A day to forget for Newcastle fans and a painful watch from start to finish – but at least it’s a point!
After watching the full 90, here’s my thoughts on each player’s performance and my marks out of 10.
NUFC XI – (4-2-3-1): Dubravka – Manquillo, Lascelles, Clark, Dummett – Diame, Shelvey – Ritchie, Perez, Kenedy – Joselu.
STARTING 11:
Dubravka – 6 – Took a risk on the ball in the first half which was very nearly punished. Read the danger pretty well from crosses, however.
Manquillo – 3 – Awful. Cardiff winger Josh Murphy constantly had the beating of him. He looked slow, clumsy and was taken off at half time with a suspected injury – however Rafa was well within his rights to haul him off regardless. He was a red card waiting to happen, having been booked after several blatant pulls at Murphy’s shirt.
Lascelles – 7 – Gave away a few too many free kicks in the early stages but stood strong in the end. Won lots in the air and cleared our lines on several occasions when they went long.
Diame – 5 – Won plenty in the air, but looked sluggish in comparison to his all action displays so far in 2018. Didn’t do nearly enough for me.
Shelvey – 6.5 – Wasteful and frustrating at times, but he was the one player looking to get the ball into dangerous areas. Played some cutting passes into the final third for Kenedy and Perez in the first half. Our most effective attacking player, but he had so little to work with.
Ritchie – 5 – Worked hard, as ever, but had to spend most of his time protecting our right-back. Didn’t really offer anything as an attacking threat but couldn’t fault his effort – unlike a few Newcastle players who went through the motions today.
Perez – 4 – Very frustrating. Had two big chances but both were straight at the keeper. Was bullied and cut a frustrated figure for the majority of the game. Was anonymous in the second half against Spurs and went into hiding once again today.
Kenedy – 2 – His worst performance in a black and white shirt. Failed to complete a single pass in the first half, should’ve been sent off for a kick out and ended up missing a penalty in the 96th minute. A talented player with plenty ability and flair, but absolutely nothing came off for him today. A day to forget for him.
Joselu – 4 – The odd flick on here and there but that’s as good as it got. He had very little to play with, but his hold up play wasn’t good enough. He was much better last weekend but he did things too slowly today.
SUBS:
Hayden – 1 – Looked like he may be able to handle Josh Murphy better than Manquillo did (which wouldn’t be saying much) in the early stages but soon began diving into tackles. He didn’t learn his lesson and ended up being sent off for a reckless lunch from behind.
Muto – 5 – Ran around a lot (which is more than some did) but not much fell for him. Did win us the penalty late on, however.
Murphy – 5 – Ran at them on a few occasions and managed to get some half decent balls into the box. Wasn’t really able to impact the game, mind.
You MUST have been at a different game to me matey, not one United player deserved more than a 5!
John Walker Pattison(Quote)
So, I get that playing with 10 men changes the dynamic, but before then, the only real difference was Yedlin out for Manquillo,there should not have been such a huge difference from the last game – this lack of consistency is something that is very worrying – NUFC have to play a lot more strategically to get points out of games against the bottom ten teams and try to save points against the top ten teams.
Against Cardiff, NUFC couldn’t get even one goal ?!? – where are the goals going to come from ? 😯 – what games are being played with Rondon being unused? – why are the new players taking so long to force their way into contention ?
Is this Rafa’s reknown pig-headedness trying to make a point to Ashley, ie “you don’t get them in early enough, they don’t have enough training sessions with me, I won’t play them, team loses” – love you Rafa, but don’t play these ‘mind-games’ – you are better than that, such antics belittle you – anyway, (1) Ashley isn’t listening, (2) couldn’t care less, and (3) you’re leaving at the end of the season so what point trying to score points.
Olly, what rating would you give Rafa out of 10 – team selection, team tactics, man-management, even penalty taker choice ?
Peter(Quote)