Newcastle United haven’t won a single Premiership game since Kevin Keegan took over as the manager of the Geordies and after Manchester United ravaged them 5-1 at St. James’ Park on Saturday, KK has sounded cautious about the rest of the season.
Keegan insists (once again) that staving off relegation this season would be his first priority and although most people would agree that the Magpies are just too good to go down, there is no denial that Newcastle are gradually getting sucked into the relegation trap.
KK says:
We need to win a football match, for the players. I think they are an honest group of players here, who care. I wouldn’t save that if I didn’t believe it.
But just being honest and caring is not quite enough in the Premier League.
You need to be a bit clever at times, a bit streetwise. And you certainly need better concentration than we had at certain situations tonight.
If you are going to lose your concentration against [teams like] Manchester United and Arsenal it is more than likely that you are going to get punished – and we were.
I have said all along, we need 40 points this year, and we have got 28. Anybody who has not got 40 points can be relegated – and in the past, teams with 42, 43 have. To get to 40, we need four wins, or three wins and three draws.
So Keegan is eyeing that ever-important 40-point mark. But to reach that mark as quickly as they can, they need to start winning quickly.