Newcastle United winger Jacob Murphy has admitted there is a siege mentality at St James' Park going into the new season.
With no takeover, no new signings and United chief Steve Bruce already stating there is very little to spend in the remainder of the window there is understandably doom and gloom around the city as the countdown for the new campaign continues.
Bookmakers also have United listed as relegation candidates with predictions of another season of struggle ahead from some observers.
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But Murphy shrugged off the negativity and said: "We finished the last 11 games strongly.
"The last 11 games was top-six form, there or thereabouts.
"You know, we want to put in those kind of performances from the start, and see where we end up.
"We played well in those 11 games."
Newcastle finished last season in 12th position and improved their year on year performance by one place in the Premier League table.
Murphy said: "We had a bad middle and a good start.
"If we can sort out that middle part of the season, then, you know, it’s not going to be doom and gloom."
It is expected that Bruce starts the season with a three-man defensive unit with wing-backs and Murphy is set to be a huge part of that counter-attacking philosophy.
Murphy added: "It’s getting that consistency, and you can see the style we’re now trying to implement, playing out from the back, working the ball through the thirds.
"We want to add that to our strong, attacking game.
"It’s a process, piece by piece. If we can put them together, then we should be putting in really strong performances from the start."
