NUFC player ratings vs Arsenal – Two 7’s, a few 6’s, several 3’s, 4’s and 5’s + one awful 2

Another week goes by and another week without a win.

This season has been incredibly weird, with the off field excitement completely at odds with the poor football served up on the pitch.

Eddie Howe will probably have some regrets about the defensive approach, but until his predecessor, I have faith in him to learn from the defeat. The next week is huge. Anything other than six points and we are heading for the Championship.

Below we rate the performance of each player:

Martin Dubravka – 7 – This was the best performance we have seen from a goalkeeper this season. We have missed his quality and his organisational skills at the back. He made some great saves and had excellent control of his area.

Emil Krafth – 4 – Like last week, it was difficult to see many positives in the defence. He is another of our centre back options that look short of quality at this level. The Swedish international really struggled with the pace and physicality of Nuno Tavares and was caught the wrong side of Saka for his goal.

Jamaal Lascelles – 3 – Will now be suspended for the match against Norwich City after another clueless yellow card. Lascelles really doesn’t look like the player he once was. On the ball, he is a liability at times. Maybe his one match suspension isn’t the worst thing.

Fabian Schar – 5 – He was the best of the three centre backs, but that is like being the best lookout on the Titanic. His passing was good and his ball through to Allan Saint-Maximin near the end of the match shows why he needs to play.

Ryan Fraser – 6 – I saw a lot of good things from Fraser. He is slowly getting to the level we need him to be at. Out of possession, he shows more awareness than others in the team. On the ball, he is very intelligent. He wasn’t great, but there were positive signs.

Jonjo Shelvey – 7.5 – He was our best player today. Shelvey has a lot of confidence at the moment and he offered our biggest threat on the ball. That is a worry, as we need the attackers to carry more of a threat away from him. He was unlucky not to score.

Joe Willock – 5 – It wasn’t his best performance and there were some poor decisions with the ball at times. However, he was the only player trying to disrupt Arsenal.

Matt Ritchie – 2 – This was a car crash of a performance and not for the first time this season. He was run ragged by Bukayo Saka and he offered little with the ball. His positioning to play Gabriel Martinelli onside for Arsenal’s second was unforgivable. I hope to never see him at wing back again. Jamal Lewis doesn’t have to be very good on Tuesday to offer a huge improvement.

Joelinton – 4 – It wasn’t a very good day for Joelinton after a great showing last weekend. He was pushed off the ball top easily and it wasn’t a surprise to see him taken off early.

Callum Wilson – 5 – There was some excellent movement from Wilson today and he did cause problems for Arsenal. However, he failed to make his opportunities count.

Allan Saint-Maximin – 4 – A quiet afternoon for the Frenchman. He didn’t get many opportunities to show his ability in the final third, while his defensive work needs to get better. There were a few times where he gave the ball away in our half. He needs to remove that from his game.

SUBS

Jacob Murphy – 6 – Alongside Almiron, he injected some pace and work rate to the team. He will be hoping to be recalled on Tuesday.

Miguel Almiron – 6 – He showed his quality in transition and the work rate he brings to the team. There is a chance he could be brought in to the team on Tuesday.

Isaac Hayden – N/A – Barely got a kick in the last few minutes so hard to give a rating.

7 thoughts on “NUFC player ratings vs Arsenal – Two 7’s, a few 6’s, several 3’s, 4’s and 5’s + one awful 2

  1. These coaches must be too close to the players and don’t see reality!
    Ritchie is a S…E wingback who can’t defend.
    Fernandez with one leg has to be better than Lascelles.
    Manquillo is the best right wing back we have which doesn’t say much, so play him.
    Lewis is the best left wing back we have which doesn’t say much so play him.
    I fear even six points against Burnley and Norwich IF it happens will not be enough to scratch the surface to put things right.
    4 4 2 is needed

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  2. Teflon Wilson was terrible always moaning waving his arms about at the ref who was hopeless and as bad as Wilson.
    i dont think lascelles will get a game after new year he should be told he is not good enough and shown the door. and Ritchie shows alot of misguided effort and again needs replacing

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  3. It has to be 6pts by next Sunday or Amanda has to admit to making a mistake!

    Firstly Jones HAS to go ASAP – Richie seems to be kept in the squad to take the corners – Howe seems to be following Jones shambles of a plan that’s been here ALL season!!

    The ONE clean sheet being against Burnley – get the video and get that back 4 in (!?) Of course now Richie has to miss Norwich because of too many yellow cards

    We can’t go on with just giving old friends places and plan to get old defenders that were at Bournemouth – THEY WENT DOWN

    If we don’t get the 6pts – we can’t trust Howe to get us back from the championship

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  4. Once again kk your moaning is a complete over reaction it’s just his second game for God’s sake give him a chance fact remains once the season started with Ashley and Bruce it was simple we were in the brown stuff the takeover and manager change needed to happen in the summer to give us a chance least we’ve still got time to pull this round plus a transfer window something rafa didn’t have plus it took him till his 5th game to win his first with a much better team

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  5. Haave to agree that Dubravka and Shelvey were quality, and that Ritchie and Krafth were below par.
    That said let’s not forget who they were up against.
    Lascelles just about met his usual “appalling” standard.
    Previous ratings from you have shown you are not a Shelvey fan. I suspect he may get an 8 or a 9 elsewhere.

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  6. KK:
    It has to be 6pts by next Sunday or Amanda has to admit to making a mistake!

    Howe seems to be following Jones shambles of a plan!!

    If we don’t get the 6pts – we can’t trust Howe to get us back from the championship

    KK – I find it amusing that you honestly believe that ANY manager could do better with the players we currently have.
    Gordon Ramsey may be a superb chef but if he had to use 7 turds as ingredients he’d still struggle to make a decent chocolate cake.
    Howe has had 2 games in charge and we are a much better team to watch already. Passing is crisper. Less hoofing it from the back and some players have found a buzz that wasn’t there before.
    Not sure where your hatred of Jones comes from, or your belief that he’s telling Howe how to play, but he’s had 2 games. 8 less than Rafa when he sucked his way through the first 2 months.
    Surely nobody really expected the team to turn into Liverpool overnight just because we changed manager and have more money in the bank??

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  7. Freddd:-
    If we played players in their proper positions we might look more like a team, Ritchie, Krafth can’t defend to save their lives, how Fernandez can’t get a game before Krafth beggars belief and left back/wingback has been a problem for years.
    We have made right back/wingback a problem by playing Krafth and Murphy there who can’t defend properly we have a short term answers in Manquillo and Lewis for those positions.
    All the centre backs are below average with Lascelles and Clarke who tread water, Schar seems to lose his bearings at times and they all commit too many fouls which shows they don’t read the game, lack positional sense and/or pace.
    Under investment and failure to target necessary improvements to the squad by Ashley and some numpty yes sir managers have led to this debacle.
    The only decent managers we had told Ashley to shove it up his big fat A***!

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