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This article is part of Football FanCast's The Chalkboard series, which provides a tactical insight into teams, players, managers, potential signings and more...

It was announced on Friday that Newcastle had completed the signing of OGC Nice winger Allan Saint-Maximin in a £16.5m deal, with the exciting attacker signing a six-year contract with the club.

It is definitely a capture that should excite the St James' Park faithful.

The Frenchman is known for his flamboyancy, performing a number of skills mid-game and doing so whilst wearing a Gucci headband as he did at times last term - he oozes confidence.

Additionally, in bringing the 22-year-old to Tyneside, the Magpies finally have an expert in the dribbling field after missing such a presence last term.

Lack of an out-and-out dribbler

In plain black and white, Newcastle's lack of a dribbler is shown by the statistics from last season.

The Newcastle player who completed the most dribbles per game in the Premier League was Ayoze Perez with a mere 1.2, whilst the closest man behind him was Christian Atsu - to make matters worse, Perez has since left the club.

In extreme contrast, Saint-Maximin completed a whopping 4.2 dribbles per game, putting him amongst the best in Europe in that specific field - only Sofiane Boufal completed more dribbles than Saint-Maximin's 143 in the top five leagues, with 144 to his name.

Just how in need of a dribbler are Newcastle?

It should be noted that, behind Perez and Atsu, the dribbling statistics for this Newcastle team are awful - it seems as if no-one is keen on carrying the ball up the pitch and taking people on.

After Miguel Almiron's 0.7, Jonjo Shelvey, Sean Longstaff, Mohamed Diame and centre-back Fabian Schar are the next best dribblers at the club having completed 0.6 dribbles per game, which in itself is an extremely low amount - especially compared to Saint-Maximin's huge tally.

Finally, it seems as if this Newcastle side, devoid of someone who can excite fans and take people on, has got just what it needs - an expert in the dribbling field who can add a new dimension to the side.

Time for Atsu to move over as the Magpies' dribbler-in-chief.

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