Newcastle United head coach Eddie Howe says it is a “horrible feeling” not to know what he is going to get from his side.
Howe thought Newcastle had “turned a corner” with a win against Manchester City in November and a more recent four-game unbeaten run, but Sunday’s damaging 1-0 defeat against arch-rivals Sunderland has been a jolt to the system.
Newcastle put in a limp performance after Howe sent out his team to be compact rather than bold at the Stadium of Light.
They now sit 12th in the Premier League table, having won just one away league game since mid-April, and Howe cut a frustrated figure as he assessed his team’s inconsistency a few days on.
“It’s a horrible feeling, because when you enter a game you want your players to go on to the pitch and give absolutely everything they have within their soul and their body to get a positive result,” Howe said on Tuesday.
“That’s the only thing I ever ask a player to do. Then I back their abilities once they go on to the pitch with that mindset to deliver a really good performance.
“There have been a few times this season where I’ve left a game unsure on that, and that’s mentality. That’s knowing you’re representing yourself and your families when you enter the pitch.
“Your job is to do your best, and I think we have lost a little bit of that, and it’s up to us to try and find a way to get that glue back.”
Using the disappointment of a painful away defeat to bounce back has become a recurring theme for Newcastle this season, following losses against Brentford, West Ham and Marseille in the last couple of months, and Howe said that is not how he wants his team to be operating.
But Newcastle have to quickly rally once again when Howe’s trophy holders meet Fulham in the quarter-finals of the Carabao Cup at St James’ Park on Wednesday.
Captain Bruno Guimaraes recognised that Newcastle won’t be able to truly “set things right” until the next Tyne-Wear derby in March, having labelled his side’s weekend performance a “mess”.
Howe said that talking off the pitch was “important”, but the head coach stressed it “pales in significance against your will to prepare”.
“Bruno’s comments were 90% right, initially,” Howe said. “I don’t think we were a mess. I don’t think the other parts of his original comments were wrong.
“We weren’t a mess – we were very well organised. We just didn’t deliver the performance we wanted.
“Bruno is very emotional, and that’s part of his success. That’s why he’s such an outstanding player for the leader and us.
“It’s making sure our messaging is right to the outside world. The mindset now is we can’t affect the past – we can only affect the future. We need to do that today.”
Newcastle will have to do so without influential defender Dan Burn, who is out for four to six weeks after breaking a rib and puncturing a lung in the derby.
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