Eddie Howe had some tough questions to answer during today’s press conference at the club’s media centre, where the North East press pack quizzed the Newcastle United boss on our recent slump, struggle for goals and the criticism he’s received as a result.
After three-straight wins before November’s international break, last week summed up the stop-start nature of our season and struggle for goals, as we followed a 2-0 home defeat to an out-of-sorts West Ham with a 1-1 draw at Crystal Palace; a concerning performance with one shot all afternoon and result that saw us slip into the bottom half of the Premier League.
Asked about fan criticism, Howe said_: “I’ve no doubt that criticism is out there – it’s out there all the time. But it’s magnified if you’re not performing at your best. You expect it, understand it and live with it. It doesn’t really change anything I do._
_“I am constantly analysing the team to see if we can tweak things. If anyone thinks I’m sat there going, ‘We’re going to do the same thing every week’ then nothing could be further from the truth!”_
The boss was then quizzed on our recent performances and ongoing struggles in the final third, with Saturday’s display at Selhurst Park featuring just one shot over the entire 90 minutes and zero on target.
_“I think when you go back to the last two games we’ve had – West Ham we really created a lot of chances, especially in that first 60 minutes. And I thought we looked like a really good team but we didn’t take them._
_“Palace was different. What I said after the game; once we’d scored and we were leading the game, we’ve done our job to that point. As much as we still want to score, we want to go two nil up, the game had never been a free flowing performance from us. And if we’d won the game one nil, we’d have said that was a brilliant sort of away day for us where we didn’t play well but we got a great win._
_“We didn’t defend the cross well enough and then the whole focus comes back on sort of the performance with the ball. Our attacking output was very low. We’re not going to deny that or hide that so certainly we’re looking at a few things and trying to make tweaks”_
Asked if there’s a temptation to shut up shop and attempt to frustrate Liverpool tomorrow, Howe added: _“No. No for me attacking is fundamental. It is your aim of the game. You are giving your players a purpose._
_“We will always going to attack. I make no apologies for that. I would rather not be in a job than not fulfil that promise to the supporters. We want to entertain ultimately._
_“We want to play attacking football that ultimately the fans want to see. I know we are not delivering that at the moment and that is a frustration, we are not going to drop that we just have to become better than that.”_
We back Howe and hope he comes through this tough patch, but it’s a huge month for the boss, who must find answers ahead of a busy festive period that could make or break our season in the league and cup.