Newcastle United boss Eddie Howe lays down challenge to his players with 'improve' message
Newcastle United boss Eddie Howe was in no mood to revel in the glory after his side pulled off a convincing display against Wolverhampton Wanderers.
Instead, he immediately threw the gauntlet down to his players to find another gear and improve, despite making it nine wins in a row in all competitions. Newcastle also moved into the top four of the Premier League after seeing off Vitor Pereira's side but again Howe warned that the challenges now get tougher.
Howe told Chronicle Live: "There has to be more to come. That is the challenge we have to pose to the players now. Today wasn't perfect, the last 20 minutes wasn't great I didn't think and we need to keep growing, evolving, improving because the challenges only get harder and stronger.
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"That would be my message to the players. We will endeavour to do the work to find the extra gears we need."
Despite seeing his team chalk up their sixth Premier League win on the spin, Howe also indicated that no player is guaranteed a slot in his starting line-up.
Howe said: "I have been consistent with my team selection which I think has helped us. But you never want it to be definitive. And you don't want it to be definitive because form always changes. You hope players in the squad step up and give you a real problem.
"So yes I vaguely have an opinion on what my best team is but I don't want it to be set. I want players challenging all the time."
Newcastle had 17 goal attempts against relegation-haunted Wolves but it wasn't like the visitors did not have good chances. A disallowed goal and superb stop from Martin Dubravka at the end to deny Jorgen Strand Larsen meant it was a slightly flattering scoreline.
Howe reflected: "The first goal was so important today, we had a few scares today, Wolves are difficult to play against. Overall can't be too picky, it is nine wins in a row now. We know we can play better than today, we did enough of the detailed work to get the win.
"There's a lot to be positive about and a lot to improve."