Alan Shearer believes Newcastle United's decision to start Allan Saint-Maximin up against Manchester City's Joao Cancelo was one of the major factors behind the Magpies heavy 5-0 away defeat. Cancelo was a thorn in Newcastle's side for the majority of the contest, playing an influential role in City's attacks from left-back.
He was heavily involved throughout the match and played a key part in City's first goal of the game, where he got in behind Saint-Maximin to nod the ball across to Raheem Sterling, who headed home past Newcastle keeper Martin Dubravka.
Moments before the goal, Saint-Maximin was given a warning sign when Cancelo burst into the box, running in behind the French winger to get onto the end of a Kevin De Bruyne cross, which he blazed over the crossbar from close range.
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And when asked by Match of the Day 2's Mark Chapman if he felt Saint-Maximin was the wrong option to nullify Cancelo, Shearer reckons City manager Pep Guardiola would have seen that as an area his side could exploit as they look to stay ahead of title challengers Liverpool.
"I think Pep would have - we know that Cancelo likes to do that," said Shearer in response to Chapman.
"He likes to get involved and he wants to get on the ball wherever that may be. I think with Pep he would have looked at that and identified that as a problem [for Newcastle] because he would have known that Saint-Maximin would have been a bit reluctant to do that tracking back and that's exactly how it turned out."
