Newcastle United once again tasted defeat as Aston Villa took all three points from St James’ Park in a 1-0 win.
Yet again the Magpies left a lot to be desired in almost all areas of the pitch and, despite some late pressure, really didn’t deserve anything more than to come away empty handed - as evidenced by the rather loud boos that were heard at both half and full-time.
Here are out player ratings from the game.
Hornicek - 5
Did everything asked barring the goal where I think he could have been a little more alert.
That’s probably a little harsh though given how free the header was.
Miley - 6
I actually thought Miley had a decent game but his glaring error which let Manzambi drift off his shoulder was ultimately the game decider.
Picked up creatively toward the back end of the game but there’s only so much you can do from right-back.
Botman - 4
Was very, very lucky not to be sent off.
Once again didn’t exactly fill me with confidence in possession and his only real moment of quality was yet another rasper of a shot that was well saved by Suzuki.
Thiaw - 5
Thiaw was the better of the two centre-backs and I do feel like he’s learning a bit more how to play those punchy passes through the lines that Jaissle wants from him.
Still a little shaky at the back but was left exposed way too often once again.
Hall - 7
How can it genuinely be possible that your left-back is your best player every single week without fail?
Hall must be getting sick now and, if this continues, I really can’t see a world where he wants to stick around for much longer despite that new contract.
Gonzalez - 6
It’s all well and good being the man asked to progress the ball, but if there simply isn’t any movement to allow him to do that job, what is he genuinely supposed to do?
The Spaniard has so much to offer, I just don’t see how he’s ever going to be able to show it in the current system.
Joelinton - 4
Was nice to have a bit of bite back, but Joelinton didn’t provide anywhere near the level of cover and structure that I thought he would.
How Nico was left all by himself as much as he was I’ll never know and there’s an argument he could have been left even more by himself with the amount of fouls the Brazilian committed.
Fernandez-Pardo - 6
Another lively display and the Belgian did look much more comfortable playing off the wing.
Didn’t have much to work with but never stopped running and did cause a few issues when he got on the ball.
Joe Willock - 3
He just didn’t really do anything.
His press was poor on multiple occasions and he never really showed any signs of impacting the game.
A waste of a spot, just play a midfield three for goodness sake.
Barnes - 4
Ineffective is probably the most pertinent word for Barnes’ performance today.
The winger struggled to ever really get going on the front foot but I thought he put in a decent shift defensively, including that excellent recovery when Villa looked certain to score in the first-half.
Wissa - 3
Oh, he was on the pitch was he?
For the most part you’d not even have noticed Wissa to be honest and then, when he did get involved, it mainly consisted of making entirely the wrong decision in the final third.
That shot where he should have played in Barnes was absolutely criminal.
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