Why Dan Burn and Lewis Miley are keeping Newcastle United top of one table

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Newcastle United have had a rough week – but there is always a silver lining if you search deep enough

Newcastle United pair Dan Burn celebrating with Lewis Miley during the Premier League match between Newcastle United and Fulham at St. James's Park in Newcastle, on December 16, 2023.
(Image credit: MI News/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

Newcastle United might have been dumped out of Europe by AC Milan and the EFL Cup at the hands of Chelsea after a penalty shoot-out, but there is one table the Tyneside club have a great chance of topping this season.

According to the latest CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post, Eddie Howe’s side ranks highest among Premier League teams when it comes to the average size of their line-up.

A quick glance at Newcastle’s regular starters and it’s easy to see why. Dan Burn is a towering figure in Newcastle’s defence at 6ft 6in, which equates to 198cm and makes him a great deal taller than the average UK male who stands 5ft 10in above the ground. 

Lewis Miley is congratulated by Anthony Gordon after scoring for Newcastle against Fulham in December 2023.

Newcastle have a tall team (Image credit: Getty Images)

Burn returned to Newcastle, his boyhood club, in January 2022 from Brighton and has since made 66 appearances, scoring three goals. Amid an ongoing injury crisis, the introduction of Lewis Miley has also aided Newcastle’s rise up the height charts. While not quite the giant that Burns is, the 17-year-old is 6ft 2in or 189cm – and who knows if he has stopped growing?

Miley made his Premier League debut as a substitute against Chelsea at the end of last season before earning his first start in a 1-0 win over Manchester City in September. He then went on to make a European berth in November in a 2-0 defeat against Borussia Dortmund. Talk about a baptism of fire.

DORTMUND, GERMANY - NOVEMBER 7: Nick Pope of Newcastle United during the UEFA Champions League Group F match between Borussia Dortmund and Newcastle United FC at the Signal Iduna Park on November 7, 2023 in Dortmund, Germany (Photo by Joris Verwijst/BSR Agency/Getty Images)

Nick Pope is 6ft 3in (Image credit: Getty Images)

Elsewhere, goalkeepers Nick Pope and Martin Dubravka, both of whom have made starts this season, are 6ft 3in tall. Newcastle’s average height for this season has been recorded at 185.08cm, which has them above Manchester United (184.36cm) in second and Liverpool (184.04cm) in third.

But while they top this table domestically, across the 53 leagues around the world, the Toon Army rank a lowly 36th, more than 2cm short of Hungarian side Kecskemeti KE.

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Andy Wright
Andy Wright

Andy is a freelance sports journalist whose work has appeared across a number of print and online titles, including Golf Monthly, Eurosport and TNT Sports. He graduated in 2019 and began his career working in golf before joining Future in February 2021 as a staff writer for Golf Monthly. Andy has since decided to branch out into other sports and now covers football, rugby, snooker, UFC, Formula 1, boxing, and others. He is a Manchester United fan and joins the FourFourTwo team at an interesting time for his club and the game as a whole.