Alan Shearer was brutally honest in his verdict of Newcastle United's attacking prowess after Saturday's goalless stalemate at Goodison Park.

Mustering just three shots on target, one of which was Anthony Gordon's missed penalty that offered little to trouble Jordan Pickford a little after the half-hour mark, there can be little complaint about the criticism as the Premier League record goalscorer labelled Toon's display in the final third as "awful" on Match of the Day.

Mulling over a display of attacking stats that saw the Magpies rank no higher than 10th in any metric, and in the bottom half of the Premier League for the majority of key figures. Shearer saw little of this frontline to impress him, and was resolute in his statement that Newcastle need their injured talisman Alexander Isak back.

"Newcastle were awful in the final third today," Shearer said when quizzed on United's attacking output. "They played some really good football in terms of getting it into the final third, but their final pass or finish today was awful.

"Our attacking numbers this season are very mid-table, but having said that they are sixth in the league with no Callum Wilson, and no Isak in the last couple of games. They need Isak fit if they're going to improve their attacking stats."

A pair of penalty decisions were the main talking points in the BBC studio last night, with the pundits coming to the conclusion that ultimately the correct calls were made. Gordon stepped up from 12-yards after James Tarkowski's lapse of judgement saw him hurl Sandro Tonali to the ground, while Dominic Calvert-Lewin's claims were waved away after contact with Dan Burn.

"You can clearly see Tarkowski has his arms around Tonali and he's thrown him to the ground," said Micah Richards, asserting that the correct decision was made. "It's a penalty. Without going over the top, it's a penalty. (Tarkoswki) knows it, everyone knows it."

The other call, as a blue shirt went to ground in the penalty area, was more contentious and would not have been overturned on VAR intervention had Craig Pawson pointed to the spot, claimed Shearer.

"The only thing I'll say is that Dan Burn doesn't attempt to tackle him, he doesn't attempt to get in his way and Calvert-Lewin kicks the back of him. It's one of those where if it's given it's not going to be overturned, but it wasn't given and I didn't think it was a penalty."