David de Gea is a free agent after leaving Manchester United in the summer (NurPhoto/Shutterstock)

Alan Shearer has urged Newcastle United to sign former Manchester United goalkeeper David de Gea in the January transfer window.

Newcastle slumped to a 3-1 defeat at home to Nottingham Forest on Boxing Day, a result which leaves them seven points behind fourth-placed Tottenham who have played a game less.

Eddie Howe has been hampered by injuries to several key players in his Newcastle squad this season, including to Nick Pope who is ruled out for four months after dislocating his shoulder.

Shearer believes Newcastle should make a move for a new goalkeeper in the upcoming transfer window and believes De Gea, who remains a free agent after leaving Manchester United in the summer, is the ideal candidate.

‘I would agree goalkeeper and centre forward would be the two main priorities for me,’ Shearer said on BBC Radio 5 Live.

‘But good luck trying to find a good centre forward that you can bring in for a decent amount of money.’

Asked if he would sign De Gea for Newcastle, Shearer replied: ‘Yeah, I would.

‘I think Newcastle need a goalkeeper, and De Gea is out there. I know the salary would be huge but they wouldn’t have to pay a fee for him.’

Nick Pope is sidelined for four months after dislocating his shoulder (AMA/Getty)

Speaking after Newcastle’s defeat to Nottingham Forest at St James’ Park, Howe believes his side have ‘suffered’ due to their lengthy injury list.

‘Whenever you lose games it is an uncomfortable feeling, when your team is not at its peak,’ Howe said.

‘You deal with a lot of emotions when you don’t get the result you want. I am feeling that. I like to keep my thoughts and analyse properly and make tweaks and changes.

‘My gut feeling is that the answer lies within. The players we have are good enough. We have suffered those injuries. We have not had it easy. We are not at our best physically.

‘We were not quite at our best and when you are not you get punished. There was a lot of good first half but the last action or pass was missing and that was frustrating. We wanted to make it 2-0 and in a commanding position.

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‘It has been an intense period. The players have physically given everything and we have acknowledged we have not been at our best and that is all we can do. We can now return to the training pitch for the first time in what feels like months. We need training ground time to refine missing parts of our game.

‘Some of our decision making was off, positioning or technically. It wasn’t a big tactical issue, we didn’t deal with moments in the game.

‘I’ll be prepared to make any change that I think can benefit either the performance or the result and of course players are accountable for what they deliver.

‘No amount of credit in the bank is big enough, you have to earn everything you get from the game. I’m a firm believer in that so players know they have to perform and we have to change our short-term form for sure.

‘It will be nice to build up to games and training. I think we have suffered not having training ground time. And the inability to rotate the team has caught up with us.’

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‘Goalkeeper and centre forward would be the two main priorities.’