Newcastle United must figure out how the get the best from Chris Wood next season after the Kiwi striker ranked highly in table of under-performing strikers. The £25m man only scored twice last season - but the raw date fails to take into account his contribution to the side during United's recovery.
Odds comparison site Odds Scanner has compiled a table which measures the contribution of forwards who played more than 1,000 minutes of Premier League football last season. The rankings are calculated by totalling goals and assists, then dividing each player's minutes by that total.
It will be of no surprise to Newcastle United fans that Chris Wood did not come out of the calculation well. Based on those figures, Chris Wood was the third-worst performing forward in the Premier League, with two goals and no assists during just over 1,300 minutes of football in a black and white shirt.
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The worst performing forward was Wolves winger Adama Traore, who scored one goal and got no assists in just over 1,000 minutes of football. Second worst was Norwich City’s winger Milot Rashica, who got one goal and two assists in over 2,000 minutes of football.
Wood was always a risky signing. He had been struggling at Burnley all season and was testing Sean Dyche’s patience prior to the striker's departure, so to splash £25m on him struck some rival fans as foolish.
On the other hand, in the fog of a relegation battle, with Callum Wilson was injured and Newcastle needing a Premier League calibre striker, it was a reasonable gamble. In came Wood, who continued to struggle to get goals, but nobody could grumble about his effort, including winning and scoring the penalty to beat Wolves.
The fact is that Wood is a striker so he needs to score more goals next season if and when he gets the opportunity to make a contribution. What is also a fact is that nobody knows whether Newcastle would have survived without him, but we do know that Newcastle survived with him.
