The Good, The Bad, and The Average #44: NUFC player ratings vs. Brighton (a) [PL35]

Newcastle United and Brighton & Hove Albion played out a rather tame 1-1 draw at the AMEX Stadium on Sunday afternoon, with neither side showing enough to take the three points that were required to seriously advance their European aspirations.

In a contest notable for poor officiating more than anything else, the Magpies were awarded three penalties, though only one of them stood following VAR intervention, with attention-seeking match referee Craig Pawson as hapless as ever.

Alexander Isak duly dispatched his 89th-minute spot-kick to rescue a point for Eddie Howe, whose side had trailed to an inevitable Yankuba Minteh goal from the 28th minute, but it would be hard to argue that the visitors deserved much more than they eventually got.

While all of the back four played well enough, none of the front six enjoyed a good day at the office, with a serious lack of end product from Jacob Murphy, Harvey Barnes, and Joe Willock, in particular.

Here's how we scored all involved, as Newcastle took another small step towards Champions League qualification...

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The Good

Kieran Trippier and Fabian Schär led the way for us with two excellent performances at right-back and right centre-back, respectively. Trippier is in a really rich vein of form and just edged the Swiss to our Man of the Match award based on making fewer errors in possession, though Schär was to thank for the third penalty we were awarded—the only one that the VAR didn't overturn.

On the other side of the defence, it was also a good afternoon for Dan Burn and Tino Livramento. Burn was a monster in the air, as he has been in pretty much every match since Wembley, while Livramento would've pushed Trippier for the ⭐️ if he didn't defend so poorly for Yankuba Minteh's opening goal—we have no idea why he showed him inside onto his stronger left foot.

Serena Taylor / Newcastle United

The Bad

This sort of performance used to be the norm rather than the exception from him, but Jacob Murphy was poor and was deservedly the first starter substituted by Eddie Howe. His end product was non-existent in the first half, despite Trippier and Bruno Guimarães getting him into some superb crossing positions inside the box.

Joe Willock was a bit better than Murphy overall, but his dive for the second penalty that we had overturned by the VAR saw him docked a point to end up in this section. He won the ball back high up plenty, made some driving runs, but suffered from the same lack of end product that plagued all of our attackers.

Neither Callum Wilson nor Sven Botman covered themselves in glory when coming off the bench, though Botman was only on for a matter of seconds. The big Dutch defender gave the ball away really cheaply at the end to put us under pressure, while Wilson lost all three duels he contested and missed the only chance he had.

What a terrible, terrible referee Craig Pawson is. He should have sent Mats Weiffer off for a high tackle on Tonali soon after half-time, bottling the call to show the Dutchman a second yellow. He then awarded us two incorrect penalties, with the first foul on Gordon outside of the box and the second one a clear dive from Willock, though he eventually got one right when Schär's goalbound free-kick was handled by Ayari!

Serena Taylor / Newcastle United

The Average

Alexander Isak stepped up when we needed him to score from the spot but was otherwise ineffectual, while Harvey Barnes had one of those games where he veered from looking like our only dangerous outlet to looking completely hopeless. Neither were terrible, but they were nowhere near their best levels, with some of Isak's body language disappointing to see.

Behind them, it was much the same for Bruno Guimarães and Sandro Tonali, who look like children when put up against Carlos Baleba. Bruno showed some good flashes in possession but struggled to cover enough ground defensively, while Tonali was largely at fault for Brighton's goal with a cowardly bit of defending, but did plenty of good work besides that.

Nick Pope only faced two shots on target, both from Minteh, and the one save he made late on was an important one. He stood no chance for the goal, while his use of the ball was a lot better than it normally is. We still think a goalkeeping upgrade is an absolute must for this summer, though.

Of the remaining substitutes, Anthony Gordon made an instant impact off the bench when winning a penalty that was rightly overturned and also played a big part in the second penalty award, but faded out of things thereafter, while Emil Krafth was only on the pitch for two minutes and didn't even touch the ball.

A Jason Tindall-less Eddie Howe has had many better days in the dugout for us than this, but a point at the AMEX at this stage of the season is probably something to be celebrated. We were strangely lethargic for large swathes of the contest, however, which wasn't great to see in such a massive match for the club.

Finally, Brighton & Hove Albion. We're not sure how we struggle against them so often because they're never really that impressive when we play them, and today was more of the same. Jan Paul van Hecke and Carlos Baleba are outstanding, while Minteh was dangerous again, but they're no great shakes otherwise.

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The Breakdown

It was an afternoon when the defenders did their jobs and the attackers struggled to make an impact.

The XI

Nick Pope – 6

Kieran Trippier – 8 ⭐️ (off 90+7')

Fabian Schär – 8 (off 90+7')

Dan Burn – 7

Tino Livramento – 7

Bruno Guimarães – 6

Sandro Tonali – 6

Joe Willock – 5 (off 74')

Jacob Murphy – 5 (off 56')

Alexander Isak – 6

Harvey Barnes – 6

The Subs

Anthony Gordon – 6 (on 56')

Callum Wilson – 5 (on 74')

Emil Krafth – 6 (on 90+7')

Sven Botman – 5 (on 90+7')

The Gaffer

Eddie Howe – 6

The Opposition

Brighton & Hove Albion – 6

The Ref

Craig Pawson – 5

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The Next

It's an enormous contest with Chelsea at St James' Park on Sunday, with a disgusting kick-off time of noon (BST) due to TNT's coverage. Depending on the Blues' result at Anfield later today, they could be three points behind us, two points behind us, or level with us.

The fact we're playing them less than three days after their Europa Conference League semi-final second leg against the mighty Djurgårdens can't hurt, and we'd back Eddie to lead us to a much better performance with a full week to prepare.

Howay the lads!