OPINION
Rafa Benitez has kept his faith in Newcastle defender DeAndre Yedlin more often than not this season but it is time to axe the 25-year-old from his team.
The speedy right-back had an absolute nightmare against Crystal Palace as he seemed to be defensively all over the place through out the 1-0 defeat to the London club.
Yedlin ensured he put the cherry on top of his terrible display during the match as it was his reckless decision to bring down Wilfried Zaha in the box that saw Palace awarded the penalty that provided their winning goal.
The decision to charge in on Zaha, despite it’s clear risk, was the type you expected from him when he arrived at the club in 2016, as he seemed to have the raw potential to be a success in England, but wasn’t the finishing product.
Yet after working with Benitez for a while now and making 95 appearances for the Magpies, the player is regressing and unlearning any lesson about defending that he has been taught during his time at the club.
Yedlin has shown glimpses of being a capable defender in his Magpies career but against Palace, against Arsenal and even in certain spells of the matches against Bournemouth as well as Everton, he looked like a player who had nothing but speed in his locker.
While the 25-year-old’s blistering pace can be a weapon for his side, it’s still not enough to justify selecting him if he is going to be a liability who is not learning from his mistakes.
With the Magpies having a tricky away fixture against Leicester City next week, Benitez cannot afford to risk playing Yedlin based on his current form as you might as well hand the Foxes a goal advantage.
