Three changes Newcastle United need to make in order to secure promotion

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Build a winning mentality

The defeats that Newcastle have suffered this season have had a common theme to them. They will have lots of possession, but struggle to open the scoring and leave the door open for the opposition to take the three points. The defence has little work to do and can lose concentration in the second half, allowing the opposition to open the scoring. Newcastle have lost every match that they have conceded the first goal in. Once that first goal goes in against them, they are shell-shocked and don’t know how to react. The defeats to Fulham, Wolves, Blackburn (H), Sheffield Wednesday and Blackburn (A) have all had a similar feel to them.

Newcastle concede few chances and have one of the best defences in the league, but they can switch off and they need to eradicate that from their game. Rafa Benitez has consistently talked about improving his side’s ‘game-management’ and he is correct. It is a problem that the side tends to dominate possession, before conceding during the one spell of the match that they aren’t on top. They need to learn the clever ways to regain momentum and ride the waves of pressure. There seems to be a mentality problem among the supporters and players alike. If they fail to take an early lead, there almost becomes an inevitability that they will lose the match. Newcastle have only failed to lead at half-time in nine of their league matches this season. They went on to lose six of them. That is a concerning stat.