Under-fire Newcastle manager Steve McClaren hopes to follow Louis van Gaal's example as he bids to end a miserable run that threatens to bring a premature end to his St James' Park reign.

McClaren's side crashed to their fourth successive defeat in midweek when they were dumped out of the League Cup by second tier Sheffield Wednesday.

With Newcastle languishing in the Premier League relegation zone after failing to win any of their first six games, many Magpies fans are already calling for the former England boss McClaren to be sacked.

But Newcastle managing director Lee Charnley, who hired McClaren from Derby during the close-season, backed him in an email to disgruntled fans.

And, speaking ahead of Saturday's home game against Chelsea, McClaren insists he will not be swayed from a philosophy he believes will bring lasting success because he has seen van Gaal, now in charge at Manchester United, ride out similar storms and go on to enjoy success.

"You can't rush the process. We'd like to, but you can't do that," McClaren told reporters on Friday.

"I'm a big admirer of Louis van Gaal. I've followed him into Holland, I've followed him into Germany and now into the Premier League.

"I remember in Holland, he was getting a lot of stick at the beginning of the season because they had had a bad season the previous one and the first two games, three games, he lost and they said, 'If he doesn't win the next game, he's going to be sacked'

"He won the next game, stuck by his philosophy and went on a 22-game run, won the league.

"He went to Bayern Munich, exactly the same, struggled, change in philosophy, change in the German way of playing to a more possession-based.

"I remember reading, 'If they lose in Juventus, he'll get the sack'. They won 4-1, they never lost another game and won the German League, and I have seen him come into the Premier League last season and say at the very beginning he would get it right, his philosophy.

"It takes time and you have got a philosophy. We have one here and we are sticking to it, and we know if we do the process right and we go through painful times, which we have to, when it gets right it will be very good."