Newcastle United’s defensive record is huge” for the club’s chances of having a successful season.
That’s according to former Hibernian striker Tam McManus, speaking exclusively to Football Insider about the Magpies’ impressive backline.
Ahead of this weekend’s game against Tottenham (23 October), Newcastle boast the best defensive record in the Premier League, only conceding nine goals in 11 games.
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Three of those came in a 3-3 draw against Man City with Nick Pope and his defence collecting five clean sheets in total.
During 2021, Newcastle set the unwanted record of conceding more goals than any other Premier League side in a calendar year by letting in 82 efforts.
McManus has been blown away by the improvement.
“The one thing that has really impressed me about Newcastle is that defence,” McManus told Football Insider‘s Ben Wild.
“I believe they have the best defensive record in the Premier League after the latest round of games and that, for me, is a huge improvement.
“They could not defend last season. There were questions about whether Howe could make Newcastle defensively sound, could he get a few clean sheets on the board?
“Well, he’s managed to do it. Yes, there has been major surgery to that defence but it was needed. Trippier, Botman, Burn, Pope, they have all been outstanding signings.
“I don’t care who you are, if you aren’t letting goals in then you have a really good chance of having a successful season.”
Kieran Trippier, Matt Targett and Dan Burn were three of Howe’s first signings as Toon boss back in January.
Sven Botman and Nick Pope then followed in the summer of 2022.