12 March 2024 , 07:11
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Jamie Carragher tore into Newcastle for their unacceptable display against an "average" Chelsea team.
The Magpies lost 3-2 at Stamford Bridge on Monday and remain 10th in the Premier League table, having gone behind after only six minutes to a Nicolas Jackson goal. The result means that Newcastle have now lost nine of their 14 top-flight away games this term, winning just three.
Carragher feels that Eddie Howe's side look as if they're "almost ready for the end of the season," having been ravaged by injuries ever since the start of the campaign.
"I adored Newcastle last season. It was their intensity, and it took me back to when Jurgen Klopp first came in at Liverpool where people were running everywhere," the Liverpool legend began on Sky Sports' Monday Night Football.
"It looks like a team who are almost ready for the end of the season. If I just looked at that performance and I didn't know this team, that is not acceptable the way they defended. This is an average Chelsea team, let's not forget that."
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Although the Magpies have been without first-choice goalkeeper Nick Pope since December amid a raft of other defensive injury issues - such as missing captain and right-back Kieran Trippier on Monday night - Carragher believes that there's more behind Newcastle's below-par performances which leave them 15 points adrift of the Champions League qualification places.
"Pope is a big part of this team. He's one of the best shot stoppers in the Premier League and he sweeps up behind that high line and press that we've seen. It is a big part, but it's not just about that. There's more to it," the former England international claimed.
"If you look at shots faced in the game, you go from the fourth-best in the league to 15th. That's not just the goalkeeper, that's to do with the set-up in the team. The save ratio you would expect to be down."
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Newcastle are unlikely to qualify for the Champions League (Robbie Jay Barratt - AMA/Getty Images)"The one that stands out is conceding three-plus goals, being the worst in the league - eight times in the last 14 games. That is unbelievable. This is for a team who, last season, were fantastic defensively.
Carragher then looked into Howe's coaching record, adding: "In the past, when you look at Eddie Howe's teams - and a different level of team with Bournemouth - if they keep going as they are, they're on course to conceded 60-plus goals and that will have happened six times in seven years as a manager."
Carragher's fellow pundit, Ian Wright, agreed that Howe's men weren't up to scratch against Chelsea, saying: "I was very surprised that they played a high line and the press wasn't very good at all, especially when you consider Nick Pope is a very good sweeper keeper. Sven Botman coming in had a poor game today.
"I cannot understand why they didn't play a deep block and frustrate Chelsea more. I was confused by some of the things Eddie was saying [in his post-match interview] because I didn't see where they had any kind of control.
"I thought Bruno Guimaraes was very poor, couldn't get himself away from the fact that Nicolas Jackson and Conor Gallagher were in and around him. There wasn't enough movement from him. In the main, Tino Livramento tried, but overall, very poor from them."