Two weeks ago tonight, Newcastle United’s season felt in danger of disaster.
After that 3-2 defeat to Brentford and the boos that followed, that away trip to Spurs was a must-win, to not only get us back up the Premier League table, but to lift spirits and quieten the noise surrounding Eddie Howe’s future.
Thankfully, we won that night and followed it with two more victories on the road, seeing off Aston Villa in the FA Cup before smashing six past Qarabag in the Champions League.
What changed? Well, after previous reports confirmed that a dressing room inquest was held after that Brentford defeat, Jacob Murphy has been discussing just what was put forward as part of a squad ‘reset’ to improve our form.
This change was a move back to ‘one brain thinking’, as Murphy explains that our best performances always come when the team are all “in sync and connected” as a group, whether that’s in our pressing, movement or defending.
“Sometimes you need a little reset, see what everyone is saying, if there is a common theme.
“We’ve spoken about the ‘one brain thinking.’ If you think about our top performances, everyone is in sync, thinking collectively on the same page – when we’re pressing, when we’re sitting off. Everything is done without a thought, but that is in sync and connected.
“That is something we have really been pushing in the last four games. It has been bearing fruit. We still think there is more for us to find and we can achieve that with this one-brain thinking”
These changes have been evident, as we’ve looked for more of a unit over the past fortnight, whether that’s in our defensive resilience, energy levels, patters of play or post-match celebrations, where the players, the manager and the fans have all reconnected.
Murphy scored his first Champions League goal in last week’s big win in Baku and will be hoping to start tonight after settling for a place on the bench in our last few games.
After a little blip on Saturday, let’s hope we can get back to winning ways again tonight and keep the momentum building ahead of huge league games at home against Everton and Man Utd.
