Howe must drop Newcastle star 6/10 after Fulham

There were many late goals in the Premier League this Saturday, despite the absence of 3 p.m. kick-offs.

Newcastle United’s arch rivals Sunderland came from late to claim a 2-1 win at Chelsea, but moments before the Black Cats joined the late celebration, the Magpies had already scored a last-gasp effort of their own, courtesy of Bruno Guimaraes to get the better of Fulham by the same narrow scoreline.

The much-loved Brazilian would find himself in the right place at the right time to sneak past Bernd Leno, with various home side underachievers having their blushes spared by the Toon captain, once again, leading by example.

Newcastle underachievers against Fulham

The Tyneside giants almost let the game go when Sasa Lukic equalized early on 45 seconds, after Jacob Murphy’s opener should have put Newcastle on course for a comfortable three points.

With Sandro Tonali remaining on the substitutes’ bench, Howe pinned by Lewis Miley in the middle of the park, the number 67 having unfortunately remained silent throughout his 61-minute spell on the St James’ Park turf, as we see, he only managed to win one duel amassing a limited number of 36 touches of the ball.

Aside from the promising 19-year-old, other more experienced members of Howe’s squad, such as Sven Botman, also failed to put in their best performance for the Magpies in black and white, with no aerial duel being won by the usually stern number four, effectively allowing Lukic to score the away team’s equalizer.

Arguably even Nick Woltemade could have got away with it in the end, frustrated by his individual performance in front of goal, the typically red-hot German hitting the post after just four minutes from a well-worked Kieran Trippier free-kick.

Fortunately, Guimaraes had remembered to put his shooting boots away at the end, having also shone with his own golden opportunity, only this time in the second half.

Woltemade is unlikely to be cut, however, with his overall holding game making him an ideal teammate for Jacob Murphy and Anthony Gordon to bounce off. But one of the former Stuttgart striker’s established new teammates may not be so lucky…

Newcastle’s 6/10 star who needs to be dropped

Newcastle were expected to pick up three points at the end of their tight clash with Marco Silva’s challengers, with the potential for just two league wins from nine matches played making for very gloomy reading.

Dan Burn will be relieved not to have cost his team dearly on their own turf, with the centre-back colossus once again looking out of his comfort zone when deployed in a left-back role in the team.

Howe has had to resort to Burn being placed in this makeshift role due to the sidelining of Tino Livramento and Lewis Hall, but with talk now centered on whether they could both return in November, the 33-year-old’s days as a Toon starter here are surely numbered, which is only reinforced by his poor day at the office against the Cottagers.

While fellow Newcastle veteran Kieran Trippier, in the right channel, amassed two key passes and won six valiant duels, Burn – on the opposition left-hand side – was nonchalant with the ball at his feet once again, with possession given away on 19 occasions. Amazingly, against Arsenal in September, when Burn was again named as a substitute, he gave up the ball 26 times.

To make matters worse, the normally imposing 6ft 6in powerhouse would also win just 27% of his duels in the 2-1 win earlier today, with his performance still weak for Howe and Co. meaning he is surely on shaky ground when it comes to a starting space.

Burn may no longer even be able to force himself into Howe’s starting XI plans as a formidable centre-back, due to the emergence of Malick Thiaw, with Dominic Scurr of The Shields Gazette going out of his way to give the number 33 a low rating of 6/10 after the match, who said his overall display was marred by too many “ball-watching” opportunities.

Luckily he wasn’t the victim of a game-changing mistake against Fulham, but if Newcastle are to move back up the league table quickly, Howe will need to select what he thinks is his best possible XI at the moment, with a declining Burn perhaps not in those plans.