Players have correct mentality for battle
We’ve always had belief, says Hayden
Isaac Hayden tackles Philippe Coutinho after the United midfielder was introduced as a late substitute in the game against Liverpool last Sunday ISAAC Hayden says Newcastle United have shown the mentality to be a Premier League success – and he only expects them to get better.
After a disrupted August, the Magpies ended September as the best of the newly promoted sides, having won three, lost three and drawn one of their Premier League matches. When they resume their campaign at Southampton next Sunday, they will be sitting in ninth place.
Midfielder Hayden says the team is happy with its start, and with the mental qualities they have shown.
“As a team, if you’d said we’d get 10 points by now, then people would have bitten your hand off at the start of the season,” he said.
“From the lads’ point of view, we’ve always had belief in our ability.
“There were a lot of pundits writing us off before we had even started, but we’ve shown so far that we have the right mentality, and the right hunger and desire to go out there and fight for every point we can get.
“We’ve got a really young squad – I think it’s the youngest in the Premier League – but we’ve got a lot of desire and hunger to get better and better, and with the manager we’ve got here, he’s only going to help us to do that. It’s exciting times playing for Newcastle.
Handicapped by Jonjo Shelvey’s red card, Newcastle were outclassed by Tottenham Hotspur on the opening weekend of the season but given the chance of playing 11 v 11 at home to Liverpool in their last outing, they frustrated the Champions League outfit with an encouraging 1-1 draw.
Newcastle’s confidence was underlined by the fact they went with two playmakers at the base of their midfield, Rafa Benitez selecting Shelvey and Mikel Merino, and only introducing the more defensive-minded Hayden from the bench with a quarter of an hour remaining. “Watching from the sidelines in the first half, it was a bit nerve-wracking, but to”be honest, apart from the first 25 minutes, when it was a little bit sticky in patches for us, I thought that we contained them quite well,” said former England Under-21 international Hayden. “They are always going to have a few chances, but I don’t really think they troubled us in the second half. “They had a lot of the ball, but they almost lost their idea of what to do with it in certain scenarios. “They were very good on the counter-attack in the first half, but we weren’t tight enough and that was probably what caused the problems. We managed to come in at 1-1, and the game is all to play for.
“In the second half, I thought we defended very well, and you could see that we were very drilled and knew what we were doing.
“We closed the gaps off so they couldn’t really play in between us, which is their main game with the players they have up front. Overall, it was very pleasing, and we could even have nicked it at the end with Mo’s (Diame) shot.
“That is testament to the lads’ character, that we stuck together even though it was difficult and we didn’t have a lot of the ball. Sometimes, that can be frustrating, and you can tend to do impulsive things like press when you shouldn’t be or make rash challenges.
“But I thought we did well. We made challenges when we had to, and I thought we had control of the game in the second half, like we wanted to.”