Journalist Lee Ryder has slammed Newcastle United defender Fabian Schar after he put in his "worst display of the season" in the club's recent outing.

What's the latest on Fabian Schar and Newcastle?

With the Magpies pushing for a spot in the top four, their Champions League ambitions took a big hit as they lost on Saturday afternoon.

Coming up against an in-form Aston Villa side, Eddie Howe and co were completely outplayed as they shipped three foals at Villa Park.

Jacob Ramsey opened the scoring after just 11 minutes before two second-half goals from Ollie Watkins gave the home team a much-deserved 3-0 win.

As the scoreline suggests, Newcastle were far from their best but it seems as though one man, in particular, stood out for all the wrong reasons.

Indeed, in his player ratings for ChronicleLive, Ryder handed Schar a 4/10 for his efforts and damningly summed up his afternoon.

He wrote: "Struggled throughout in his worst display of the season. Also booked in the first half for foul on Watkins."

How bad was Schar against Aston Villa?

As per those ratings, that made Schar the joint-worst player on the pitch and it seems as though many others noticed his struggled.

Indeed, after the first goal, journalist Andrew Musgrove wrote on Twitter: "Really poor first goal for #NUFC to concede. Lucky not to be another down. Trippier & Schar really struggling. Improvement needed."

While The Athletic's Gregg Evans added: "Watkins is ripping Schar. The #NUFC backline can't handle him.

The Newcastle CB already on a yellow card for sliding in late."

When you look at his stats on SofaScore too, it's safe to say things don't get much better. Indeed, his 6.3 rating was the joint-worst on the pitch. He was the only player to pick up a yellow card and the only centre-back on the field to be dribbled past (once).

He was sloppy in possession too, giving the ball away six times and completing just two out of five attempted long balls. While he also missed one big chance as he failed to help his side defensively or going forward.

All in all, it was a pretty dismal display for Newcastle on the whole as well as Schar individually. What's more, seeing as he's averaged a 7.16 rating per game on SofaScore in this league this term, it's safe to say this was a big drop-off in the usual standard of quality we see from the £40k-p/w defender.