Alan Shearer slams ‘stupid’ Newcastle star as Eddie Howe defends his man

Newcastle United legend Alan Shearer has blasted Fabian Schar for being ‘so stupid’ in getting sent off against Southampton on Saturday, but manager Eddie Howe feels it was a harsh decision.

The Swiss defender was shown a straight red card just 28 minutes into the opening game of the Magpies’ Premier League campaign, which they went on to win 1-0.

Saints striker Ben Brereton-Diaz charged into the back of Schar and the Newcastle man did not take kindly to it, getting up off the ground and shoving the Chile international.

He would have got away with that, but then he put his forehead into Brereton-Diaz’s, causing the Southampton man to dramatically fall to the floor.

It was clearly an over-reaction from the Saints star, but Schar had done enough to convince referee Craig Pawson to show him the red card.

Shearer recognised that Brereton-Diaz was dabbling in the dark arts, but criticised Schar for his action as well.

‘S**thousery at its finest but so stupid from Schar,’ the legendary striker posted on X.

Howe had more sympathy for the Swiss, though, telling Sky Sports: ‘Contact was minimal. It was a harsh sending off, but we’ll learn from it.’

While he clearly would rather Schar had not seen red and he will not face the ban that will follow, Howe does believe there was a positive to the sending off.

Newcastle would recover from the bad start, with Joelinton scoring just before half-time and the game finishing 1-0.

‘We needed something to galvanise us and [the red card did]. We had our backs to the wall and I think [the fans] knew how much we needed them,’ said Howe.

‘We were free-scoring last season and that was something we pride ourselves on. We’ve done a lot of work on our defensive shape in pre-season. The players regrouped today and produced a great display.’

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