Newcastle United headed to AFC Bournemouth on Sunday in Premier League action still bruised from their narrow 2-1 defeat in the Champions League at the hands of Barcelona.

With such a quick turnaround since Thursday’s defeat, too, Eddie Howe had to make five alterations to his starting XI for the trip to the Cherries, with none of these fresh alterations coming in to guide the Toon to a much-needed win, unfortunately.

Instead, the much-changed Magpies would unconvincingly stumble to a 0-0 draw on the road, with Joe Willock, in particular, not banging the door down for more first-team minutes going forward, based on his poor display.

Willock's no-show vs Bournemouth

In truth, it was a flat performance all over the pitch from Howe’s visitors, with only a weak four shots registered all match by the Toon, during the drab stalemate.

Worryingly, Willock showed no sign of being energetic throughout, despite the ex-Arsenal man being handed his first Premier League start of the season, as Howe made all those changes.

The vibrant livewire that once netted eight goals from just 13 league starts during the 2020/21 season is now long gone, with Willock actually managing to register fewer touches of the ball than Nick Pope in between the sticks, as a forgettable 32 touches of the ball were tallied up across his hour or so on the pitch, next to Pope’s 42, per Sofascore.

With just 12 accurate passes notched up from the middle of the park, too, it’s no great shock that the heavily rotated Newcastle that took to the pitch looked so limp in attack when there was a complete lack of creative flair coming from the declining 26-year-old.

Of course, the attackers fielded by Howe also need to take their portion of the blame after firing blanks throughout on the South Coast, as another underperforming member of the concerned manager’s starting XI worries about his first-team minutes moving forward.

The Newcastle flop who should be dropped

It was a tough day at the office for the Newcastle forward players, but Jacob Murphy did manage to show some flashes of his quality here and there.

In all fairness, the long-standing Magpies servant looked somewhat bright for his hour run-out against Andoni Iraola’s stern hosts, with Murphy at least coming away from the bore draw with a shot on target registered, on top of also completing a dribble when trying to catch out the Cherries defence.

It would, however, be one of Murphy’s attacking partners for the day in Nick Woltemade, who would notably struggle throughout, despite plenty of praise coming the ex-Stuttgart centre-forward’s way before the match got underway.

After all, it’s not as if the 6 foot 6 monster has the pressure of attempting to break his Magpies duck weighing down on him, with a debut goal coming his way in the Premier League versus Wolverhampton Wanderers when he graced the St James’ Park turf.

Minutes played

84

Goals scored

0

Assists

0

Touches

37

Shots

0

Accurate passes

12/18 (67%)

Possession lost

19x

Total duels won

4/14

Yet, away from grappling well in one instance when having his shirt pulled by a Bournemouth man for a potential penalty, it was very much a forgettable second outing for Woltemade in the top-flight, as is illustrated in the table above.

It will all centre on the mountain man trying to find some consistency moving forward, with his shooting boots presumably forgetting to be packed for the long journey down to the South Coast, as Woltemade failed to register a single meaningful shot at the home side’s goal.

Even more concerningly, the below-par number 27 also struggled to put his towering frame to good use, with only four of his 14 duels being successfully won, per Sofascore.

Willock, at least, came away from his shoddy showing with six duels won under his belt, with Woltemade also losing possession 19 times, while his midfield teammate gave up the ball just nine times. Despite all these worrying numbers, the German would be handed a 6/10 post-match rating by Newcastle World’s Jordan Cronin, although Cronin did state that his performance “dipped” in the second 45 minutes.

After ringing the changes to try and freshen his side up did not work, it could well be that Howe reverts to what he knows more for Newcastle’s upcoming contest in the league against Arsenal, with Willock at risk of being dropped against his former side, alongside Woltemade potentially sitting the clash out back on home soil.