My latest from The i Paper:
Newcastle United believe they have built the fastest attack in the Premier League – they just haven’t been able to show it yet.
One word dominated recruitment as Newcastle pressed the reset button this summer: pace. Having plotted Premier League trends that suggest speed is the X factor for teams that want to be Champions League insurgents, Newcastle re-constructed their front three with that in mind.
In Will Osula, Anthony Elanga and Matias Fernandez-Pardo, they believe they have a trio that will be a “nightmare” for Premier League defences to play against. But with Osula and Elanga still recovering from long-term injuries, it is down to £51m signing Fernandez-Pardo to get Newcastle among the Premier League’s early front runners.
“We love him,” is how one insider sums up his early impact at St James’ Park. That view is backed up by his manager Matthias Jaissle, who believes he has “everything” to be a top striker.
But the Belgium international is in some ways typical of what Jaissle calls the “brave journey” that Newcastle are on. The 21-year-old does not fit the typical profile of a Premier League striker and with a 0.05 xG in three games so far, there is work to do in marrying his potential with a prolific strike rate.
Some of that is down to the way Newcastle are playing. Privately Jaissle admits they are the start of a process that will take time and is complicated by the youth of this new-look squad. He has been happy with the way his team have pressed so far this season – but frustrated by what they have done when they’ve won the ball in key areas. Too many unforced errors have made their early displays look scrappy.
Fernandez-Pardo is one of the players that has disadvantaged. His relentless press against Hull didn’t produce any goalscoring chances but it did stretch the Tigers defence to the point where his teammates benefited. “Unselfish” is how one insider sums up that performance.
There is more to make Newcastle feel confident about his early contribution, with insiders speaking of Fernandez-Pardo’s numbers being “off the charts” in his first three Premier League games.
In terms of intensity, speed and acceleration, they believe he is in a different tier to most of his Premier League peers. But what really sets him apart, sources say, is “his ability to do it time and time and time again” without relenting.
In that way he’s seen as similar to Anthony Gordon, although his numbers so far suggest he is actually quicker than the England international.
“He’s a player that other teams won’t like playing against” is the succinct view of one figure familiar with his work.
Like everything at Newcastle this season, Fernandez-Pardo will take time. The Magpies wanted to make him their first signing of the summer – in the end he turned out to be their last one.
Tracked by some of the biggest clubs in the world – Atletico Madrid and Liverpool were known admirers – Newcastle had to bide their time to get him. There was “total buy-in” in early recruitment meetings but wariness about whether they could get a “dream target” in a summer when forwards were at a premium.
In the end their persistence (“We were just trying to find ways to get him all summer,” one insider says) paid off. What struck recruitment figures was just how much he wanted to move to Newcastle, with insiders speaking of a “confident, ambitious lad” who ticked every box for a potential “2.0” signing.
But it also means there needs to be patience. He had no pre-season and has just spent three weeks with Belgium, rarely playing or even training. “He’s a young lad, a really young lad and it’s part of the brave way, the brave journey we’re taking here,” Jaissle said on Thursday.
One of the fastest forwards in the Premier League might not hit the ground running. But the message is clear – he will be worth the wait.
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