Eddie Howe has reminded his Newcastle team they are playing for their future after offering no excuses for Saturday’s dismal showing at Arsenal.
The head coach has previously sought to defend his players after poor performances this season, but there was no protection this time.
Howe says ‘every aspect’ of their game was not good enough during the 4-1 defeat and, ahead of Tuesday’s FA Cup tie at Blackburn, he was asked if the team needed to remember their future at the club is on the line.
‘We need to do better in lots of areas of the game. That performance stands alone this season. The others, there has usually been a reason for it and we can work out where the performance has come from. For whatever reason, every aspect of our game was off.’
Newcastle boss Eddie Howe warned his players they are playing for their futures after their dismal defeat to Arsenal
The Magpies were ripped apart by the Gunners to continue their poor run of league form
Beyond the bottom three, only Bournemouth and Nottingham Forest have conceded more than Newcastle’s 45 goals this season.
Howe said: ‘We don’t want to be easy to play against. We want to be very difficult to play against. We didn’t execute what we wanted to do against Arsenal well enough. That’s clear. That’s clear from the performance and I take responsibility for that.
‘We have to find solutions with the different players we have playing now to still be effective defensively and effective the other way, and at the minute the balance isn’t right. But I think regardless of how you tactically set up, it’s individuals doing their jobs and making sure you don’t make individual errors. I think we’ve been guilty of a combination of a lot of those things in the last few weeks.’
Howe’s team were lauded for their ‘nastiness’ and ‘streetwise’ tactics last season, en route to a top-four finish. Where has that gone?
Howe said the players were ‘wounded’ as they look to bounce back against Blackburn
‘To a degree that is epitomised by the make-up of your team,’ he said. ‘The individuals always create the characteristics. We’ve lost a bit of our experience in that sense and the game-management has not been as good. It is something for us to look at.
‘But I don’t think you can force that onto players. They either have that or they don’t. Of course there are things you can say and do to your players, but you can’t change their characters. Our midfield is different. Our frontline was different. Our backline was different. Those players who come in then create the personality of the team.’
Howe, though, is relieved that they have a game so soon, with 7,000 Geordies set to follow them to Ewood Park on Tuesday.
‘The players were hurting,’ he said. ‘They are really good characters, people, they want to do well, they want to please, they want to represent the club in the right way. I’ve always sensed that running through them. They will be wounded at the moment. That is why it is really good we have another game coming round really quickly.’
