A new study shows that Newcastle United are the worst culprits in the Premier League for time-wasting.
In the lead up to Manchester United’s Carabao Cup final win over Newcastle in February, Erik ten Hag labeled the Magpies “annoying” as he warned his players and the match officials about their time-wasting tactics.
United went on to win the game 2-0 at Wembley. It goes without saying that it was an incredible day out and we were able to prevent Newcastle from any time-wasting.
Back in February, ahead of the final, Ten Hag told reporters about the challenge match officials would face.
“The referees want to play effective time. [Newcastle] have the lowest in the league and they are quite successful with it,” Ten Hag said, as quoted by The Guardian. “So, it’s up to us that we get speed in the game but also we are then dependent on the refereeing as well.”
It was United’s first piece of silverware, but away from that, Newcastle manager Eddie Howe went on to hit back at claims his side is guilty of time-wasting.
Prior to United’s trip to St James’ Park earlier this month, Howe said (via The National News): “I think our first intention is to always play the game and we want, as I said after the game, we want the ball in play,” said the former Bournemouth manager in Tuesday’s pre-match press conference.
“I encourage my players all the time to get the ball back in play very quickly. We want to play at a high tempo and want to wear teams down physically. That goes against what was said about us.
“Of course, there’s been times in games where we have to manage the game. We have to use experience, we have to do whatever we can to get a positive result. I’m not saying we won’t do that either. Certainly that’s not our first intention.”
The Analyst has published data, courtesy of Opta, showing that Newcastle are the worst offenders for time-wasting in the Premier League.
A Guide to PL Time-Wasting ⌚️
Time-wasting or game management? However you define it, we can see who does it most.
⏱ Newcastle take 37 secs per goalkick, more than 3 secs longer than any other team
⏱ Bazunu burned 13 mins while taking goalkicks v Arsenal
More insights ⬇️
— Opta Analyst (@OptaAnalyst) April 26, 2023
You won’t be surprised to learn that if you go to watch a United game and you’re likely to see more minutes of action than a Newcastle game.
Newcastle matches average out at 52% (51.15) of total minutes with the ball in play for Premier League matches this season.
Their data finds that Newcastle take 37 seconds per goal kick, more than 3 seconds longer than any other team in the top-flight.
It has been obvious for some time that something needs to be done about time-wasting, and why not start by implementing stricter laws next season to improve the game?
We had more minutes added on to games at the World Cup in Qatar. That could be one solution to tackle it.
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v interesting article – thanks for posting dale.
the powers that be in football just seem to be very arrogant – look at rugby for many things, VAR, timekeeping – strict rules for referee interaction.
they clearly dont want to take advice/copy from other sports – very arrogant.
I think games should be 70 mins and the minutes stopped when ball isn’t active. how this hasn’t been implemented in 2023 is ridiculous. would cut out the timewasting straight away. 13 mins lost to goalkicks from one side? unacceptable.
ETH is a moaning hole – straight out of the Fergy handbook. No surprise he started whingeing days after his lunch date with Fergy – Who regularly moaned about refs BEFORE games in order to influence the officials. Is that not cheating? Or is cheating something only teams outside the greedy 6 do?
This holier than thou attitude stinks. Man U and the other greedy 6 have been using time wasting tactics for years. Funny how, with the arrival of NUFC on the scene, there’s uproar about it.
PS The recent visit of Man U to SJP saw Man U wasting time in the first 20 minutes with De Gea being the main culprit. Go figure!
Over-privileged, spoilt, brats. The lot of ’em!
Still upset about your big day out at Wembley? Barcode loving weirdos.
Actually, I would be inclined to agree with the bar code loving friend. Our keeper was a disgrace from the first minute at Newcastle and have you thought that ball in play involves 2 teams. Given Newcastle’s impressive pressing that tortured us, maybe other teams playing them are pulling their stats down??? Sometimes looking at it with balance helps!
Balance? The stats show an average from throughout the season.
Stick to that barcode loving fetish you’ve got there. 😏
Actually, I would be inclined to agree with the bar code loving friend. Our keeper was a disgrace from the first minute at Newcastle and have you thought that ball in play involves 2 teams. Given Newcastle’s impressive pressing that tortured us, maybe other teams playing them are pulling their stats down…Crystal Palace over one minute per goal kick….Newcastle are faster throwing the ball back in than ourselves??? Sometimes looking at it with balance helps…take the rose tinted glasses off and look at it objectively!