Given his history at Newcastle United, when Alan Shearer speaks the world of football and particularly those on Tyneside listens, and the former No.9 hasn’t held back in his criticism of two current Magpies stars.
You would’ve thought that there was little to reproach the visitors to the London Stadium for, given the standard of their performance and the fact that they returned to the north east on the back of a commanding 5-1 win.
However, Shearer was unhappy with his former side’s defending that allowed West Ham to get back into the game, albeit briefly.
“It was a terrible time to concede. It was terrible from Botman. He loses Zouma, then not great from Pope,” he told Premier League Productions, cited by HITC.
A clean sheet would’ve topped the night off for Eddie Howe’s men in their charge towards a finish in the Champions League places.
Shearer was at the forefront of Newcastle’s last foray into the elite European competition back in the 1990s, so understands what it takes to be a success against the best teams from across the continent.
Given his post-match comments from the midweek fixture, perhaps the defence need to worry about domestic matters in the first instance.
Each player could well be playing for his place too, given that the higher up the footballing food chain the club managers to go, the better standard of player the club are likely to want to acquire.
Therefore Botman and Pope would do well to take on board Shearer’s criticism.