Newcastle United suffered a crushing blow in their bid to remain in the Premier League after a 4-0 drubbing at the King Power Stadium.

There was much optimism going into the game after United broke their Premier League duck last week with a 1-0 win over Burnley, but ultimately it was again misplaced.

The Magpies hadn't looked too bad up until James Maddison dived to win a penalty, giving Youri Tielemans the opportunity to open the scoring from the spot.

The second half saw the Foxes rip the Magpies apart on the counter attack and their free flowing moves were far too much for Eddie Howe's side to deal with.

Goals from Patson Daka, Tielemans and Maddison completed the rout, making it yet another miserable journey home for the travelling Toon fans.

On another bad day at the office for Newcastle, there was a few talking points:

Howe trying to change methods

It's clear that the new Head Coach is trying to change the way that United go about their business.

This switch of style is welcome amongst the overwhelming vast majority of fans but the Leicester game showed just how difficult it will be for the former Bournemouth man to implement.

The first goal was the perfect example of this, tasked with taking a goal kick, Martin Dubravka played the ball short to centre back Jamaal Lascelles and between him and Jonjo Shelvey, they lost possession cheaply.

Whilst the awarding of the penalty itself was farcical, they gave the referee a decision to make by losing the ball in that area of the pitch.

Some of the best sides in the world have chosen this approach and some with eye watering levels of success but the fact remains that Newcastle simply don't have the quality of players to pull it off, which is a good link to the next point of discussion.

January looks even more vital

Without a good January transfer window, Newcastle will be relegated to the Sky Bet Championship.

They allowed a Leicester team that had been out of sorts and plagued with illness dismantle them.

This really shows just how Newcastle are from being a mid table club in the league, whilst also doing the goal difference no good.

Again, The Magpies' defending left a lot to be desired and that is surely the area to improve on first.

Will Eddie Howe take a more pragmatic approach in future considering the players he has at his disposal in the future?

The new consortium has been criticised by some for the pace that they have done things, if Newcastle are to survive they need to act fast in the transfer window.

ASM misfiring?

Furthermore, if Newcastle are going to survive, they need their best players to be on song.

United's best player is probably Allan Saint-Maximin but again he drew blanks in the defeat.

On his day, the Frenchman is unplayable but at present he is far too inconsistent to rely on.

He has shown flashes of quality in almost every game that he has donned the black and white shirt but Newcastle now need their star man to step up to the plate and take the game by the scruff of the neck.

We know that he has that in his locker, his performance at Turf Moor last season shows that.

United let down by VAR

What is the point of VAR?

Implemented for clear and obvious mistakes and yet when Leicester playmaker James Maddison took a clear and obvious dive inside the magpies' 18-yard box, the penalty was allowed to stand.

He may have been able to con Peter Banks at the time but with the benefit of replays, the VAR team of officials should have advised the man in the middle to reverse his decision whilst also dishing out a yellow card for blatant cheating. Or at least told him to have a second look at the pitch side monitor.

The penalty being awarded was huge moment in the game, at 0-0 Newcastle remained in the game.

Would Leicester's quality have shone through regardless? Quite possibly but unfortunately due to the incompetence of those at Stockley Park, we will never know.

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