Alan Shearer has reflected on Newcastle United's 1-0 defeat after watching on from the stands on Saturday night

Newcastle United legend Alan Shearer admits he is worried about the Magpies' lack of firepower in the Premier League.

Shearer watched on from the director's box at St James' Park on Saturday as Newcastle barely laid a glove on Aston Villa in front of a full house. And worse still, United sat off tamely as Johan Manzambi was afforded a free header at the Gallowgate End to nod home and hand Villa the points.

Shearer was far from impressed but felt that one damning statistic summed up Newcastle's troubles as they lost for the second game in a row. The Toon legend accepts that Matthias Jaissle is still a young manager learning his trade but hopes to see an improvement in front of goal.

Shearer, speaking to Premier League Productions' Final Word, said: "He is a young manager, and you are going to have ups and downs. But it is a worrying thing for me in the last two games, particularly at home to Aston Villa, that you have one shot on target in 90 minutes."

Then reflecting on Manzambi's goal, in which he had time to flick it past Lukas Hornicek, Shearer said: "This is the worst of the lot. Where was the press? Gonzalez has to get out there quicker. You can't leave anybody free to have time on the ball and have a free header. That's what cost Newcastle the game."

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Newcastle still sit in 11th place in the Premier League table with eight points and remain in the Carabao Cup with a trip to Everton coming up next week. But Shearer admitted he is concerned about a few factors that have cropped up in the last two matches.

Shearer said: "I always expected it to be a yo-yo season because of the young squad that they have and with the young manager that they have brought in.

"He didn't know Newcastle and didn't know the Premier League, so I always said it was going to be a difficult season, and I'm going to stick with that. But the last two games have been worrying. In whatever way you want to look at it, whether that is creativity or the lack of it or defensively.

"The big thing for me is, and you are always going to concede goals in this league, but it's the lack of press and the lack of marking when they conceded. Then you are looking for a response, what are you going to do about (once you concede), and that was the big thing at Coventry and on Saturday at the game at St James' Park.

"Who is going to score you a goal or get you that killer pass or put that cross in? They are hoping rather than producing that moment of magic."

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