Neil Lennon thought £12m Newcastle man was ‘struggling’ vs Dortmund

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Newcastle United suffered a huge setback against Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League last night.

After a second successive defeat to the German side in the competition, the Magpies sit bottom of Group F and will require big performances in the final two games.

One player in player in particular who was not at his best was Kieran Trippier who was singled out by BBC Sport pundit Neil Lennon on Football Daily.

Newcastle had created solid chances in the game but struggled to take them and at this level you’re going to get punished quickly for a lack of composure.

Lennon picks out Trippier for having an off day as Newcastle lose to Dortmund

Speaking after the game, Lennon was critical of Trippier’s performance at left-back where he was moved to at half-time as Eddie Howe looked to go more attacking by bringing on Miguel Almiron.

The England international struggled to cope with the pace of Karim Adeyemi and was subsequently switched back to the right as Tino Livramento moved to left-back.

It was unfortunate that injuries had essentially forced the £12m defender to play out of position – though he has played there for his country it’s not where he excels.

The former Celtic manager said: “It just shows what they think of him [Livramento playing in multiple positions].

“Kieran Trippier seemed to be struggling a little bit at left-back and they swapped sides and brought Livramento over to play left-back and he did a great job on Adeyemi.”

What went wrong for Trippier last night

The stats from WhoScored show how Dortmund did very well to nullify one of our star players.

For such a quality attacking player, Trippier only managed to create one chance on Tuesday evening and connected with just 36% of his crosses.

Defensively the 33-year-old was also not at his best after winning just 38% of his ground duels and not winning a single aerial duel.

It’s not the first disappointing performance from Trippier this season, but in his defence the team have relied on him massively since the start of last season. Eventually all those games would catch up to him, but Eddie Howe can at least take comfort in the fact that he’s got another top quality right-back in Tino Livramento.