Former Premier League referee gives view on ‘poor’ error made by Mike Dean during Newcastle United’s clash with Liverpool as Aston Villa and Burnley hit with fixture postponement

Here, we round up all the latest stories that have emerged today surrounding Newcastle United:

Keith Hackett on Mike Dean

One of the key talking points following Newcastle’s 3-1 defeat against Liverpool on Thursday was the performance of referee Mike Dean.

Former Premier League official, Keith Hackett, has had his say on Dean’s performance and has criticised Dean’s position as Trent Alexander-Arnold struck home the third goal.

“Mike Dean ran across the kicker, that’s a bit of bad positioning and poor reading of the game.” Hackett told Football Insider.

“If you’re out of position, what young referees are instructed to do is to run behind the player, not in front of him. It’s obvious.

“I can understand what he was trying to do, he was trying to get some width to get a good viewing angle. That’s what he was doing when he moved to the left-hand edge of the penalty area.

“By doing what he did, he crossed the line and obstructed the view.

“He might have been surprised by the player taking the shot. At least he’s up with play but it wasn’t a good piece of officiating.”

Lawro’s worry for Toon

Mark Lawrenson is predicting an unsuccessful afternoon for Eddie Howe’s side against Manchester City tomorrow, fearing that the game could do ‘serious damage to their goal difference’:

“Manchester City seem to have found it tricky at St James’ Park in recent years for various reasons and they have not yet taken Newcastle apart there the way they have demolished most teams at one time or another under Pep Guardiola.” Lawrenson wrote.

“This time, I think they will find it a lot easier. City showed against Leeds what kind of form they are in, while Newcastle go into the game after successive defeats at Leicester and Liverpool.

“I think the Magpies will end the week with another loss, and will just be hoping they don’t do more serious damage to their goal difference.”

Premier League postponements

Aston Villa’s clash with Burnley became the latest match to be postponed because of a rise in coronavirus cases for Steven Gerrard’s side.

Newcastle United’s match against Manchester City is still set to go ahead however – with a revised kick-off time of 2pm.

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