Alan Shearer explains why Europa League spot would be ‘incredible’ for Newcastle

Alan Shearer says Newcastle United finishing inside the top six would denote an “incredible” season for Eddie Howe given the injury problems he has had to deal with.

Bruno Guimaraes, Paul Dummett and Fabian Schar are the only outfield players to have avoided injury this season, albeit Anthony Gordon’s issue against Chelsea last month did not cause him to miss a match. Meanwhile, the Magpies have played most of the season without Sandro Tonali.

The Italian was handed a 10-month betting ban in October and was charged with further alleged gambling breaches by the Football Association in March. Newcastle were also one of many Premier League clubs unable to recruit in January due to being close to spending limits.

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Following Saturday’s 4-0 conquest of Tottenham, coupled with Manchester United’s draw with Bournemouth later in the day, Newcastle rose to sixth in the table on goal difference with six games to go.

Shearer believes qualification for the Europa League would be a great achievement for Howe, who saw his side finish bottom of their Champions League group in December. “He’s doing a brilliant job,” Shearer said of Howe on The Rest Is Football podcast.

“If you look at the injury list that Newcastle had before the game, it is arguable that you could have put a better team out than maybe the starting line-up that was put out against Tottenham. That just tells you how good of a job that he’s doing.

“The last couple of results have been superb and they have a decent run-in, if they can get into a Europa League spot which they have every chance of doing now, then it would still be an incredible season because of everything that has been thrown at them.”

Newcastle are unbeaten in four matches, three of those being wins against West Ham, Fulham and Spurs. Ange Postecoglou’s side looked forlorn during their visit to St James’ Park with star defender Micky Van der Ven putting in an unimpressive showing.

Shearer said: “I respect and I like that he [Postecoglou] has got his way and he wants to stick with that way, but sometimes you have to change because there is no doubt teams will suss that out, and they have already started to suss it out.”

He then asked fellow pundit Micah Richards if Van der Ven had “a bad day” against double goalscorer Alexander Isak. The former Manchester City defender replied: “When you are a defender and you have that pace, I don’t want to see you switch off, but you always think your pace will get you out of trouble.

“But when you have someone like Isak who is quick and can also twist and turn, that is the problem.” Shearer stated: “He had his pants down, didn’t he?”