Speaking ahead of tonight’s clash against Liverpool at St James’ Park, Alan Shearer has called on a host of Newcastle players to start chipping in with goals after a ‘toothless’ display against Crystal Palace on Saturday.
Following an early injury to Alexander Isak, Eddie Howe opted to bring on Harvey Barnes instead of fit-again striker Callum Wilson; a move that didn’t really work as we went on to have zero shots on target.
We carried no threat without top scorer Isak and Shearer feels it’s time for others to step up, believing the likes of Gordon, Barnes, Joelinton and Willock have to start scoring more goals after the team has managed less than half the number of goals scored at this stage last season.
As he also points out on the latest Rest Is Football podcast, Shearer feels we’ve also lost that ‘energy and pressing’ that made us so tough to play against in previous season under Eddie Howe, describing our decline as “pretty worrying.”
Alan Shearer’s message
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“I am \[concerned\], yeah,” Shearer said. “Because what have they got? Well, I think they’ve got 14 goals they’ve scored in 13 games. Three of them were away to Forest.”
“Last year or maybe the year before, so many times we spoke about Newcastle, their energy, their pressing, how they got after you. And I don’t see a lot of that. It’s pretty worrying, particularly in the final third.
“I mean, Isak went off injured. He chose not to put Wilson on at that time. He brought him on with about 15, 20 minutes to go. And other players have to start and score goals. Gordon has to score more. Barnes has to score more. Joelinton has to. Willock has to. Isak has four or five in the league this season.
“I hope he’s not too badly injured and can play on Wednesday against Liverpool. So, yeah, it’s definitely concerning, absolutely. And like Aston Villa, Newcastle, I think, in the bottom half, maybe 11th or 12th in the league. So, yeah, not great from Newcastle. They have to improve.”
It’s a big night for Newcastle who have been poor in the last two games, but a win against the leaders could turn things around and potentially shoot us up the league to just a point off of fourth.