Newcastle United legend Alan Shearer has criticised Ciaran Clark for his performance against Manchester City.
The 32-year-old returned to the starting XI against the champions for the first time since his early red card against Norwich.
And once again Clark produced a moment of madness within the first 10 minutes.
First Newcastle give away a cheap corner. But the biggest mistake comes from Clark, who decides not to clear a Joao Cancelo cross in the six yard box, allowing Ruben Dias to head Man City in front.
It was astonishing. It was hard to believe what happened it was that bad.
Shearer has had his say on the incident, speaking on Match of the Day 2 last night.
What did Alan Shearer say?
“The way Newcastle defended – if it wasn’t my team I’d say it’s laughable, but it’s anything but that,” Shearer said.
On the first goal, he said: “It’s so bad it wouldn’t happen in an under 10s game. You can see Clark, for whatever reason, decides to leave it. Take control, get rid of the ball, do whatever you have to do. Just don’t do this. You cannot leave that ball, it’s simple.”
Shearer also criticised Clark for his role in Man City’s second and third goal.
Simply awful from Ciaran Clark
The red card against Norwich cost us a win. It was a crazy decision that ruined the game for Newcastle against a relegation rival.
And once again Clark has made another appalling decision, and it came at another horrendous moment in time.
We were always going to be up against it – we were playing Manchester City. But to make an error like that was cataclysmic. It’s hard enough without gifting them the lead.
Time and time again, we are shooting ourselves in the foot. We’re making far too many individual errors, and that’s why we’re stuck near the bottom of the table.
The only way we’re going to solve this problem is investment. It’s so clear that our current defenders aren’t good enough.
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