Newcastle United captain Bruno Guimaraes gave a brutally honest assessment of his side’s 4-2 defeat at Brentford on Saturday.
The two sides traded goals in the first half as Alexander Isak quickly cancelled out Bryan Mbeumo’s early opener before Yoane Wissa restored the host’s lead. The Magpies responded quickly again as Harvey Barnes equalised.
The Bees took control of the encounter in the second half as Nathan Collins and Kevin Schade both scored to extend their unbeaten record at home.
“Very disappointing,” Guimaraes told Premier League Productions. “In the first half we had some very good moments, but after the third goal we lost our way, we lost control.”
Bruno Guimaraes admits Newcastle were ‘a mess’ vs Brentford
The Brazilian admitted that Newcastle have developed a bad habit of only performing after going behind in matches this season.
“We have always been reactive, we need to concede a goal to score,” he said. “We never score first, we concede a lot of goals, this cannot happen. We have to find a way to be consistent.
“We had to change in the first half to get into the game. But after we conceded the third we became a mess, we gave the ball away a lot and we were punished. I want to thank the fans coming in not good weather, now we have a week to try and recover and beat Leicester at home.
“We have to turn things around. Last season we had one of the best defences in the league, now we concede a lot. This is about the whole team, we have to find a way not to concede.”
Newcastle manager Eddie Howe was equally unimpressed with his team’s performance against Brentford, admitting afterwards that it was “really frustrating”.
“We are really disappointed with the manner of goals we conceded,” he told BBC Sport. “It’s not even individual mistakes, there’s two or three actions I’m not happy with for each goal. We have to do better in those situations.
“We had control of the game in the first half, then it got away from us after the third goal. We looked like a good attacking unit, but we have to put it all together and it has led to inconsistent results.”
