Southampton 3 Newcastle 1: Rafa Benitez wants Magpies to 'change' if they are to stand any chance of survival

Benitez admits that individual mistakes are 'killing the team mentally' but feels they can still remain in the Premier League

Rafa Benitez reacts during Newcastle'a 3-1 defeat by Southampton (Getty)

If any manager knows about comebacks, it is Rafa Benitez. But winning enough games to save Newcastle United from relegation now looks a harder task than leading Liverpool back from a 3-0 half-time deficit against AC Milan to win the 2005 Champions League final.

“This is different,” he admitted after Saturday's 3-1 capitulation at Southampton. “When you are working with a team for one year, you know what you can expect from everyone and they know what they can expect from you.”

What he now realises he can expect from Newcastle seems to be basic errors in defence, which will surely undermine the chances of getting the four wins they will almost certainly require from their six remaining games, four at home and two on the road, including a potentially bittersweet visit to Anfield.

“We have to change a lot of things, the commitment, the passion, the character and the way that we play,” he said. “At the moment just a single mistake, an individual mistake, is killing the team mentally.

“Almost every game we must approach as thinking it is a must-win game, but you can’t control what the other teams will do. If they lose some games maybe it will be enough with four games. If they continue winning games, then maybe you need to win five. And if you lose it doesn’t matter. We don’t need to be the best team in the Premier League but we have to be the best team in the bottom four. We are not doing that at the moment. We have got to start doing that quickly.”

Graziano Pelle celebrates with his Southampton team-mates after scoring against Newcastle (Getty)

But can they? Midfield player Georginio Wijnaldum admits that he is baffled by the team's fragile self-belief. “If you go behind, it's hard to change it. We don't have the results that give you confidence. We must keep the faith and try to get the confidence that we can survive. But it has to start now. We have six games to go, and that's not a lot.”