I hope I’m wrong about Newcastle United – Alan Shearer | OneFootball

Alan Shearer has been talking about his old club.

The Newcastle United legend analysing NUFC in the aftermath of defeat at Man City and ahead of Nottingham Forest on Sunday.

As Alan Shearer says, Sunday is a ‘hugely significant match’, defeat for Newcastle United would see them nine points behind Forest, whilst a home win would take Eddie Howe’s side to only three points adrift of Nuno’s team and third place.

Alan Shearer hopes he is wrong about Newcastle United, in that he hopes his fears don’t come true, of Forest’s style of play potentially benefiting from how Sunday’s match could work out.

Much is made of the match last season when on Boxing Day Newcastle lost 3-1 to a Chris Wood hat-trick.

At least as relevant though is surely the fact that Newcastle have already defeated Forest twice this season, both times at the City Ground.

In truth though, Forest play the same way at home as they do away, counter-attacking. After conceding a poor early goal in the Premier League match against the run of play, Newcastle bounced back and battered Forest in November, United scored three and it could have been double that. Newcastle with 17 shots to Forest’s nine, NUFC with twice as many shots on target, Newcastle players with 33 touches in the opposition penalty area compared to 17 for Forest at the other end.

Sunday won’t be easy but if Newcastle United play as well as they did in November at the City Ground, a massive chance of a home win.

Alan Shearer speaking to Betfair about Newcastle United ahead of Newcastle v Nottingham Forest:

“It’s a hugely significant match.

“Especially considering what happened to Newcastle last weekend, they were dreadful right from the start. For 90 minutes they were awful and didn’t pose any problems at all to Man City.

“You can’t afford too many of those types of performances, they can’t have another one.

“This is a great game for them to bounce back, they’re at home and won’t be allowed to put that sort of performance in at St James’s Park.

“Nottingham Forest are also really good away from home. We know what they’re like – it suits them to sit in and hit teams on the counter-attack.

“I think that Newcastle will have to come out all guns blazing after what happened last weekend and that may just suit Forest.

“I hope I’m wrong, but because of the players Forest have, particularly Chris Wood coming back to Newcastle with the form he’s in, they are going to be tough to beat. Forest got beaten last weekend as well, so it’s two teams who have to bounce back.”

Newcastle United upcoming matches:

Sunday 23 February – Newcastle v Forest (2pm) Sky Sports

Wednesday 26 February – Liverpool v Newcastle (8.15pm) TNT Sports

Sunday 2 March –  Newcastle v Brighton (1.45pm) – FA Cup fifth round ITV1

Monday 10 March – West Ham v Newcastle (8pm) Sky Sports

Saturday 16 March – Newcastle v Liverpool (4.30pm) Carabao Cup final! Sky Sports