{"id":157377,"date":"2025-11-24T17:43:07","date_gmt":"2025-11-24T17:43:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/157377\/"},"modified":"2025-11-24T17:43:07","modified_gmt":"2025-11-24T17:43:07","slug":"harvey-mcbarnes-scotland-switch-analysis-of-newcastle-winger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/157377\/","title":{"rendered":"Harvey McBarnes’ Scotland switch: Analysis of Newcastle winger"},"content":{"rendered":"

What is clear, though, is the potential inclusion of Barnes to elevate Scotland’s attacking options.<\/p>\n

This is a Champions League player who is performing in a domestic division many perceive as the world’s most challenging.<\/p>\n

Barnes’ double against City on Saturday took his tally for the season to six in 18 games. Three of them have come in four Champions League matches.<\/p>\n

Since the start of last season, he has 15 goals and seven assists in all competitions from the wing.<\/p>\n

There is simply no other Scotland forward providing this level of output at this level for their club.<\/p>\n

On Saturday, Barnes could have had a goal or two to his name by the time he drilled in a deadly opener, which showcased his direct running and ability to link up.<\/p>\n

His second, which proved to be the winner, demonstrated a poacher’s instinct, adjusting his body at close range to take an excellent first touch before burying on the rebound.<\/p>\n

Scotland have long lacked real pace, drive and quality in their attacking areas, even after the emergence of Ben Gannon-Doak, who has been a revelation for Clarke.<\/p>\n

That became clear when the Bournemouth winger was taken off on a stretcher in the first half of the incredible victory over the Danes last week. He has since had surgery<\/a> on a hamstring injury and faces months out.<\/p>\n

Without the 20-year-old, Clarke’s side became predictable in open play and had no out ball during periods of relentless Denmark pressure.<\/p>\n

Barnes would be a big help in addressing that. The prospect of him playing off his favoured left side with Doak on the opposite flank is certainly an exciting one.<\/p>\n

However, it seems some pride will have to be swallowed for that to become a well-received reality.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"What is clear, though, is the potential inclusion of Barnes to elevate Scotland’s attacking options. This is a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":157378,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,112],"class_list":["post-157377","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157377","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=157377"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157377\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/157378"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=157377"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=157377"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=157377"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}