Opinion

Fabian Schar – Newcastle United player of the season so far? The stats/evidence

With only 11 games remaining, surely Fabian Schar has proved himself to be one of Newcastle’s best players this season, if not THE best.

Rafa Benitez hasn’t always seen the Swiss international as an automatic choice.

Fabian Schar featuring in only one of the first 10 Premier League games of this season – but then playing in 14 of these last 17.

There have been 27 Premier League matches so far and these are the 15 Fabian Schar has played in:

Newcastle 2 Huddersfield 0

Wolves 1 Newcastle 1

Tottenham 1 Newcastle 0

Newcastle 2 Man City 1

Newcastle United 3 Cardiff City 0

Newcastle United 0 Manchester United 2

Watford 1 Newcastle United 1

Newcastle United 0 Fulham 0

Huddersfield Town 0 Newcastle United 1

Everton 1 Newcastle United 1

Newcastle United 0 West Ham United 3

Burnley 1 Newcastle United 2

Newcastle United 2 Bournemouth 1

Newcastle United 1 Watford 0

Newcastle United 1 Chelsea 2

When Fabian Schar plays:

Played 15 Won 7 Drawn 4 Lost 4 Goals For 17 Goals Against 14

When Fabian Schar isn’t involved:

Played 12 Won 0 Drawn 3 Lost 9 Goals For 7 Goals Against 20

Of the 28 points Newcastle have picked up so far, 25 of them have been in the 15 matches where Fabian Schar has been involved. Only three points from the other 12 games.

Newcastle United concede less and score more when he is in the team.

I think that when Schar is in the team, he helps get NUFC playing better football, his passing and willingness/ability to bring the ball out of defence are massive pluses – rather than just booting it up the pitch.

An interesting dilemma for Rafa Benitez as he has Lascelles, Lejeune, Schar, Clark and Fernandez all to choose from.

How he must wish he had similar quality to choose from in the other areas of the team, although the introduction of Miguel Almiron has massive potential based on the win over Huddersfield.

Fabian Schar – Surely one of Rafa’s first names on the team sheet.