Newcastle United were thrashed 4-0 at the Etihad Stadium as Manchester City’s £59m winter signing Omar Marmoush bagged a first-half hat-trick.
While City have been out of sorts this term, they showcased some of their old flair and guile against Eddie Howe’s outfit, who slump to seventh in the Premier League standings, nursing a third defeat in four top-flight matches.
The error-strewn display has served as a reality check of sorts. Howe has plenty of work to do in order to restore United’s Champions League pedigree and prepare for a Carabao Cup final against Liverpool.
One thing that Howe will need to do at Wembley – and over the coming months in the league – is get the team selection right. He definitely didn’t against Pep Guardiola’s side.
Howe gets it wrong
Howe is an expert tactician, crafting a system that has bore dividends for Newcastle over the past few seasons. However, Pep seems to have his number and proved this with a comprehensive win over the Magpies.
One of the most peculiar decisions was to keep Kieran Trippier in the starting 11 in lieu of Tino Livramento, who has his place to the 34-year-old after his clean sheet display against Arsenal in the Carabao Cup.
He lost both of his duels, as per Sofascore, and failed to contain a Man City side that played with gusto and enthusiasm and, most importantly, confidence. The shift when Livramento came on at the interval wasn’t significant, but the younger man’s energy and crispness in the tackle – winning both of his duels – did make a big difference in reducing the hosts’ threat.
Newcastle didn’t hit their rhythm, instead playing to City’s strengths and continuing a miserable and abiding run against them: Newcastle have only beaten City once in the Premier League since the 2005/06 season.
Trippier’s right-back berth didn’t help things, but his opposite number at left-back, Lewis Hall, should be incredibly frustrated with his meek showing.
Howe must boldly drop Lewis Hall
Trippier was pretty bad, and it was a questionable decision to place him in the starting line-up with Livramento’s athleticism more suited to the rigorous test. However, Hall should have done far better against Man City.
The 20-year-old was described as “the best left-back in the country” by correspondent Dominic Scurr earlier in the campaign but showed little sign of authority as he was steamrolled by the energetic Savinho.
As is the nature of social media, Hall will be rebuked for his performance in Manchester, and while he was indeed poor, there’s little question that he’s one of the most talented young players in the Premier League.
However, he’ll be dismayed that his efforts against the four-in-a-row champions didn’t reflect that.
The Northern Echo’s Scott Wilson was particularly scalding in his post-match comments, noting that the deservedly-hooked Trippier was culpable for a ‘dreadful error’ in the build-up to Marmoush’s opening strike, but that Hall wasn’t much better.
In fact, Hall wasn’t any better. Also branded with a 3/10 match rating, Wilson said this of Hall’s performance: ‘His defensive limitations were repeatedly exposed by Savinho – especially poor for City’s third goal.’
It wasn’t all doom and gloom. City’s relentless attacking called the full-back into making seven tackles, also winning eight of his 11 duels on the afternoon, as per Sofascore. However, such metrics don’t paint the full picture, with reporter Adam Clery making a candid statement on the woeful effort.
The FourFourTwo journalist said: “Lewis Hall’s been outstanding this season, but he’s currently putting in one of the single worst defensive performances I’ve seen in a long time. Backing off all the way into his own box and then still getting ran past. He looks like he’s 36.”
BBC Sport pundit Chris Sutton also chipped in on the criticism, singling Hall out and commenting that he looked “absolutely petrified of Savinho,” going on to say that the English defender couldn’t “cope” with the intensity and fleet-footedness of his adversary.
23/02/25
Premier League
Nott’m Forest (H)
26/02/25
Premier League
Liverpool (A)
02/03/25
FA Cup
Brighton (H)
10/03/25
Premier League
West Ham (A)
16/03/25
Carabao Cup
Liverpool (N)
Newcastle will brush themselves off after this setback – especially with a crucial run of games coming up – but the likes of Hall will use this as a brutal reality check, one that might prompt Howe to make a bold intervention and place maybe Dan Burn or even Matt Targett at left-back for next weekend’s crucial contest against third-place Nottingham Forest at St. James’ Park.
Forest are no joke but the business period of the campaign will hit United like a freight train, with a trip to Anfield coming just three days after the clash against Nuno Espirito Santo’s men.
Newcastle actually won 49% of the duels on the day, also coming out with a 62% tackle success rate compared to Man City’s 50% win rate.
The difference is that the Sky Blues were incisive and pounced on the mistake-filled and unconvincing individual efforts of the Magpies.
The consensus at full-time was that Newcastle were uncharacteristically passive, lacking their usual bite and synergy – especially in the middle of the park.
The likes of Hall will be dejected after such a poor outing, but there’s still everything to play for over on Tyneside, and Newcastle have proved time and time again their powers of recovery and ability to weather the storm and come out on top.
It’s clear that Livramento should take his berth back from the ageing Trippier on the right, and while Hall’s got a big future ahead of him and has been an integral cog in the Howe machine this year, he hasn’t been named as a substitute since September, and a tweak may be worthwhile in the short term.
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