The Good, The Bad, and The Average #23: NUFC player ratings vs. Man Utd (a) [PL19]

Newcastle United wiped the floor with Manchester United on Monday Night Football, scoring two lovely goals in a superb opening period at Old Trafford to take all three points back to Tyneside.

The first 25 minutes or so is some of the best football we've been lucky enough to see the Magpies play in our lifetimes and the Red Devils couldn't have complained if they were 4-0 down before the interval.

Things tapered off from there, unfortunately, but Ruben Amorim's side never looked truly likely to spark the type of comeback that was commonplace under Alex Ferguson in the dark old days of English football.

This was another tremendous victory for Eddie Howe and the players, who have now ended 2024 with five wins and set up 2025 to be a truly monumental year for the football club, FFP/PSR be damned.

At the halfway point in the campaign, we sit in fifth place, ahead of Manchester City and just three points behind Chelsea, who were being tipped as title contenders just a week or two ago!

Here's how we rated everyone involved on a famous night in Stretford, with a slew of 8s and 9s once more...

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The Good

Lewis Hall won a tight battle for our Man of the Match award thanks to his superb assist for the opener and two massive blocks in the second half that helped us earn a fourth successive league clean sheet in a row. Our young left-back was barely troubled by the dangerous Amad Diallo throughout the contest.

His main contender was Dan Burn, who was just brilliant again in the heart of the defence. He completed over twice the defensive actions of anyone else in black and white, won 11/14 duels, and passed the ball with much-needed assuredness. He'll be right up there for Player of the Season this year.

Bruno Guimarães was taking the proverbial out of the opposition in the first 30 minutes and completely dominated the match. His most notable contributions were the cross-field pass for Hall to get a pre-assist for Isak's opener and a wonderful long through ball for the Swede that should have been buried.

Speaking of our red-hot striker, Alexander Isak came up trumps again but will be kicking himself to have missed yet another one-on-one. Some of his touches and dribbles were otherworldly and it was noticeable how much praise the commentary team and analysts on Sky bestowed upon him.

Joelinton scores again, as the song goes. Our beast of a Brazilian looked well up for the game from the first whistle and was a big part of our early domination. He didn't give the hosts' pedestrian midfield a minute to settle, passed the ball crisply, and drove forward in possession at every opportunity.

Anthony Gordon and Sandro Tonali have been cracking lately, and they both turned up again here. Gordon's cross for Joelinton's goal was a peach; he had Mazraoui on toast, and he ran himself into the ground for the cause. Tonali seemed to revel in the amount of time he was given by Manchester United's aged midfield. We're not sure how he failed it make it 3-0 when hitting the post, mind!

While not as good as the duo listed above, Kieran Trippier and Fabian Schär put in a pair of solid shifts. Trippier adds so much composure and calmness to our play, while Schär was playing brilliantly until a suicidal pass on the stroke of half-time that almost gifted the Red Devils a route back into the game. He also picked up a booking that will see him miss our trip to Spurs at the weekend.

Martin Dúbravka has been a positive rather than a negative since replacing Nick Pope in goal and might even keep his place in this current form when Pope comes back. His usefulness in possession is huge for taking the pressure off our defenders, but he's hardly been asked to do much goalkeeping since his return!

Pressed into action around the hour mark after Trippier's unfortunate hamstring tweak, Tino Livramento did a very good job of helping to steady the ship during a tricky period for us. Tino completed 20/21 passes to help the side regain a foothold and he just never looks fazed by anything, which is a brilliant attribute to have.

Eddie Howe has put on a coaching masterclass over the last few weeks. At a time when more questions than ever were being asked about his leadership, he's shut up the doubters by putting together a run of five successive wins with a whopping 16 goals scored and just one conceded. What a bloke.

And while we can't quite believe it, Simon Hooper is appearing in this section for the second successive time when refereeing a Newcastle match. He got pretty much everything spot-on today and didn't show bias to either side, while always having a decent level of control over proceedings.

Serena Taylor/Newcastle United

The Bad

Manchester United are a proper joke of a football club these days and it is just lovely to see. They still have a bit of the old aura about them when the crowd get into things, but they were as poor as anything we've played this season in the opening half an hour.

Jacob Murphy has been brilliant recently, but this was a haunting flashback of his previous level of performance. He was the only one of the lads to lose his individual battle throughout his time on the pitch, with Dalot getting the better of him on far too many occasions.

Serena Taylor/Newcastle United

The Average

Harvey Barnes and Joe Willock were given the job of coming on to provide fresh legs and help us see things out and they did it successfully without contributing anything that particularly caught the eye.

Serena Taylor/Newcastle United

The Breakdown

We're getting used to dishing out 8s and 9s every game!

The XI

Martin Dúbravka – 7

Kieran Trippier – 8 (off 58')

Fabian Schär – 7

Dan Burn – 9

Lewis Hall – 9 ⭐️

Bruno Guimarães (c) – 9

Sandro Tonali – 8

Joelinton – 9

Jacob Murphy – 5 (off 85')

Alexander Isak – 9

Anthony Gordon – 8 (off 85')

The Subs

Tino Livramento – 7 (on 58')

Harvey Barnes – 6 (on 85')

Joe Willock – 6 (on 85')

The Gaffer

Eddie Howe – 9

The Opposition

Manchester United – 3

The Ref

Simon Hooper – 8

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The Next

In another huge game, we have a trip to the almost defender-less Tottenham this Saturday for a 12.30 p.m. (GMT) kick-off that will be shown live on TNT.

While we're by no means counting our chickens, we're again favourites with the bookies heading to the home of one of the so-called 'Big Six'. What a time to be alive!

Howay the lads!