“Do you want to be hunted or be the hunter?” – This was Eddie Howe’s pre-match message to his Newcastle United players ahead of Saturday’s huge win over Brentford.
This is according to Ryan Fraser, who has also revealed that the NUFC boss told his players to keep on attacking and win “three of four nil” during his half-time team talk.
Both messages highlight the brilliant change in approach under the new manager. Where Bruce played a 5-4-1 formation away to a winless Sheffield United this time last year, setting up ‘not to lose’ against a relegation rival, Howe is installing positivity and fearlessness into his players both before and during such a big game.
Here’s what Fraser had to say when speaking to NUFC.co.uk, revealing what was said in a hotel meeting after they arrived in West London:
“The gaffer had a meeting before the game at the hotel and his quote was ‘Do you want to be hunted or be the hunter?’.
“We would jump three places today if we won and that little bit of motivation before we came to the ground was important.
“Now, we need to keep being the hunter and get up as far as we can.
“Although we don’t want to get too far ahead of ourselves, we can still finish quite high up in the table.”
Fraser then went on to praise the transformative effect Howe’s had on the player, revealing his half-time message and the boost this unbeaten run has given the squad:
“Ever since the gaffer’s came in, there’s been a change in spirit and there is belief we can win when we go out on that pitch.
“No one questions it, we all get our jobs and he’s putting us out there to win the game. The lads are feeling unbelievable – I can’t tell how you how hard it is to go seven games unbeaten in the Premier League.
“Getting back-to-back wins is hard enough as it is but to go seven unbeaten, winning four of them, is unbelievable from where we’d been. You get the top six teams who will struggle to be seven unbeaten sometimes. It’s brilliant and all the lads are buzzing for it!
“I don’t think the red card changed the game. Before the red card, we dominated it and had chances. I think it makes it harder because they sit in even more but the lads stood up to it, getting the two goals before half-time.
“The gaffer told us to try and win three or four nil but two-nil, a clean sheet in the Premier League and getting three points with the fans buzzing is all that matters!
“I thought the second goal was coming anyway but it was a great counter-attack from us. We can play two styles now – keeping the ball like we did in the second-half, managing out the game, and we can also hit teams on the counter.
“We know what we’re doing and the gaffer puts us in a structure we know when to counter and keep the ball in transition so it’s been brilliant.”
The Scott also revealed that he was back playing in his ‘favourite position’ over the weekend (LW), something that helped him form a dangerous partnership with Matt Targett down the left:
“It’s my job to do that (assisting) but you go into the game thinking about your performance first – the willingness, running and doing the game plan the manager has given you and the rest comes on top of that.
“I played out on the left for the first time and the gaffer knows that’s my favourite position! Maxi and Murph have been playing there and I got used to playing on the right.
“Me and Matt had a very good relationship today. We trained just once with each other, on Friday, and as a full-back and wide man, I don’t think you would have noticed it would have been one day on the training pitch.”
