Alan Shearer singled out Dan Burn, Allan Saint-Maximin, Jonjoe Shelvey and Matt Targett after Newcastle United were thrashed 5-1 by Tottenham on Sunday, as he told Premier League Productions (03/04/22 at 6:45 pm).
The Magpies legend pointed out that Burn is ‘really struggling’, Newcastle’s French flyer ‘didn’t give anything, he didn’t understand why Shelvey was pushed into a back three and Targett ‘wasn’t strong’ against Spurs.
Fabian Schar became the second defender on Sunday to score from a free-kick after Aaron Cresswell did so for West Ham during their win against Everton hours earlier on Sunday.
At that time, everything was rosy in the garden for Eddie Howe’s side, even when Tottenham pegged them back before the break.
But, in the second half, the Newcastle of Steve Bruce’s era turned up against a Spurs team from the Mauricio Pochettino reign, as Shearer didn’t like what he saw.
“Dan Burn, who has had a lot of praise and rightly so during the early part of his Newcastle career,” said Shearer. “He has really struggled in the last 2-3 games.
“He has struggled massively in that second half. But he wasn’t the only one.
“Saint-Maximin didn’t give anything. For some reason, they put Jonjo Shelvey as a third centre-half, which I didn’t really understand. Targett was not good enough or strong enough.
“They were all over the place. We can go through every single member of the Newcastle team and criticise.”
This is perhaps the reality check Newcastle needed because they have been riding a wave in recent months.
Come the end of the season, this result and capitulation will all be forgotten about because they will still be a Premier League team.
It wasn’t so long ago that they couldn’t win a game for love nor money, with Mike Ashley and Bruce in charge of their ship.
Now there is a different feel across the city, although, that second-half performance still wasn’t acceptable by any stretch.
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