It was good to get back to winning ways. Although the performance wasn’t great, it was a massive mental boost for the squad to taste a win away from home. The confidence is still hit by the recent poor run of form, but Eddie Howe will hope that this was another step in the right direction. Newcastle have reached the fifth round of the FA Cup and a cup run is now fully on the agenda.
Below we rate the performances of each player in our win over Fulham.
Martin Dubravka 8 – This was another good performance from Dubravka, as his confidence continues to grow. The goalkeeper is showing that he can be relied on and the save from Rodrigo Muniz was an excellent one. It came at a key time.
Kieran Trippier 7 – After a lot of speculation about his future, it was good to see Trippier back in the starting eleven and he performed well. Set pieces were vital in our win and Trippier was central to the delivery of those. It wasn’t his best performance, but it was a solid one.
Fabian Schar 7 – An early yellow card impacted Fabian Schar in a negative way. It was one that needed to be picked up. During the game, he made three tackles and played his role in the clean sheet. His distribution wasn’t as reliable as normal, but that was an exception.
Sven Botman 7.5 – The Dutchman will be hoping to put together a useful run of form in the second half of the season, after his injury. This was a really good performance from Botman and he’s slowly getting back to his best. A pass success rate of 90% showed that he was one of the better with the ball on Saturday.
Dan Burn 7 – This feels like a harsh rating for Burn. He scored the second goal and he was vital in defending our box from aerial balls. However, Fulham got a lot of joy down his side of the pitch and he still seems to be lacking the mobility that he had prior to his injury. Teams are targeting him and it is an issue that needs to be resolved in the coming weeks.
Bruno Guimaraes 6 – The Brazilian was loose with the ball and gave it away a lot more than he usually does. It wasn’t a fluent Bruno performance, but he did grow into the game and he did very well in the last 20 minutes. He fortunately got an assist for the first goal, after the ball rebounded off his hand.
Lewis Miley 7.5 – The 17-year-old was excellent in midfield and was one of our better performers with the ball, as displayed by 90% pass success rate. Miley was more combative than he has been in previous matches with three tackles. On the ball, his decision making improved as the game went on.
Sean Longstaff 8 – Like Miley, Longstaff performed very well. Although each player did well, the balance in the midfield wasn’t quite right. Longstaff did well though and he took his goal excellently. Longstaff had the highest pass success rate on our team, standing at 94%. Unlike others in the team, he took care of the ball.
Jacob Murphy 6 – It was good to see Murphy back in the team. Hopefully we will get players back from injury and they will stay fit. Murphy looked like he needed the game as he builds up his match fitness. In the first half, he missed a big chance. Later in the game, he scored a great goal, albeit it was ruled out for offside.
Anthony Gordon 6 – There were some pleasing moments from Gordon and his pace did cause them problems. However, we didn;t get the ball to him enough for him to really find his full stride. There were a couple of poor decisions when he did get into advanced positions.
Alexander Isak 6 – As ever with Isak, there were some excellent touches and he did look threatening when he dropped deep. He had one shot on target and will be frustrated that a couple of his good runs weren’t found by a team-mate. If we want to get more out of Isak, we need to get him more service.
Tino Livramento 6 – The full-back came on in an advanced role and did look dangerous on the counter attack.
Emil Krafth – N/A
Matt Ritchie – N/A
What’s with the Dubravka “as his confidence grows” garbage?
Dubravka has been solid since he walked into the team following Pope’s operation.
You can’t blame the keeper when the defence fall to pieces, as was the case in previous games. Trippier ring a bell?
BykerBill(Quote)
Was Bruno even playing ? a very anonymous performance for me.
Outshone by both Miley and Longstaff.
Has he got thoughts on playing elsewhere with all the rumours going on?
Most players need time to settle and adjust when they come into the team, Dubravka was unlucky to come into a team low in confidence and personnel and playing poorly.
Joseph(Quote)