Steve McClaren is hoping Newcastle players react positively to West Ham defeat
Steve McClaren has admitted he was always expecting a "car crash" along the way as he attempted to shape his Newcastle team.
The former England boss has B#52million worth of summer signings to pick from after taking over a club which only just salvaged its Barclays Premier League status on the final day of last season.
However, the Magpies head into Saturday's visit of promoted Watford at the foot of the table without a win and having not scored in 402 minutes of league football since the opening weekend of the campaign.
Much of the optimism which greeted McClaren's early weeks on Tyneside has now dissipated, particularly after a toothless 2-0 defeat at West Ham on Monday evening, although the head coach insists that did not come as too much of a surprise.
He said: "Generally it is early season, we are learning about each other and the Premier League. The reaction, we will see tomorrow.
"You get back on the horse and the players are up for a reaction on Saturday. The players and fans expect that.
"We have had five games - two were with 10 men. In four games, our attitude has been spot-on, some of our play, some of our battling. Then Monday.
"[We are] in the process of [building] a new team, and [with] new players in the Premier League, in the process of trying to change things around in a football club, and during that process, it is a little bit like a car crash.
"You know it is going to happen and you can't do anything. You just wait for it to happen."
Victory this weekend is a must if murmurs of discontent are not to grow in volume, although McClaren, who will once again be without the suspended Aleksandar Mitrovic as well as the injured Steven Taylor and Cheick Tiote, is conscious that as well as attempting to bed in new arrivals, he has also to deal with the psychological scars of a brutal end to the last campaign for those players who went through it.
He said: "Of course there is [mental baggage]. It is normal and natural when you look at the run of results. We [the staff] come in fresh not knowing what has gone on, and of course there is.
"We sensed that a little bit in pre-season - a couple of times we conceded a couple of goals, and the reaction wasn't favourable."
Meanwhile, Watford boss Quique Sanchez Flores is aiming to silence St James' Park.
The Hornets picked up their first league win of the season with a 1-0 victory over Swansea last weekend and travel to the north east looking to build momentum.
And Flores is looking to make sure their partisan following is kept quiet.
"We respect Newcastle because I know they are a very historical team in the Premier League," he said.
"They have McClaren whom I have respect for, a big coach in the Premier League. They have a a good leader, they signed a lot of new players also they are playing at a stadium with 55,000 fans.
"Of course we want to have a good atmosphere with high pressure but it is very interesting for us because when I imagine these kinds of matches I always think about creating silence in the stands.
"Our target is to create the silence. When you get to play and win in this kind of stadium it is amazing for the players and for their confidence, so it is very important to try to use this kind of atmosphere."
Odion Ighalo celebrated a new contract at Vicarage Road by scoring the only goal of the game to beat in-form Swansea.
That goal was Watford's first since the opening weekend of the season as captain Troy Deeney still waits to break his Premier League duck.
A talisman in recent years for the Hornets, Deeney also penned a new deal at the club before the start of the campaign and Flores has backed the Englishman to come good.
"The level of the opposition is different," Flores explained.
"He has scored a lot of goals but now the level of the defenders of the teams of everything is different so we need a little bit more from the players, they know they need to give a little bit more because the same is not enough.
"The Championship is one thing, the Premier League is different in terms of the play and intensity and quality so in this case I am really happy with the full squad but we know if we want to score 20 it's very difficult, and we have to improve the level of the players.
"But we are on the way and for sure when the season is finished Deeney and Ighalo and other players they are going to get their objectives."
Source: PAR
