Newcastle's good form continued with an impressive home win against a lacklustre Liverpool. Whilst the game was only won by one goal, it was comfortable in the main and should have been two with Cabella wasting a one-on-one against Mignolet. However, in the end Pérez's snapshot won the game, after a marauding Sissoko exchanged a one-two with Dummett. The joy was somewhat hampered by a long-term injury to Obertan, who has been in the best form of his Newcastle career.
From such an assured performance the TFI is abundant with high scores. Our mug of the match Cissé, still rates as above average. Clearly still struggling with his knee injury, he only managed half a game, occasionally linking well with the midfield. Our man of the match was Abeid, carrying on from his assured performance from the League Cup in what was his first Premier League start, but he outperformed established players such as Henderson and Gerrard. Our defence was extremely solid in this game, averaging around 7.50, a marked improvement from the start of the season. In particular Paul Dummett was in great form, dealing with Sterling well and contributing to the goal with a strong run and pass.
Pardew received universal praise from our users. Tactically we were set up to frustrate a Liverpool side that is most dangerous on the break. Credit was also given for picking form players and dropping Gouffran.
[tfi]141101[/tfi]
(You can click on player names to go to their pages)
Krul - 6.91 Ratings ranged between 6.5 and 7
"Solid, reliable, trustworthy. All the words you want to describe a goalkeeper with."
"Didn't put a foot wrong. Had little to do mind. Made one top save even if the offside flag was up he wasn't to know."
"Kicking a little better, rarely called on apart from the 'offside' save which was brilliant."
Janmaat - 7.41 Ratings ranged between 7 and 8
"His best game for us, I think. Defended well and looked dangerous on the counter. Great hit on Balotelli for the yellow card should probably count against him
.""Gave him a half point more for that lovely tackle on Balotelli."
"Excellent, good attacking and link up play."
Taylor - 7.35 Ratings ranged between 6.5 and 8
"Didn't really have anything to do. Won pretty much every header, stupid booking though, why do that?"
"Covered everything that came at him. Don't blame him for the yellow as I don't remember him being booked for that before."
"Is it a coincidence that we've won every game since he's back into the side? Solid."
Coloccini - 7.68 Ratings ranged between 7 and 8
"Calm and composed when he needed to be. Defended well on the rare occasions we actually had to defend."
"Led from the back really well. A couple of rushed clearances but extremely solid."
"Made excellent tackles and interceptions, Old Colo is back."
Dummett - 7.85 Ratings ranged between 7 and 8.5
"What's happened here? looks a different player, amazing what a bit of confidence can do."
"Dealt with Sterling brilliantly. Any time he did slip up he showed great determination to recover. His attacking is improving too."
"Probably the best display I've put him on. I'm not even mad about that shot cos he had a fantastic game in pretty much all areas of the pitch."
Abeid - 8.28 Ratings ranged between 7.5 and 9
"Premier League Debut. After dealing with Yaya Toure on Wednesday, he repeated the trick. MOTM."
"Man of the match. Phenomenal performance. Did the dirty work, all the tackling, blocking and interceptions and also showed some glamour with some good passes and creative play. Best player on the pitch today. It was his Premier League debut as well. Bullied Gerrard, Henderson and Allen out of the game just like he bullied Yaya Toure out of it on Wednesday. He could very quickly become our keyest of key players."
"MOTM Brilliant all-action midfield display. Strong in the tackle, tenacious, positionally adept and good passing. Could turn out to be a top-class midfielder for us to in years to come."
Colback - 6.75 Ratings ranged between 5 and 9
"Better than normal. Got stuck in and his passing was more effective today."
"MOTM. I'm not Jack's biggest fan by any stretch but he was phenomenal today. You can see why he got an England call up based on performances like this. My mate who is a Liverpool fan said in the pub before the game that he thought Colback was better than Henderson and Allen and he was worried about what he would do to them, I laughed at him but it turns out he wasn't far wrong. Great performance."
