Gary Neville has claimed that Newcastle United captain Jamaal Lascelles made one big error in the 4-1 defeat to Tottenham on Sunday.
Newcastle’s terrible away form continued after a trip to the capital ended in another defeat thanks to some poor defending in the first half.
Speaking on commentary for Sky Sports, Neville was very critical of the way Lascelles defended for Tottenham’s opening goal which really put the pressure on Newcastle.
Neville says Lascelles was caught ‘sleeping’
Although Newcastle had a couple of bodies back on the bench in Callum Wilson and Sean Longstaff amid their injury crisis, the rest of the team, which was unchanged from the defeat to Everton, looked very tired throughout the game.
Their opponents are also not playing any European football and exited the Carabao Cup at the earliest stage so had much fresher legs.
However, that cannot excuse the poor defending from Newcastle for Tottenham’s opening goal with Lascelles in particular being caught out.
The 30-year-old was quite clearly not aware of his surroundings as Heung-Min Son fired a ball into the box which found the driving Destiny Udogie who was completely unmarked after running from midfield.
On Sky Sports, Neville said: “Guimaraes and Lascelles are sleeping. He maybe can’t see the run because it comes from deep, but what he can do is plant his feet.
“There’s no doubt for the goal that Lascelles should have got across into that John Terry position at the near post.
“There is no way he would allow the ball to go into that position in front of the goalkeeper unless he was carrying something.”
Newcastle still need more fresh legs in the team
Though it may have been successful against Man United, Chelsea and PSG, using this same starting 11 simply cannot go on for many more games.
Against Everton and Tottenham, Newcastle have looked exhausted and mistakes like the ones from Kieran Trippier on Thursday and the one from Lascelles on Sunday have started to creep in.
They may be able to get away with it at home where they have the crowd to give them that extra little boost to see a result over the line, but their away form is suffering massively.
Just one win in eight away games is not good enough for a team who aspire to be in the Champions League again next season, and that dream is just starting to drift away with the Magpies now seven points off of Manchester City in fourth.
Receive a digest of our best Newcastle content each week direct to your mailbox
