Shay Given thinks £4m Newcastle player has been unfairly criticised recently

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Shay Given is not happy with the way one Newcastle United player has been treated in the media recently despite their poor form.

Newcastle suffered another defeat at Stamford Bridge on Monday night after a disappointing display from the whole team and their latest run of form means they sit 10th in the Premier League.

The Geordies have been shipping goals for fun as of late and a lot of the blame has been placed on Martin Dubravka, but speaking to Tribal Football, Given thinks he’s actually been quite good.

Given says Newcastle man has been ‘brilliant’ at times

Many Newcastle supporters are looking for someone to blame after a very poor performance in West London where they historically have a terrible record anyway.

That defeat was a huge blow in their European hopes and it now means that Chelsea have a chance to leap frog them with their game in hand which would drop Newcastle into the bottom half.

The final result was 3-2, but the goals Newcastle concede were very avoidable with several mistakes at the back while the ones they scored require some individual brilliance from Alexander Isak and Jacob Murphy.

The Slovakian shot-stopper has been criticised heavily for his latest performances as this is now the eighth time in their last 14 games Newcastle have conceded three goals or more, and it’s simply not good enough.

However, Given believes Dubrvaka has pulled out some top displays in a Newcastle shirt and that he is just an easy target at the minute.

On Dubravka, Given said: “I think he’s done really well. He performed at a high level in FA Cup, saving a couple of penalties against Blackburn and also made some brilliant saves in the game as well. It’s just easy to blame the goalkeeper isn’t it.”

Stats suggest Newcastle really miss Nick Pope

It isn’t any easy job being a goalkeeper and fans can appreciate that Dubravka is in a tricky position as he’s not the starting option and over a year ago it looked like his time at the club was over as he left to join Man United on loan.

Now, he’s been thrown back into the team suddenly and told he has to perform at the highest level to keep Newcastle in the European positions when in the past he’s only ever been involved in relegation battles.

He’s also being asked to play in a different style under Eddie Howe who was looking to keep more of the ball against Chelsea, so there’s a lot of things the Slovakian has had to adapt to with Nick Pope out injured.

However, the defensive performances simply haven’t been good enough and the stats show that Pope has been so much better both in terms of the saves he makes and his sweeping ability to help out his defenders.