Captain Lascelles leads the way in minutes played

Written by Tom Easterby

Newcastle United captain Jamaal Lascelles tops the list of Magpies players to have played the most Premier League minutes over the course of the 2017/18 campaign.

The centre half skippered United to a tenth-finish on their return to the top flight, earning rave reviews along the way for his displays at the heart of Newcastle’s defence.

And Lascelles leads the way when it comes to the list of players who spent the most time on the pitch last term, clocking up a total of 2,928 minutes.

There were two other United players who passed the 2,800-minute mark, with full back DeAndre Yedlin (2,842) and winger Matt Ritchie (2,822) also regular features in Rafa Benítez’s side throughout the campaign.

Scotland international Ritchie also made 32 league starts, which is the highest number of any player in the squad aside from Lascelles, who also lined up 32 times.

Ayoze Pérez, who ended the season in fine form, played 2,496 minutes – which is more than the influential trio of Jonjo Shelvey (2,310), Florian Lejeune (2,104) and Mohamed Diamé (2,042).

The ever-consistent Paul Dummett, who suffered a hamstring injury in the opening day defeat to Tottenham Hotspur, still managed to rack up a total of 1,603 minutes, while Rob Elliot was the goalkeeper with the most game time. The Republic of Ireland stopper played 1,440 minutes – more than January loan signing Martin Dúbravka (1,080) and Karl Darlow (900).

Elsewhere, Mikel Merino (1,343) and Jacob Murphy (1,143) made encouraging starts to life at St. James’ Park, while Massadio Haïdara, Henri Saivet, Aleksandar Mitrović and Jesús Gámez were the only players to play less than 100 Premier League minutes.

Newcastle United – Premier League minutes played 2017/18

Jamaal Lascelles (2,928)

DeAndre Yedlin (2,842)

Matt Ritchie (2,822)

Ayoze Pérez (2,496)

Jonjo Shelvey (2,310)

Florian Lejeune (2,104)

Mohamed Diamé (2,042)

Dwight Gayle (1,960)

Christian Atsu (1,783)

Javier Manquillo (1,759)

Ciaran Clark (1,745)