Newcastle United hero Alan Shearer's one word summary of recent performances is spot on

With just two wins in eleven games, that lively performance against Liverpool in midweek seems like a Newcastle United fever dream amongst the putrid football the team has played at times this season.

In a staggering statistic spotted by Geordie Boot Boys today, Newcastle have been dispossessed a shocking 201 times this season, 27 times more than second-placed West Ham. That's bad enough on its own, but when you consider how many times we simply hand possession to the other team with poor passing, then we have a real problem.

Our defence has become non-existent despite having two of the most promising full-backs in the country. Nick Pope has lost the plot. Fabian Schar is going backwards and that leaves Dan Burn who has been excellent of late and the bright spot in the defence, but we all know that, in reality, he's not good enough overall.

Up front, we have arguably the best all-round centre forward in the Premier League in Alexander Isak who is absolutely starved for service despite being flanked by one of the most exciting young wingers in the game, Anthony Gordon.

In Sandro Tonali and Bruno Guimaraes we have two amazing central midfielders who just keep going missing. It's absolutely baffling.

Alan Shearer called Newcastle United a 'shambles'

Newcastle's record goal scorer, Alan Shearer used a brilliant word when describing Newcastle United's performance of late as he talked about their issues on The Rest Is Football podcast.

“Slightly worried with what I'm seeing from Newcastle. I know they were brilliant against Liverpool and they were really competitive, really edgy, had energy and everything, but you can’t just turn up in them big games.

“That’s what Newcastle are doing, and I don’t like the look of that, it doesn’t sit easy with me with the results they’re having at home. You can’t get away with not working at home in front of your own fans against the big teams.”

“You can’t do what they did at the weekend. You can’t not work hard. Defensively, they were a shambles at Brentford.”

A change of manager may seem like Newcastle's best bet but it would likely be catastrophic

Shearer called Newcastle a 'shambles' against Brentford, but in truth, they've been a shambles all season.

Somehow, just as all hope is lost, the team manages to put up a stunning performance, or a couple of good results. Just enough to make us all forget how bad we've been, and enough to bring that hope back, but then as soon as the clouds part, another storm rolls in.

We don't have the answers, and it's easy to point the finger at Eddie Howe, which we have, but if the club did sack Howe, whoever comes in would still have the same imbalanced squad of players to work with and would be unlikely to be able to change it for a couple of seasons. Changing managers would cost way too much, we're already up against it with PSR and sacking one manager and hiring another would obliterate that headroom, leaving nothing for any transfers.