OPINION
Newcastle United defender Federico Fernandez produced arguably the worst performance of his time at the club against Watford on Saturday.
With competition for places at centre back fiercer than ever, it seems as though the Argentine will be facing a battle to force his way back into Rafael Benitez’s first team plans any time soon after a shock poor display.
Having been out of the team recently due to a mixture of injury and the fine form of others, Fernandez was given another chance to impress against the Hornets. However, he absolutely failed as Benitez’s side fell to a woefully disappointing 2-0 defeat at St James’ Park.
The former Swansea City man had a dreadful second half performance, which will have done little to endear him to Benitez moving forward. It’s strange because at the start of the season Fernandez was one of Newcastle’s best players.
Now, though, he’s going to struggle to get back into the Magpies’ team. The fine recent form of the likes of Fabian Schar and Florian Lejeune effectively make Fernandez an afterthought at this point.
After the way those two players performed in the win over Cardiff City it was going to take a big effort from Fernandez against Watford to get himself back into the reckoning.
However, he can kiss that goodbye now. He simply wasn’t good enough as the Hornets eased to victory. He went missing in the second half and that’s simply not acceptable for a player of his calibre.
He needs to take a long, hard look at himself because he was way below par on Saturday.