Many Newcastle United fans have taken to Twitter to express their anger at captain Jamaal Lascelles for his performance in the first half against Leicester City on Sunday afternoon.
The Toon defender was largely at fault as Ricardo Pereira strode through the United backline unabated to open the scoring for the Foxes, with Lascelles backing away from the runner rather than trying to prevent his drive.
And it’s fair to say that most supporters weren’t too pleased about their skipper’s inaction.
Here are some of the best tweets from fans.
Lascelles donkey again!! Shock!!
— Dan.Williams (@D17Williams) September 29, 2019
What was Lascelles doing there? Step to the man with the ball! #LEINEW #NUFC
— Dennis Black-and-Asian (@DennisBlkAndAsn) September 29, 2019
Haven’t a clue what Lascelles was doing once again. He needs dropped
— Eric (@Eric_Bryson_89) September 29, 2019
Where do you even begin with this Newcastle side?
After a dreary and dire 0-0 draw against Brighton last weekend, the least you would have expected from Steve Bruce’s men would be a little bit of fight and some gumption.
Instead, watching the first half at the King Power Stadium, it quickly became apparent that it was going to be more of the same from the Magpies.
And of all the players in a black and white shirt out on the pitch, you would hope and expect the one who might take things by the scruff of the neck would be the captain.
Instead, Lascelles looked like a rabbit in the headlights for Pereira’s goal, and it really was infuriating to watch.
Lascelles has habit of running away from the ball. Not the first time we've conceded this season from him doing that #nufc
— ??????? ?.? (@TheBigASDA) September 29, 2019
https://twitter.com/Skinnerr20/status/1178335746412945424?s=20
This isn’t the first time the 25-year-old has come in for criticism this term though.
After the 3-1 defeat to Liverpool a fortnight ago, Darren Bent slammed the centre-back as “lazy”, claiming that he was setting a bad example to his teammates during an interview with Football Insider.
Perhaps most irritating, however, is the fact that Lascelles is capable of putting in a decent shift.
As reported by This is Futbol, he has been called “unbelievable” by Jermaine Jenas before, and praised for his physical prowess.
Similarly, speaking on Sky Sports back in April, as quoted by the Chronicle, former Magpies striker Andy Cole has been very open about how highly he thinks of Lascelles.
All of that begs the question, why can’t he play that well every week?
As a leader, you would expect Lascelles to be cutting the sort of nonsense he displayed on Sunday out of his game.
The reality is, he is far too inconsistent.
What is Lascelles doing!
— Joe Wear (@joewear5) September 29, 2019
Lascelles is so poor man ?????
— Mark ???? (@MarkMazzocchi) September 29, 2019
https://twitter.com/JoshHeywood98/status/1178335479760068609?s=20