Alan Shearer believes Ipswich Town were 'naive' in their approach against Newcastle United
Alan Shearer believes Ipswich Town were 'naive' in their approach against Newcastle United
BBC pundit Alan Shearer labelled Ipswich Town 'naive' after Newcastle United came away from Portman Road with a comprehensive win on Saturday.
The Magpies' secured an impressive 4-0 win with striker Alexander Isak scoring a hat-trick. It signalled a third win in the week to go along with successes against Leicester City and Brentford in the Carabao Cup.
Newcastle legend Shearer appeared on BBC's Match of the Day last night to give his analysis on the Premier League fixture. He spoke glowingly about Bruno Guimaraes and Sandro Tonali's midfield partnership.
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“In recent games, what he has done is he’s put Tonali in the six role and Bruno Guimaraes a little bit further forward and it’s given him a little more freedom to get into forward positions, and it has certainly helped both of the players and more importantly the team.
“I think he feels more important in that role Tonali and I think he’s a better player. A lot of the time when he gets the ball within one or two touches he likes and wants to play the ball forward. He has to do his work defensively as well.
“The understanding of both of them in their roles was absolutely superb. The little tweaks have helped players but most importantly helped the team. They were very, very good. Isak and Murphy had great games as well.”
The former England striker also commented on the tactical battle between the two teams. Shearer believed a lot of Newcastle's success came down Ipswich's left side against full-back Leif Davis.
"It was down Newcastle's right-hand side, Ipswich's left-hand side," Shearer said. "From kick-off, 20 seconds into the game. I think at times, [Ipswich] were very, very naive, in terms of width because Newcastle picked them off so many times.
"One ball over the top and that was a constant, I think. That was certainly an area where Newcastle thought, 'If he's going to do that, Leif Davis, then we'll punish them'.
"Newcastle punished Ipswich down that side so many times. They could've scored another two or three goals."
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