Fernandez-Pardo's Newcastle career will be ignited by new position, it maximises his big strength

Matias Fernandez-Pardo's stats highlight one clear change that Matthias Jaissle must make for him to succeed at Newcastle.

Newcastle's late flurry of signings in the summer transfer window saw Fernandez-Pardo arrive from Lille for around £51million.

Matthias Jaissle targeted the 21-year-old after making it clear to the Magpies' board that he wanted another versatile attacker within his ranks.

Fernandez-Pardo impressed at Lille as a striker and attacking midfielder last season, earning a surprise call-up to the Belgium squad for the World Cup.

He has been tried out in both positions by Jaissle so far, but is yet to make a real impact for his new club.

One particular statistic across his opening four appearances highlights exactly what the Newcastle boss needs to change to make things work for the 21-year-old.

Matias Fernandez-Pardo has to be given the ball more by his Newcastle teammates

Fernandez-Pardo is yet to register a goal contribution for Newcastle, but has only featured for 183 minutes across four appearances.

He made his first start as their main striker against Hull last time out, but failed to register a shot on target despite their 2-1 win.

Despite his struggles with the ball, the 21-year-old did showcase his impressive physical attributes by making the most sprints (28) of any player in the Premier League over the weekend's fixtures.

He clearly has real potential, but just needs to be more involved in the game when his team have the ball to become a success on Tyneside.

Fernandez-Pardo took the fewest touches (16) of any starter at St James' Park on Saturday, after taking the second-fewest of anyone (18) who played over 30 minutes against Leeds in the previous clash.

He is in the lowest percentile of PL attacking midfielders for touches per 90, with 27.2, and also in the 45th percentile for touches in the opposition box per 90, with 3.4.

Put pretty simply, he is not getting into the right positions to link up with his teammates, and so the solution should be to have him playing deeper more regularly, rather than as a striker in front of Yoane Wissa.

Jaissle praised Fernandez-Pardo after Hull clash

Fernandez-Pardo has the chance to hit the goal trail as he links up with Belgium for their Nations League A fixtures in the coming weeks.

Jaissle's decision to start the 21-year-old as a striker against Hull was questioned by a reporter after he struggled to make an impact with the ball, but the Magpies manager chose to focus on the positives instead.

Speaking in his post-match press conference, he said: “I was really happy with him. Maybe you saw it different, for me, he did an amazing job out of possession, especially how often he was stressing the opposition, even the keeper, that gave us this confidence to be in a higher position.

“Earlier the second balls, not defending their own box, so all these small margins again are affecting the whole team performance, so he did his job on a really high level. And then also in possession, he's threatening the opposition, even though maybe you don't see it too often, but with his movement, with his speed up in front, he's causing the opposition many problems.”