Newcastle United had found dream £50.8m right winger as Paul Mitchell transfer priority clear

There was a quarter of an hour to go and Newcastle United needed three goals against West Ham at St James' Park. Sound familiar? However, unlike last season, when the Magpies turned the game on its head with a Lazarus-like comeback, history was not about to repeat itself in this 2-0 defeat.

Eddie Howe felt his players 'faded away too quickly and made some strange decisions' after becoming 'a bit too desperate to score'. Defender Fabian Schar, for instance, took it upon himself to unleash a long-range effort in the second half, which is always a tell-tale sign, even if the Swiss has scored some screamers in his time. This time, though, Schar ballooned the ball over the bar.

In truth, Newcastle never looked like scoring. Newcastle mustered just two measly shots on target and the hosts became increasingly ragged as the game went on following a series of substitutions and a switch to 4-4-2. "Usually, this season, when we have made changes, the substitutions have made our performance better," Howe told reporters. "I don't think they did today."

READ MORE: Lucas Paqueta's Newcastle United admission before cameras started rolling in West Ham interview

READ MORE: Bruno Guimaraes offers Newcastle United injury update as Eddie Howe sweats over midfield duo

That is saying something when Howe had the luxury of introducing £137m worth of talent in Harvey Barnes, Sandro Tonali, Callum Wilson, Jacob Murphy and Kieran Trippier from the bench. However, such was the quality of service, Wilson, who has tormented West Ham over the years, was only afforded just two touches on his first appearance since May.

"There were a lot of shots but the quality of the shots probably wasn't what we would have wanted and the area of the shots probably wasn't that," the returning number nine told NUFC TV. "They had a lead. They had something to hold on to. They congested the box. There were three or four big centre-halves in there so when we're putting crosses in, it's easy for them to head away. We probably needed to be a little bit more clever around the box, a little bit more intricate, and try and work an opening."

It was rather telling that on the one occasion Newcastle put a decent cross into the box for Wilson, in the 72nd minute, the striker had a strong penalty appeal waved away after he was manhandled by Konstantinos Mavropanos. Yet the hosts' fate should not have been sealed just because that decision did not go their way.

There was still time left, but Newcastle ultimately failed to score for the second time in their last three home league fixtures. This is not a new phenomenon by any means.

At home, Newcastle averaged 2.58 goals per match in the Premier League last year; that figure has fallen dramatically to 0.83 in 2024-25. Home or away, free-scoring Newcastle averaged 2.24 goals per game in the top-flight last year; that figure has dropped to just 1.08 this time around.

To think only the three best teams in the country - Manchester City, Arsenal and Liverpool - scored more goals than Newcastle (85) in the league last season. However, in the early months of this campaign, only Everton, Crystal Palace and Southampton have scored fewer in the top-flight in 2024-25. For context, these struggling sides are sitting in the bottom five of the table.

Newcastle have tightened up at the back - at least before Monday night - after conceding 62 league goals last season, but the black-and-whites' issues in the final third are clear. "We know we can score goals," defender Lewis Hall told BBC Radio Newcastle. "This season, we've defended better than we've attacked but, last season, we attacked better than we defended. It's about doing both."

Sporting director Paul Mitchell was among those watching on and it is inconceivable that Newcastle do not strengthen their attack in 2025. The right-wing position, for instance, is the one area of the team that has not been upgraded since the takeover three years ago - Newcastle made a play for Michael Olise before the Frenchman's £50.8m move to Bayern Munich last summer - and Joelinton is the latest player who has been asked to fill in there.

Joelinton is one of just five different goal scorers in the league this season and if Newcastle's main men are not firing - Alexander Isak and Anthony Gordon both spurned decent chances on Monday night - this side tend to struggle in front of goal.

A trend is starting to emerge. Three of Newcastle's five league wins this season have come when Newcastle have had less of the ball than their opponent, including an impressive victory against Arsenal earlier this month, when Howe's team had just 36.1% possession. On the two occasions Newcastle triumphed with more of the ball, the black-and-whites hardly dominated possession, after having 51.5% at Wolves and 56.3% at Nottingham Forest, when Howe's team scored two late goals in both games to win.

Interestingly, in three of Newcastle's four top-flight defeats this season, Howe's team had more of the ball than their opponent: 61.4% at Fulham, 59.9% against Brighton and 52.4% against West Ham. When Newcastle drew at Everton and Bournemouth, the black-and-whites had 67.9% and 60.7% possession respectively.

These are the sorts of matches where the onus has been on Newcastle to take the game to teams as favourites and to be ruthless in front of goal to claim all three points. That's what Newcastle have to do to have any chance of making this season one to remember.