-old rather than loan him out. | Getty Images

A very positive pre-season for Almiron, who found the net six times - including a brace against Benfica. | Getty Images

Capped off his best performance of pre-season with a goal against Athletic Bilbao. | Getty Images