Player Ratings: Newcastle United 2-1 Fulham

The player ratings are in for our late defeat on Tyneside.

Fulham fell to a fourth consecutive Premier League in harsh circumstances as a 90th minute Bruno Guimaraes goal gave the home side all three points in the North East. Marco Silva’s side performed admirably and deserved at least a point out of the game, but now there’s a certain edginess over the Wolves fixture next weekend and even the Wycombe game midweek with a potential fourth cup quarter-final in four seasons on the line.

Bernd Leno

Obviously will have been gutted that his minimal touch on Jacob Murphy’s goal didn’t quite push it round the post, but his subsequent save from a similar situation with the winger was superb. Thought he was excellent at dealing with Newcastle’s inswinging corners into the six yard box, especially with the threat of the likes of Woltemade and Botman. Thought his passing looked really shaky at times especially later in the game. Made a few routine second half saves and it could potentially be suggested that he could’ve done better than allowing the ball to fall for Guimaraes to pounce on in the final stages. 6/10

Kenny Tete

Considering he was on a yellow card after two minutes he was always going to struggle against Anthony Gordon and the pace and skill the England winger possesses. Tete could never fully commit because of it and time after time Gordon pushed the ball ten yards ahead and beat him in a foot race before putting in a delivery. Some of Tete’s last ditch stuff as the game went more end to end later on was superb, it has to be said. Bit disappointed with how little he supported Adama going forward too, one cross all game for his standards is very conservative. 6/10

Issa Diop

Comfortably the best of the four in our back line. Looked more composed than a certain centre-back partner of his on the ball, completing more passes than any Fulham player and more long passes than any outfield player. Dealt well with the aerial threat of Woltemade and never let him goal-side in duals with the big German. Imagine the Frenchman gets some decent game time in the next fortnight or so with Andersen’s knock. 7.5/10

Calvin Bassey

Unfortunately the game was ultimately lost by the mistakes of Calvin Bassey at SJP. He’s had moments this season where his normal security on the ball hasn’t been there but my goodness was it exposed today. Errors for both goals were ghoulish to watch, but the first goal especially is completely unnecessary with a simple pass back to Leno on for eternity. It’s a shame, because defensively I was so impressed with how he followed Woltemade all over the pitch and pushed him well away from goal on multiple occasions. Sadly, single handedly losing the game from a defensive perspective is not a good look and maybe suggests Cuenca needs more of a chance at the moment. 4/10

Ryan Sessegnon

Gave better support to his winger than Tete did, providing a number of underlapping runs especially for Iwobi to use. Thought he dealt well with Murphy’s high press on him in the first half but struggled slightly more when Elanga came on and stuck to the touchline to get space to run at Sess. His last ditch block to prevent Elanga from scoring from point blank range on the 80 minute mark was an absolutely superb piece of defending. 6.5/10

Sander Berge

Credit where it’s due, this was better. A step in the right direction I hope. His runs were more direct and progressive. His passing was more adventurous and creative. He even had a shot from 20-odd yards that stung the palms of Nick Pope. While some of the back line, Bassey especially, struggled with Newcastle’s midfield and how high they pressed to help Woltemade, Berge was very calm under pressure, as we would expect with ball retention being his key skill. 7/10

Sasa Lukic

A goal from our midfield duo. Hallelujah! Absolutely wonderful commitment from our Serb to out-jump the unit that is Sven Botman and still score despite taking an absolute shiner to the bottom of his eye. Thought he was quite quiet beyond his goal, struggling to find pockets amongst Joelinton, Guimaraes and Miley to create anything. Also thought his corners weren’t quite as effective as they had been earlier in the season where he frequently created quality chances from them. 6.5/10

Adama Traore

Absolutely no idea how to judge Adama sometimes. Thought overall he played really well, constantly beating Dan Burn for pace (shock of the century) and getting decent crosses into the box. Just sometimes maybe an awareness of where the players are in the box could help so said crosses don’t like as aimless as they sometimes do. Thought he matched the improvement in intensity in the second half and was a vital part of our attacking play, which slowed down the moment he came off the pitch. 6.5/10

Emile Smith Rowe

I didn’t really think Smith Rowe was playing horrendously bad in the first half, there were certainly worse on the pitch, but the moves Silva made at half time proved that he was slowing our play down far too much in and out of possession. He lacked any sprints between the lines or any real creativity in the final third. In terms of pressing, to go from Josh King’s high press to Smith Rowe’s passive nature, hanging back with Newcastle’s midfielders, hampered us at times. There were a few good runs into the inside left channel but overall he needs to do so much more, as per usual. 5.5/10

Alex Iwobi

This score would be so much lower if just for the first half. Iwobi was rubbish. Slow on the ball, terrible decision making, so indecisive in everything he did. The second half continued to see poor decision making, in my opinion, but of course it was a more positive display in the way he took leadership of the team which we often lack, pushing the team forward, pressing him with a lot of intensity and combining well with Kevin. Overall, I don’t think the improvement in intensity means he played well, but I liked what I saw from him more centrally once more. 5/10

Raul Jimenez

For me the standout player on the whole pitch. While Raul may be in the latter years of his career and struggling for goals, I don’t know if he’s ever played better football for us. His hold up play, his work ethic, the way he sprints across the pitch to compete in duals, the positions he gets into, the way he takes the ball down from the sky, it’s all impeccable on a weekly basis. His overhead attempt was a cracking piece of inventive play and almost deserved a goal in a game where, sadly once more, the service into the penalty area for him was sparse and lacking quality. 8.5/10 - man of the match

Substitutes

Kevin

Without doubt his best performance for the club so far. His 45 minutes showed a mix of the skill we saw in THAT Leeds cameo, plus the work put into refining his game over recent weeks to make him an effective Premier League player. Some of his dribbling was superb and he got into some fantastic positions. We still need improvements, especially in the way he contests duals and uses the ball around the penalty area, but this was a really promising display of improvement from Kevin. 7/10

Josh King

Came on for the last 15 minutes and I just don’t think it worked. Coming on for Adama meant Iwobi moved position once more which didn’t benefit us, not that that’s on Josh. He looked a bit too lightweight in duals and failed to impact the game from an attacking sense. 6/10

Tom Cairney replaced Lukic late on before Castagne and Kusi-Asare made stoppage time cameos. None of the three played long enough to score here.

Marco Silva

I have to give Silva credit for the way he changed the game up at half time for Fulham to play more expansive, pacy football at a higher intensity. However, it’s what I’ve asked for for so long, and for season upon season we’ve needed to see a plan B from Marco. Were he now to go to the game against Wolves next week and play a side similar to the first half here then you’d have to seriously question the way the man thinks, because we have to keep getting more from the options available to us. Bringing Bassey back in over Cuenca has to be questioned too. Not only was Cuenca very good against Arsenal, but Bassey’s poor form showed in this game and cost us any points. Lots to ponder. 5.5/10