- 2 years ago
Harvey Barnes' transfer to Newcastle looks to be complete, while Allan Saint-Maximin is departing for Saudi Arabia. But is it simply a case of Eddie Howe getting an upgrade on the left-wing, or are Newcastle somehow getting worse by getting better?
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00:00 (explosion)
00:02 Hi there everybody, Adam Cleary from 442 here,
00:06 and today's video, we are focusing,
00:09 it's about,
00:10 today's, so today, what we're going to be looking at
00:17 is,
00:18 (singing in foreign language)
00:29 Yeah, it's about Alan St. Maximan.
00:31 (bell dings)
00:33 All right then, lads, if you've not seen this morning,
00:38 there is good news and bad news.
00:40 Harvey Barnes is arriving from Leicester City
00:42 for around about 35 million pounds,
00:44 and Alan St. Maximan is departing,
00:46 going to Saudi Arabia for a similar sort of fee.
00:48 But which part of that you find the good news,
00:50 and which part of that you find the bad news,
00:52 is varying between a lot of people.
00:55 You see, to some, St. Maximan is an undeniably talented,
00:57 precocious star who just never quite had the consistency
01:01 or the drive or the determination
01:02 to really succeed at the top level,
01:04 and Harvey Barnes is a proven, reliable goal scorer
01:07 who's gonna add loads more to that side
01:09 than he would over the course of the season.
01:11 And to other people, Alan St. Maximan is class,
01:14 and Harvey Barnes is (beep) boring.
01:16 Now we're gonna get to Barnes in a little bit,
01:17 but first, why do the people who love
01:19 Alan St. Maximan so much, love Alan St. Maximan so much?
01:23 Well, to quote the road dog Jesse James,
01:25 I got two words for ya.
01:27 Steve Bruce.
01:28 So if you can just steel yourself to relive the trauma
01:31 we're about to go back through here,
01:32 Bruce's Newcastle United kinda looked
01:34 a little bit something like this, didn't they?
01:36 It was a flat back five with all the players in the squad
01:38 you didn't think hated as guts that week.
01:40 Two in the middle, one to pass and one to run.
01:42 Miguel Almaron over on the right-hand side
01:44 before he was a goal scorer,
01:45 when his job was to literally just scurry around
01:47 like Speedy Gonzalez and double up on any dangerous players.
01:51 Callum Wilson up top,
01:52 in case a chance magically happened,
01:53 and Alan St. Maximan.
01:56 And the tactics were thus.
01:58 The three central defenders,
02:00 their job was to drop back as far as they could,
02:02 and then the wing backs, don't go pushing on.
02:03 Your job is to drop back as far as you can.
02:06 And the two central midfielders, don't get ambitious now.
02:08 Your job is to drop back as far as you can.
02:10 And Almaron, I know you're quick,
02:12 but make sure you're dropping back
02:13 just so we can chase down any loose balls.
02:15 And St. Maximan, drop back a little bit.
02:17 Oh, and Callum Wilson, don't you drop back.
02:19 You're the centre forward.
02:20 You've got to stay up front,
02:21 but also, I mean, kinda do a bit,
02:22 just no further than like the halfway line.
02:24 And the way this system worked,
02:27 was that everybody would defend as deep as they possibly could.
02:29 And when they turned the ball over,
02:31 they didn't try and reset,
02:32 or build out from the back,
02:33 or give it to Shelby,
02:34 or try and do anything clever with it.
02:35 They would just kick the ball to Alan St. Maximan.
02:37 And the theory here was,
02:38 because we were so defensive,
02:40 and so cramped in,
02:41 and so penned back into our own box,
02:43 this would leave the entire football pitch
02:45 for him to run into.
02:46 And what's mad is,
02:48 that did actually work.
02:49 I mean, I say worked,
02:50 it worked to the extent that Newcastle got enough points
02:53 to stay in the division and not go relegated.
02:54 It didn't work in any kind of,
02:56 "Oh, isn't football exciting?
02:57 Isn't life worth living?" sense.
02:58 That wasn't what Steve Bruce was about.
03:00 But you would, those first two seasons under Bruce,
03:02 you would see that quite a lot.
03:03 St. Maximan would get on the ball,
03:04 and Newcastle would try and hit a counter-attack.
03:06 And what he would do,
03:07 is he would sprint at terrified defenders
03:10 who were running back to their own goal.
03:11 He would tie them up in knots,
03:13 he would beat them,
03:13 and he would create chances for Callum Wilson.
03:15 And this meant that for a long time,
03:16 literally the only entertaining thing,
03:18 the only reason you would ever watch Newcastle United,
03:21 was Alan St. Maximan.
03:23 He was/is a bit of a throwback, to be honest,
03:26 to like a slightly simpler time
03:27 where football was less about patterns of play,
03:30 and less about pressing and counter-pressing,
03:31 and less about defenders contributing to the attack,
03:34 and attackers contributing to the defence.
03:35 He's just that old-fashioned,
03:37 "Look at me, I'm a winger, I have loads of tricks,
03:40 watch me go," kind of player.
