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 Wednesday
12 October 2005 By Richard Huggan
Something has to change if we are to progress and if Souness is to remain employed. My seat in the front row of the Gallowgate may not be the greatest in terms of perspective: it is a chore to see what formation we are playing and I can never tell whether we are in the middle of the opponent’s half or in the middle of their penalty area down at the Leazes. You do get a nice view of corner kicks though and with the magic of television I am glad to say I usually get a full enough view of our performances. My question therefore: Is it really too much to ask to be excited and enthralled a good few times for £500 a season (where you cannot even see much)? Am I too demanding? Perhaps the result is more important than the performance? Not in my book, I’m afraid, at least not every week. Would we honestly be a merry bunch if we won 1-0 at home most of the time playing a dour brand of long-ball, no-brain football? Personally; I want pride, I want passion, I want delicate touches and intricate flowing moves and I want to be entertained. You should, too, surely you do? There is currently apathy in the stands and it needs to be remedied if Souness is to keep his job. We cannot expect to win every single game, but the least we expect as Geordies is to be entertained by our beloved players. When we are not winning and not even playing anything resembling a good game, like for the past year or more, Tyneside seems a far colder place. Sitting here a very short Metro journey from St. James’ it is rather difficult to recall the last time I have been thrilled for ninety minutes by our wonderful football club when I have actually been there. Certainly there has been nothing recently to warm my cockles. The most recent domestic example that springs to mind is the 4-3 victory against Manchester City last season (and I was not even there!) Some people might broaden the argument and say that the 1-0 wins over Chelsea and Tottenham were great games, but they were occasions more than performances. We have performed far better on the European stage, mind, Olympiakos home and away were simply joyous nights with exciting performances and it was a fantastic opening forty minutes in Lisbon. That is all well and good, but in total that makes five matches in the last year that I can see on the records as being entertaining. This does not excuse the fact that we have been playing a dour brand of football since before Sir Bobby Robson was relieved of command. Though I do accept that we have scarcely had our starting eleven fit and on the pitch at the same time during this period – they are still all Premiership footballers, however. A quick fix to a lot of our problems would be to play a more attacking and imaginative formation. It seems that Souness has already cottoned onto this by reverting to the classic 4-4-2 from the simply woeful 4-5-1/4-3-3 hybrid we seemed to be adopting. Though if we ever get our full strength team available, it will be interesting to see who the fall guy becomes in the front six. It would be Luque and Owen up front for me, with Emre left, Solano right and Parker and Dyer in the middle. No more hoofed balls to Captain Fantastic – a massive part of our problem. Sacrilege perhaps, but our heroic number nine has had his day as the first name on this black and white team sheet. He has been incredulous, magnificent and rightly adored, but he is now thirty-five and is massively detrimental to what we are apparently trying to do here. People have been saying it for a while now, but Shearer is a hindrance to the standard of football the team play. With Owen and Luque now in the ranks to form a mouth-watering front pairing Souness simply cannot justify Shearer’s selection on playing terms. Yes he is an icon and an inspiration, but others need to stand up and be counted. Given, Boumsong, Parker and Owen – here’s looking at you. What a backbone that could be. On paper we have an immense first eleven, but in reality a fair few of them are injury prone and we may never see them all play together. Also, having eleven good players does not necessarily make a good team. There are still some fundamental and very basic issues to address, both individually and tactically. Given could be more commanding and stop lofting the ball hastily forwards after the midfield and defence have made a point of retaining it, keep the opposition chasing please. Boumsong could relax a little bit and play it simple, Bramble can keep doing what he is doing - the lad has a magic pair of feet and has at times been our chief playmaker. Carr and Babayaro have done alright but need to offer more going forward, shoulder more responsibility perhaps. Emre and Solano have the potential to be massive contributors, we all know what Nobby does and Emre has all the tools to be a revelation in an unorthodox left midfield role. In the centre, Parker has been outstanding and his team-mates could maybe make some runs or at least make themselves available when he has the ball at his feet. Dyer needs to do what he does best: bomb forward and run the hell out of his opposite number, he should always be an option for the man with the ball. Michael Owen does what he does better than anyone and Luque is also top-drawer – these men are all outstanding footballers and the bench would not be bad either. Harper, Taylor, N’Zogbia, Bowyer and Shearer cover every position on the park and provide exciting options in reserve. We could also tell someone to attack the near post when we take a corner, even sometimes take short corners, give options to the throw-in taker, not stand still so much in general… We could stop bypassing the midfield, be a little bit more ruthless, take a hopeful shot now and again, pass and move, look left more often – Babayaro is always unmarked. How about telling the men on our posts at corners to stay awake? How about making sure every individual knows his task inside out? Please give someone the job of standing just outside the edge of the opposition box when we take a corner – the ball always drops there. A lot of these suggestions equate to goals and the prevention of goals – a good foundation for success. If we can just incorperate some of these simple ploys into our overall game, we will have taken some large steps to resurrecting the Entertainers. For Souness to survive and for the Geordie faithful to be appeased, it needs to happen quickly. © Richard Huggan
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