Newcastle-Online comment: February 8th 2005
While his team have been inconsistent, Graeme Souness has at least
been consistent in his appraisal of what he believes he needs to do
above all else - which is to "address the defensive situation" as
he puts it. I beg to differ, I believe the midfield is our real achilles
heel which needs addressing first and not the defence. However, having
conceded 44 goals, he may well have a point (of course he has a point).
Which is why he signed three defensive players in the January transfer
window and has reverted to a defensive game plan/mentality. To address
the situation. To stop conceding goals.
Build from the back seems to be the Scots' philosophy. It's worked
for Jose Mourinho and his Chelsea and although he is without doubt
a great manager with a great squad (and endless funds to improve it)
where as Newcastle are paupers in comparison, why shouldn't Souness
try to emulate Sir Bobby's former translator? Which manager wouldn't
like to keep clean sheets galore?
After all, no team wins major honours with a poor defence and if a
Toon manager has to start somewhere, then this is it. Noted for our
defensive aberrations since time memoriam, I'd say it's about time
someone looked at that side of the team with more than a passing interest,
even if other areas of the side go unattended to for a while and have
to suffer in the process.
With Sir Bobby you felt the defence was an after thought. We know
it was an after thought with King Kevin Keegan - although to be fair
his sides had more than decent defensive records (a lot more than
what popular but totally false myth would have you believe). Nonetheless
KK believed the best form of defence was to attack. I wish that could
be the case with Souness but he doesn't have the calibre of attacking
players the messiah did nor the midfield - nor even the defence. That
team would wipe the floor with today's side unfortunately.
Ruud Gullit didn't know what he wanted and neither did his team -
it was a loose fraction of individualism all over the park and poor
individualism at that. His side wasn't even a team.
Ah, back to the last Scotsman in charge - boring Kenny Dalglish. Now
he was defensive minded and Souness' side of today reminds me of Dalglish's
side. Negative tactics, boring football and a defensive 'break us
down' game plan/mentality employed home and away. He of course got
sacked before we could find out whether he could find the right balance
between defence and attack, like he did at Blackburn. Something Sir
Bobby struggled with and KK to an extent.
Will Souness find the balance? Will he get the time, patience and
funds to find the right balance? Furthermore does he even have the
skills to get it right?
All valid questions. All conjecture at the moment. But if I was a
betting man (which I'm not) I'd wager that he won't get the further
funds needed because he won't get the time. So it would be immaterial
whether I believe he has the skills or not (which I don't for the
record), but how would I really know or find out for sure? Just as
I'll never ever know whether Dalglish or Gullit in time could have
brought success or had KK stuck at it for just another season whether
we'd have won the League. We'll just never know.
Unless we give Souness enough time to make a better judgment, to give
him the required time to try and find that balance (5 months in a
job? Howay...), we will just never know with him either. I know some
don't want to give him time and believe even if he had all the funds
and time in the world that he'd still balls it up. Fair enough, I
certainly won't condemn those that share that view. Hell, I share
their very concerns but I for one will give him the remainder of this
and the following season because any manager of Newcastle United,
regardless of his name or past achievements (or lack of) deserves
that courtesy at least. I'm sick of the merry-go-round, the cycle
and the vicious circle we find ourselves in and will find ourselves
in once again should Freddy Shepherd get itchy fingers. Where does
it stop? When does it stop?
Playing 4 central midfielders in midfield will no doubt make us hard
to break down and to beat while no doubt leaving us struggling to
kill teams off or to win games (as we are finding out) but I can at
least see some method to the madness. Souness is right, we have to
build from the back - it's always been our main cause for concern.
We aren't going to do anything in the League. We aren't going to qualify
for Europe nor get relegated. Our League campaign is dead. So build
now for tomorrow. Get the defensive side of the team fixed once and
for all now. Get the team set up to defend as a team. Get the midfielders
disciplined to the art of defending as a unit and not as individuals
(headless chickens?). Get rid of all the malaise that has blighted
Sir Bobby's last months in the job now. If that means cutting off
our nose to spite our face as it surely has done (Bellamy and Robert),
then so be it. By doing that you lay down a marker to the rest of
them - a big fat red warning sign saying do not cross. Do so and you
are out.