"Solid little ginge is back made some excellent interceptions and was effortless in winning the ball back."
Obertan - 6.71 Ratings ranged between 6 and 7.5
":( Looked like he was going to pick up where he left off at City, so unlucky."
"Looked lively before he had to go off. Unfortunate to pick up and injury as he's found form."
"Looked dangerous before he went off, typical that he gets what looks like a bad injury just as he was coming into form. If someone had said to me 6 months ago that he would get that kind of reaction when going off injured I would have said they were crazy. What a turnaround, hope to see him back soon."
Sissoko - 8.09 Ratings ranged between 7 and 9
"Another quality performance. With so many new/young players in the side he's really impressed me with how he's taken responsibility and driven the team forward recently."
"Really excellent, as on Wednesday. Only loses out on MOTM because it was Abeid's debut."
"Very strong display. Worked hard, bustling n' hustlin effectively and 2nd best player after Abeid IMO. Should play further back he's not a attacking mid but still it worked out today so no complaints."
Ameobi - 6.03 Ratings ranged between 4 and 7.5
"Had a good first half but was too knackered by the second half. Lively once again though."
"Didn't really do a lot when he was on besides **** up attacks by falling over himself. Didn't help him that he was forced to the wrong wing so ended up cutting in all the time."
"Faded as the game went on. An off-day for him."
Cissé - 5.74 Ratings ranged between 3 and 7
"I thought his link-up play in the first half was superb, really enabled Obertan/Aarons, Sissoko and Sammy to run. Clearly lacking fitness though."
"Didn't really have much impact but to be fair he was extremely isolated."
"Clearly unfit, did well to last the 45 minutes."
Aarons - 6.71 Ratings ranged between 6 and 8
"A couple of decent moments, but understandably tired after midweek and return from injury."
"Lively at times although tired as the game went on. A good outlet though."
"Good turn of pace and gave Johnson a torrid time for a while. Faded."
Pérez - 7.79 Ratings ranged between 7 and 9
"Fantastic. Works tirelessly off the ball. Fully deserved his goal, it was a magnificent, instinctive, poachers finish. Liked up well with Cabella at time as well."
"Worked his socks off, was bullied off the ball too easily and doesn't look like he can be effective on his own up top but got another important goal and put Cabella in for what should have been a second."
"Crazy how composed he looks for someone so inexperienced."
Cabella - 7.03 Ratings ranged between 6 and 8
"He was great. So unlucky not to score, would have deserved a goal. He's getting better by the game and his link up play with Pérez is top class. They are forming a great partnership."
"I just like watching him showboat, regardless of whether it does a lot."
"Should have scored but still produced some flashes of his ability and looks like he's improving."
Pardew - 8.23 Ratings ranged between 7 and 9
"Another win, maybe he does know what hes doing. Great to see Abeid start, hopefully he can really break into the team. Would have rather see Sissoko play more as CM than AM but it worked anyway so can't really complain. Liverpool were f****** awful, don't know why they bothered to play 11 when they just wanted to piss around in defence for the whole match. What a boring team."
"It hurts me to say this, but I think he got pretty much everything right today. Especially dropping Gouffran."
"Top class team performance. Rodgers disgraced himself but Pardew stayed strong and didn't succumb to his games, allowing us to have a go. 1-0 massively flattered Liverpool and it was one of the most comfortable victories we've had in recent seasons."
"Back from the dead."
"The tactics were pretty boring but Pardew got them spot on - that's the most well drilled we've been defensively all season and we attacked with purpose. Losing Obertan was a massive blow as he looked like our best outlet on the break but we dealt with it well. Also, credit to him for finally dropping Gouffran and resisting the urge to bring him on instead of Aarons. Only gripe I would have is with Riviere being left out of the squad (I assume he was fit?) - Pérez may have scored the winner but having a striker that could hold the ball up in the second half would've helped a lot."