Matt Ritchie Unleashes Brutal Assessment of Situation at Newcastle by Claiming Club 'Lacks Belief'
Newcastle midfielder Matt Ritchie has astonishingly claimed that the whole club 'lacks belief' following their 2-0 defeat to Manchester United.
Ritchie went on to criticise not only his teammates, but the whole atmosphere at St James' Park after the Magpies slumped to an eighth home defeat of the season courtesy of goals from Romelu Lukaku and Marcus Rashford.
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"The whole place just lacks belief. We need to keep believing. The players on the pitch, we need to have belief, and the fans as well need more belief," Ritchie told BBC Newcastle, as quoted by the Daily Mail.
'The feeling in the stadium on Wednesday was that we're at home against Man Utd and we've gone one behind, and it was like it was done - it's not done. Just because it's Man Utd and we've gone one behind doesn't mean we're not going to come back.
'We need to go again because we're in a fight now."
Even though the Magpies have slipped to 15th place, just two points above the relegation zone, Ritchie is taking confidence from last season when club found themselves in a similarly poor position:
"When we played Man United at home last season (won 1-0) we'd gone into the bottom three around this time of year," he added.
"There's not a lot of difference. But belief is the main thing. Belief, confidence. We've got the desire. You can see the lads, we don't lack effort. If we believe we can achieve like we did last season, then we can do that."
Newcastle and Ritchie will be hoping to bounce back and rekindle some belief when they host Blackburn in the FA Cup on Saturday, before they face a difficult trip to Chelsea in the Premier League the following weekend.
