The Good, The Bad, and The Average #30: NUFC player ratings vs. Fulham (h) [PL24]

Newcastle United's recent troubles at St James' Park continued as they fell to a fourth home defeat of the season to Fulham, with the Cottagers deservedly taking all three points.

Eddie Howe's charges weren't at it at all but somehow went into the interval ahead thanks to a well-worked goal starting with Dan Burn and ending with Jacob Murphy, via Anthony Gordon.

Fulham looked like equalising pretty much as soon as the teams reentered the pitch for the second half, though, and duly did through the excellent Raúl Jiménez in the 61st minute.

Worse was to come for the Magpies, with substitutes Andreas Pereira and Rodrigo Muniz combining from a free-kick to earn the visitors a 2-1 win. Newcastle never looked like coming back.

Results went our way elsewhere, meaning we should still end the weekend in the top six, but this was another worrying showing at Gallowgate with multiple players nowhere near their best.

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The Good

Jacob Murphy was making his 200th appearance for the club and duly marked it with a goal, finishing well after being found in the box by Anthony Gordon. Our wingers are the least of our problems at the minute, and aside from his strike, Murphy was probably our best player on a day where not many shone brightly.

For his part, Anthony Gordon probably wasn't as effective as he would've liked to have been, but he got a brilliant assist for Murphy and had Timothy Castagne on the back foot for much of the contest. He wasn't anywhere near his level pressing-wise, though, perhaps due to the semi-final being on his mind.

Bruno Guimarães was the pick of the rest, with the little Brazilian playing some exquisite passes in the first half, in particular. He got very little from the hapless referee, but very little can be pinned on him for the loss today. We're still not convinced that he's the best choice as captain, but he's been consistently good for much of the season on the pitch.

While nowhere near Bournemouth's level, we have to say that Fulham were really quite good. Jiménez ran us ragged, with the pace of Adama Traoré and Alex Iwobi on the flanks giving us plenty to think about as well. We were seriously impressed with Saša Lukić in central midfield, too, as the Serbian bossed Joelinton and Company.

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The Bad

Chris Kavanagh hasn't been at all bad on the two other occasions he's refereed us this term but he had a nightmare today. He seemed happy to let Fulham waste all the time they wanted to when the ball was dead and made some truly baffling decisions throughout. He wasn't the reason we lost, but he didn't help our cause one iota.

This wasn't a day to remember for Eddie Howe, either, with our head coach seeming befuddled by the performance in his post-match interviews. He must recognise that things have looked quite stale in the past month or so, with Alexander Isak's supreme finishing masking some pretty shoddy performances at times.

Joelinton needs a spell on the bench. He's been a yard off it for weeks now and today was woeful. Aside from his sloppy passing, he won just 4/13 duels, didn't make a single defensive action, and was dribbled past three times. He was deservedly booked yet again, meaning he's just one yellow away from a two-game ban.

That unreal attempt from 30 yards aside, Sandro Tonali wasn't much better, sadly. It was his weak pass to Murphy that set the move away for Fulham's equaliser and his failure to stick to Jiménez in the box at the end of the counter was infuriating. He lost possession 15 times today—more than anyone else—and that's just not good enough.

Fabian Schär and Dan Burn were both run ragged by Jiménez and it's surely time for Sven Botman to be restored to the heart of the defence permanently now. Burn's been very good this season but he's nowhere near the player the Dutchman is, while Schär has been rubbish since returning from his recent injury.

We'd also like to see Tino Livramento given a few games off. His lack of quality in the final third is killing us. He never looks likely to pick out a teammate when crossing and when he went through one-on-one today we had no faith at all that he'd find the back of the net. He didn't defend well enough to redeem himself, either.

Lewis Hall was poor as well, though not quite as bad as the rest of the back four. It's hard to pin too much on Martin Dúbravka, he can't be getting beaten at his near post like he was for Fulham's winner. We're quite happy to pin a bit on Joe Willock, though, who has been crap for ages and missed a sitter at 1-1 which could have changed the outcome of the game.

Oh, and Lloyd Kelly was rubbish in his cameo, too. If Juventus are seriously interested we'll carry him to Turin ourselves. What a strange decision it was to bring him on at left-back when we were chasing the game...

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The Average

Alexander Isak had a tough day up top. He did flash a great effort off the bar but barely got a sniff otherwise and was largely to blame for Fulham's second with his total failure to pick up Munoz at the near post, despite it being his zone. Still, it was his through ball that sent Livramento away for his one-on-one, so swings and roundabouts.

Here you'll also find Lewis Miley and Will Osula, who didn't get long enough on the pitch to fall below 'average'. We'd love to see Miley given a run in the side ahead of Joelinton for a little while to see if he's got what it takes, but we don't imagine we'll be calling for Osula to get starts on the right flank any time soon.

To round things off, a word for Kieran Trippier. It's a shame how his career has gone here due to his off-field errors, but there's still time for him to turn things around and cement himself as a club legend. He needs to be brought back into the team at this point. He's still a better player than Livramento when he's fully at it.

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The Breakdown

It's never good to write these when we're in a huff, but we've tried to stay as balanced as possible...

The XI

Martin Dúbravka – 5

Tino Livramento – 4 (off 64')

Fabian Schär – 4

Dan Burn – 4

Lewis Hall – 5 (off 87')

Bruno Guimarães – 7 (off 87')

Sandro Tonali – 4

Joelinton – 3 (off 64')

Jacob Murphy – 7 ⭐️ (off 87')

Alexander Isak – 5

Anthony Gordon – 7

The Subs

Kieran Trippier – 6 (on 64')

Joe Willock – 5 (on 64')

Will Osula – 6 (on 87')

Lewis Miley – 6 (on 87')

Lloyd Kelly – 5 (on 87')

The Gaffer

Eddie Howe – 2

The Opposition

Fulham – 7

The Ref

Chris Kavanagh – 2

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The Next

It's just the small matter of the Carabao Cup semi-final second leg on Wednesday night, with Arsenal the visitors to Gallowgate for an 8 p.m. (GMT) kick-off that will be shown live on Sky Sports.

Should we somehow contrive to lose from the position we're in—2-0 up after the first leg—we'd become the first club in League Cup history to do so. That sounds worryingly Newcastle-ish to us.

Seriously, though, we'll be bang up for it and we seem to have Mikel 'Legohead' Arteta's number at the moment. Hopefully, today was just the majority of our lot wanting something in the tank for midweek.

Howay the lads!