Newcastle capable of so much more, says under-fire McClaren

“Sometimes you can’t play the ideal game but you have to take points”.

“I don’t get it why people keep saying to me I am fighting against relegation”, said the 25-year-old, speaking ahead of tomorrow’s game against Tottenham Hotspur at White Hart Lane.

“Harry Kane, Dele Alli and Christian Eriksen [who were rested on Thursday] are all top players”. However, their relentless attacking down the right-hand side could leave them vulnerable to Spurs’ tactical strategy – and Mauricio Pochettino’s team are significantly more organised than Klopp’s Liverpool were last week.

“They have signed a lot of players last season, it took them time to develop and adapt. I think they’re the sort of performances (like against Liverpool) that we put in the previous games before that”.

Although this was Newcastle’s first winning game since the away win at Bournemouth, the team still needs to continue this level of effort and quality in all future games.

Steven Taylor, Mike Williamson and Gabriel Obertan (all hamstring) remain on the sidelines for Newcastle.

The win against Liverpool certainly raised spirits among Newcastle fans, however the reality is that it will mean absolutely nothing unless they use this as a base to build their season upon.

Mousa Dembele and Clinton Njie have been ruled out, while Ryan Mason and Alex Pritchard are both unavailable with ankle injuries. “Sunday is a big game. We just want a steely focus, really, for Sunday”. We are doing well but at home we have to take the three points against Newcastle.

This is Newcastle’s lowest points tally at this stage of a Premier League season since 1999-2000 when they had 13 points after 15 matches, but recovered to finish 11th at the end of the campaign. So we have to prepare for the battle.

“I think this team is capable of so much more, that’s the frustrating thing”, he said.

“We are confident but we are not over confident”. Let us know by dropping a comment below via our Facebook comment box. “Week in, week out, you never know, you are just trying to get consistency, and that’s what we need now”. “We are going to play a lot of games over the Christmas period”. They looked like scoring the longer the game went on.

Newcastle was facing ending another weekend in the relegation zone until Ayoze Perez stunned Tottenham in the third minute of stoppage time to win 2-1 at White Hart Lane. The trip to Tottenham is followed by their biggest match of the season to date – a home match against Aston Villa who are struggling worse than the Magpies.