Newcastle United were sent back to Tyneside with zero points as they were hammered 4-0 by Leicester at the King Power on Sunday.

Youri Tielemans (2), Patson Daka and James Maddison scored the goals for the Foxes, with three of the goals coming in the second half.

The opening goal came from the penalty spot in the first half as Jamaal Lascelles was adjudged to have clipped Maddison in the box after a cheap concession from Jonjo Shelvey.

Forget Lascelles

Whilst Lascelles may have given away the penalty to kickstart Leicester's goal haul, another player let Howe down badly on Sunday - Joe Willock.

The central midfielder put in a poor showing as he struggled throughout the match alongside Shelvey and was run ragged by the likes of Tielemans and Maddison.

After scoring eight goals in the Premier League on loan to the Magpies last season, Willock has been unable to kick on and continue to impress in the top-flight. The goals have dried up and he is not doing enough in other areas of his game at the moment, despite putting hard work in across the pitch.

Off the ball, he was a lightweight. As per SofaScore, he lost eight of his 11 duels (72.7%) and made just one tackle and one interception, whilst failing to make a single clearance or block. He was also dribbled past once and his central midfield opposition in Tielemans and Maddison scored three goals and provided one assist between them.

On the ball, he did not do enough. Via SofaScore, he lost possession 13 times and only created one chance for his teammates, whilst completing one of his three attempted crosses and failing to get either of his shot attempts on target to test Kasper Schmeichel. This shows that he was unable to offer quality in possession for Howe, to go along with his lack of strength against it.

Therefore, Willock let Howe down as he was shown up by the Leicester midfield and given a taste of the level required to standout at the top level.

He needs to up his game if he wants to continue starting games and Newcastle want to start picking up more points to avoid relegation down to the second tier, whether that comes by doing more in the final third or upping his play in terms of his defensive contributions.

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