Actually, that’s not strictly true. Another constant has been the Magpies’ infuriating habit of turning it on against the best teams in the league, only for their performance levels to plummet through the floor when they have found themselves taking on supposedly inferior opposition.
On Wednesday, Newcastle were brilliant as they went toe-to-toe with a Liverpool side that ended last week with a nine-point lead at the top of the table. Inventive, energetic and fiercely committed, Howe’s players were back to their best.
Prior to that, though, they had been insipid against Crystal Palace, and three days after their impressive showing against the leaders, they imploded spectacularly, shipping four goals at Brentford. Dismal, disorganised and defensively shambolic, this was a performance every bit as bleak as the weather that Howe seemed to suggest was a factor in his side’s loss.
So, which is the real Newcastle United? Is it the highly-motivated, highly-functioning team that had Liverpool on the back foot for most of last week’s game, and that looked more than capable of challenging for a place in Europe? Or is it the mistake-ridden mismatch of a side that collapsed in the second half against Brentford, looking destined for a mid-table finish at best? At the moment, Howe admits he doesn’t know. And with the mutterings over his future growing louder by the week, emanating from a fanbase that is becoming increasingly fed up with the failings they are having to endure, that is not a great position for him to be in.
“In the previous two seasons, by and large, we’ve been going into the games knowing what we were going to deliver,” said the Newcastle boss, whose side have now picked up just two points from their last four matches. “There was a real sense of excitement before the games because of that.
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“I think we’re in a period now where that certainty isn’t quite there. There’s a vulnerability about us at the moment that we need to fix. I’ve said many times that it’s certainly not a question of ability. The ability is there within the squad, so then there’s question marks as to what exactly it is that we’re experiencing. That’s what I’ve got to try and figure out.”
Howe’s problem is that it isn’t just one thing that’s going wrong at the moment. At Selhurst Park, Newcastle were impotent in attack, failing to record a single attempt on target. In the first half of Saturday’s game, the Magpies were a constant threat going forward, but their defending was abject. After the break, their defending didn’t improve, but they were back to being utterly ineffective in the final third, failing to force Mark Flekken to make a single second-half save.
It feels like there is a general malaise hanging over Newcastle at the moment, and that is going to be hard to shake. Howe admitted prior to Saturday’s game that things had gone a bit stale as a result of limited transfer activity in the last couple of windows, and with the likes of Kieran Trippier, Miguel Almiron and Callum Wilson coming onto the field in the closing stages in west London, there was certainly a sense of a group of players in desperate need of freshening up. Whether or not that is possible in January remains to be seen, but without some reconstructive surgery, it is becoming increasingly hard to see how the current group can rediscover their former glories. For some, this feels like the end of the road.
“There is a very, very good team in there,” maintained Howe. “I’ve got no doubt about that. But we haven’t shown it enough, and we haven’t delivered it anywhere near enough for my liking, and for everyone’s liking connected with Newcastle.
“There is absolutely a very good team in there. I think confidence is a mental quality, and that’s maybe not as strong as previously it has been because of the results we’ve suffered in the last group of games. But we’re a team that, just previous to that, were off the back of beating Arsenal and Chelsea, looking like a really strong team. So, these things aren’t forever. Sometimes, it’s short-term pain for long-term gain, I think we’ll come out of this period better, but we need to learn the lessons quickly.”
The chief lesson from Saturday is that you can’t hand the opposition simple goals and expect to get a positive result.
Having cancelled out Bryan Mbeumo’s opener through Alexander Isak’s instinctive header from Jacob Murphy’s cross-shot, Newcastle shot themselves in the foot when Harvey Barnes delivered the ball to Yoane Wissa, enabling the Brentford striker to advance on goal and fire a clinical finish into the top corner.
Newcastle levelled again, with Barnes partially atoning for his error when he turned in the box and fired home a low finish, but they erred again at the start of the second half when Fabian Schar allowed Flekken’s long free-kick to sail over his head. Nathan Collins was able to ghost past the rest of the Magpies defence before slotting home.
Isak wasted a great chance when the score was 1-1, delaying his strike after initially rounding Flekken, and substitute Sandro Tonali headed over when it was 3-2, but Newcastle’s second-half efforts did not merit a third equaliser, and Brentford confirmed their victory when more slipshod Magpies defending allowed substitute Kevin Schade to fire home after a pass from Mbeumo in the final minute.