All about how good Nick Pope is and not how poor Aaron Ramsdale has been for Newcastle United

Newcastle United kicked off the 2025/26 season with a choice of England internationals, Nick Pope and Aaron Ramsdale competing to be number one.

Ramsdale arriving on (an initial?) loan from Southampton, whilst Pope looking forward to a fourth season with NUFC.

Fair to say that Nick Pope has been a Newcastle United player who has often divided opinion amongst fans.

The United goalkeeper having his strengths and weaknesses endlessly debated.

The first 19 Newcastle United matches of the season had seen Nick Pope selected for 17 of them, Aaron Ramsdale only getting two starts in the League Cup (Bradford and Spurs).

This all changed towards the end of November 2025, Nick Pope picking up a training injury in between the away matches against Marseille and Everton.

Aaron Ramsdale getting a run in the team and eight matches later, Newcastle United fans having something of substance to judge the loan keeper on, plus of course compare him to Nick Pope.

Eleven goals have been conceded in this eight match run under Aaron Ramsdale and these are my observations.

Everton 1 Newcastle 4

It was a good goal from Dewsbury-Hall but I think 50/50 Nick Pope saves it.

Newcastle 2 Spurs 2

I think very likely Nick Pope would have saved the Romero header that beat Ramsdale and all but for certain he would have saved the weak ‘overhead kick’ from the Spurs defender.

Newcastle 2 Burnley 1

Ramsdale conceding a penalty.

Bayer Leverkusen 2 Newcastle 2

I reckon 75/25 that Nick Pope wouldn’t have conceded the Bruno OG from a corner, whilst a bit like the Everton one, 50/50 he would have saved the second Leverkusen goal.

Sunderland 1 Newcastle 0

Another 50/50 for me on Nick Pope saving Woltemade’s own goal.

Newcastle 2 Fulham 1

Lukic header was all but impossible to save.

Newcastle 2 Chelsea 2

The James free-kick was accurate but it was from over 30 yards out and not hit with power, it was only going in one place and Nick Pope would have saved it for sure. The Pedro goal was another where I reckon Pope 50/50 on saving it.

Man U 1 Newcastle 0

Nick Pope saves this one. Dorgu did well but this was ideal height to save, again, this was only going in one place and Ramsdale got a hand to it as well.

My position

I am more than happy to say I was and still am, a big Nick Pope fan.

My opinion was that the criticism of the United goalkeeper was way over the top.

Across his 3+ seasons at Newcastle United, we had seen a goalkeeper who had both strengths and weaknesses, as is the case with pretty much all goalkeepers (and outfield players), apart from the absolute elite.

My feeling coming into this season AND that feeling is still the same now, is that Nick Pope is one of the best half dozen goalkeepers in the Premier League AND he is a Newcastle United strength, not a weakness.

The first nine matches that Nick Pope started this season, he kept six clean sheets, only Liverpool, Barcelona and Arsenal scoring past him. For me that great form from the goalkeeper continued in the next three matches and another clean sheet against Benfica, whilst the goals in the 2-1 defeat at Brighton and 2-1 win over Fulham couldn’t be blamed on him. After Nick Pope had played 12 games, he had seven clean sheets.

The next five matches he started, was when Nick Pope did get some deserved criticism, when conceding goals in the defeats to West Ham, Brentford and Marseille. Though also in those most recent five Pope matches, he kept another clean sheet in the win over Bilbao, plus played really well in the 2-1 win against Man City.

I think Nick Pope has always been a Newcastle player who a number of fans are desperate to blame, along with one or two others he is often a chosen scapegoat. I think he had played really well over the course of the season and then a case of making mistakes in the West Ham, Brentford and Marseille matches that were all clinically punished. However, even in those games, I don’t think his overall performances were poor. Also, I think that especially the West Ham and Brentford matches, the whole team were really poor and would have lost anyway, whether or not Pope had made the mistakes for those goals. United were terrible throughout those two Premier League defeats.

Nick Pope is usually excellent when sweeping behind his defence and just totally misjudged the Marseille moment, it still took a brilliant Aubameyang finish from a tight angle to punish it. The second goal (that proved the winner) was in no way down to the keeper.

Who knows what Eddie Howe would have done in terms of which goalkeeper would have been selected for the next match (Everton away), if Nick Pope hadn’t got injured in training.

I think it was fair to ask the question of whether Aaron Ramsdale should get his chance, after Nick Pope had made these errors that were punished by goals, three away games in a row. However, at the same time, it was crazy how some fans went on, trying to make out that Nick Pope had been a walking disaster all this season (and beyond).

So now Aaron Ramsdale has had his chance to shine

Fair to say I think that this has been a wake up call for many Newcastle United fans, or at least it should have been.

Though what I will say, is that my main thrust is that this is about how good Nick Pope is, not how poor Aaron Ramsdale has been for Newcastle United.

No surprise that we have been proved correct in believing that Ramsdale would be better than Pope with his feet.

However, what about everything else?

My point has always been that whilst of course using his feet and distribution with them, is a weakness for Nick Pope, many Newcastle fans have refused to accept just how good he is at other stuff, not least making saves and stopping the ball going in the net.

I think that so many of the saves Nick Pope makes, fans just take them for granted. Only when Pope is not in goal does it become so transparent what the truth is, or at least it should. Nick Pope is so good with his positioning, his reach, his ability on one-on-ones, you then watch Aaron Ramsdale these last eight matches and I keep thinking Nick Pope would have saved that, or at the very least as I have said above, in many cases I think it would have been 50/50.

My belief is that if Nick Pope had been in goal these past five weeks or so, Newcastle would have won against Chelsea, Man U, Leverkusen and Spurs, very possibly not lost against the Mackems.

I think we could do a lot worse than Aaron Ramsdale as our back up keeper but it is a total no-brainer that Nick Pope needs to come back into this Newcastle United team ASAP.

Nick Pope is an elite keeper when it comes to making saves and is excellent and brave when sweeping behind his defence, which allows the team to press higher up the pitch, he is also generally very good in terms of controlling his penalty area and is brave in coming for crosses to take pressure off his defenders. Yes, he sometimes will make mistakes, just like any keeper, however, we are lucky to have such a good goalkeeper at NUFC, albeit one who will never be good when using his feet.

When Nick Pope is back in the team, he will help his side get a run of positive results and regular clean sheets could be back in fashion (Aaron Ramsdale conceding in each of these last eight).

He can make such a massive difference at the back and then with Yoane Wissa getting fully fit and giving us two strikers available, it will mean United can pick up so many wins, as despite everything, this team has still managed two or more goals in all of the last eight matches apart from the Sunderland and Man U no shows, plus regularly before that as well.

The way that we played against the likes of Man City and Chelsea, so many chances created, leads me to think that with Nick Pope back in goal. If we can repeat those kind of creative levels going forward, my belief is that we’ll see a fair few 3-0 and 4-0 type of matches in the very near future.