Alan Shearer questions Newcastle’s attitude and rips into them for being ‘dreadful defensively’ in damning verdict after Eddie Howe’s side slumped to defeat at Brentford

Alan Shearer delivered a withering assessment of Newcastle’s 4-2 defeat by Brentford as he labelled them ‘dreadful defensively’ and questioned their attitude. 

Eddie Howe‘s side are without a win in their last four games after slumping to their fifth league defeat of the season at the Gtech Community Stadium on Saturday.

Goals from Alexander Isak and Harvey Barnes saw them twice come from behind to pull back on level terms, but a limp second-half performance left Shearer fuming.

Nathan Collins slotted beyond Nick Pope to restore the Bees’ lead shortly before the hour mark while Kevin Schade wrapped up all three points on 90 minutes.

‘I don’t like the attitude of several of Newcastle’s players,’ Shearer said during his post-match analysis of each of the goals on Match of the Day.

‘You can’t just turn up in the big home games, they drew with Liverpool, drew with [Manchester] City, they beat Spurs, they beat Chelsea, they beat Arsenal.

Eddie Howe’s side are 12th in the Premier League and without a win in their last four games

Shearer questioned the Magpies’ attitude and slammed their defending as ‘dreadful’

‘They were dreadful defensively, Thiago’s too strong and bullies Fabian Schar. I look at Lewis Hall with his hands behind his back, he’s not even in the box, how are you expected to twist and turn?

‘Harvey Barnes makes an error. OK, it’s a really poor pass but look at the defending. Fabian Schar has got to engage at some point, he’s got to try to tackle him.

‘Dan Burn’s trying to get back, he’s screaming to him [Schar] push him on the outside but he [Schar] never gets near him, he [Wissa] gets a free shot. 

‘You’ve got to at some stage tackle him.

‘This is worrying, because two years ago we were praising Newcastle all the time for their energy, for their closing down, for their pressing, there was none of it.

‘No one gets within five yards of any Brentford player, now all of a sudden they’re in Newcastle’s final third, still no one within five, 10 yards of anyone. That’s not good enough, that’s not acceptable, that’s why they got beaten today.’

Howe vowed to turn around Newcastle’s alarming drop in form, saying: ‘There was a willingness to win and willingness to fight but I don’t think it was strong enough.

‘I’m not making excuses but I don’t know whether the weather played a part because there was obviously a very strong wind today, I don’t know if that’s a coincidence but we didn’t attack as well in the second half as we did in the first half.

‘I think today was a difficult game to come on to because of the conditions and trying to pick up the speed of the game, naturally you’re going to be cold.

‘I would like to thank everyone who came today and I’m really sorry for what we had delivered and my pledge is we will always work as hard as we can to put it right.’