Javier Manquillo felt that Saturday’s goalless draw against Burnley at St. James’ Park went down as a missed opportunity for Newcastle United.
It’s now just one win in ten Premier League games for Steve Bruce’s Magpies, who enjoyed more possession than they’ve been used to of late but still found goalscoring opportunities hard to come by against the Clarets.
Indeed, United have failed to find the net in five of their last six games in all competitions, and haven’t scored in the Premier League since Florian Lejeune grabbed a dramatic late leveller at Goodison Park in mid-January.
Manquillo thought that the Magpies had the better of it against Burnley, though, and insisted he and his teammates won’t allow their heads to drop despite their drought in front of goal dragging on for another week.
“I don’t think it affects the changing room too much – we are working in every training session to try and not only score, but score and win,” the Spaniard told nufc.co.uk. “If it doesn’t go, we have to keep trying – that’s the only way we can do it.
“To be fair, we had so many chances today to get something and more. But in the end football is about scoring goals, and today wasn’t the day. We need to keep trying.
“We changed the system, but we were playing in our stadium in front of our supporters and we knew we needed to win this game, or try to win it. We couldn’t do it, but still it was a good performance.”
Prior to Saturday, Manquillo hadn’t figured for United since New Year’s Day’s game against Leicester, when he was forced off just before the break with a hamstring injury.
Happily, though, the 25-year-old’s recovery has gone according to plan, and after clocking up 90 minutes against the Clarets, Manquillo is hopeful of starting for a second time in four days when the Magpies take on West Brom in their crunch FA Cup clash on Tuesday night.
“Well, I’m available for (Tuesday’s game), like everybody else. Everybody would like to be involved (on Tuesday), but it’s the manager who will have to choose,” he said. “I’m very pleased (with today), because it just shows that all of the work I’ve done during the rehab has been worth it. I was able to cope for 90 minutes with no problems, so I’m very happy with that.
“(To return) for this game was more or less my plan. It’s true that it was a little bit of a complicated injury in the early stage, but it doesn’t matter – the important thing is that I have come back stronger and now I’ve got through 90 minutes without any problems, and that is very important for me.”