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:

33. Joe Willock - 360 minutes

Willock didn’t have a proper pre-season last year but the same can’t be said this time around. Photo: LINDSEY PARNABY

Back on the scoresheet at St James’ Park against Bilbao on Saturday. Photo: Stu Forster

Played the most minutes after coming on slightly earlier than planned against Mainz 05 to place the injured Schar. Photo: Stu Forster