A football club and a group of multi-millionaires need a manager who
stands by his convictions, who has balls and is prepared to sacrifice
certain things for the benefit of the whole club, the team and for
the long-term stability. To maintain standards at all costs. Robert
although very talented and our only creative player, is a lazy bastard
and always has been. Now he is paying for it. This will hopefully
act as a pre-emptive warning to others thinking they can whip in one
good ball a game, crack a shot from 40-yards on target and generally
saunter about as others sweat blood and tears for their wages. Not
under Souness it ain't and that's the way it should be. As for Bellamy,
the manager is also sending out a warning to others that no matter
how good you are or how important you are, don't toe the line and
you too are out. Who know's, had the club took this stance under Sir
Bobby we may never have needed to appoint Souness in the first place.
If these 'acts' serve to get the best out of others then it's worth
it as far as I'm concerned.
Lets be brutally honest. Souness isn't the manager of a squad capable
of challenging or even playing great football. He is the manager of
an average Premiership side who after a purple patch under Sir Bobby,
have found their true level. Would another manager be able to get
Bowyer to suddenly score goals and pass the ball well? Would another
manager be able to get the best out of Robert? Would another manager
be able to turn Ameobi into a 20 goal a season striker? Would another
manager get Jenas to live up to his potential?
Would another manager develop O'Brien into a top-class centre-half.
Would another manager be able to get 10 goals a season out of Dyer?
How about Ambrose, Hughes. Bramble, Carr and even Butt? Are they all
really good enough? Short and long term no they are not. As for Big
Al, he is way past it (sadly) and Kluivert, well he won't be around
for much longer... just like his manager I predict.
Basically Souness can't turn shite into gold (nobody can) so he has
to make do with what he has. He's already got rid of one trouble maker
(Bellamy), curtailed another (Dyer), gotten rid of one who wasn't
too sure whether he wanted to play for the club or not (Bernard) and
of course he's dropped Robert who only a few months ago, quite a few
wanted replaced. It's strange how Kluivert gets labeled a lazy foreigner
yet Robert who has trademarked the phrase is suddenly the hero...
perlease. He's a stick to beat the manager with. At least admit it.
If Souness can get the defensive side of our game addressed during
the remainder of the season, and then concentrate on midfield and
attack in the Summer, then it can only leave us in good stead in the
long run. Sometimes you have to stop running and start walking, otherwise
you'll always be huffing a puffing. One thing at a time.
He can't transform the team overnight. He can't get the team to stop
conceding goals AND to score them as well. It's either we continue
to leak them at an alarming rate but we score a few while still picking
up the same meagre points tally or we cut out the large number of
goals we concede, but we aren't going to score that many. We will
however pick up a similar points tally. You decide. Attacking football
with no shape or defensive football with shape?
We all want both but be realistic - we can't have both (yet). At least
he has pinpointed an area of the side that is weak and he is doing
something to rectify that weakness, to turn it into a strength. To
give us a base or a platform to build on. Getting the defensive side
of the team right is the hardest job. Souness has tackled it head
on like he would an opposition player in his heyday as a midfield
destroyer... and isn't it about time? Fuck exciting football for a
change. Lets get it fixed once and for all. I wrote the season off
months ago. We've scored goals galore this season, what good has that
done us? Zip, nada, nothing... "Blame the defence..."
Exactly!
Performances like Saturday aren't good enough of course which I will
openly admit, but maybe, just maybe they will be the making of Newcastle
United in seasons to come. If Souness leaves his successor with a
balanced squad that can defend and attack, a squad with no trouble
makers and lazy arsed prima-donna's then he will have done a damn
fine job and turned around exactly what he was left with. An unbalanced
squad full of average players with big egos and even bigger pay packets
who couldn't defend and attack as a collective team - a mess in all
honesty.
In his own words: "Judge me at the end of next season".
I certainly will Graeme, whether Shepherd does is another thing...
*Battens down the hatches, bolts the door and puts up a sign: 'Gone
on holiday for a year'* |
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