Eddie Howe cut a frustrated figure as he spoke about 'unrecognisable' Newcastle United team
We know that Eddie Howe isn't one to really display his emotions in front of the TV cameras, but even he was struggling to hide his frustration yesterday as he faced the media following Newcastle United's embarrassing 3-1 defeat to West Ham United.
While Newcastle haven't been performing on the road in the Premier League, the trip to West Ham almost seemed like an open goal for the lads. Without a win on their home turf since February and also really struggling to get going this season, Newcastle should have made light work of the Hammers in all truth.
Maybe that got into the players' heads, and that's why they were so off their game, expecting an easy go of it, we don't know, but something was wildly amiss on Sunday afternoon.
Speaking to the media after the game, Eddie Howe looked visibly upset, twisting and turning in his seat like he just wanted to be anywhere else but there.
Eddie Howe says Newcastle United were 'unrecognisable' on Sunday
Eddie Howe criticised the body language of his players and labelled their performance as 'unrecognisable'.
“It didn’t look like a Newcastle team that we’ve seen in recent seasons. I think the body language, the collective spirit on the pitch, loads of little things that contribute to our performance weren’t there.
“The longer that first half went on, the more frustrated I was with our performance. We were unrecognisable in certain aspects of our game.
“I don’t think that was tactical and I don’t think that was necessarily technical. It was a byproduct of us just not being where we needed to be mentally.”
Was this the worst performance under Eddie Howe?
Sunday's performance was the worst under Eddie Howe
Like so many fans online, Eddie Howe branded that the worst performance he's seen by a Newcastle United side during his tenure at the club, and we certainly don't disagree.
There may have been worse results - Cambridge springs to mind very early in Howe's Newcastle career - but taking into account where we are as a club now and the calibre of players we had on the pitch yesterday, this one was far worse.
Yesterday, I was far too hungover to deal with that match, but today, I have a footballing hangover, and I have to spend all day going through the aftermath of that painful experience. I have the best job in the world, usually, but not today.
