Inconsistency is the word of the season so far for Newcastle United. The team seems to suffer from a dual identity and you never really know which side is going to turn up for each game.
As Eddie Howe spoke to the media this morning ahead of tomorrow's Carabao Cup quarter-final clash with Brentford, the Newcastle gaffer mentioned how two good performances flanked a terrible one.
Unfortunately for Newcastle, that terrible performance was against tomorrow night's opponents, Brentford.
That could be a psychological thing for the team to overcome that could go either way, hopefully, the lads will use it to spur them on even more and do whatever they can to batter Brentford to make up for that 4-2 defeat last week.
Eddie Howe believes Newcastle's attack can be the driving force that propels Newcastle forward for the rest of the season, starting with Brentford tomorrow.
"Those two games have been really good performances [Liverpool and Leicester], the problem for us was Brentford was sandwiched in-between it, and we didn’t like ourselves in that one.
"We back ourselves from an attacking sense with the players we have and it was good to see us score the goals we did at the weekend. Our only focus is on Brentford and winning this match."
Attack has been a big problem for Newcastle this season and their inability to score has been a massive contributing factor to that inconsistency that has plagued the season.
Even on Saturday when we netted four goals, we still missed a raft of chances, the most egregious of those were squandered by Alexander Isak who, despite getting on the scoresheet, seems devoid of confidence for some reason. You'd bet your house on him winning a one-v-one but his shot on Saturday looked more like a backpass. And that's before we even mention the lack of shot after rounding the 'keeper against Brentford last week.
Football is a confidence game, though, and we know that it will only take a goal or two to get Isak back to his best.
PL | GD | PTS | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
1 |
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23 | 35 | 56 |
2 |
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24 | 27 | 50 |
3 |
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24 | 13 | 47 |
4 |
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24 | 16 | 43 |
5 |
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24 | 13 | 41 |
6 |
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24 | 13 | 41 |
7 |
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24 | 13 | 40 |
8 |
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24 | -3 | 37 |
9 |
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24 | 4 | 36 |
10 |
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24 | -3 | 34 |
11 |
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24 | 0 | 31 |
12 |
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24 | -2 | 30 |
13 |
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24 | -6 | 29 |
14 |
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24 | 11 | 27 |
15 |
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24 | -17 | 27 |
16 |
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23 | -5 | 26 |
17 |
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24 | -18 | 19 |
18 |
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24 | -28 | 17 |
19 |
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24 | -27 | 16 |
20 |
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24 | -36 | 9 |