Jamie Carragher spots Newcastle United defensive issue as Kieran Trippier loses faith in defensive partner against Aston Villa

Newcastle United's defence was all over the place as they were on the receiving end of an absolute pasting by Aston Villa on Sunday.

Despite scoring Newcastle's only goal, Fabian Schar had a torrid time on Saturday evening. One that resulted in him being withdrawn with a hamstring injury concern.

Though, in all honesty, that may well have been the highlight of his night beyond his equalising goal.

Fabian Schar's deflection sent Ollie Watkins' strike beyond Nick Pope in the opening minute and then on 14 minutes, Schar pulled down Watkins to receive a yellow card.

Fabian Schar had a game to forget on Saturday

Even around these incidents, Schar looked well off his game, backing off attackers rather than stepping up to put pressure on as he would usually do.

In fact, he was so off his game that he directly affected the performance of Kieran Trippier on the right-side of Newcastle's defence, which was exploited over and over again.

We're not saying that Kieran Trippier had anything approaching what would be classed as a good game on Saturday, but Sky Sports' Jamie Carragher provided excellent insight into the problems he faced on Monday Night Football (h/t The Chronicle).

Kieran Trippier was off his game as he was covering for below-par Fabian Schar

In his analysis of Newcastle's defensive frailties, Carragher focused on a moment that perfectly encapsulated the Magpies' issues.

"We see Newcastle man-to-man all over the pitch. Look at Kieran Trippier.

"He's down, he's crouched, he's ready to jump onto Morgan Rogers in this position. Then he looks over his left shoulder and he's worried about his mate [Schar] because he's been given the run around all game.

"He drops off, then he stops and there's the space. Rogers looks over his left shoulder, sees Trippier's late and it all comes down to the fact Trippier was worried about the pace of Watkins against Schar. That's where this space [in the middle] opens up."

Every player has off days, and their off days can cause a ripple effect. Fingers crossed the lads can put this one behind them and get back to their usual selves against Ipswich on Saturday.