Steve McClaren suspects the next few months could prove tricky on Tyneside but he refuses to accept his Newcastle United side are destined to struggle against relegation for the remainder of the season.
Asked if he would settle for finishing one place above relegation in May, the former England coach demurred. “No,” he said. “I think this team is capable of so much more. That’s the frustrating thing. Finishing fourth bottom isn’t our mindset.”
Despite the optimism engendered by last Sunday’s 2-0 win against Liverpool at St James’ Park, Newcastle remain third from bottom before an awkward-looking trip to Tottenham on Sunday.
“Our position is not good but we have to fight and scrap to get out of it and climb the league,” said McClaren. “We’re not out of the woods yet. It’s going to get very competitive down there and we need to show we can climb the table.”
A couple of shocking performances preceding the Liverpool game had placed McClaren’s job in jeopardy but he claims he “never” feared for his future. “How we’d performed in the previous two games was more worrying than my position,” he said. “I can’t control my position, I can’t do anything about it. I just need to get this team winning. My total focus was: ‘What the hell can we do to get a result?’”
Having secured what was only Newcastle’s third win of the season, his players need to start winning on a more regular basis. “In the Premier League, you can never think you’re OK,” McClaren said. “Swansea are an example of that, starting well, being up there, then losing a couple and beginning to struggle. There’s massive pressure. In the two games before Liverpool [a 3-0 home defeat by Leicester and a 5-1 reverse at Crystal Palace] we looked like we’d never win another game but I always had belief in this team. I mean that sincerely.
“Liverpool was just a reminder that you have to out-run the opponent, you have to work hard and put the effort in. Many things went into Sunday’s victory last week but the main thing was we said we needed to out-run Liverpool in every aspect, including high intensity and distance. The team did that – it’s no coincidence that when we do that, we have a very good chance of winning games. But now we need to follow it up with another good performance at White Hart Lane.”
Whatever happens at Spurs, McClaren could do with his squad being strengthened next month but he said he had still to discuss potential activity with Newcastle’s board. “We haven’t spoken about January, absolutely not,” he said. “Things are going on in the background but our sole focus has been results – one game at a time. We have four games before January and after that we’ll see where we are.”
