In The Zone: How Newcastle and Barcelona relied on wingers, pace and movement
Friday, September 19, 2025
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UEFA Technical Observer Sir Gareth Southgate analyses how both teams utilised their wide players during their Matchday 1 meeting.
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"The obvious threat of both teams is their speed on the wings." So said UEFA Technical Observer Sir Gareth Southgate during Thursday night's exciting UEFA Champions League contest between Newcastle United and Barcelona.
For Southgate, it was a match which highlighted above all the importance of quick wingers in elite football – a point that will be explored in the following analysis, brought to you by FedEx.
Newcastle's pace and intensity
The wish of home coach Eddie Howe was to "create a difficult environment" for Barcelona and "high-octane football". If Newcastle applied impressive intensity to their efforts to win the ball, especially early on, they also displayed a high-velocity threat on regaining it, looking to attack spaces using the pace of their wide men.
Anthony Elanga was a particular menace for Barcelona on the right, and his crosses led to two good scoring opportunities in the first half – one for Harvey Barnes (shown below), the other for Anthony Gordon.
"For Newcastle the key was quick counterattack situations from their mid/low block which gave Elanga space to exploit in behind Barcelona's back line and left them in several one v one situations," explained Southgate.
The Barnes example illustrates the importance of good movement from the opposite winger, attacking the far post when the cross comes in from the other side. This was the source of Newcastle's late goal from Gordon, following his switch from the centre to the left flank.
"The ability to arrive in the box is crucial for a winger," added Southgate. "Arriving at the far post is a premium position to score several goals a season."
Barcelona's wingers shine
Barcelona's wingers excelled at St James' Park, with Marcus Rashford scoring twice, and the video above provides two examples.
In the first clip, Raphinha is shown finding space on the outside and driving the ball deep into Newcastle territory. This allowed Barcelona to move up the pitch for an organised attack from which Rashford headed the opening goal.
"Wingers arriving centrally is often a big problem for defenders as full-backs can be uncertain how far to track them inside," said Southgate, who also noted Barcelona's use of switches of play – as seen in clip two with Rashford's crossfield pass for Raphinha. "Often for Barcelona it was the ability to switch play out of pressure to get Raphinha or Rashford into one v one positions out wide."
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Coaching observation – Southgate on speed and 1v1s
"Speed and the ability to go past people one v one either inside or outside seems to be re-emerging as a crucial theme for all the top teams. I think the ability to dominate one v ones is becoming more and more important for defenders as well as attackers. So many leading sides play man for man at the back now, jumping high to press, so this makes speed an important attribute for defenders too."
UEFA Technical Observer Sir Gareth Southgate was a defender and midfielder who won 57 caps for England. Southgate moved from playing to coaching at Middlesbrough in 2006, then managed England's U21s before taking the senior job in 2016. He led his side to the semi-finals of the 2018 World Cup and the final of the 2020 and 2024 EUROs.