Despite initially arriving among the English top-flight with the reputation as somewhat of a loose cannon down at St. James’, Aleksandar Mitrovic has admittedly kept his head for the most part this season, and has largely served to impress whilst operating within a clearly weakened side. “We have to start by winning the first one”. Their goal difference of -27 effectively puts them another point further away from survival, and the Geordie faithful are facing up to their second relegation in seven years.
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Some more atrocious defending led to the Saints second goal in the 38th minute as Janmaat failed to intercept a throughball from Sadio Mane, allowing Tadic to deliver the ball into the box.
Saints skipper Jose Fonte warned the Geordie flops they could have been on the end on an almighty tonking if the south coast men had been at the races.
Why do these errors keep occurring?
But can they? Midfield player Georginio Wijnaldum admits that he is baffled by the team’s fragile self-belief.
“I don’t understand why we’re nervous”, the Dutchman said. Losing it so late after having the better of the second half was such a cruel blow.
On his team’s display against Newcastle, Koeman added: “If a team is fighting against relegation they are not full of confidence if you give them time, give them the domination in the game then they can grow”. That’s something I don’t understand.
Southampton’s Shane Long celebrates scoring the first goal of the game during the English Premier League soccer match at St Mary’s stadium, Southampton.
Benitez is yet to win a game since taking over in March following one draw and three defeats.
Newcastle United are six points from safety with six games left in the Premier League season, but coach Rafael Benitez remains optimistic.
Most importantly, the undoubted talent in the team needs to come to the fore earlier.
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. But until Newcastle were 3-0 down, few would have picked him out as such. He said what we needed to do and we got a reaction with a goal back.
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“The fans will be crucial for us”, Benitez said. “We did it against a lot of teams, but now it’s a hard situation”.
