Newcastle United’s defending – once again – leaves an awful lot be desired.
Eddie Howe warned upon the conclusion of last season at Brentford that Newcastle had “issues” to fix defensively.
Back in west London on Saturday, it seemed as if there had been absolutely no progress made on that front.
Newcastle were absolutely dreadful defensively. Now, Brentford are a fantastic team at home and deserve credit for their victory.
Still, there are ways to lose games and the defending from a Newcastle perspective was absolutely shocking.
Indeed, even Bruno Guimaraes slammed the performance as a “mess”, while the Newcastle United manager questioned the attitude of some of his players.
Howe claimed his side would “cringe” at watching their defending back, while club legend Alan Shearer was equally as critical.
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Shearer described Newcastle’s display as “hopeless” before going on to echo Howe in questioning the application of some of the players.
While it was undoubtedly a collective failing, the Newcastle United legend was particularly unhappy with one Fabian Schar.
Alan Shearer slams “laughable” defending from Newcastle star
Speaking on Match of the Day and dissecting the four goals Brentford put past Newcastle, Shearer seemed particularly unhappy with the Swiss international.
Newcastle United Players and Staff seen L-R First Team Coach Simon Weatherstone, Miguel Almirón, Jacob Murphy, Harvey Barnes, Fabian Schär, Joeli...
Photo by Serena Taylor/Newcastle United via Getty Images
He believes Schar was bullied by Bees striker Igor Thiago in the build-up to the first goal, saying: “They were dreadful defensively, Thiago’s too strong and bullies Fabian Schar.”
Going on to describe the third goal when Nathan Collins nodded in unmarked from a free-kick, Shearer added: “This is laughable, a long ball from the goalkeeper from a free-kick, Fabian Schar is nowhere near the ball and a centre-half runs straight through, a long ball up.”
The good and the bad of Fabian Schar emerges for Newcastle
Schar, on his day, is absolutely brilliant but they are the kind of mistakes we saw during the early years of his Newcastle career.
Few can doubt his quality when he’s at his very best and the fact he’s a goal threat is also worthy of praise, particularly when pulling off a great finish against Liverpool only a few days ago.
To blame him alone for the defeat would of course be too much but it is a reminder that Newcastle could do with strengthening at the back.
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