Alan Shearer has expressed his belief that the Newcastle United players must shoulder some of the blame for the club's current plight.

The 3-0 defeat at relegation rivals Leicester City on Saturday means that John Carver's side have lost eight games in a row, which has piled pressure on the Magpies head coach.

Newcastle legend Shearer believes that Carver has taken a big risk by accusing Mike Williamson of getting sent off on purpose.

"I'm pretty sure that he will be expecting a knock on his door from the players that he has accused of lacking bottle to be in a relegation fight," Shearer told BBC Sport.

"Having said that, there's not really a lot that the players can say because to have lost the number of games on the spin – eight now it is – the players are not performing so they can't go to the manager and have an argument and say: 'You're wrong there'. What they can say is you are wrong to put it in the public domain.

"My feeling, or guess, is that he probably understands that he won't be there as manager next season, he's tried to be nicey nicey with the players to protect them and look after them and he's thought if I'm going to go down I'm going to go down fighting my way – not the players' way. They've had it too easy for too long now."

Newcastle are currently 15th in the Premier League, two points clear of danger with three games of play.