The Good, The Bad, and The Average #33: NUFC player ratings vs. Manchester City (a) [PL25]

Newcastle United put in their worst performance of the season on their way to a 4-0 thumping at the hands of Manchester City, with Eddie Howe and players having another nightmare at the Etihad.

Setting up in a 5-3-2 formation the like not seen since the dark days of Steve Bruce, the Magpies looked off it from the first whistle and found themselves 3-0 down by the interval due to Omar Marmoush's hat-trick.

The most galling thing about the match was that this isn't a good Manchester City side. We might never have a better chance of exorcising the Etihad curse, but we treat them with far, far too much respect.

Howe must shoulder the majority of the blame for what was a tragic showing, but the players lacked belief and urgency from the outset. They clearly weren't up for it, for whatever reason, which is just unacceptable.

You won't be expecting high scores, then, and you shouldn't—these are the lowest ratings we've ever dished out.

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The Good

It felt like we were transported back 12 months today with how Manchester City played, though we couldn't have made it any easier for our hosts with the way we set up tactically and approached the game generally. They didn't have to break a sweat to beat us, despite having just lost to Real Madrid in gutting circumstances a few days ago while we enjoyed a full week to prepare for the match.

Aside from not booking Nico Gonzalez for waving an imaginary card after a bad foul by Bruno, we can't have any complaints about Andy Madley today. He was pretty good, in fact, though was aided quite heavily by the fact we couldn't seem to get within a few yards of anyone in sky blue.

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The Bad

Eddie Howe setting us up a 5-3-2 against this version of Manchester City was disappointing and we were punished for such a negative, passive approach with the three first-half goals we conceded. Things got marginally better after the break thanks to the introductions of Livramento and Miley, but this was an afternoon to forget for our head coach. He's had many better days than this, but not too many worse.

While Kieran Trippier was hung out to dry by being asked to play as a centre-back instead of at right-back or right wing-back, he was the main reason for this defeat and was rightly hooked at half-time. First, he lost the ball's flight for City's opener, missing his header and letting Marmoush through one-on-one. He was also partially at fault for the second goal, as he left Marmoush with too much space in the box.

Unfortunately, Anthony Gordon just didn't look interested today as soon as the going got tough. This was summed up perfectly shortly before he was substituted, as he was caught offside incredibly cheaply due to being too lazy to take a couple of steps backwards. He's got this sort of showing in him far too often for our liking.

This couldn't have been further much from a captain's performance from Bruno Guimarães. He was invisible for long periods and didn't track Marmoush at all for the third goal, letting him ghost into the box for an easy finish to kill the game off. He did play a couple of nice passes in the second half before being brought off, but that's about all we can say that's not negative.

Like numerous others, Fabian Schär's sloppy passing out from the back early on kept putting us under needless pressure and he struggled one-on-one against Haaland. While not as at fault for the goals as some of his colleagues, he had a poor afternoon overall and looked significantly off the pace—not for the first time this season, sadly.

Playing in an unfamiliar right wing-back position, Jacob Murphy also frustrated us with his sloppy passing early on and was partly to blame for the second goal, leaving Marmoush with too much space to get into the box. In fairness to him, he looked our biggest threat going forward after the break, with some excellent deliveries into the area that weren't capitalised on.

Big Dan Burn kept the score down himself at times in the first half, but he was caught too deep on City's second, playing Marmoush onside when otherwise the goal would have been ruled out. Later on, he was also largely at fault for the fourth goal when being beaten in the air by Erling Haaland at the near post.

Lewis Hall had a really difficult time up against Savinho and he was yet another whose sloppy passing in the early part of the game put us under massive pressure. On a positive note, he made a good chance for Miley around the hour mark with a nice pass from the edge of the box, but that's all we've got for him today in the plus column.

The exposed Martin Dúbravka got caught in no man's land for the first goal due to Trippier's error but could have done more to prevent the second, being slow to get down to his right for the attempted save. We can't pin too much blame on him for the other two we conceded, but he doesn't bail us out enough for our liking.

Joe Willock made the best chance in the early going when dispossessing an opponent and sliding Isak in, but he was as poor as anyone else in maroon and blue otherwise. Hauled off by Howe at half-time, we don't think we'll be seeing our number 28 starting again any time soon, even with the continued absence of Joelinton as an option in his position.

Alexander Isak didn't look at his best in the early knocking, taking too many touches and making poor decisions when we had a rare opportunity to break. He only had one sniff of goal before being shunted out onto the left flank midway through the second half, but was too slow to execute what he wanted to do. Afternoons like this do make us worry about our ability to keep hold of the Swede beyond the summer.

Oh, and was Sandro Tonali playing today? We barely saw him. He might as well have been invisible for the way he attempted to defend McAtee for the fourth goal...

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The Average

Here you'll find our substitutes. Tino Livramento gets our Man of the Match award simply for not looking completely trash in his full half of action. Lewis Miley wasn't all that bad, either, while neither Sean Longstaff nor Callum Wilson were on the field long enough or had enough touches of the ball to feel our wrath. Emil Krafth really should have started instead of Trippier in the 5-3-2, but instead got four minutes when the game had been done for 60.

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The Breakdown

Lord almighty this was bad. Nobody in our ranks came out of this with any credit.

The XI

Martin Dúbravka – 4

Jacob Murphy – 3

Kieran Trippier – 2 (off 46')

Fabian Schär – 3

Dan Burn – 3

Lewis Hall – 3

Bruno Guimarães – 3 (off 72')

Sandro Tonali – 3

Joe Willock – 4 (off 46')

Alexander Isak – 4 (off 90')

Anthony Gordon – 3 (off 73')

The Subs

Tino Livramento – 6 ⭐️ (on 46')

Lewis Miley – 6 (on 46')

Sean Longstaff – 6 (on 72')

Callum Wilson – 6 (on 73')

Emil Krafth – 6 (on 90')

The Gaffer

Eddie Howe – 1

The Opposition

Manchester City – 8

The Ref

Andy Madley – 8

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The Next

It's Nottingham Forest at home next Sunday, with a 2 p.m. (GMT) kick-off against Nuno Espirito Santo's high-flying side live on Sky Sports.

We're not expecting much against Chris Wood, Elliot Anderson, Matz Sels, and company, but they did lose today at Fulham. We have to show a reaction after this dross.

Howay the lads!