Meanwhile, McClaren will also be without Papiss Cisse for Wednesday night’s Capital One Cup third-round tie at home to Sheffield Wednesday. It was the latest in a series of limp performances from the Magpies and the former England Manager is already feeling the heat in the north-east.
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After narrowly escaping relegation last season, under-fire owner Mike Ashley invested significantly in the Newcastle squad.
Whether or not the Blues have fully turned the corner could become evident at St James’ Park, seeing as the Blues have lost on each of their last three visits to Tyneside.
McClaren removed the 22-year-old midfielder at half time in midweek, but the Newcastle boss believes that, as with all of his pre-season signings, patience is essential as winless United look to turn things around in Saturday’s visit of Chelsea.
Next up we can look forward to Chelsea and Manchester City in the Premier League, let’s hope they can surprise us with the ratings…
With just two points from their first six Premier League games, the Magpies find themselves second from bottom in the table.
“It will be good to have Mitrovic back, we have missed him for three games”, said McClaren. We created some problems during the match for the defensive part of the Newcastle team. “It’s our philosophy and we are sticking to it”.
He said: “We talk a lot. We are changing style of play, to be possession based”.
“We have got to have that fighting mentality rather than that victim one”.
Which made it all the more surprising when it was recently reported that Barcelona were considering a move for the player when their transfer embargo came to an end in the winter.
“We have to try and turn it around on Saturday against Chelsea, with 50,000 Geordies being that extra man that we really need right now”, he added, in an interview with Newcastle’s official website. A chunk of those have come from the contribution of wide players in Pedro and Hazard and their work in tandem can be crucial to Chelsea’s chances of another 3 vital points for Chelsea on Saturday.
He said: “I am very happy with the players”. Give the team a month or so with him playing regularly I feel we will start to see things coming on nicely.
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But what else do you need to know about the Premier League game at St James’ Park?
