The Newcastle United Blog

Steven Taylor has been very upbeat since Kevin Keegan arrived and he’s now playing solid football in central defense for the team.

Kevin Keegan - cares so much

The 22-year-old England Under-21 captain said today:

“Kevin cares so much. It’s only natural that he’s going to do a lot of work with the forwards, because that’s where he played himself, but the defensive work we’ve done every day since he’s come in has been phenomenal.”

“He’s drilled it into us: don’t take risks. If you’re not sure, the ball goes in Row Z. Now we’re starting to do that. At the beginning of the season, we were trying to play our way out of trouble, but now we know when to play and when not to play.”

“The manager keeps reminding us that concentration is a massive factor. If we can concentrate for 94, 95 minutes every game and keep clean sheets like we have, we won’t go far wrong.”

“We know it’s been a disappointing season, but the club is now moving forward.”

It’s good to hear that because Kevin’s attacking style of play has also taken a lot of pressure off the Newcastle defense. But they’ve also looked so good in the last few games, and very solid.

The word on Keegan that his defensive capabilities as a coach are weak is just nonsense. But we’ve also noticed that the press are usually completely wrong about Kevin on lots of different things.

He’s been instrumental in changing not only the way the defense plays, but in every facet of the team.  And Newcastle are now playing like Kevin’s Newcastle teams of old, always moving forward.

Also, we’ve noticed the good thing about the press, is that he doesn’t let any criticism affect him and he has a great rapport with the press - but there again he has a great rapport with everybody.

Comments welcome.