Athletic Bilbao vs Newcastle United - who is the better team?

Currently Newcastle United has a better 1vs1 performance index with 292. Athletic Bilbao has 22 goals and Newcastle United has a total of 24 goals. Our opinion is that currently Newcastle United would win the match.

• At the moment Newcastle United has the better defense. Through the entire team they have a total of 1218 interceptions and 91 blocks.
• In Newcastle United the two top defensive players are Federico Fernandez and Fabian Schar.
• In Athletic Bilbao the two top defenders are Yeray Alvarez and Dani Garcia.
• Based on this statistics we believe that Newcastle United has currently the best defense.

Evaluating the strength of a teams midfield is not easy. At 1vs1 we look at a value called Pass Progression Value (PPV). We measure the ability of players to play the pass into dangerous zones and to create chances. Athletic Bilbao has a PPV value of 0.19 and Newcastle United has a value of 0.15. Within the team of Athletic Bilbao Ander Capa has a total value of 0.49 and in the team of Newcastle United the best player is Valentino Lazaro.

• To analyse the best strikers of teams we look at the amount of goals, shots on goal and an interesting metric called expected goal value (Xg value – measure who the probability of a chance to turn into a goal.)
• Athletic Bilbao has scored in this season so far 22 goals and 78 shots on goal. Newcastle United scored 24 and 78 shots on goal.
• The two best players of Athletic Bilbao are Raul Garcia with 6 goals and Iker Muniain with 4 goals. Their expected goal value per 90 minutes is 0 and 0.27.
• The two best players of Newcastle United are Jonjo Shelvey with 5 goals and Matthew Longstaff with 2 goals. Their expected goal value per 90 minutes is 0.1 and 0.32.
• Our opinion is that Newcastle United has the better offensive players than Athletic Bilbao.

Based on all statistical information we believe that currently Newcastle United is the better team. Please feel free to discuss with us – the comment box is below. We will be happy to reply.