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Newcastle 0 West Ham 3 – Match ratings of all NUFC players

5 years ago
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Newcastle 0 West Ham 3  – Saturday 1 December 3pm

We asked Joe Dixon to give us his match ratings after Saturday’s match.

Newcastle’s four game undefeated run crumbling badly, as West Ham added second half punishment to the poor defending that gifted the visitors their opening goal.

Rafa’s team dropping to 15th, three points above the relegation zone.

Dubravka 6 – Left exposed by his defence on all three goals, he saved a one on one but powerless to stop the other three.

Yedlin 5 – A day when Newcastle needed him to be on top of his defensive game but was taken apart by big summer signing Anderson.

Still gave it his all and did his best to get forward but whilst the spirit was willing, the execution was nowhere near good enough.

Fernandez 6 – Didn’t seem to do a lot wrong personally and stuck at it, not helped by his defensive partner frequently going missing.

Schar 4 – A bad day at the office after impressing these past three games.

Watched on as Hernandez scored the first and whilst not sure could have done a lot about the second as the Mexican was sent clear, it was embarrassingly easy for Anderson to host past him for the third goal. Even missed out with the attempted foul. Also a day when his passing wasn’t good, has possibly opened the door for Lascelles to come back in.

Manquillo 4 – Not good enough and suspect all game at the back, bit of a blunder by Rafa as even as a traditional left-back, Ciaran Clark is better than Manquillo.

No way surely he will be playing at Everton and very likely Rafa will revert to the three/five man defence he used at Burnley. Could end up with Lascelles, Fernandez and Clark, with both Schar and Manquillo dropping out.

Ki 7 – If doing half points I would have given him 7.5.

Easily Newcastle’s best player and did his best to keep the team going forward. As is often the case though, a lack of pace, quality and movement up front is a big handicap.

Diame 5 – Dropped way off the better form he’d shown against Bournemouth and Burnley. Maybe by playing the extra defender at Everton, Rafa might take the leap of faith to give Ki and Shelvey a game together. They did very well together at Swansea when giving them their best ever finish in the Premier League.

Ritchie 6 – I actually thought the two wingers did alright, despite Rafa subbing the pair of them first.

Ritchie worked hard and there other candidates who could and should have gone off before him.

Perez 4 – Speaking of which…

Obviously it is a nonsense to boo any of your own players or indeed cheer when they are subbed BUT Perez has been terrible this season.

With Rafa persistently blocked from bringing in the quality needed, he’s felt he had no alternative but to persist with Perez. Very rarely looks like scoring or creating anything though actually yesterday he did find himself with at least three good chances, wasted them all.

That pathetic fingers in the ears after finally doing something useful when scoring against Watford, was just embarrassing, scoring one goal didn’t prove anybody wrong. As for his usual rolling around on the ground, I think his teammates should be having a word with him.

Kenedy  6 – As with Ritchie above, didn’t think he was too bad. The only Newcastle player willing to take his opponent on, I can never understand why Rafa subs him so often, Saturday was the fifth time in 12 PL starts this season.

Rondon 6 – Battled hard once again and had the odd half chance, might have been interesting if he’d had the chances Perez had. A striker who needs service and the team playing to his strengths, didn’t get that really on Saturday.

He is what he is, a decent target man and striker but not one who will score loads of goals.

Subs:

Joselu 4 – He might have some nuisance value when coming on to help Newcastle see out a draw or win but just simply not a Premier League player. Rafa Benitez hasn’t got many other options with Muto injured but in a situation like yesterday, it is difficult to believe Newcastle wouldn’t be better off giving 17 goal 19 year old reserve striker Elias Sorensen 10 or 20 minutes on the pitch.

Atsu 4 – Hopeless.

Shelvey 5 –  The game was gone by the time he got onto the pitch and with no pace or dribbling ability, very limited what he could do with his passing game, as Newcastle were/are so limited going forward, especially against a team sitting on a two goal lead.

Stats from BBC Sport:

Newcastle 0 West Ham 3

Goals:

West Ham: Hernandez 11, 63 Anderson 90+3

Possession was West Ham 41% Newcastle 59%

Total shots were  West Ham 7 Newcastle 16

Shots on target were West Ham 4 Newcastle 4

Corners were  West Ham 3 Newcastle 7

Referee: Paul Tierney

Newcastle United:

Dubravka, Yedlin, Schar, Fernandez, Manquillo, Ritchie (Atsu 54), Diame, Ki, Kenedy (Shelvey 70), Rondon, Perez (Joselu 78)

Unused Subs:

Woodman, Longstaff, Lascelles, Clark

Crowd: 51,853 (West Ham 3,200)

(Damning Alan Shearer verdict HERE)

(Newcastle 0 West Ham 3 – Instant NUFC fan/writer reaction to Saturday’s defeat HERE)

(Has Mike Ashley finally broken the Newcastle fans – Read HERE)

(Rafa Benitez makes clear to Mike Ashley “What they spend, what we spend…you can see that on the pitch” – Read HERE)
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