OPINION
Newcastle United slumped to a 3-1 defeat courtesy of Nottingham Forest in the League Cup on Wednesday night and a few players clearly let their side down.
Rafa Benitez’s side should have been strong enough to beat the Championship club as it featured several senior players but that didn’t turn out to be the case.
The Magpies boss must now get back to the drawing board following this latest disappointment for his side as the managerial genius will now had to work out a way to deal with playing Manchester City on Saturday.
This is Futbol has delivered ratings for all the Newcastle players during
Goalkeeper and defence
Karl Darlow – 5- Nothing he could do to stop Forest’s opener but nearly conceding a sloppy goal in the early stages of the second half. However made up for it slightly in the 61st minute when he made an athletic save to stop Forest taking a 2-0 lead. The goalkeeper will be disappointed to have ended the night have conceded three.
Jamie Sterry – 6- Played a beautiful cross into the box in the 5th minute that Joselu and Muto should have made more of. The 22-year-old looked calm when asked to defend and his crossing ability was a joy to watch in the early stages of the game.
Fabian Schar – 5- Solid during the first half at least. The centre-back didn’t exactly have his hands full for most of the game but then didn’t do much to stop his side conceding two goals in quick succession.
Federico Fernandez – 6- Just like his central defensive partner Fernandez was comfortable with everything that came his way. However Fernandez also showed his desire to get on the scoresheet in the 35th minute as he did all he could to try to force Joselu’s header across the line.
Ciaran Clark – 2- Found himself playing left-back against Forest and went in an advance position, consistently wasted the opportunity to play good crosses into the box. The 6ft 1in defender (Source:Transfermarkt) needs to really work on his crossing ability if he ever wants to be deployed at left-back in the near future as frankly his display was a horror show because of his final ball, though his inability to be relied upon when defending was also a cause for concern.
Midfield
Christian Atsu – 5- The winger grew into the game and seemed way more comfortable playing Championship opposition than he ever has playing in the Premier League but still didn’t do enough. Atsu should have lapped up the opportunity to play Forest especially as he seemed to easily glide down the flank however should have made more of the space he was allowed.
Ki Sung-Yueng – 4 – Had a woeful attempt at goal and aside from that just quietly got on with his job of trying to dictate the tempo of the game and was barely noticed.
Sean Longstaff – 5- The 20-year-old is definitely one to watch but the midfielder would no doubt have hoped for a memorable outing. The promising talent looked comfortable on the ball and did play some neat passes but it hardly made him stick out.
Kenedy – 4- Appeared to not make much effort to stop Forest defender Sam Byram bypassing him in the opening minutes and this decision led to his side going a goal behind early on, however looked dangerous whenever in an advance position. Struggled when he dropped back in the defence for final stages of the game.
Attack
Yoshinori Muto – 4- Will feel frustrated with his performance as he did appear to be making the right runs but nothing was coming off for him. The attacker will need to significantly up his game when featuring in the Premier League as even when Forest afforded him space, he just couldn’t make the most of it.
Joselu – 6- Lovely flick-on to Muto early in the game and was his general hard-working self. The forward was so unlucky not to score on the 35 minute mark as he leapt above the Forest defence but his header went narrowly wide.
Substitutes
Ayoze Perez (On 68 minute for Fernandez) – 5 – His arrival didn’t have the desired effect it should have had when you consider his talent.
Jacob Murphy (Replaced Muto in 77th minute) – 5- Looked lively but needed more time to have any worthwhile impact.
Salomon Rondon (Replaced Joselu in 82nd minute) – 8- Scored and did all he could to help his side’s cause when you consider he was only on the pitch briefly.