Why Newcastle’s Midfield Is So Tough To Face

Newcastle might not have the best midfield in the Premier League, but there’s a decent argument that Bruno Guimarães, Joelinton and Sandro Tonali are the worst to face.

Newcastle are firmly up and running again.

Following a disappointing 2023-24 campaign in which a stretched and depleted squad struggled to contend with playing European football and then a disconcertingly poor first half of this season, Eddie Howe’s side might just be better than ever.

As recently as the week before Christmas, they were in the bottom half of the Premier League table, but a run of nine consecutive wins across three competitions has them back in the hunt for a top-four spot and in with a chance of ending a 55-year trophy drought that stretches back to them winning the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup in 1968-69.

There is justified hope the recent 4-1 home defeat to Bournemouth is little more than a hiccup, but an extremely difficult February fixture list will test that theory. Over the next month, Newcastle play the second leg of their EFL Cup semi-final against Arsenal, and Premier League games against three members of the current top four in Liverpool, Nottingham Forest and Manchester City. Their other league opponents are Fulham, who have taken points off six of the current top seven – including Newcastle back in September – already this season.

Newcastle’s recent form, which has included the joint-longest Premier League winning streak by any team this season (six games), has been fired by the headline-grabbing form of Alexander Isak. The Swede has 17 goals this season, and scored in eight consecutive games across December and January. Only two players have ever embarked on longer scoring streaks in Premier League history.

But the real driving force in their run has come from midfield, where Howe has switched two players’ positions with remarkable results.

A 10-month ban for breaching football’s betting regulations prevented Sandro Tonali from settling properly in England following his £55 million transfer from AC Milan in the summer of 2023. He missed most of last season – his first in England – as well as the start of this season.

And even after his return in late August, he didn’t initially look entirely convincing. Given minutes as the right-sided number eight ahead of immovable object and always-available number six, Bruno Guimarães, Tonali looked awkward. Newcastle were less fluent going forward. In Tonali’s first three starts of the season – all as an eight – Newcastle scored just one goal, and that was a penalty. They did finally net in open play in the following game, but still lost 2-1 at Chelsea.

But then, a few days later, Guimarães was rested for the EFL Cup tie with Chelsea, and Tonali had an opportunity as the deepest midfielder. He starred in a 2-0 win.

Howe wasn’t ready to play Tonali there in the league, but a bitterly disappointing 2-0 home defeat to West Ham a few weeks later convinced him to take the plunge. Tonali played as the six with Guimarães as the right-sided eight in a 1-1 draw with Crystal Palace, and although it wasn’t an instant success – Newcastle managed just one shot in that match – there were enough signs Howe liked. Their performances in the next game, a 3-3 draw with Liverpool, cemented his thinking.

“We’re seeing Bruno in a different position, and I thought he played well,” the Newcastle manager said. “Sandro has been excellent in the last two games as a six, and there’s real competition for places. But [along with Joelinton] it’s three outstanding players we need to get the best of.”

It has long been Howe’s aim to get all three into a functional midfield, and Newcastle’s upturn in form proves he has found a winning formula.

That combination is a formidable force and, on current form, there is a decent argument that Newcastle’s midfield three is up there with the best in the Premier League.

They might not have the guile of Arsenal’s trio of Thomas Partey, Declan Rice and Martin Ødegaard. They might not be as technically proficient as Chelsea’s Moisés Caicedo, Enzo Fernández and Cole Palmer. They might not have the trophy cabinet and winning mentality of Rodri, Bernardo Silva and Kevin De Bruyne in Manchester City’s midfield. They might not be top of the league like Liverpool’s first-choice midfield three of Ryan Gravenberch, Alexis Mac Allister and Dominik Szoboszlai.

But in Tonali, Guimarães and Joelinton, Newcastle arguably have the midfield that opponents will enjoy playing against the least.

That is in part because they are such a physical group. That isn’t to do a disservice to how exceptional they are on the ball: Guimarães is one of the best passers in the league, Joelinton has become a brilliant box-to-box midfielder under Howe, and Tonali can control games like some of the best midfielders around.

But the physical side of their game is also significant, and the numbers prove it. Guimarães has been fouled (or won a free-kick, depending on how you view his game) 78 times in the Premier League this season. That’s at least 30 more times than any other player.

Meanwhile, only three players have committed more fouls than Joelinton (44), and only one midfielder has won more aerial duels than him (41).

Finally, Tonali ranks second in the league for distance covered (12.2 km) of those to play at least 1,000 minutes, behind only Dejan Kulusevski (12.3 km). Guimarães isn’t far down the list, sitting in seventh (11.5 km).

Tonali is also top for Newcastle and seventh overall in the top flight this season for possession regains, winning the ball back 6.6 times per 90 on average.

With Joelinton flying into fouls and bossing everyone in the air, Tonali and Guimarães running relentlessly, nicking the ball consistently and winning foul after foul, they must be horrible to play against. You get battered constantly, and then just when you think you’ve got a chance to win the ball and launch an attack, Bruno goes down to win a free-kick.

Playing them must be so frustrating. It’s no coincidence that no team’s opponents have received more yellow cards in the Premier League this season than Newcastle’s (65).

The balance in Newcastle’s midfield is striking, particularly given only a few months ago there were doubts as to whether two of them could even play together.

All three are combative ball-winners and happy spending periods out of possession – Newcastle don’t focus on possession as much as many of the other best teams in the Premier League, averaging 51.4% of the ball this season – but they are brilliant at springing an attack once they do win it. Only Bournemouth (160), Liverpool (143) and Chelsea (124) have had more shots in transition this season than Newcastle (122), and the midfield three are key to that.

Joelinton’s past as a centre-forward – even if it wasn’t wholly successful – means he provides attacking threat from midfield, and he already has four Premier League goals this season.

Guimarães wouldn’t have been thought of as much of an attacker before his move into a more advanced position, but he has shone in the final third of late. He has nine goal involvements (two goals, seven assists) – all but one of which have come in open play – in his last 12 appearances for Newcastle in all competitions. He had managed just one in his previous 16 appearances in a deeper position this season. His touch map shows just how much further up the pitch he is affecting games.

Tonali, too, has provided attacking threat, bursting through the heart of the Southampton team last weekend to score his side’s third goal in a 3-1 win.

That goal epitomised the fluidity that Howe wants from his midfield. It should be no surprise to see the number six as the highest one of the three, and that freedom to switch positions is a big part of what makes this combination so tough to face.

“Freedom within a structure is always the optimum for me,” Howe said last month. “You can give players too much freedom and it becomes a mess. We have always worked really hard on freedom within a structure.”

Joelinton, Guimarães and Tonali clearly understand exactly how far that freedom should stretch, and they use it to get the most out of each other. Guimarães might not be the deepest player but Tonali knows there is a top-class number six ready to drop in should he make a forward run. Their constant rotations just give opponents yet another problem to think about.

Facing Newcastle is never going to involve the kind of relentless defending and running after the ball that playing Manchester City might bring, but, physically, there is quite possibly no other challenge comparable.

Playing against that midfield three is about as tough a task as there is in the Premier League right now. And with them playing like they are, battling opponents off the park, Newcastle have every chance of making 2024-25 their most successful season in a long, long while. The end of their trophy drought could be in sight.

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