'Really flat': Alan Shearer doesn't hold back with his assessment of Newcastle United's performance against Fulham

 · February 3 2025, 12:00
'Really flat': Alan Shearer doesn't hold back with his assessment of Newcastle United's performance against Fulham
Copied
Share Tweet

It is two days since Newcastle United fell to a 2-1 defeat at home to Fulham and we're still waiting for the team we know and love to come out for the second half.

Newcastle's performance on Saturday was the epitome of a Jekyll and Hyde outing. We should have been out of sight by the time the half time whistle blew but that fear of shooting reared its ugly head again, and it was almost like a level of complacency took hold. There were some nice back heels and stepovers in and around the box as if they were so confident that Fulham would just allow them to score when they wanted to.

The team's fear of shooting or over-confidence or whatever it was proved to be their undoing, as with just a one-goal lead going into the second half, it wasn't an unassailable mountain for Fulham to overcome. And so it proved.

It may have been trickier for the visitors if Newcastle had bothered to turn out for the second half, but whoever those players were that were out there weren't our beloved Newcastle United. There was no life in any of them, no urgency. It was a dire second-half performance and one that saw Fulham easily reverse the scoreline and win 2-1.

Advertisement

Newcastle ruined Alan Shearer's day off

Alan Shearer used the word 'flat' to describe the Newcastle performance on The Rest Is Football with the former Toon striker clearly not happy with what he saw at St James' Park.

“I was looking forward to a lovely, cosy weekend off, going to St James’ expecting a win against Fulham, but it was another poor performance,” he said.

“Fulham thoroughly deserved it. Newcastle were just alright in the first half. They got their goal, Jacob Murphy, great work by Gordon down the left-hand side and sticking the ball in. Murphy tucked it away.

“I thought ‘oh, here we go’. But Fulham tweaked it a little bit and came out with a lot more energy, a bit more direct, a few more diagonal balls in the second half. And they were the better team.

“Isak hit the bar with one great effort in the second half. But other than that, there was very little response. They were very flat, really flat. It was a poor performance.”
Advertisement

Arsenal look well up for Wednesday's Carabao Cup semi-final second leg clash

Eddie Howe couldn't draw on the 'fatigue' excuse this time as he did following the defeat against Bournemouth. Indeed, the best he could come up with was that the players maybe had one eye on Wednesday night's Carabao Cup semi-final against Arsenal.

Well if that's the case, we need to be very worried, because it looks like the Gunners also have an eye on that game and they know what they need to do. They got their practice in on Sunday by hammering Manchester City 5-1. They only need three goals on Wednesday.

We have to get our focus back and ensure we keep Arsenal completely shut out. It will be awful to watch, and my blood pressure probably won't be able to handle it, but if we park the bus for 90 minutes, that's all we need to do.

Latest NUFC News