Former Sunderland striker Darren Bent has ripped into Newcastle captain Jamaal Lascelles, claiming that the centre-back “needs to have a look at himself”.
The former England international thinks the 26-year old should reflect on why he has allowed himself to not be in contention for Gareth Southgate’s national squad.
In a comprehensive breakdown of options who could be named in England’s Euro 2020 squad this summer, The Independent dismissed Lascelles in October, claiming that Southgate hasn’t considered the centre-back.
This situation doesn’t appear to have changed, with Lascelles missing a stretch of games over the festive period through injury, having just come back into Bruce’s squad in recent weeks.
Now Bent has criticised the centre-back for not reaching the level that would put him in contention for a place on the plane in the summer.
Talking to Football Insider, Bent said:
He’s a funny one Lascelles. For someone who’s been captain of Newcastle for a long time now, you think to yourself he’s captain at a big club like Newcastle, he needs to have a look at what’s going on.
With that physical frame, he should have been at least capped once for England or been spoken about. The fact that he’s not, he needs to have a look at himself, this is too frequent with him.
For someone of that physical prowess and that big, powerful presence, to be captain of Newcastle United Football Club, for him to not even be in that conversation, he maybe needs to go something’s not quite right here.
Following Bent’s comments, a number of Newcastle supporters agreed that the defender hadn’t improved in recent years, taken to social media to reflect on the former striker’s claims.
Twitter: @ChronicleNUFC I like lascelles. He is a unit and a decent defender, but technically, along with his positional pla… https://t.co/5oaIf5rnXT (@StevieTrueman)
Twitter: @ChronicleNUFC In my opinion he’s never really improved, he doesn’t dominate the box, he has all the attributes to… https://t.co/G2x6MiH7dn (@Cosseycj)
Twitter: @ChronicleNUFC He’s not good enough on the ball simple as that, and positioning lacks at times (@gwalt18)
Twitter: @ChronicleNUFC Sadly I agree (with a mackem ?)… he’s nowhere near the player I though he was going to be … he’s… https://t.co/UxXeC1as69 (@jacknmorgan)
Twitter: @ChronicleNUFC Thing about Lascelles is he isn’t that good a player, his strongest quality is his leadership and th… https://t.co/5UitQIthPj (@RyanLongBelly)
