Glenn Murray has shared what he thinks Newcastle United must do this season for it to be considered a successful campaign.
Compared to last season, Newcastle almost look likely a completely different team and are continuing to slip down the Premier League table with every defeat they pick up.
Speaking on Match of the Day after Newcastle’s loss to Man City, Murray claimed that reaching any form of European competition would be considered a successful season for Newcastle.
Murray says Newcastle are victims of their own success
At this stage last season, Newcastle had only won one more game, which isn’t exactly alarming, but they had also lost just one game compared to this season’s 10 defeats.
The injuries, of course, have played their part and have resulted in the rest of the squad being massively fatigued, so the blame can’t all be placed at the feet of the players or Eddie Howe.
However, there will be a lot of criticism coming the way of the 46-year-old who massively overachieved with a very limited squad last year, and he is now suffering because of it.
If Newcastle had finished sixth last season for example, that would have been a huge success and the pressure wouldn’t be as intense this year, but Champions League qualification has brought a lot of expectation with it.
Murray doesn’t actually think that Newcastle need to be panicking just yet and that you need to take the emotion out of the recent games to understand where the club actually are at the moment.
On the show, Murray said: “For me I think they’re almost a victim of their own success. They did amazing last season, I think they probably overachieved.
“They’re two points off of seventh place when you just step back and take the emotion out of it. I think if they get into a European competition that would be success for Newcastle United.”
Newcastle need a very strong second half of the season
Just like the game against Man City yesterday, nobody is realistically expecting Newcastle to beat Aston Villa in two weeks time, although it does depend on the context within the game, of course.
When the pressure will really be on Howe is the following games after Villa when Newcastle face Luton, Nottingham Forest and Bournemouth, three games which suddenly become must wins.
If the team can go on a strong run now that they are back to playing once a week and should have most of their players returning from injury, then there’s still a lot to play for.
Things change quickly in football and with Newcastle being just five points behind West Ham in sixth then there’s no reason to believe they can’t go back to challenging the top sides in a matter of weeks.
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