Today was difficult, but a lot of fitness issues to manage before and during the game. Did that impact the result?
It doesn’t make it any easier. Losing Ruben when we did and the Azpi was also struggling a little bit so we had to take him off at halftime. It doesn’t make it easy against a team in a really good moment, playing with huge intensity and while I thought the first half was even, they started the second half better than us. We had to adjust a little bit and we did that. Conor had an opportunity, Pope made a good save then Newcastle scored and we had to push again. I think we had too many unforced errors to maintain any real good quality and pressure. Again, credit to Newcastle, they’re playing well, and they’re in a really good moment. You can see probably the difference in schedules of one game a week versus the intense period we’ve had.
Concern you that you didn’t get going in an attacking sense?
I thought we had some opportunities. Too many unforced errors, I thought we got into some spaces quite well but then a sloppy pass that isn’t normally like us. I have to defend the players in terms of fatigue, in terms of what we’ve had to deal with but Newcastle don’t make it easy for you. You can see they’re one of the best teams defensively in the Premier League so again, credit to them for that. It was a tough game for us.
Horrible schedule, how do you plan to use the break? As a chance to reset and reflect?
Yeah, we have to use it in that way. A lot of players go away so we only have four or five with us. Obviously, we have to hope that the guys that go away come back in a good place, healthy. We hope we can get the other guys back as well. Then, yeah, work, re-energise, refocus and go again for the second half of the season.
Third consecutive loss for the first time since 2002, how worried are you about that record and form?
It’s not nice to not get results. It’s as simple as that but I have to look at why that is and the situation that we’ve had to deal with. It hasn’t been straightforward at all. We’ve had a lot of games, a few injuries to key players, destabilised us, today again you see they’re missing. Just had a period that’s been incredibly challenging. You face four of the teams in the best moment in the Premier League in terms of the version of themselves and that can challenge you as well. As much as we can’t accept it, we have to deal with it and try to move forward.
Has the break come at the right time?
We have to see it that way. We have to use it as a positive and as I said we’ll have a couple of players back, we need time to refocus, reflect and get ready for the second half of the season. A lot of learning has happened over the last eight weeks but we have to use it as positively as we can.
