Why are Newcastle United so poor away from home?

Halloween may have passed but, for Newcastle United, the horror keeps on coming. The latest chapter in the Jekyll and Hyde story that has come to define Eddie Howe’s side, so strong at home but too often a rank abomination on the road, came at Marseille’s Orange Vélodrome on Tuesday night.

The first impression was of a team determined to build on the momentum established by Saturday’s impressive league win over Manchester City. Newcastle bristled with intent. By the time Harvey Barnes swept home in incisive fashion to give Howe’s side the lead after just six minutes, Marseille had already been forced to clear a headed effort by Malick Thiaw from under the crossbar. Newcastle looked ready to tear the hosts apart.

Inevitably, for a side that has prevailed just once in the past seven months beyond the comforting confines of St James’ Park, it was not quite so simple. Newcastle had the lead, but Marseille had the conviction. With the outstanding Mason Greenwood pulling the strings, former Arsenal and Chelsea forward Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang repeatedly went close before exposing the visitors’ soft underbelly with a quickfire brace immediately after the interval. There would be no way back for Newcastle.

Newcastle’s pattern of poor away form

For the club’s long-suffering travelling support, the pattern has become all too familiar. This was Newcastle’s fourth straight away loss in all competitions, a sequence that has also taken in league setbacks at Brighton, West Ham and Brentford. In the last two of those defeats, Newcastle took an early lead only for things to unravel, just as they did against Marseille. 

A broader perspective offers much the same picture. The most recent of Newcastle’s four away league wins this year came on 7 April at Leicester, while their sole success on the road in any competition this term, a 4-0 Champions League victory at Belgian side Union Saint-Gilloise, remains very much an outlier. Small wonder that some have wondered whether Newcastle are in crisis. But why does it keep happening?  

One issue is mentality. Newcastle’s performances at St James’ Park are typified by a physicality and energy too rarely seen elsewhere. Nowhere has that been more than apparent than in midfield, where Bruno Guimarães, Sandro Tonali and Joelinton have too frequently been a shadow of their aggressive, high-pressing selves. 

St James’ Park – ‘a safe place’ for Newcastle

The problem was clearly articulated by Guimarães, the club captain, in his programme notes before the club’s Champions League meeting with Athletic Bilbao earlier this month. “The confidence in the squad is always there, even more when we play at home – it’s a safe place for us where we know we play our best football,” wrote the Brazilian. 

Even allowing for the fact that English is not Guimarães’ first language, it was an intriguing turn of phrase. If St James’ Park is a safe place, the implication is that other grounds are not. Every team feels more comfortable at home, of course, but Newcastle are a Champions League side with a rich ownership, fresh from ending a 70-year trophy drought. Belief should not be contingent on geography. 

It does not help that Howe tends to set up his midfield to defend zonally away from home. Man-marking rottweilers on Tyneside, Guimarães and company are more poodle-like on their travels, making fewer tackles and interceptions. While numbers are not the problem, with two of the front three dropping back out of possession, the flatness of the midfield quintet is. Opposition teams have too frequently been able to get at Newcastle’s back line by bypassing their static midfield with a single, line-splitting pass.

How Nick Pope has contributed to Newcastle’s poor away form

Nor can the role of individual errors be discounted. Glaringly culpable in that respect has been goalkeeper Nick Pope. Events in Marseille, where Pope came dashing out of his area in an ill-fated attempt to reach Darryl Bakola’s through ball before Aubameyang, who went around the England international before steering home an accomplished, curling finish from a tight angle, were merely the most recent addition to a growing catalogue of howlers. 

Pope blunders also led to equalisers against West Ham, where he was beaten from range by Lucas Paquetá, and Brentford, where he strayed from his goal in a forlorn attempt to punch away a cross. Howe defended his goalkeeper in the aftermath of the Marseille defeat, but he cannot ignore the growing clamour among supporters for Aaron Ramsdale to be given a chance indefinitely. 

The role of a blunt attack in Newcastle’s poor away form

Problems have also been apparent at the opposite end of the pitch, where Newcastle are creating fewer chances than they do at home, and almost invariably failing to convert those they do fashion. It has not helped that the natural strengths of Nick Woltemade, Newcastle’s top scorer in the league this season, are better suited to playing at home than away, where his lack of pace is ill-suited to Howe’s counter-attacking tactics. The return of Yoane Wissa, yet to feature since his £55m summer move from Brentford after suffering a knee injury, cannot come soon enough.

While the factors behind Newcastle’s travel sickness are varied, the cumulative effect is all too apparent. Confidence, that most intangible yet crucial of qualities, is painfully lacking beyond Tyneside, a reality underlined by the manner in which Howe’s side crumbled in Marseille after a bright start. With league visits to Everton, Sunderland, Manchester United and Burnley to negotiate before the turn of the year, as well as a challenging mid-December test at Bayer Leverkusen, Howe’s ability to restore belief on the road will go a long way to determining Newcastle’s season.