Newcastle United centre back Jamaal Lascelles has admitted he and the squad made a “mistake” last season in not applying themselves in the final games of the season and has urged his teammates not to repeat history this year.
The Magpies ended up finishing 10th in the Premier League after racing away from the relegation battle but saw their season stutter to a halt, losing all but one of their last five games against both mid-table battlers and relegation threatened sides.
With a similar situation emerging at St James’ Park this season, club captain Lascelles, a favourite of manager Rafael Benitez, has demanded that they do not let their campaign fizzle out.
He told the Northern Echo: “I think last year we made a bit of a mistake when we were safe and took our feet off the gas a little bit. We lost four out of our five last games.
“We need to make sure we’re safe. There’s still a lot to play for, and we’ll try and finish as high as we can. (Arsenal) and Liverpool are probably two of the biggest teams we’ve got left to play, and we’ve crossed one of those off. But look at the other games – all our home games are important.
“It’s a big game this weekend against Palace. We’d like to finish ahead of them, and to do that we need to beat them on Saturday.”
Opinion
Lascelles makes a very valid point about how Newcastle’s season ended up amounting to very little in the final stages of last season and you can be sure that Benitez nor the Toon Army will not want the same to happen a year later. The unfortunate truth of the matter is that when there is nothing but pride to play for, which looks to be the case for the Magpies heading into the last few games this campaign, the players’ attention lies elsewhere – specifically on the summer after a long, gruelling year of football. What could shake things up is if Benitez chooses to give some of the lesser-seen talents – such as Kenedy and Antonio Barreca – a chance to prove their worth in the starting XI, while you could also see the likes of Freddie Woodman handed some game time to get him first team experience and to keep him satisfied ahead of the summer transfer window. That would give the team something to play for.