03:42 He's not the kind of player you can adequately explain
03:44 by talking about numbers, and phases,
03:46 and contributions, and stats, and whatnot,
03:48 because that's not what he's about.
03:50 Because at its heart, that's not what football's about.
03:53 Basically, he's the sort of player who,
03:55 if you give him space, he will absolutely kill you,
03:57 and because Newcastle played this awful, awful football,
04:00 there was all this space for him to play in.
04:02 So he looked amazing,
04:03 because under these circumstances, he was.
04:06 But the problem for him last season,
04:08 and by extension the problem for Newcastle,
04:10 is that now when they win the ball,
04:11 just wave the old magic wand here,
04:13 it tends to look more like this,
04:15 and now there is no space whatsoever,
04:18 because teams are scared of them,
04:19 and they are the ones who sit back,
04:20 and they invite them on,
04:21 and they try and crowd the areas,
04:22 they try and make it difficult for them to play through,
04:24 and that is the exact opposite game
04:27 for someone like Alunsat Maksimane.
04:28 As is nicely illustrated by the pile of magazines here,
04:31 there is simply no space for him.
04:33 And that was the challenge for him this season.
04:34 Can he adjust his game accordingly?
04:36 Can he be less about counterattacking,
04:37 and breaking into huge areas that the opposition
04:40 aren't defending, 'cause they're not scared of you,
04:42 and can he become more disciplined?
04:44 Can he help break things down?
04:45 Can he have better interplay with his teammates?
04:47 And he did.
04:49 During that really good run they went on
04:50 in the second half of the season,
04:51 he was a really important part of that.
04:53 He started most of those games,
04:54 he was brilliant against Man United,
04:56 he got a great assist against West Ham,
04:58 he was giving teams other things to think about,
05:00 even if it wasn't leading to him
05:02 directly contributing to goals or assists.
05:04 But as has happened a couple of times with him,
05:06 he picked up another injury,
05:07 he was out for a couple of weeks,
05:08 and that got rid of any momentum.
05:10 Add to the fact he's not a very visually busy player
05:12 off the ball as well,
05:13 like this Newcastle side is full of players
05:15 who when they lose the ball,
05:17 they will immediately chase it back,
05:18 they will immediately try and cover over,
05:20 and when St Maximin lives with the ball,
05:22 he tends to sit on the floor,
05:23 ask the referee why he hasn't got a foul,
05:25 then gingerly get back up and hobble into position,
05:27 and rightly or wrongly,
05:29 that does people's heads in.
05:31 And the thing is, in Harvey Barnes,
05:33 Newcastle could not have hoped
05:34 to find a more philosophical opposite
05:37 to St Maximin if they tried.
05:39 Like if you just look at the two of them
05:40 side by side over the last season,
05:42 it's absolutely astonishing.
05:43 Like in his goals, in his shots,
05:45 in his shots on target,
05:46 in his shot on target percentage,
05:47 every single metric here,
05:49 except free kicks 'cause neither of them take them,
05:51 he's got the output of one of the best,
05:53 best, best, best attackers in the Premier League.
05:55 Like even if you just look at his overall goals
05:57 and assists contribution last season,
05:58 allegedly a dreadful season for Leicester,
06:01 and I'm sure he would tell you a bad season personally,
06:03 he's still contributing the same level
06:05 as Fernandes, as Mitrovic, as Firmino,
06:07 as Mahrez, as Rodrigo,
06:08 and more than Ward-Prouse,
06:10 Matoma, Gundogan, Grealish, McAllister, Nunes,
06:14 and Miguel Almiron.
06:16 In fact, if you take Harvey Barnes' goals
06:18 and assists contribution from Leicester,
06:19 who were relegated,
06:20 and compare them to every single player
06:22 at the Castle United,
06:23 who finished in the Champions League places,
06:25 he contributed more than every other player bar Wilson.
06:29 And he does it by being the absolute polar opposite
06:31 to Alonso Maximan as well.
06:33 He plays from the same position,
06:34 his objective is to get in on goal and take chances,
06:36 but he does not go past any players.
06:39 He cannot beat a man.
06:40 Like just compare the in possession statistics
06:42 from last season.
06:42 Like this is allegedly a bad season for Alonso Maximan.
06:45 He was in and out of the side,
06:46 and yet he was still the top player in the league
06:49 for taking opponents on,
06:51 for carrying the ball,
06:52 for running it physically into the penalty area.
06:55 Barnes, by comparison,
06:56 was almost the worst player in the league
06:59 for trying to go past players.
07:00 Like you could not have a bigger dichotomy if you tried.
07:04 So the question is then,
07:05 how does Barnes do it?
07:06 If you're really bad at going past players
07:08 and breaking into the space,
07:09 how do you have such outstanding goal
07:11 and assist contributions?
07:12 Certainly not because Leicester were amazing
07:13 and they were laying it on a plate for him.
07:14 He's got a system.
07:16 He knows what to do.
07:17 And that is that he absolutely loves a one-two.
