Player Ratings - Newcastle (H)

Ryan - 7

Bruno - 6
Dunk - 7
Duffy - 8
Suttner - 7

Knockaert - 7
Stephens - 6
Propper - 7
March - 7

Gross - 6

Hemed - 7

Ryan 7.5 - growing in confidence and excellent distribution

Bruno 7
Suttner 7
Dunk 8
Duffy 8

Knockaert 6 Very disappointing, it's NOT all about you Knocky!
March 8
Propper 7.5 Getting better with each game
Stephens 7

Gross 7 Run at them!

Hemed 8.5

Ryan 8 Did nothing wrong
Sutner 7 Good game Would like to have seen him closer to wide player in last 20 but sure is managers instructions
Dunk 8 Very good apart from one poor pass
Duffy 8 Very good
Bruno 7 Good game apart from few poor passes. Others may be critical because he gets caught upfield but it is then up to others to cover. We are at home and we need him to attack
Propper 7 Always involved and getting better every game.
Gross 7 Good game. Volleyed pass out wide to Knockhaert was pass of game.
Stevens 8 Top of his game and always available to receive ball
Knockhaert 7 Great first 20 mins and did lots of good work rest of game. I would have taken him off 10/15 mins earlier prob after when he lost ball in attacking position and didnt chase back. Still the first player you want to have ball in attack
Hemed 8 Am one of his critics but his 2nd half was a 9/10 performance
March 7 Lots of praise here this season however think his biggest improvement is fantastic defensive work. Always thought very one footed so pleased to see him get in a very good cross with right foot. He can cause havoc when going past full back just dont understand why when 0ne to one he doesnt try it more

Sub With what Murphy did in last 15mis manager proved got it spot on

Ryan - 7.5. looking much more reliable and very good save in the first. Still prefer Stockdale but he's getting there.
Bruno - 7 - when in defensive he is a rock. When up front. he's very dangerous. When the opposition gets behind him he is a liability because he doesn't have the legs anymore.
Suttner - 7.5 - good game and looks dangerous going forward.
Duffy- 8- safer today, no brain freezes. When on form he is a colossus.
Dunk 7.5. - one or two brain freezes but otherwise fantastic.
Propper - 7.5 - you just don't notice him but now hardly put a foot wrong. Think would be even better if we had a real def mid who could free him up.
Stephens - 7 - OK. Good game but not sure he should be first choice. He doesn't free up anyone and sometimes goes out to lunch.
March - 9 - mom. Hardly a foot wrong and deserved a goal.
Knocky - 6 - very bitty and faded away after some really good runs. This isn't as easy as the champ.
Gross- 7.5. Quieter game but hassled and hassled and creates. My worry is his speed. We have no speed in the middle.
Hemed 8.5 - did everything that he can do. He isn't really a premiership player but there are players like him who have done well at this level. Hope it continues.

Houghton - yes he worries me but I think we are getting better each game and today i think he got the tactics right. I would have taken off Bruno at half time to stop Atsu and I would have been wrong.

17th is still the target but I believe on this performance we are going to do it!

Collated ratings sheet updated (here) with Newcastle ratings - up to and including bhawoddy ratings - apologies to anyone who's not included.

Your joint man-of-the-match is Solly March and Tomer Hemed with 8.15. Shane Duffy third with 7.78.

Worst performer Anthony Knockaert with 6.28.

Seagull27 said:

Gross 7.5 - he gets everywhere. Great delivery for the goal.

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What was our formation yesterday '4-4-1 plus Gross'? He seemed to pop up on both wings, down the middle - everywhere really. I like him.

Can I just quickly deal with the criticism of Suttner for not getting forward enough, and the criticism of Bruno for getting caught too far forward.

These are connected! FFS!
Hughton is never going to have both full backs bombing on. (Maybe 5mins to go chasing equaliser). He knows how Bruno plays so Suttner is instructed to play accordingly.

Ryan 7 Very Assured performance
Bruno 7 Good to see him Back
Duffy 7 Good performance
Dunk 7 As per Duffy
Suttner 7 Best performance so far
Knockhaert 6 Still not reached his best yet
Stephens 8 Another great performance MOM
Propper 7.5 Worked very hard with Stephens to form the basis of our win
March 7 Impressive in spells but need to take the full back on more
Gross 7 Not so influential as he has been but covered a lot of the pitch
Hemed 7 Took the goal well but a little immobile.

Ryan 8 -- that save was something else, made everything else look simple thereafter, distribution mostly very good
Bruno 6.5
Duffy 8 -- strong in the air
Dunk 8 -- body on the line performance, which makes up for the odd misplaced pass
Suttner 6.5 -- solid enough, but I didn't see too much to rave about, including defensive work
Knockaert 6 -- it'll come
Stephens 7
Pröpper 8 -- strong in the tackle, solid in formation, uses the ball well
March 8.5 -- PL quality, what's so impressive is that he's worked on aspects of his game that he was less good at, and looks quite a player; very strong now on the ball
Groß 7 - one outrageous pass to Knockaert in the move that set up Solly's off-the-line finish, good corners, clinical set-piece, and staggering distance covered, although not everything came off for him today
Hemed 9 MotM -- has really stepped up to the plate; won more-or-less everything in the air, some brilliant hold-up play featuring some stunning control, and cool finish

Murphy n/a
Crowd very impressive

Petee said:

Knockaert 5

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That's ridiculous. At the time I thought he had a decent game, and having watching the full match again, I'm sure he did. His rugby tackle was of course a little embarrassing, but it meant nothing overall. He ran at Newcastle and beat his man most times, as well as finding his target most times. He also tracked back and defended. He did look like he'd run himself into the ground, so I was glad he was subbed, but I thought he had a good game.

