Rafael Benítez was aghast at Newcastle’s surrender at Southampton but insisted he has not given up on his team’s chances of surviving in the Premier League. He acknowledged, however, that some of his players have an alarming mental problem with regard to away matches, which is why he is pinning most of his hopes on the fact that four of their six remaining games are at home.
“I am really disappointed, really upset,” said Benítez following a defeat that looked inevitable from the fourth minute, when atrocious defending helped Shane Long to shoot Southampton in front. “We started the game very poorly. We were talking about playing for 90 minutes with concentration and focus and not making mistakes and we started the game by making massive mistakes. The first half was really poor in everything.”
Newcastle were 3-0 down before Andros Townsend struck back for the visitors in the 65th minute but that never looked like the start of a comeback. “My concern [at half-time] was I couldn’t believe how they started the first half after the hard work they were doing during the week. We have to change that in one way or another.
“We wait to concede goals to react. You have to take something positive but I don’t see too many positive things today. The performance of the team away has been really poor all season and I’m already thinking about how to change something for the rest of the season.
“But we have four games at home and hopefully with the fans behind us it will be easier to do things in the way we want. It’s not the time to complain and blame each other, it’s a time to realise we have to stick together.”
The travelling fans did not seem optimistic about this squad’s ability to spring out of the relegation zone, with chants of “we’re going down”given an airing from the away end in the first half. “It’s very clear we can say nothing to our fans. They came here to see our team fighting and winning and we didn’t do it in the first half. In the second half we saw what we expect from the team: character, commitment, passion.”
Asked whether his players had the resolve needed to improve, Benítez replied: “Some of them are strong enough but some of them need help and we will try to help them in one way or another.”
