"Lay off the defence" - Dyer

By Matthew Jones
September 26 2002

After Newcastle's loss the other night, Kieron Dyer has asked the critics to lay off the defence and blame the frontmen. After failing to score in five games already this season, Newcastle's attacking players must play a part in these bad performances.

Kieron Dyer has told the critics to lay off Newcastle's defence and lay the blame for the club's current slump at the door of the frontmen.

The England star admits that he was out of sorts in Tuesday night's home Champions League defeat against Feyenoord.

And Dyer insists that, with the Magpies failing to score in five games already this season, the attacking players must take responsibility for a poor start to the season.

"It's at the stage now where the likes of myself, Nobby Solano, Laurent Robert and the other attacking players have to look at ourselves," he said.

"We've got to start scoring because we haven't scored on five occasions this season. But despite that, it's still the defence that gets all the bad headlines, which is very harsh. We're putting the defence under an enormous amount of pressure by not scoring," added Dyer. Our play to the final third is breathtaking at times, but then the final ball is just not happening."