Rio Ferdinand spotted an error from recent Newcastle signing… but Joelinton got it ‘correct’

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Newcastle United claimed a 1-1 draw against West Ham United on Saturday afternoon but Rio Ferdinand has criticised their defending.

The Magpies headed down to the London Stadium in search of a fourth straight win having seen off Leeds United, Everton and Aston Villa.

Eddie Howe’s men fell behind though as Craig Dawson buried a superb header from Aaron Cresswell’s free kick.

Newcastle didn’t fold though and grabbed their equaliser with Joe Willock flicking home after Declan Rice couldn’t clear his lines.

Neither side were able to find a winner in the second half, and Newcastle will almost certainly see this as a positive point in their battle against relegation.

Newcastle look to be upwardly mobile, claiming this impressive result without the injured trio of Kieran Trippier, Allan Saint-Maximin and Callum Wilson.

January signing Bruno Guimaraes hasn’t yet going either, so huge credit must go to manager Howe for the clear improvements.

It wasn’t all perfect against West Ham though, and pundit Rio Ferdinand pointed out a real problem for Dawson’s goal.

Dawson managed to sneak past a number of static Newcastle defenders to bury his header into the net, and Ferdinand wasn’t happy.

Speaking on BT Sport (19/02, 1:25pm), Ferdinand suggested that Fabian Schar, Chris Wood and new signing Dan Burn were all in the wrong body position.

All three of them were facing free kick taker Cresswell, meaning they couldn’t see Dawson peel off and dart across the front of them.

Ferdinand picked out Joelinton as the only player in the right position as he had his back to goal and could see everything in front of him, with the former England man believing Burn just wasn’t anticipating danger from Dawson.

“Look at the Newcastle shirts, these two centre backs are not even looking – look at the body shape” said Ferdinand. “Chris Wood as well, all guilty of their bodies being in the wrong position, not anticipating where the runner is coming from. Only Joelinton has got the correct body position there.”

“You’ve got to anticipate it, they will have spoken about this all week – he’s coming, in the area – that’s why the three big guys are there. They don’t even know he’s coming, Burn has one little glance but doesn’t know where he is,” he added.