The Good, The Bad, and The Average #9: NUFC player ratings vs. Everton (a) [PL7]

An infuriating evening at Goodison Park saw Newcastle dominate the vast majority of play, only to leave with a solitary point thanks largely to Anthony Gordon's profligacy in front of goal on his old stomping ground.

The likes of Joelinton and Jacob Murphy weren't much better with their end product than Gordon, on a night where it was impossible not to feel sympathy for Bruno Guimarães, who was a cut above the rest of the front six.

Dan Burn was a titan at the back, too, meaning that Everton's solitary tactic of walloping long balls up to Dominic Calvert-Lewin got exactly what it deserved—nowt. The blue team from Liverpool really are absolute trash.

If we sound bitter, it's because we are. This was easily our best away performance of the season but we didn't get the result we deserved because of shocking finishing and final balls. It's a tough one to rate, but here goes...

Serena Taylor/Newcastle United

The Good

We felt sorry for Bruno Guimarães tonight. The Brazilian has been far from his best so far in 2024/25, but this performance was like the Bruno of old. He was at the heart of pretty much everything good we did offensively and got stuck in plenty too, while also being unlucky not to open the scoring in the first half.

Dan Burn was immense, especially given how good Calvert-Lewin is in the air and at holding the ball up. The big man won more duels than anyone in white, passed the ball assuredly, and was a threat from the many, many corners we won. He also made a game-saving intervention that was admittedly close to being a penalty!

On the one occasion Burn and the rest of the back four let Everton in, Nick Pope did what he does best and came up with a huge save. His long kicking and passing were surprisingly decent tonight as well, which is a sentence we don't imagine we'll be writing too many times this season...

Miguel Almirón and Tino Livramento both did well from the bench, with Miggy in particular looking like he was in the mood to lead us to victory. It's probably at the point where the Paraguayan deserves another chance from the start, while Tino may well have edged ahead of Kieran Trippier again at right-back.

Alongside the imperious Burn, Fabian Schär had a canny game without reaching his peak level. Just 4/9 of the Swiss' long passes connected, while he was troubled a fair bit more by Calvert-Lewin than his centre-back partner. He still played a big part in the clean sheet, though.

Although we hate to do it, we have to give some credit to Craig Pawson. He got all the major decisions right—admittedly with the help of the VAR—and while his refusal to book Abdoulaye Doucouré in the first half was annoying, it was inconsequential in the grand scheme of things.

Serena Taylor/Newcastle United

The Bad

Everton are a squalid little team, aren't they? The Premier League's definition of 'the turd that won't flush', surely this is the season that they finally drop into the Championship? They play horrendous football, have a team full of cloggers, and their fans tend to be whoppers of the very highest order. They were chod tonight.

Sadly, in the moments that really mattered, their former star man Anthony Gordon wasn't much better. His penalty was shocking and easily saved by Jordan Pickford, while his finish in the one-on-one he got around the 80th minute was laughable. It was a real shame because his all-round performance wasn't bad at all.

Kieran Trippier has looked a shadow of his former self at times over the past year and this was another low point for him. Usually so composed and reliable in possession, his passing was all over the shop and Iliman Ndiaye ran rings around him when one-on-one. It might be time to go back to Livramento...

The same was true of Lewis Hall on the opposite flank, unfortunately, with the young full back now firmly entrenched at the bottom of our seasonal player rankings with a stinking score of 5.2. He was poor one-on-one and sloppy with his passing—losing possession 21 times!—and offered next to nothing in attack.

We need so, so much more from Sandro Tonali. He must be match fit at this point, surely, but he's just not playing well. He was second only to Hall in terms of possession losses with 16—really not what you need from a central midfielder—and he didn't offer enough in the other facets of the game to make up for this. £55 million, was it?

Jacob Murphy has to be coming under serious pressure for his place now, too. One dangerous cross aside we're struggling to remember anything of note he contributed to our offensive effort. He covered plenty of ground and put his foot in when required to, but that's not really what you want from your winger.

Sleepy Joe Willock is back without a bang, too, with the excitement of his return from injury already having worn off. There just wasn't enough urgency in his cameo here, despite him being fielded in his favoured role at the expense of Joelinton being moved into the front three. He's just going through the motions.

Serena Taylor/Newcastle United

The Average

Joelinton was heavily involved in the contest but was abysmal in the final third, being second only to Gordon in terms of the apportioned blame for us failing to win. The rest of his game was absolutely fine and it would have probably been his highest score since the opening day if he could finish or find a teammate in the box.

Despite being up against a central midfielder playing out of position at right-back in James Garner, Harvey Barnes didn't have the impact on this contest that he should have. He was by no means poor but didn't muster a shot in the contest and only put one dangerous delivery into the box in over an hour of play.

Sean Longstaff looked incredibly bright in his first few minutes off the bench and was verging on an '8' at one point, before slipping back towards mediocrity as time wore on. Still, given how poor Tonali was here—and the Italian's impending international duty—we wouldn't be surprised to see 'Longy' back in the starting eleven.

Although the Barnes substitution seemed a bit strange, Eddie Howe didn't do too much wrong today. He set the team up in a way that saw us dominate the game, despite honking performances from Trippier, Hall, Murphy, and Tonali plus shocking finishing from the likes of Gordon and Joelinton. Things are improving, slowly but surely.

Serena Taylor/Newcastle United

The Breakdown

Here are our full ratings, with Bruno narrowly edging out Burn for player of the match and Everton getting the lowest score of all for being absolutely tripe.

The XI

Nick Pope – 8

Kieran Trippier – 4 (off 71')

Fabian Schär – 7

Dan Burn – 9

Lewis Hall – 4

Sandro Tonali – 4 (off 71')

Bruno Guimarães (c) – 9 ⭐️

Joelinton – 6

Jacob Murphy – 5 (off 69')

Anthony Gordon – 4

Harvey Barnes – 6 (off 62')

The Subs

Miguel Almirón – 8 (on 62')

Joe Willock – 4 (on 69')

Tino Livramento – 7 (on 71')

Sean Longstaff – 6 (on 71')

The Gaffer

Eddie Howe – 6

The Opposition

Everton – 3

The Ref

Craig Pawson – 8

Getty Images

The Next

After another pointless international break, it'll be back to St James' for a game with Brighton on Saturday 19th October at 3 p.m. (BST).

Although not scheduled for live broadcast in the UK, it has the makings of an entertaining game—especially if both Alexander Isak and Callum Wilson are back in the squad.

Howay the lads!