Following Newcastle’s superb 2-0 victory over Liverpool, head coach Steve McClaren has admitted that his capricious side harbour one major flaw – a lack of belief.
Sunday’s impassioned display against a bang in-form Liverpool side typified the Jekyll and Hyde nature of Newcastle’s performances so far this season, and it was a stark contrast from last weekend’s abominable showing at Selhurst Park.
Newcastle have shown that they can mix it with the best teams in the league when they apply themselves correctly and focus on the task at hand. However, the Magpies have regularly thrown in the towel after suffering setbacks in games, leading to a series of shameful capitulations against Manchester City, Sunderland, Leicester and Crystal Palace.
McClaren has acknowledged that his youthful Newcastle side often lack belief, and the 53-year-old even saw signs of his team’s fragile confidence during the opening stages of Sunday’s crucial victory over The Reds.
Speaking to the Sunderland Echo, McClaren said:
“It’s about belief. We really believe in this team and these players.
They’re young, and at times confidence can be knocked and drained easily. You saw that at the beginning when we were a little nervous.
“But we came through that and got stronger, and the second half was great.
“In terms of me personally, it just saves me from banging my head against the wall and wondering what to do the next week.”
Newcastle have duped their fans into believing that they’ve finally turned a corner on numerous occasions this campaign, only to bring the Toon Army crashing back down to earth with a subpar performance the following week.
However, McClaren remains hopeful that his mercurial team can maintain their levels of belief and effort when they face fifth-placed Spurs at White Hart Lane on Sunday:
“It’s kind of saying ‘that’s us – that’s what we are. We’ve been that before – do it today, and do it next week.
This team has got talent and ability – we also saw belief and confidence, and I think that grew as the game went on.
“They showed that they’re good players, but they crawled off there because they’re exhausted and that was important.”
