Hornicek - 8
After taking a little stick against Villa, Hornicek definitely shut a lot of those doubters up with his performance today.
Not sure it’s a coincidence that the Czech looked much more assured with the experience of Burn and Schar in front of him; distribution, shot stopping and all-round commanding of his area was top draw today.
Dedic - 8
Another assist today for the Bosnian and it was quite refreshing to have that attacking threat down the right flank once again, no shade on Lewis Miley of course.
It was clear to see why Jaissle’s system favours having two forward thinking fullbacks and Dedic put in a very good showing on his full return from injury.
Schar - 7
Slightly annoyed me by continuously trying to play those raking balls in the first half despite the wind, but other than that it was wonderful to have a genuine ball playing centre-back in those build-up phases.
Schar and Burn also looked much more solid defensively than Thiaw and Botman have done previous and having that calm had an obvious positive impact on the rest of the team too.
Burn - 7
For many of the same reasons I mentioned for Schar, bar the ball playing ability, it felt much more assured having Burn back.
Does the simple things well, you never really feel in immediate danger like you do with Botman and it was just a much kinder afternoon on the heart than is usually the case as a Newcastle fan.
Hall - 8
Perhaps an eight is a little strong, but Hall gets boosted by a point given he was one of the only players to have a decent first-half too. I mean, that was an awful watch for the most part wasn’t it?
Good on the ball, offered a nice little threat on the overlap and never looked troubled defensively - another nice performance by England’s number one left-back…
Gonzalez - 9
Nico was given a bit more support today and it really showed.
Was much better defensively, mainly because he was left with less space to cover in transition, and was superbly calm in possession. There’s an argument it was his best all round performance in black and white so far and I expect we’ll see a lot more of that in the coming weeks.
Joelinton - 6
Joelinton is probably quite lucky we won this game as a six is probably a little generous.
He was a bit more disciplined than last week, barring of course flying into tackles as he usually does. But I’m just not too sure he can play in that double pivot given his distinct lack of technical ability.
Murphy - 7
Rolled back the years with the assist, but I don’t want to hear anybody trying to claim that as an ‘I told you so’ moment because that will not be happening every week.
Murphy was his usual self in the first-half, but did come to life a bit more alongside the rest of the team in the second.
Probably his best performance in about two years for the Magpies to be honest.
Willock - 7
Oh how different his rating could have been if he wasn’t offside for the disallowed goal.
Willock wasn’t at his best today but I actually didn’t think he was too bad across the 90 minutes. He worked hard, as usual, and contributed nicely to a few attacks. Nothing special but honest work.
Barnes - 7
Harvey Barnes scores goals.
Say whatever you want about his overall affect on the game but, in those moments, he just does turn up almost every single time.
Barnes linked up well with Hall again down the left, did a lot of hard work off the ball, and carried a threat just by being there. A solid display.
Osula - 7
Osula really struggled to get into the game in the first period, through no fault of his own it must be said, as the entire game was rather lacklustre.
But, with a goal to mark his return to the starting lineup and a proper centre-forward’s goal at that, I think it’s pretty clear who our starting striker should be going forwards, especially with that Wissa display off the bench…
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