Alan Shearer has used the word 'poor' on at least three occasions over the weekend when discussing Newcastle United's attacking form.
First was his full-time assessment on X and then again on Match of the Day and now he's completed the hat-trick on The Rest Is Football podcast.
in fairness to Shearer it's quite a tame expression for what has been a frustrating few games seeing the Magpies spurn chances or indeed fail to create any at all.
Alexander Isak returned to lead the line against Brighton on Saturday and he looked miles off his best. We'd always back Isak to score on a one-v-one but Saturday saw him hit the ball straight at the 'keeper. Usually we'd expect some fancy footwork to round the onrushing 'keeper but we just got a tame shot instead.
We can almost forgive Isak as he is returning from injury, but we can't excuse everyone on the pitch and Alan Shearer pointed the finger at Anthony Gordon when discussing the lack of creatitivity.
“Newcastle have been really poor in forward positions. One of the reasons why they wanted to bring in another forward in, right-sided forward, was because of that.
“But Wilson hasn’t played, Isak has been injured, Gordon has had to play centre-forward.
“Missed the penalty at Everton, probably affected his confidence because he missed another couple of big chances yesterday.”
Anthony Gordon put some money behind the bar at The Strawberry ahead of the game on Saturday as an apology to fans for missing that penalty against Everton and as a thank you for sticking by him.
It was a fantastic gesture, but we bet that everyone who benefitted from a free pint would have gladly gone without if it meant that Gordon scored at St James' Park on Saturday instead.
Callum Wilson is set to return from injury at some point this season and when he does that should hopefully spark Alexander Isak into life as the competition for that lone striker place has often pushed the pair to perform their best.
PL | GD | PTS | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
1 |
Liverpool
|
12 | 16 | 31 |
2 |
Manchester City
|
12 | 5 | 23 |
3 |
Chelsea
|
12 | 9 | 22 |
4 |
Arsenal
|
12 | 9 | 22 |
5 |
Brighton
|
12 | 5 | 22 |
6 |
Tottenham Hotspur
|
12 | 14 | 19 |
7 |
Nottingham Forest
|
12 | 2 | 19 |
8 |
Aston Villa
|
12 | 0 | 19 |
9 |
Fulham
|
12 | 0 | 18 |
10 |
Newcastle United
|
12 | 0 | 18 |
11 |
Brentford
|
12 | 0 | 17 |
12 |
Manchester United
|
12 | 0 | 16 |
13 |
Bournemouth
|
12 | -1 | 15 |
14 |
West Ham United
|
12 | -4 | 15 |
15 |
Everton
|
12 | -7 | 11 |
16 |
Leicester
|
12 | -8 | 10 |
17 |
Wolves
|
12 | -8 | 9 |
18 |
Ipswich
|
12 | -10 | 9 |
19 |
Crystal Palace
|
12 | -7 | 8 |
20 |
Southampton
|
12 | -15 | 4 |