Peter Crouch gives his verdict on Newcastle United

Peter Crouch has been talking about Newcastle United.

The former Liverpool and England striker discussing Eddie Howe and his team now four months into the season.

Newcastle United set to play Sunderland. A 2pm kick-off this Sunday afternoon down on Wearside.

Ahead of this derby match,  Peter Crouch says that when he looks at the Newcastle United squad, he thinks they should be higher in the table.

The former striker declaring that United; “…should be competing for the top four, they have a great manager.”

Peter Crouch pointing especially to the midfield trio of Joelinton, Sandro Tonali and Bruno Guimaraes, saying that they are as good as any in the Premier League,

Reality is that apart from Arsenal to an extent, no other Premier League teams have shown any real consistency.

The Premier League table is so tight ahead of today’s derby. Ahead of the game, Sunderland are tenth and Newcastle twelfth. However, if Newcastle United win today, it is possible that by the end of the weekend’s matches they could be as high as seventh and Sunderland be as low as thirteenth.

Peter Crouch has predicted a 2-1 win for Sunderland and a big part of his reasoning is that he says about Newcastle United; “Usually they are sound defensively but there have been too many mistakes leading to goals and it’s cost them this season.”

I think the reality can get distorted by some high profile moments and ahead of this derby match, Newcastle United have conceded 19 Premier League goals in 15 matches. You look further up the table and Liverpool have conceded 24 and Man U 22, whilst Man City are second top and have conceded 16, only three less than Newcastle United.

I know it is simplistic but fact is that Newcastle United need to be scoring more and conceding less, if they are to succeed in the Premier League, indeed, if they are to succeed on all fronts.

I think one of the very best guides as to how well any team is really doing, is to look at the goal difference.

As you can see, Newcastle United are only +2 on GD, only joint eighth best.

Last season when finishing fifth and qualifying for the Champions League, only three teams had better than Newcastle’s +21 goal difference. Whilst when ending up top four in 2022/23, only two teams bettered Newcastle’s +35 GD.

Yes, Newcastle United have to tighten it up at the back BUT they also need to take more of the numerous chances they are now creating. The last four Premier League matches have seen Newcastle pick up 10 points from a possible 12 and score ten goals, but also concede in each of these four PL games, leaking five in total. Three of those five goals (conceded against Spurs and Burnley) could have been defended better for sure, whilst at the other end Newcastle could very possibly have scored twice as many as the ten goals they did score in the last four PL matches, if more clinical and fine margins going their way.

Peter Crouch states that our derby is a special one and made even more special this time, due to the fact Sunderland have been in the lower divisions for so long. This last decade only featuring the easy 3-0 win for Newcastle at Sunderland in the FA Cup, in January 2024.

Peter Crouch claims; “it’s been an incredible season for Sunderland so far”, and points to their summer recruitment, this summer Sunderland spending over £160m, easily the most ever spent by a promoted club.

As we all know, nothing is decided by this point, when not even half the Premier League matches have been played.

Reality is that whilst Newcastle have picked up 10 points from their last four matches, Sunderland have only one win in their last six, so with as many as seven of their players set to head to the African Cup of Nations after this derby match, here’s hoping for Newcastle United to make it consecutives wins on Wearside and then maybe revisit how the Premier League table looks in a month’s time.