Newcastle United legend Alan Shearer has hit out at the state of the Magpies in a brutal assessment of the club for The Athletic ahead of this weekend's clash with Leicester City.
Writing in his column, the Premier League all-time top goalscorer compared Newcastle's current state to that of the club during the latter stages of controversial owner Mike Ashley's tenure.
The Geordie club have had a mixed start to the season, currently sitting in a disappointing 12th place in the league with five wins, five draws, and five losses.
They have pulled off some impressive results so far this season under Eddie Howe with victories over Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur and draws with leaders Liverpool and champions Manchester City. Those have been cancelled out, though, with defeats coming at the hands of teams they have been expected to beat in recent times like West Ham United, Brentford, and Fulham.
The inconsistency of the club gives Leicester a real chance of taking some points home from St James's Park on Saturday as they travel up to Tyneside.
"Newcastle United are drifting," begins Shearer.
"As a team, they’ve gone stale and as a club, they’ve stalled, robbing them of the extraordinary momentum that was fuel for a couple of years.
"It does feel like the great, post-takeover “project” has reached a crossroads.
"Drift, stale, stalled; those words were synonymous with the tail-end of Mike Ashley’s ownership. Twelfth in the Premier League was Newcastle’s finishing position in 2020-21, the last full season before Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) controversially bought the club and promised to make them “number one” and it is where they sit now.
"On the pitch, it feels like a huge spell of games are approaching for Eddie Howe and his players, who have put themselves bang under pressure with some poor results. Inconsistency is rife across a tight division, but big players do not perform as brilliantly as Newcastle did in their 3-3 draw with Liverpool and then so dreadfully as they did in losing 4-2 at Brentford. I sincerely hope there has been some soul-searching in the dressing room this week."
According to the former England international, the Foxes are the first team to face of that crucial run for Howe's men.
Ruud van Nistelrooy's side are 16th in the Premier League as things stand, five points ahead of the drop zone. It could well be argued that the East Midlands team have contributed to the 'rife' inconsistency across the league at times, recently losing 4-1 to Brentford before turning West Ham over 3-1 less than a week later (albeit there was a new man in charge for the Hammers win).
The Newcastle game seems as though it is arriving at a good time, with the Foxes hot off the back off a two-goal comeback draw against Brighton and Hove Albion and the West Ham game prior. In addition, their weekend hosts have most recently collapsed against Brentford in a 4-2 defeat.
"Rewind 18 months and Newcastle had their supporters on the edge of their seats because they were so horrible to play against," remembers Shearer.
"For so long, they had been soft touches, but now they were as fit and ferocious as dogs, constantly pressing, constantly at it, running hard, winning every tackle. That commitment was unquestioned and it was collective. When one pressed, they all pressed.
"Individual mistakes littered the Brentford game, but the biggest worry was how Newcastle pressed in ones and twos. There was hesitancy.
"Not for the first time in recent weeks, this felt like a problem of mentality."
That mentality could be something that van Nistelrooy looks to pounce upon, with his team demonstrating perseverance and tenacity in both their Hammers win and Seagulls draw, and if the Foxes can hit at the Magpies on the break or pin them back for a brief moment, they may well be there for the taking.
In his column, Shearer backed Newcastle manager Howe, explaining that the problem is he needs help rather the ex-Bournemouth boss not being good enough.
The Magpies struggled to use the summer transfer window effectively as they were forced to sell early and subsequently lingered too long on certain options. Elliot Anderson and Yankuba Minteh departed at the end of June in order to meet PSR regulations and then Newcastle were unable to pry Marc Guehi away from Crystal Palace before the end of the window.
PSR trouble is something that Leicester are all too familiar with. Threatened with a points deduction, the Foxes managed to fight back against the Premier League and win their appeal, avoiding any punishment.
""By standing still in the transfer market, they are overtaken," Shearer goes on to explain. "They are easier to work out by the opposition. Yes, there are fewer fitness concerns, but there is less in the way of competition and without the help of incomings, Howe has to conjure something from what he already has. Players who could and should have been moved on are still there. Stagnation is the risk, a marginal dropping off of percentages."
Saturday promises to be an exciting match-up. Two sides who are contrasting yet can relate to each other's struggles meet each other with more than just on-field concerns making headlines prior to kick off.
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