Newcastle United player ratings v Manchester City: ‘Nightmare’ 3/10 & Alexander Isak ‘struggling’
Dominic Scurr
4 – 5 minutes
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Manchester City 4-0 Newcastle United player ratings: Here’s how Alexander Isak, Sandro Tonali, Anthony Gordon and co fared.
Eddie Howe made two changes from Newcastle’s last Premier League match against Fulham a fortnight ago with Kieran Trippier coming in for Tino Livramento and Joe Willock replacing the injured Joelinton. There was also a triple injury boost from The Magpies’ previous match at Birmingham City in the FA Cup with Dan Burn recovering from a groin injury and Anthony Gordon coming straight back into the starting line-up after missing the trip to St Andrew’s.
Harvey Barnes returned on the bench after five weeks out with a thigh problem.
Newcastle hadn’t won a Premier League match at the Etihad Stadium and made things difficult for themselves on Saturday afternoon by going behind early on. With 19 minutes on the clock, City took the lead with Ederson’s long ball over the top getting the better of Trippier and allowing Omar Marmoush to break through and chip Martin Dubravka for his first goal for the club.
The Egyptian grabbed his and City’s second shortly after with an edge-of-the-box strike finding the bottom left corner. Marmoush then made it 3-0 with a hat-trick inside the space of 15 minutes.
That’s how the scoreline remained as the sides went in at half-time.
Newcastle were able to keep Man City at bay for the majority of the second half before substitute James McAtee turned in a fourth for the hosts following a corner.
Here are the player ratings from the match…
Martin Dubravka – 4
Did little other than pick the ball out of his net in the first half. Made a couple of comfortable saves in the second half.
Kieran Trippier – 3
Completely misjudged a long ball over the top which allowed Man City to open the scoring. Marmoush got the better of him shortly after to double City’s lead midway through the first half. A nightmare opening 45 and was hooked at half-time as a result.
Fabian Schar – 4
Unable to stop Man City whenever they got forward in the first half. Improved slightly in the second half but by that point the game was already gone.
Dan Burn – 5
Made a good challenge to stop Erling Haaland from a threatening position. Made another important block to deny a certain goal for Phil Foden from Haaland’s cut-back across goal. Was beaten to the ball by Haaland in the build-up to City’s fourth.
Lewis Hall – 4
Stood strong to stop Savinho from getting a shot away after breaking into the box but lacked the same conviction and decisiveness to deal with him at any point after that.
Sandro Tonali – 4
Was a spectator at times as Newcastle crumbled at the back. Caught out for City’s fourth as McAtee pounced at the back post.
Bruno Guimaraes – 4
Couldn’t stop Marmoush peeling away to net his hat-trick. Headed harmlessly over the bar and released Willock for an opportunity. Booked.
Joe Willock – 4
Tracked back well defensively on a couple of occasions but unable to make any impact or influence the game with the ball. Got the ball in a decent area at the end of the first half but lacked any conviction. Withdrawn at half-time.
Jacob Murphy – 4
Kept very quiet down the right side with only one blocked cross into the box causing any problems over the 90 minutes.
Anthony Gordon – 4
Got into a couple of dangerous areas but was often thwarted by the offside flag which made things easy for Rico Lewis.
Alexander Isak – 5
Had a good chance to pull a goal back but his effort deflected wide of the left post. Struggled to get involved otherwise and moved out to the left for the closing stages.
Substitutes
Lewis Miley – 6
On for Willock 46: Had a good chance to pull a goal back in the second half but shot straight at Ederson. The pick of Newcastle’s midfielders after a very low standard was set.
Tino Livramento – 5
On for Trippier 46: Improved things on the right side in the second half but it wasn’t enough.
On for Guimaraes 73: Came on for the closing stages with the game already over.
On for Gordon 73: Ran around but didn’t get a sniff.
On for Isak 90
