The Good, The Bad, and The Average #2: NUFC player ratings vs. Bournemouth (a) [PL2]

These are so much easier to write after a win and a good performance, but we got neither today, unfortunately! Although it ended 1-1 at the Vitality Stadium, our hosts Bournemouth likely feel aggrieved to be taking a solitary point from this match.

In truth, after another bright start from the Magpies that quickly petered out into nothingness, the lads never really got going until a pair of double substitutions around the hour mark and then around ten minutes later injected some impetus into our play.

Still, we'll do our best to pick the bones from a strange game with some strange displays in our new Adidas third kit for you. Let's begin with the positives, as there were still a few despite our frustration at the overall showing.

Serena Taylor / Newcastle United

The Good

Bruno Guimarães kept the armband even when Kieran Trippier was introduced and produced a captain's performance, being the only member of the midfield trio to stand up to Bournemouth's relentless—and often overly-aggressive—pressing. While it was far from a perfect showing by the Brazilian, he won a game-leading 11 duels and almost won it at the death with a long-ranger off his weaker foot.

Of the ten other starters, we have to go all the way back to our number 22 to find someone else to write positively about, with Nick Pope making some tidy saves to keep us in the contest until the dying stages. His sweeping was on point, too, though perhaps the less said about his kicking the better on a windy day down at the south coast. He can't be fully match sharp yet, either, which bodes well.

Harvey Barnes was the pick of the five substitutes made by Eddie Howe, with the winger's arrival the main spark for our late fightback. He'd shot narrowly wide off his weaker left foot shortly before getting a wonderful assist for Anthony Gordon's equaliser, with the restoration of the "BIG" (Barnes–Isak–Gordon) attacking trio looking like our best bet of getting joy this season. He's a difference-maker.

Finally, a word for our hosts. Bournemouth have proven to be something of a bogey team for us on their home patch since Howe arrived at Little Benton and they deserved the win on the balance of play here. Antoine Semenyo is an absolute menace down the right, Lewis Cook is possibly the most underrated central midfielder in the division, and Andoni Iraola appears to be an excellent coach. Well played.

Serena Taylor / Newcastle United

The Bad

After topping the charts last week, Joelinton came crashing down the Earth in Bournemouth with the worst shift he's put in since he was wearing nine and leading the line solo under Steve Bruce. We're not sure what was up with him today, but he was at fault for their goal, gave the ball away cheaply on numerous other occasions, and lost possession 21 times in all while winning fewer than half of his duels.

We know Jacob Murphy and Sean Longstaff aren't the greatest footballers to wear the black and white, which means we don't expect miracles from them. We do expect basic competency, however, and this was sorely lacking from both today. Nothing Murphy tried came off and, while Longstaff was full of his usual huff and puff, he slowed down our attacks too often and barely got close to the opposition.

Lloyd Kelly and Emil Krafth also had afternoons to forget for largely similar reasons. Kelly was constantly roasted by Semenyo down our left and offered Gordon no support in attack, while Krafth struggled up against their new man Evanilson. Each lacked quality in possession, too, which made it almost impossible for us to play out from the back when Burn and Pope were guilty of the same flaw.

And, purely for objectivity's sake, we can't ignore David Coote. While he got our backs up for seemingly being allergic to getting a hold of Cook (five fouls, no yellow card) and Justin Kluivert (four fouls, no yellow card), he infuriated the home crowd with some really poor decisions. Even though we benefited from that, it would be remiss of us not to point out that this was another shoddy refereeing display in The Best League in the World™.

Serena Taylor / Newcastle United

The Average

Tino Livramento and Dan Burn were the pick of the back four without having to do too much to earn that 'compliment'. Livramento rarely looks troubled defensively but there's no doubt our overall game suffers without Trippier orchestrating things from right-back. In terms of Burn, he defended solidly but his passing out from the back was sometimes suicidal and he really should have scored that header.

Alexander Isak and Anthony Gordon had inverse games, with the Swede looking electric at the beginning and pretty much running the show for us in our brightest spell, while the Scouser was way off the pace in the early going. Gordon benefitted from being switched over to the right with Trippier and Joelinton behind him, though, scoring the crucial equaliser with a super finish and putting in some great crosses, while Isak faded.

Kieran Trippier, Joe Willock, Lewis Hall, and Miguel Almirón all appeared from the bench and while the first three didn't make a significant impact like Barnes, they helped to improve our collective display and earn us the point. Trippier's still our best right back, nobody carries the ball through midfield like Willock, and Hall's always looking to play forward. Miggy barely had time to do anything of note, which may have been a good thing.

Last but by no means least, Eddie Howe deserves some credit for making the substitutions that swung the game back in our favour. Just how poor we were for the vast majority of the contest can't be ignored, however, which when paired with the poor start we made against Southampton has some alarm bells ringing for our chances this season. We were expecting much more fluidity than we've seen so far, but it's early days.

Getty Images

The Breakdown

To wrap things up, here are all of our ratings for the starting eleven, substitutes, head coach, opposition, and referee:

The XI

Nick Pope – 7

Tino Livramento – 6 (off 58')

Emil Krafth – 4

Dan Burn – 6

Lloyd Kelly – 4 (off 70')

Sean Longstaff – 4 (off 69')

Bruno Guimarães (c) – 8 ⭐️

Joelinton – 2

Jacob Murphy – 3 (off 58')

Alexander Isak – 6

Anthony Gordon – 6 (off 89')

The Subs

Kieran Trippier (on 58') – 6

Harvey Barnes (on 58') – 7

Joe Willock (on 69') – 6

Lewis Hall (off 70') – 6

Miguel Almirón (on 89') – 6

The Gaffer

Eddie Howe – 6

The Opposition

Bournemouth – 7

The Ref

David Coote – 4

Ritchie Sumpter | Nottingham Forest

The Next

We'll be back on Wednesday evening with the ratings from the second round of the League Cup, with Nottingham Forest our hosts at the City Ground. Here's hoping for a glorious return for Sandro Tonali! On a completely unrelated note, does anyone have the odds on an Elliot Anderson winner?