Newcastle United’s problems away from home continued on Wednesday night.
Eddie Howe’s side have won only five Premier League games on the road this season and were dealt their 11th away defeat of the campaign at Manchester United.
Newcastle were of course unlucky not to have been awarded a penalty when Anthony Gordon was brought down by Sofyan Amrabat in the first-half.
Still, as frustrating as that was, it wasn’t the only reason for the defeat.
Indeed, some of the defending left an awful lot to be desired.
Kieran Trippier’s miserable second-half of the season continued when he played Kobbie Mainoo onside by failing to push up quickly enough for the Red Devils’ first goal.
Wayne Rooney was critical of him during Sky Sports’ analysis but Trippier was not alone in that…
Wayne Rooney says £12m Newcastle star did something “very poor” against Manchester United
Jacob Murphy, another £12m Newcastle star, was also criticised by the former England captain.
It was Murphy who failed to clear a corner from Bruno Fernandes, which ultimately led to Amad Diallo putting the Red Devils 2-1 up.
Murphy’s header at the near post actually teed up the forward, making its way across the box to him rather than clearing the danger.
Speaking of the goal, Rooney told Sky Sports: “It’s a very poor header from Murphy.”
Newcastle’s defending is their biggest problem
Chelsea, Tottenham and West Ham are the only top-half teams to have conceded more often than Newcastle’s 60 goals this season.
Given Howe’s backline was the joint-meanest in the Premier League last time out, it has been a remarkable drop-off.
We can moan about penalties all we like but mistakes such as the ones from Trippier and Murphy do not make life any easier.
Serious work to the defence must surely be done this summer.
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