Welcome to bench power at Newcastle United | OneFootball

All change at Newcastle United.

Especially when it comes to…bench power.

It is an undeniable fact that these days, countless Premier League matches (and in other competitions) are decided by players coming off the bench.

Yet another factor that massively benefits the usual suspects.

The clubs with the most money can spend the most on transfer fees and wages on the players who end up on the bench, as well as those on the pitch.

Indeed, by far the biggest difference in quality and how much they cost, is usually shown far more on the two benches than in the starting elevens, when Premier League clubs meet.

No wonder the entitled half dozen Premier League clubs were the ones pressing desperately to make it as many as nine substitutes allowed on the bench and able to use any five of them.

The clubs with the strongest squads massively benefiting from this, able in any match to change half their ten outfield starters across all positions. Though most usually, the big benefit for these ‘elite’ clubs is that if things are going badly, they can put up to five fresh attacking and midfield players on the pitch if they are losing/drawing. With those players usually far closer to the quality of those they replace, than those other Premier League clubs who don’t have the same depth and quality in their squads.

With a small Newcastle United squad and then injuries and fitness issues on top of that, just look at the situation Eddie Howe faced in the Champions League qualifying run-in only five and six months ago.

These are the subs Eddie Howe made in the final six Premier League matches of the 2024/25 season (the minute each sub was made, is in brackets) and the subs the opposition made in these same matches:

Aston Villa 4 Newcastle 1

Gordon (65), Krafth (76), Willock (76), Wilson (76), Targett (82)

Ramsey, Rashford, Onana, Malen, Barkley

Newcastle 3 Ipswich 0

Miley (67), Gordon (67), Osula (77), Wilson (77), Botman (83)

Godfrey, Hirst, Luongo, Chaplin

Brighton 1 Newcastle 1

Gordon (56), Wilson (74), Krafth (90+7), Botman (90+7)

Lamptey, Ayari, Veltman, Gomez, Gruda

Newcastle 2 Chelsea 0

Miley (55), Osula (64) Krafth (64), Willock (76)

James, Gusto, Sancho

Arsenal 1 Newcastle 0

Miley (64), Osula (64), Krafth (64), Willock (76)

Calafiori, Havertz, Tierney, Jorginho

Newcastle 0 Everton 1

Willock (46), Trippier (63), Wilson (70), Osula (88)

Duocoure, Calvert-Lewin, McNeil

Conclusions

With the exception of Ipswich, I would say that all of these other Premier League clubs had better benches than Newcastle United. Yes, even Everton.

It wasn’t just an end of the season thing either, it just got even more pronounced then.

Callum Wilson was really poor and looked on his way out, Anthony Gordon coming back off a bad injury and struggling for form and fitness, Joe Willock having injury and fitness of his own and rarely showing any form, Botman unable to get fully fit and badly needing a summer to get himself right. An 18 year old Lewis Miley and then the likes of Targett, the inexperienced Osula and also Krafth. who would always give it their all but not the quality that was needed in these key matches.

Regularly through last season, if Newcastle United weren’t at their best, you would repeatedly see Eddie Howe standing there and clearly thinking; ‘What can I do…I need to make changes but the options on the bench are not what is needed.’

Fast forward to the present day and I see a very different situation when it comes to Newcastle United bench power.

On Saturday, I don’t think any way Newcastle United would have won against Fulham if having the kind of options that were available last season.

Eddie Howe able to bring on Tonali, Schar and Barnes after an hour.

Then Elanga and finally Osula, the young Dane a far far better player now than he was last season, developing under Eddie Howe and his staff. Plus, Osula made that late crucial impact on Saturday despite carrying an ankle injury.

I think though all five of the subs helped to bring about that 2-1 win over Fulham. The class of Schar available to replace Botman who had a head injury, Tonali speaks for himself as he added his qualities to the midfield, Barnes giving fresh legs on the wing and added threat, as then Elanga also did when coming on.

You then also had Jacob Ramsey on the bench who didn’t even get on, along with Joe Willock, who has gone from being in the team and/or first choice from the bench, to now seemingly seventh or eighth choice from the bench. This doesn’t even factor in that Wissa, Hall and Livramento were unavailable.

Go back to just Tuesday and Barnes came off the bench on 63 minutes and scored twice against Benfica, Joelinton introduced at the same time and he was significant in helping to see United end up winning 3-0 and it could have been more.

Bench power has truly arrived at St James’ Park and when we see Wissa, Livramento and Hall back in the squad, that will take things to a whole new level, in terms of options for Eddie Howe, to rotate game to game and when making changes during matches.

Newcastle 2 Fulham 1 – Saturday 25 October 2025 3pm

(Stats via BBC Sport)

Goals:

Newcastle United:

Murphy 18, Bruno 90

Fulham:

Lukic 56

Possession was Newcastle 51% Fulham 49%

Total shots were Newcastle 18 Fulham 12

Shots on target were Newcastle 7 Fulham 5

Corners were Newcastle 4 Fulham 3

Touches in the box Newcastle 36 Fulham 25

Pope, Trippier, Thiaw, Botman (Schar 61), Burn, Bruno, Joelinton, Miley (Tonali 61), Gordon (Elanga 76), Woltemade (Osula 86), Murphy (Barnes 61)

Subs:

Ramsdale, Krafth, Willock, Ramsey

(3 Positives and 3 Negatives to take from Newcastle 2 Fulham 1 – Read HERE)

(BBC Sport comments from ‘neutrals’ – Interesting on Newcastle United after 2-1 Fulham win – Read HERE)