McClaren: Newcastle change will be painful

Newcastle United manager Steve McClaren has saluted the character within the dressing room at St. James’ Park ahead of tomorrow night’s League Cup tie against Sheffield Wednesday.

A number of new signings arrived at Newcastle over the summer but so far they have all struggled with goals increasingly hard to come by for the Magpies.

McClaren entered the fixture under pressure following a poor run of results in the league, only exacerbated by the 1-0 home loss to Championship side Sheffield Wednesday in the League Cup.

“I think everything they said about changing Newcastle is happening”.

“With a little bit more luck, it could have been 2-2, especially with my chance with the header and the shot with which I couldn’t get the power in”.

It would be the ideal opportunity for Newcastle to get their first win of the season but it is going to be tough with Chelsea winning three out of their last three. To change the whole ethos at a football club does not happen overnight and clubs that repeatedly change manager more often than not fail due to not being given the time to implement the broad and vast array of changes necessary. The season is still in its infancy and if we are still in the bottom 3 come February I will be surprised to say the least. This is not a game that we would expect to win, and for that reason McLaren can not be properly judged on the result.

“Saturday is a new game and we have to show the fans fight and passion, and everybody needs to put in a proper performance”.

“It is important to state that we bear collective responsibility for our position in the table”.

“We said if we do that we have a target up front, who can hold the ball up, we can improve and we did”. We should not forget we are still relatively early into the season with lots of games to go and points to play for. We have got to find the solutions. We have to turn it around.

However, he remain confident of turning things around. Mentally, technically, tactically, we have got to find the solutions.

McClaren made five changes from his side that fell to Watford, with Fabricio Coloccini, Papiss Cisse, Ayoze Perez, Jack Colback and Massadio Haidara making way.

Asked if that was as badly as the Blues had played under him, Mourinho said: “Yes, for sure”.

Playing two up front also seemed to bring the likes of Wijnaldum to life, easily having his best match since the opening day, long may it continue.