Former Liverpool midfielder Danny Murphy believes Newcastle United's recruitment team made a mistake this summer.
The Magpies did not invest any funds in a first team center back, which Murphy believes was a huge error.
Eddie Howe's team have struggled so far this season, losing games to Brighton, Manchester City, and Liverpool.
Murphy told Vibe with Five: "The only thing I'd say about Newcastle, those players I like, I think [Sandro] Tonali is a great signing, I like Anthony Gordon. I'm going to go for a seven and the reason I'm going to go seven is the last two games have shown they didn't get the cover at center-half for [Sven] Botman and [Fabian] Schar.
"Dan Burn although I love him and he had a great season at left-back, at center-half he gets isolated for pace. You've seen it with [Darwin] Nunez in the Liverpool game, Botman went off and Burn went into the middle and could not cope with Nunez.
"Then at Brighton against [Evan] Ferguson, big struggle. So someone in recruitment at Newcastle has got that wrong, they needed a centre-half. I think that was their main priority."
