Midfielder Mohamed Diame has said that the Newcastle players remain firmly behind manager Rafael Benitez despite the team’s poor start to the season and that their “spirit is really good”.
The Magpies fell to a battling 2-1 defeat against champions Manchester City on Saturday, making it three defeats in a row in all competitions for Benitez’s men.
But the players are remaining positive: “The spirit is really good, but it has been this way for a few years now,” Diame told the Chronicle.
“The manager has spoken about this [the team’s approach] and we are all behind him. We know what the plan is. We’ve been working with him for a while now and we all know what we have to do.
“This is the manager’s idea but we are all backing him and we believe in him. We will do everything to make sure that, come the end of the season, we have got the results that we want.”
OPINION
It’s been a chastening summer and start to the season on Tyneside. The club didn’t enjoy the smoothest of transfer windows, and have now lost three games in a row in all competitions. It’s been a rough start to the Premier League in terms of fixtures this year, but performances haven’t been good enough for the Magpies so far this term. Benitez will be glad, then, to have Diame’s backing. The Senegal international, signed for £4.5million from Hull in 2016, is one of several Newcastle players to have underperformed this campaign, but clearly that’s not because of a lack of belief in his manager. However, if the 31-year-old wants to help his boss out, he and the rest of his team mates have to put in improved performances. The international break has come at a good time for the club, and upcoming games against Leicester, Brighton and Crystal Palace, after a clash with Arsenal, gives the Magpies a chance to get back on track. We’ll have to wait and see if they take it.