Wardy's twin said:

Contrast Bruno with Suttner and then you will see why Bruno gets higher ratings. His work with AK is great, they interchange and cover each other and AK is always looking for Bruno to overlap. This only leaves us exposed if no one drops back to cover. Bruno delivered one of the best crosses which March nearly converted. We apply a lot of pressure from that side of the pitch. Don't get me wrong, no issues with Suttner as a defender but he plays too deep and March does an awful lot of his work.Maybe this partnership will develop overtime.

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But problem with Bruno getting forward too often is that he's so slow getting back into position, Bruno and Knocky work well going forward but both leave us completely exposed down that flank. I don't mind FBs going forward but yesterday I thought Bruno was too eager, made the wrong decisions and left us exposed on multiple occasions in the first half

I guess it comes down to how well organised we are. I would say his coming forward produced the best cross of the game which with a little bit of luck would have made it 2-0 and then the last 15 minutes would have been less frentic... Also my criticism of the team in first 2-3 games was that we were n't ambitious enough. Leicester were there for the taking and so were Watford. I guess we all see the game differently .

Ryan 8 - thought he was very good when called upon with a standout save early on in the match. I'm particularly impressed with how he's dealing with high balls and crosses - looks very comfortable now.
Bruno 7 - a mixed bag. Excellent at times, but at others he seemed slow to the ball and misplaced simple passes.
Duffy 8 - one really bad free header which put us under unneeded pressure in the first half, I thought he was very good. The better of the two centre backs for the first time this season and less mistakes, which is positive.
Dunk 6 - probably the worst game he's had in a while. His passing wasn't quite at his usual standard, he got caught out for their striker's chance in the first half, and he had a 5-10 minute period in the second half where he seemed to lose his head a bit. Still looks comfortable at this level though.
Suttner 8 - his best game so far. Attacked well, defended well, which is all you can ask.
Knockaert 6 - it's telling that his most promising moments came when dribbling through the centre of the pitch in the first half. Doesn't quite look on it at the moment though, and his booking was idiotic. Looks far too restricted at present, but conversely he's also trying to beat too many men like he's still in the Championship. Filed under "needs to improve".
Stephens 8 - I'm marking him up because he got an assist, and what he did well, he did very very well. Unfortunately there are still moments where he's losing the ball in silly areas which are putting us under unnecessary pressure.
Propper 8 - I thought he matched them well in CM, especially considering their young no.23 was as good as he was.
March 8 - MOTM for me. Put in some excellent crosses that deserved much better movement from the forward players, worked hard defensively and was a constant outlet. Genuinely pleased with how well he's progressing.
Gross 7 - a good ball for the goal and did some things excellently. Is still trying too many flicks and tricks in areas that aren't going to hurt opposition teams. Still, if this is him on a slightly poorer day, then we have a real player on our hands.
Hemed 8 - Like Stephens, I'm marking him up for the goal. Overall, he had a really poor first half, but a much improved second, particularly after the goal. His hold up play is getting better too, which is positive, and he's also excellent in defensive situations i.e. corners. I just wish he'd show better anticipation when crosses are coming in or when balls are being flicked on, as he's too static at times which makes it too easy for the opposition. Still, he got the winner and he did some things very well, so positive overall. I still don't think that was a stamp either.

Murphy 7 - came on to do a job and did it to the standard needed.

Triggaaar said:

That's ridiculous. At the time I thought he had a decent game, and having watching the full match again, I'm sure he did. His rugby tackle was of course a little embarrassing, but it meant nothing overall. He ran at Newcastle and beat his man most times, as well as finding his target most times. He also tracked back and defended. He did look like he'd run himself into the ground, so I was glad he was subbed, but I thought he had a good game.

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I pretty much agree with this. Knockaert really puts in a shift, and I can't think of any other player we have that puts in the number of intensive sprints as he does in a game (Firminho is the role model for this in the PL). But this leads to the question: is he dedicating these intensive sprints too much towards pressing/gegen-pressing, ie in the opposition half, rather than to tracking back to support his right back? I suspect this might be the case, and this illustrates that those who accuse him of laziness are wrong, but are on to something in not providing consistent enough support.

Machiavelli said:

I pretty much agree with this. Knockaert really puts in a shift, and I can't think of any other player we have that puts in the number of intensive sprints as he does in a game

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I agree with most of your post but I think Gross has (statistically) the most sprints.

He did before Sunday anyway.

LlcoolJ said:

I agree with most of your post but I think Gross has (statistically) the most sprints.

He did before Sunday anyway.

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I may well be being harsh but Gross and sprints don't seem to go well together. I characterise him as a distance runner, rather than a sprinter, and he certainly travels the most distance as the stats bear out, but never at breakneck speed. Gross is a delightful player but I suspect the reason why he wasn't picked up by 'bigger' clubs or earlier is because he lacks pace. Pace is a close to essential quality in current top players, but Gross may well be the player that illustrates that it can be overrated -- and that's because he has so good at so many of the other 'close to essential' qualities.