At the risk of sounding like a broken record, now is not the time for Newcastle United to panic.
Momentum might have evaporated again with a gnawing home draw against an eminently beatable Tottenham but growing pains are not the same as terminal afflictions. Repeat after me: the Magpies are going to be alright this season.
Eddie Howe did not look like a man who believed that on Tuesday night. He can be glass half full at the best of times but he carried the demeanour of a man who knew his life had been made that bit more difficult by Cristian Romero’s late equaliser. It did not make for easy viewing for a defence that has collected plenty of plaudits.
But when he retired to rewatch the match in full in the early hours of Wednesday – a Howe post-match tradition, complete with mug of tea and biscuit – there might have been a brighter take on the 99 minutes that had gone before.
He likes to press play when the adrenaline subsides because it gives him a chance to remove emotion from his analysis of what he’s just seen. Perhaps some Newcastle supporters need to do the same.
This is going to be a season where Howe and the club are fixing things on the fly and in that regard they are better placed than they were at the start of November. Threat has returned, creativity is up and some of their big guns are beginning to fire again. When Yoane Wissa – a striker much more aligned to Howe’s game plan – is finally ready to play this team will look very different.
The issue right now feels more about mentality, which is not something you would normally associate with a Howe team. There’s a fragility about them when pressure is applied and it is a damning statistic that they have conceded five goals in injury time this season. On three of those occasions – against Liverpool, Arsenal and Tottenham – it has ended up costing them crucial home points.
Howe admitted that decision-making in those crucial moments is deserting them and the mind wanders back to the summer, when Newcastle had to make some big recruitment calls under pressure. Opinion can vary from week to week on Newcastle’s summer but there’s no credible argument to state that their XI is much better for a £250m spend.
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Instead it’s a personal opinion that the squad are much, much deeper in terms of quality – and that will end up proving critical when the season hits its home straight. Newcastle remain very competitive in the Carabao Cup and Champions League – and are within touching distance of the top three in a wide open Premier League. December is huge but wait it out before jumping to conclusions.
And the bigger picture remains of a club progressing. CEO David Hopkinson spoke well on Monday and was flanked by Ross Wilson, the club’s director of football, who described Newcastle as the most exciting project in European football – and in a month Newcastle can add to their squad.
The intent is there, even if detailed plans are yet to be crystallised. Like everything, we don’t yet know what this Newcastle can become. But Tuesday night’s frustration might quickly be forgotten.
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