07:20 Like if you're defending Harvey Barnes,
07:21 he's not gonna go past you.
07:23 He can't do that.
07:24 But if you see him pass the ball to someone
07:26 just out of your eyeline,
07:27 you are in trouble.
07:28 His timing and his execution for that
07:30 is as much of a trademark for him
07:32 as dribbling and going past players is for Maximan.
07:35 He is the Alonso Maximan of the edge of the box one-two.
07:38 In fact, there was a brilliant stat about him
07:40 in Michael Cox's right there before the athletic.
07:42 I don't even know how you go and find this statistic.
07:44 That's how good it is.
07:45 Since 2018, no player has scored more give and go goals
07:50 in the Premier League than Harvey Barnes.
07:52 That might be my favourite stat I've ever heard.
07:54 But what's great for Newcastle United is this exact thing.
07:57 It's very hard to play a give and go,
07:58 very hard to use that ability
08:00 if you're playing for a Leicester City side
08:01 who are all over the place,
08:03 who are defending for most of the game.
08:04 So you put Barnes in this Newcastle team
08:06 when they're camped in the opposition's half
08:08 when they're trying to find a way through,
08:09 he's almost the perfect player
08:11 to try and unpick a defence.
08:13 Barnes got 13 goals for Leicester last season,
08:16 in the league, for a Leicester team that was that bad.
08:18 I'd be astonished, astonished,
08:21 if he doesn't equal or better that for Newcastle.
08:23 So Maximan got one, one goal in the league,
08:26 playing in probably the best Newcastle side
08:28 most of us have seen in years.
08:31 So surely, surely, this is an amazing upgrade.
08:35 Well, here's the thing, right?
08:37 Two things can be true at once.
08:38 It can be true that Harvey Barnes
08:40 is a huge improvement for Newcastle United down that side.
08:43 He's a massive upgrade on St Maximan.
08:45 He's gonna let them do loads more things
08:47 in that area of the pitch next season.
08:49 But it can also be true that even by making that improvement
08:53 you have still worsened the team.
08:56 And that's because for me personally
08:58 and a few other people, maybe not you,
08:59 but that's okay just for me and a few other people,
09:02 players like Alan St Maximan are why you watch football.
09:07 Yeah, he's inconsistent.
09:08 Yeah, he does your head in.
09:09 Yeah, his end product's sometimes lacking,
09:11 but when it clicks and when it works,
09:13 there is no one else in this Newcastle United team,
09:16 no one else in the Premier League hardly,
09:18 who will do those things.
09:20 Who could have done those things during the Steve Bruce era?
09:22 Who could have kept you excited
09:24 to watch your football club?
09:25 And of course, that's no reason to keep a player
09:27 if you wanna change things, you wanna do stuff.
09:29 That's just pure sentimentality.
09:31 But I don't know.
09:33 Sentimentality's worth something.
09:35 I'm gonna miss him.
09:36 Do I think it's a good deal?
09:38 God, yes, absolutely.
09:39 Would I do it if I was in Eddie Howe's position?
09:41 Almost certainly, yes.
09:43 Does it make me happy?
09:44 No, not at all.
09:46 And just one final point on this, all right,
09:48 'cause I know it's very easy to look at this
09:50 as a debate between head versus heart, right?
09:52 Barnes is pure numbers, St Maximan is pure sentiment,
09:55 but the thing about football, right,
09:57 is that it should always be both.
10:00 It should always be numbers and sentiment.
10:02 It should always be about how you combine the two,
10:04 how you find the balance between the two.
10:07 And my worry about this transfer
10:08 is not from a footballing perspective at all.
10:10 It's just that the scales tip ever so slightly
10:14 the wrong way for me.
10:15 You can make whatever argument you want about it, right?
10:18 Some people just really like players like Alisson Maximan,
10:21 and they are sad when their football team sells them.
10:23 It's me.
10:25 I'm some people.
10:26 But anyway, I'm not trying to be negative about it.
10:28 I think Barnes is a great player,
10:29 and I'll have a great time talking about him next season.
10:31 But let me know what you think, please,
10:33 Newcastle United fans.
10:33 Good, bad, great deal, bad deal,
10:36 heartbroken, delated, all good stuff in the comments below.
10:39 Thank you.
10:40 In the meantime, of course, you know the drill by now.
10:41 Please do subscribe to 442 here on YouTube,
10:43 and please do share the video if you enjoyed it,
10:45 'cause that, that, YouTube sees you doing that
10:47 and goes, "Oh, that's good."
10:49 So I like it.
10:51 Anyway, rambling outros aside,
10:52 get me on Twitter @adamcleary, C-L-E-R-Y,
10:55 and goodbye, sweet prince.
10:58 It was fun while it lasted.
11:00 Well, it wasn't.
11:01 It was Steve Bruce, but you were fun while you lasted.
11:04 Au revoir!
11:06 (upbeat French music)
11:09 (singing in French)
11:12 (upbeat French music)
11:15 (singing in French)
11:18 (upbeat French music)
11:21 (upbeat music)
11:24 (laughing)
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