Category Archives: Season Review 14/15

Top Five Newcastle United Players of 14/15

Click here to go to the discussion thread by Cal

Having looked at the top five individual player performances earlier this week, today we’re going to examine the players that garnered the highest average ratings. Most of these ratings might seem a little on the low side, but remember that we operate with a baseline rating of 5.50, so high ratings are quite rare, for example only 11 out of 41 rated games had any scores over 8.00 (down from 16 last season). Of course things also got a little bit dire from December through to the final day, which will naturally dampen ratings of players involved in those games.

Note: Minutes played don’t include injury time, and we use our own definition of what constitutes an assist. Rather than just the last team-mate to touch the ball other than the goalscorer, we also give credit where a player clearly created the opportunity, even if the opposition touched the ball, which is more in line with FIFA’s 1986 criteria.

#5 Daryl Janmaat – 5.53

Average Rating: 5.53 (σ 1.33)
Best Rating: 8.52
Worst Rating: 2.34
Man of the Match: 2 – West Brom (a), Liverpool (a)
Mug of the Match: 1 – Crystal Palace (a) (League Cup)
Playing Time: 40 starts, ~3452 mins
Goals: 1 –
Assists: 8 –
Cards:

Opening up our top five with a depressingly low average rating of 5.53 – just 0.03 over what is meant to be our measuring stick for an all-round average performance – is the almost ever reliable right-back Daryl Janmaat. Having missed just three games all season, two cup ties and one (West Brom at home) through suspension, The Dutchman is the man with the most starts and the most minutes in a Newcastle shirt all season, which makes his placing in this list at all an impressive feat.

After an impressive first two of games, Janmaat followed the rest of the team into a slump for a month or so, before finding his feet in October and early November, putting together a string of high ratings against Manchester City in the cup (7.50), Liverpool (7.41), and West Brom (8.52). The Baggies match would prove to be his highest rating of the season, placing in the top five for the team, and was perhaps the most blatant sign that we had a player on our hands.

Good form would continue, although not quite hitting those highs, through to the new year as he racked up five assists over a two month period, cementing himself as perhaps our most potent creative force, while still generally excelling in his defensive duties.

Through the rest of the season Janmaat would continue to put in at least respectable performances amidst myriad misery, succumbing to sub-4.0 ratings only four times despite playing in a leaky defence and a side sliding towards relegation. The lowest low would, of course, come in this period, as an otherwise okay performance away at Leicester was ruined by a needless second yellow card in injury time, ruling him out of a key game the next week with our survival hanging in the balance.

Highest rated performance: 8.52 in 2-0 vs West Brom (a)
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Top Five Player Performances of 14/15

Click here to go to the discussion thread by Cal

“After a spree of signings, anticipation for the new season is the highest it has been for a few years on Tyneside. Some have even taken to adopting the ways of optimism. So what better time to start having a look back at the season that was as we prepare to start the new campaign?”

The above is how Beatski opened the equivalent post for the 13/14 season, and although things didn’t quite pan out as we’d hoped, these words are again applicable now as we’re set to enter our first season of the post-Pardew era, complete with an overhauled coaching staff, three ambitious, big money signings, and what appear to be some actual attempts at communication and the rectifying of several wrongs that have wrought Ashley’s reign.

But before we move forward into the new, let’s first take a look back at the season that was. In case you are unaware or have missed our posts over the last couple of seasons, we’ve been cataloguing the fans’ player ratings and reactions after each match and collating them into the ToonForumIndex (TFI), which it turns out is pretty handy when you want to look back.

Although there were some good times (basically six weeks from mid-October to the end of November), 14/15 will be remembered for our catastrophic implosion and loss of form from December onwards, and our inability to appoint a capable coach following Pardew’s departure, instead playing with fire and risking relegation as the self-proclaimed “best coach in the league” piloted the Magpies perilously through Premiership purgatory, only just scraping survival in the end.

There were some positives, however, so let’s take a look at the five best individual performances of the season.

8.52 – Jack Colback vs Chelsea (h) 06 Dec 14

The so-called “Ginger Pirlo” opens our top five with a midfield masterpiece against Mourinho’s Chelsea, playing an integral role in taking down the then undefeated defending champions. Playing a deep role alongside Tioté, Colback was a force both in defence akin to his partner at his best, topping the tackles and interceptions stats with seven and three respectively.

Although a game played mostly on the defensive, Colback was also the driving force of our attacks, carrying the ball forward and distributing it with almost perfect accuracy, misplacing a single pass, and creating two key opportunities, including starting the play for the winner.

“8.5 – Well I’m eating some humble pie. He was 2x the player I thought he was today.”

“9 – MOTM. Was pretty much everywhere. Made several excellent tackles, his pass for Sissoko’s assist was brilliant, hassled and chased for the whole game. Literally the only smear all game was that miss but even so it wasn’t the easiest finish to pull off.”

“8 – Man of the match! He was quality today, when he came in, there was obviously a comparison with Anita, but he offers far more. He has a tenacity and work rate that Anita doesn’t and his tackle on Costa was top class. His passing was good and he is getting in more attacking positions. He is desperate to score his first Toon goal, every time he misses a chance, he looks devastated, hopefully he gets his goal in the derby!”

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