Jamie Carragher has slammed one Newcastle United player for making a key error in last night’s 3-2 defeat to Chelsea.
Newcastle got off to a terrible start against the Blues as they conceded an early goal in very odd circumstances with a number of errors setting the tone for the rest of the game.
Speaking on Sky Sports’ Monday Night Football, Carragher was not impressed with Martin Dubravka for his efforts in Newcastle’s net and singled him out for making a huge mistake against Chelsea.
Carragher shocked at Newcastle man’s performance
Newcastle’s defence has been the polar opposite to how they were performing last season and a lot of that is to do with the fact that they haven’t had Nick Pope available since the start of December.
Dubravka has had a few decent shot-stopping performances, games against Liverpool and Blackburn come to mind, but he’s really struggled in the other aspects of his game that Pope dominates in.
Though the former Burnley man isn’t exactly great with the ball at his feet, Pope is much more of a sweeper keeper and gives his defenders that extra bit of confidence knowing they’ve got him to rely on at the back.
Dubravka, however, looks glued to his line in games and against Chelsea really struggled with some efforts on goal which many Newcastle supporters would suggest Pope could have got to.
On Dubravka, Carragher said: “You can’t help look at the Chelsea goals without looking at Newcastle, it’s horrific. Every goal. Look at the ball boy there [throwing the ball back to Gusto]. He’s quick, he’s sharp. Certainly a lot sharper than the Newcastle players.
“Just look at the body language of the Newcastle players here trying to get out and close. Where is the intensity? This is not the Newcastle I saw last season. You could not make passes against this Newcastle team last season.
“And then I go to this, the goalkeeper. He’s in the wrong position. That is not right, where he should be. He should be at least a yard over the other side because the ball is on this side, and then Cole Palmer shoots and he puts his weight on his right foot and can’t get across.”
Newcastle looked completely off it vs Chelsea
Last season, Newcastle could pride themselves on the way they played with high energy and high intensity, looking to hit teams on the break and capitalise with the pace of their attack.
This season, however, it has been a completely different story and against Chelsea they were slow to recover, a number of players were caught ball watching and failing to track back to help out the defence.
It’s a worrying sign for a team who are now drifting towards mid table in the Premier League and potentially having nothing to play for in the final round of fixtures in the next few months.
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