Newcastle United defender admits Magpies had to get back to basics after losing three in a row

Fabian Schar has gave an insight into Newcastle United’s “difficult” early episode of the 2023/24 season that resulted in three straight losses in the Premier League.

The Magpies have shrugged off the three successive defeats against Man City, Liverpool and Brighton by winning two in a row in the Premier League and getting a point from AC Milan. Schar was a defensive rock at the San Siro and calmly gave Newcastle the foundation to push on and get an 8-0 win against Sheff United, even getting forward to help create a goal or two.

But he has looked back on the more testing period and gave reasons why Newcastle have turned things around so quickly. For a start, Eddie Howe made it clear he wanted to use the same back four that helped United to fourth last season with Kieran Trippier, Schar, Sven Botman and Dan Burn a model of consistency.

“That’s what we’ve done. We know the Premier League is our main bit of business. We have to get the work done here first. We can’t not turn up in the Premier League and not play 100%. Mentally I think we showed we were spot on and we have to keep going like this.”

The former Basel defender joked that he’d failed to get on the scoresheet on a day of many goals for the Magpies. But said he was delighted to see his defensive partner Sven Botman grab his first for the club.

Schar said after the 8-0 win: “I’m very happy – but especially for Sven. It took a long time for him to score so I am buzzing for him. For the rest it’s all good as well. We have now performed very well over the last few games now.

“We knew what a tough place it can be at Sheff United but we knew what we had to do to keep them quiet. And we done that from the start, then the game went the way it went. We just kept scoring, some of them were with luck with deflections, these are the type of games where everything seems to work.”

Newcastle have plenty to build on going into another big week with the midweek game against Manchester City offering a passage to the last 32 of the Carabao Cup, and three more points up for grabs against Burnley.

Schar added: “The performance is great. A clean sheet, a lot of goals and I think we created a lot of chances so done well. It’s been a perfect week for us with three clean sheets as well. Personally I am very happy but we just need to keep going.

“Away from home we’ve come to a tough place and mentally we were spot on. If we can keep getting clean sheets we know we are here to score goals as well. That’s our foundation, clean sheets.”