There was a flurry of late goals in the Premier League this Saturday, despite the lack of 3pm kick-offs.
Newcastle United’s arch rivals in Sunderland left it late to snatch a 2-1 win at Chelsea, but moments before the Black Cats joined in on the late party, the Magpies had already thundered home a last-gasp effort of their own courtesy of Bruno Guimaraes to get the better of Fulham by the same tight scoreline.
The beloved Brazilian would find himself in the right place at the right time to sneak an effort home past Bernd Leno, with various underperformers for the home side having their blushes spared by the Toon captain, once again, leading by example.
Newcastle underperformers vs Fulham
The Tyneside giants very nearly let the game unravel when Sasa Lukic equalised early into the second 45 minutes, after Jacob Murphy’s opener should have set Newcastle on their way to a comfortable three points.
With Sandro Tonali remaining on the substitutes bench, Howe stuck by Lewis Miley in the middle of the park, with the number 67 unfortunately quiet throughout his 61-minute spell on the St James’ Park turf, as seen in him only managed to win one duel when amassing a limited 36 touches of the ball.
Away from the promising 19-year-old, other more senior members of Howe’s team, such as Sven Botman, also didn’t have their best display in Magpies black and white, with zero aerial duels being won by the usually stern number four, actually resulting in Lukic bundling home the away side’s equaliser.
Arguably, even Nick Woltemade might well have trudged off at the end, frustrated with his individual display in front of goal, with the typically red-hot German somehow smacking the post after just four minutes from a well-worked Kieran Trippier free-kick.
Thankfully, Guimaraes had remembered to pack his shooting boots right at the end, after also blazing over his own gilt-edge chance, only this time in the second half.
Woltemade is unlikely to be axed, though, with his general hold-play making him an ideal teammate for the likes of Jacob Murphy and Anthony Gordon to bounce off of. But, one of the ex-Stuttgart striker’s new, well-established teammates might not be so lucky…
The 6/10 Newcastle star who must be dropped
Newcastle needed to pick up three points come the end of their tight clash with Marco Silva’s challengers, with the potential of just two league wins being on the board from nine matches played, making for very grim reading.
Dan Burn will be relieved he didn’t cost his team dear on their own patch, with the centre-back colossus once again looking out of his comfort zone when deployed to a left-back spot in the team.
Minutes played
90
Goals scored
0
Assists
0
Touches
55
Accurate passes
24/35 (69%)
Accurate long balls
1/5
Possession lost
19x
Total duels won
3/11
Howe has had to resort to Burn being placed in this makeshift role owing to both Tino Livramento and Lewis Hall being sidelined, but with talk now centring on the fact they could both return come November, the 33-year-old’s days as the Toon’s starter here are surely numbered, which is only reinforced by his shoddy day at the office against the Cottagers.
While his fellow Newcastle veteran in Kieran Trippier, down the right channel, was amassing two key passes and winning a valiant six duels, Burn – on the opposing left-hand side – was lackadaisical with the ball at his feet once more, with possession relinquished a costly 19 times. Staggeringly, against Arsenal back in September, when Burn was trusted as a stand-in again, he gave up the ball a weighty 26 times.
To make matters worse, the normally imposing 6-foot-6 powerhouse would also only win a measly 27% of his duels during the 2-1 win earlier today, with his continued weak displays for Howe and Co. meaning he is surely on shaky ground regarding a starting space.
Burn might not even be able to push into Howe’s starting XI plans as a formidable centre-back anymore, owing to the emergence of Malick Thiaw, with The Shields Gazette’s Dominic Scurr going out of his way to hand the number 33 a low 6/10 rating post-match, who stated that his overall display was marred by too many occasions of ‘ball-watching’.
Thankfully, he didn’t fall victim to a game-altering blunder against Fulham, but if Newcastle wants to rise up the league standings quickly, Howe will have to select what he believes to be his best possible XI in the moment, with a declining Burn perhaps not in those plans.