Jose Enrique Wants More 'Intensity' From Newcastle United

After Newcastle United's disappointing 1-1 draw away to Hull City at the weekend, Magpies left-back Jose Enrique is urging his team-mates to raise their intensity levels, as they look ahead to games against Arsenal and Chelsea in the next fortnight.

"The only thing that will get us out of it [the relegation scrap] is 100% intensity, and that includes training," the Spaniard told The Newcastle Chronicle.

"There are games coming up that we have to win."

And Enrique was decidedly unimpressed with the way he and his team-mates performed on Saturday in east Yorkshire.

"I think in the first half we did nothing," he said. "In the second half we played a little bit better.

"I felt I needed to play better personally, much better. In the first half we didn’t defend very well and we lost the ball too much.

"The only thing we did was equalise when Steven Taylor scored."

In spite of the disappointed air of gloom that seems to be hanging over the Toon following the Hull result, the Magpies did actually manage to move one place up the Premier League table to 16th, with 29 points. However, only goal difference separates them from Stoke City in the relegation zone, and Enrique knows that they must start picking up victories quickly.

"This is the one positive. A point is better than nothing, but we needed to win because we now have a very difficult game at home to Arsenal," he continued.

"One point is not so bad, but this situation is no good. We needed three points. With this team I thought we could win – we didn’t and we must move forward, now we can’t do anything about Hull."

Zack Wilson, Goal.com