The Good, The Bad, and The Average #35: NUFC player ratings vs. Liverpool (a) [PL27]

Well, at least the goal difference didn't take too much of a hammering! Newcastle United succumbed to their annual league loss at Anfield with champions-elect Liverpool cantering to a deserved 2-0 win.

Mistakes from Sandro Tonali and Bruno Guimarães did for Eddie Howe's side, with Dominik Szoboszlai and Alexis Mac Allister getting the goals in either half to secure the most predictable result of the season.

Callum Wilson missed our only real chance of the game at 1-0, but we otherwise struggled to lay a glove on Arne Slot's Reds, with too many of our senior players at nowhere near their best levels.

It was another worrying performance in a big game from the Magpies, but we were hardly confident when Alexander Isak's name was missing from the squad list due to a supposedly minor groin injury.

Here's how we scored everyone involved, with a low of '3' and a high of '6' for those in black and white...

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The Good

You know it's been a bad night of football when the only person occupying this section is the referee. Take a bow, Stuart Atwell, for a significant improvement on the 2/10 you posted in the 1-4 home defeat to Bournemouth. He was probably gentle on us here, mind. We can't imagine the Liverpool fans will be scoring him too highly!

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The Bad

He's only been back three games but we're already sick of Nick Pope. We used to love him, but his drop-off has been alarming. He should've saved Liverpool's opener when seemingly taking an age to get down to his left to try and stop Szoboszlai's weak effort from going in. He got away with one later on when needlessly playing a left-footed clearance straight off Salah, but did save well from the Egyptian late on, at least.

We're beginning to think that Sandro Tonali is the most overrated player we've ever had on our books. His passing in the early stages was really poor and he did a woeful job of tracking Szoboszlai for Liverpool's opener, while it was also his misplaced pass that set Liverpool away to score their second. He's had some fantastic games this season, but he's easily had more poor ones, and he owes us so much more than that.

Bruno Guimarães has hardly been at his sparkling best lately, too, and he wasn't much better than his central midfield partner tonight. He's so slow at times it's comical, while his lapse of concentration for Alexis Mac Allister's goal was unforgivable. He was with the Argentinian all the way and then inexplicably left him wide open in the box to finish and effectively kill the game off.

We haven't missed seeing Callum Wilson leading the line, either. Our expectations were extremely low when we saw his name on the teamsheet due to Alexander Isak's groin issue and they were right to be. Other than missing a massive chance to equalise on the half hour when slicing the ball wide one-on-one with Alisson, his most notable moment was the head injury he sustained when being hit late in the air by Virgil van Dijk.

Joe Willock is another who was barely noticeable in the contest before being withdrawn midway through the second half. We appreciate he's not a left-winger, which is where he was fielded, but he barely laid a glove on Trent Alexander-Arnold and everybody knows how susceptible the Liverpool right-back is defensively.

Of the rest, Fabian Schär wasn't great and still struggled to find his passing range, Jacob Murphy was at his infuriating worst in terms of end product, Anthony Gordon was wasted in the second striker role when Alexander-Arnold was there for the taking, and Sean Longstaff looked typically rubbish in his cameo.

And in terms of Eddie Howe, it's hard to be too critical when he was without his star striker, but this was another rather meek surrender. While we were nowhere near as bad as against Manchester City, we never looked like seriously troubling Liverpool. We're not sure Pope in goal, Willock on the left flank, and Gordon playing off Wilson was the best tactical approach, either, but what do we know?

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The Average

We feared for him, but Lewis Hall had a pretty decent night up against the best attacker in the division. He couldn't prevent him from getting an assist, but that was hardly his fault, as he led the team in terms of defensive interventions and won 8/13 duels against his direct opponent. It's just a shame that the majority of his more senior colleagues were nowhere near average.

Tino Livramento was another of the starters to come out of this night with some credit. He was up against Luis Díaz at the very top of his game and pretty much matched him, which was no mean feat. Even though he was one of the quartet taken off midway through the second period, he wasn't really to blame for any of our main troubles.

Big Dan Burn wasn't too bad either, though he could've done more to block Dominik Szoboszlai's effort for Liverpool's opener. That was his only real negative on a tough night against the best attacking side in the league, though, as he toiled manfully again.

The substitutes that came on midway through the second period largely did alright, with Kieran Trippier tidy on the ball, Will Osula posing more problems than Callum Wilson had after the break, and Lewis Miley again not looking out of place. Harvey Barnes wasn't involved that much but looked quite lively when he was.

As for our opponents, the champions elect Liverpool didn't have to extend themselves too much to get the win tonight and were thoroughly deserving of the three points. When the news about Isak's absence broke 75 minutes before kick-off we would've shaken hands on a 2-0 defeat with no injuries, so we'll take it.

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The Breakdown

When your star man gets a '6' you know it's been a rough night...

The XI

Nick Pope – 3

Tino Livramento – 6 (off 69')

Fabian Schär – 5

Dan Burn – 6

Lewis Hall – 6 ⭐️

Jacob Murphy – 4

Bruno Guimarães – 4 (off 87')

Sandro Tonali – 4 (off 69')

Joe Willock – 4 (off 68')

Anthony Gordon – 5

Callum Wilson – 4 (off 69')

The Subs

Harvey Barnes – 6 (on 68')

Will Osula – 6 (on 69')

Lewis Miley – 6 (on 69')

Kieran Trippier – 6 (on 69')

Sean Longstaff – 5 (on 87')

The Gaffer

Eddie Howe – 5

The Opposition

Liverpool – 6

The Ref

Stuart Atwell – 8

Newcastle United

The Next

It's Brighton in the fifth round of the FA Cup on Sunday afternoon, with the game a 1.45 p.m. (GMT) kick-off that'll be shown live on ITV.

We could really do with a morale-boosting victory after that atrocious second half against Forest and tonight's non-appearance at Anfield.

Howay the lads!