Newcastle United’s flying Dutchman Georginio Wijnaldum has thrown his support behind head coach Steve McClaren, claiming that the Englishman is “the best” man to turn the club’s fortunes around.
McClaren came under intense scrutiny in the build-up to Sunday’s clash with Liverpool, after a series of undignified capitulations against Leicester City and Crystal Palace compounded the 53-year-old’s fruitless start to life on Tyneside.
Newspaper reports throughout the week suggested that Newcastle owner Mike Ashley was growing increasingly concerned at the team’s unsettling plight under the former England manager, and the Sports Direct supremo had reportedly given McClaren three games to save his job.
However, £14million summer signing Wijnaldum eased the mounting pressure on McClaren’s shoulders by grabbing a goal and an assist to secure a monumental 2-0 victory over Klopp’s in-form Reds.
The exceptional performance and result wasn’t enough to drag Newcastle out of the relegation zone, but it showed that the players are still fully behind their under-fire boss heading into what will be a pivotal winter period.
Speaking to The Mirror, Wijnaldum backed McClaren and claimed that the Newcastle players must take full responsibility for the club’s current league position:
“I didn’t know that there was talk about the trainer’s future but I don’t think it’s the fault of the trainer that we perform badly.
“I think it’s the fault of the players. But that’s the thing in football, sometimes when things go bad everyone says the trainer is responsible for that.
It’s not fair every time, especially not in our case, because I think for this club he’s (McClaren) the best that we can get right now.
“I hope that the club will give him the faith and keep him here.”
Wijnaldum’s sublime stoppage time chip against Liverpool was his seventh goal of the season to date. However, the effervescent 25-year-old is more concerned about helping Newcastle climb the Premier League table than gaining personal glory:
“I always have the faith and the confidence that I will make and score goals because everywhere when I play I have.
But for me I don’t care if I score or don’t score in some games I just want to win, especially when we’re in this kind of situation we’re in – so I think in this situation you don’t think about yourself, you must think about the team.”
