FURIOUS Eddie Howe turned on his Newcastle team after another away-day disaster and revealed his concern about the club’s Premier League position.
The Toon have not won away in the top-flight for seven months and the team is 13th with just three wins.
Jacob Murphy put Newcastle ahead but Lucas Paqueta levelled, Sven Botman scored an own goal for West Ham and Tomas Soucek grabbed the third.
Howe, whose team are at home to Athletic Bilbao on Wednesday, said: “I don’t think it looked like a Newcastle team that we’ve seen in recent seasons.
“I think the body language, the collective spirit on the pitch, loads of little things that contribute to our performance, wasn’t there.
“I don’t think that was tactical and I don’t think that was necessarily technical. It was a by-product of us just not being where we needed to be mentally.”
WOLF WHISTLE
Sky Sports pundit a contender for Wolves manager job after Pereira sacking
FESTIVE FOOTIE
Premier League confirm Christmas fixtures with just one Boxing Day game
Newcastle beat Spurs 2-0 in the Carabao Cup on Wednesday but an angry Howe made three substitutions at half-time at the London Stadium.
He said: “I almost could have taken anyone off and I think that was a reflection of where we were in that moment of the game.
“It’s very, very rare for me to feel that way. In fact, I don’t think I have since I’ve been manager of Newcastle.
“The physicality, the energy was missing in our performance and the difficult thing to take from that. It was hugely frustrating for us – that was a poor performance.
CASINO SPECIAL – BEST CASINO BONUSES FROM £10 DEPOSITS
“The numbers aren’t good in terms of our away form recently, so it would be foolish for me to dismiss that outright. I think we’ve got a very good group of professionals who care deeply and want to do well.
“Certainly we haven’t replicated our home form when we are away. We haven’t got the points that we’ve got at home, but I think some of the performances have been very good.
“We just didn’t turn those really good performances into wins. Today was a dip in terms of performance and that’s the worst we’ve played.
“I don’t want to look like I’m looking for excuses, I’m just trying to figure out what happened today.
“So it’s never one thing, there’s always a combination of factors. But certainly I’ve never accused my players of lacking effort.
“I want to see a response and I want to see an honesty because that’s what we’ve built all our success on, is that quality with the honesty in terms of what they’ve delivered in this game and then an honesty to go and try and put it right if it’s not to the level that they want it to be.”
Asked if he is worried about being 13th, he said: “Of course it’s a concern when you’re not where you want to be because you’re always in a position where you’re chasing results and I feel that’s where we are at the moment.”
West Ham boss Nuno Espirito Santo was delighted with his first win as club boss.
Nuno said: “It makes it easy during the week. The legs will recover faster, there will be smiles, so much, much better to work, much, much easier to try and keep improving.
Read more on the Scottish Sun
FULL CIRCLE
I did TV shoot at Murrayfield while pregnant, now my son has made Scotland bow
‘SUSPECT HE’S A HOOPS FAN’
Walsh reacts as Gers fan teased by another The Chase contestant
“We can see today that the players are a little bit more confident. What we cannot allow now is this good feeling that we have to change, so we’ll be happy to return to London Stadium again next week, and that is huge for us.”
Hammers winger Jarrod Bowen said: “Yes, it’s been frustrating, but I say it to the players all the time – we have so much potential in this squad we have to understand it and go out there and show it.”
