The Magpies slumped to another disappointing defeat away from home in the Premier League
Jamie Carragher on Sky Sports(Image: Sky Sports Premier League)
Sky Sports pundit Jamie Carragher set the tone for Newcastle’s grim 3-1 defeat at Brentford before the game had even begun.
When asked by presenter Mark Chapman if he could explain why Newcastle have struggled so badly away from home in the Premier League this season, Carragher appeared to dumbfounded by the situation.
“Normally when a team is poor away from home they lack mentality or physicality,” Carragher replied. “But they aren’t something you associate with this Newcastle team.”
And perhaps in that moment, Carragher had his finger on the pulse without actually realising it. Maybe the mentality that has been the foundation of Newcastle’s success in recent seasons is now lacking.
Eddie Howe used his pre-match interview to suggest Newcastle had to have the right ‘mentality’ to end their run of not winning away from home in the Premier League this season.
He also said they had to have the ‘mentality’ to deal with Brentford’s set-piece threat. When it was all said and done, they lacked the belief to achieve either.
Despite Harvey Barnes firing Newcastle into a half-time lead, Michael Kayode’s long throw saw Nick Pope go to punch a ball that was never his to punch and Sven Botman head the ball perfectly into Kevin Schade’s path to fire the ball into an empty net.
Dan Burn was then given a red card for two cheap bookings – the second of which led to a penalty to hand Brentford the lead – before Botman switched off to allow Igor Thiago to wrap the game up with a third goal unchallenged.
Mistakes can happen but that is not what Howe would expect from three of his most senior players. But they were far from alone in performing below par for the second weekend in a row in the capital. A second half capitulation is without doubt not the ‘mentality’ Howe was wanting to see before kick-off.
“I think it is clear, if you watch Newcastle today that we were lacking in confidence,” admitted Howe in an honest appraisal post-match. Newcastle have now dropped nine points from winning positions in the Premier League this season. That is the most in the league and already two more than they dropped last season.
Jurgen Klopp once dubbed his Liverpool players ‘mentality monsters’ for their ability to put aside any issues of fatigue, injuries and outside noise to keep on pushing on to new heights in their pursuit of success.
On a slightly lesser scale, the same has been true of Howe’s first four years as Newcastle United manager. In that time, they have beaten off relegation, qualified for the Champions League twice and reached two Wembley finals, ending the club’s 70-year trophy drought with victory in the Carabao Cup final back in March.
But they now find themselves without an away win in the Premier League and with just three victories on the board in their opening 11 games.
It is the first mini-crisis that has faced Howe and his players and they need to find the solution quickly, with just two points separating Newcastle from the relegation zone.
If Newcastle are the ‘mentality monsters’ we believe they are, they have to show it – starting with the visit of Manchester City in 12 days’ time.
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