Alan Shearer slammed Newcastle United’s ‘unacceptable’ performance in their 4-2 defeat to Brentford on Saturday and admits he is concerned over the team’s lack of energy under Eddie Howe.
Newcastle came from behind twice to pull level against Brentford with goals from Alexander Isak and Harvey Barnes. However, second-half goals from Nathan Collins and Kevin Schade sealed a deserved victory for Thomas Frank’s side.
The defeat leaves Newcastle 12th in the Premier League and Howe’s side have not registered a win in their last four games.
‘I don’t like the attitude of several of Newcastle players,’ Shearer said during his post-match analysis for BBC’s Match of the Day.
‘You can’t just turn up in the big home games, they drew with Liverpool, drew with [Manchester] City, they beat Spurs, they beat Chelsea, they beat Arsenal.
‘They were dreadful defensively, Thiago’s too strong and bullies Fabian Schar, I look at Lewis Hall with his hands behind his back, he’s not even in the box, how are you expected to twist and turn.
‘Harvey Barnes makes an error, okay it’s a really poor pass but look at the defending, Fabian Schar has got to engage at some point, he’s got to try to tackle him, Dan Burn’s trying to get back, he’s screaming to him [Schar] push him on the outside but he [Schar] never gets near him, he [Wissa] gets a free shot, you’ve got to at some stage tackle him.
‘This is worrying, because two years ago we were praising Newcastle all the time for their energy, for their closing down, for their pressing, there was none of it [against Brentford].
‘No one gets within five yards of any Brentford player, now all of a sudden they’re in Newcastle’s final third, still no one within five, 10 yards of anyone. That’s not good enough, that’s not acceptable, that’s why they got beaten today.’
When analysing Collins’ goal from Brentford, Shearer added: ‘This is laughable.
‘A long ball from the goalkeeper, Schar is nowhere near the ball, centre-half runs straight through.
‘From a Newcastle point of view defensively they are all over the place.
‘It worries me because I look at them and they’re lacking the energy we’re so used to seeing a year or two ago.’
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