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Opinion

The problem bigger than Steve McClaren is one Newcastle fans don’t want to accept

8 years ago
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Steve McClaren is hopeless, I’m sure even the most deludedly optimistic Newcastle fans must have accepted that by now.

If not, you do really need help.

Getting rid of McClaren though is only one piece of the Newcastle United jigsaw of misery.

A problem that will still be here a week on Monday at Leicester, is this group of Newcastle players.

‘Hopeless’ just about sums them up as well.

Whilst Newcastle fans are almost unanimous in accepting how rubbish Mike Ashley and Steve McClaren are, they do though tend to find it more difficult to accept the same about this squad of Newcastle players.

It is painful to accept that the actual team is useless because that leaves us with….nothing.

However, you have to see past the money that has been spent and look at what these Newcastle players truly represent.

Look at the 18 Newcastle players on duty against Bournemouth, it isn’t that they are all substandard but the truth isn’t too far from that.

Without a shadow of doubt for me, none of these 10 Newcastle players would get a game for another Premier League side, yet they were all either playing or on the bench on Saturday.

Riviere, Darlow, Saivet, Gouffran, Doumbia, Lascelles, Taylor, Dummett, Anita, Aarons

You can say Darlow and Aarons might progress in the future, or Doumbia and Saivet may prove themselves, but on what we have seen – none of those 10 have shown us to be good enough.

Added to those 10, I personally doubt whether Elliot or Colback would get a game either for other PL outfits, apart from maybe the other clubs in the bottom four at the moment.

Rob Elliot has done as well as could be expected, better actually, but the mess in front of him has diverted a lot of attention away from his lack of mobility and a good number of goals he should have saved, such as the Stoke winner.

As for Colback he runs around (not very quickly) but like most of our other midfielders doesn’t score or create goals and fails to properly protect the back four.

We then have another three of yesterday’s 18 players who whilst having quality, also have serious reliability problems. These are Sissoko, Wijnaldum and Mitrovic.

For me, these are the three players who arguably Newcastle could get far more out of in the remaining 10 matches, if a half decent new manager arrived.

As for those who doing pretty well despite the absolute dross surrounding them (on the pitch and amongst the coaches) I rate Janmaat, Shelvey and Perez as the only three I am more than happy to rely on.

Looking at the injured list, I would definitely add Chancel Mbemba to that three man list, plus Andros Townsend if he can stay fit for longer than five minutes after not completing a full Premier League match for two years before his move up north.

Elsewhere in the treatment room, Coloccini is obviously nowhere near good enough these days, just a shame he didn’t join up with Palace and Pardew last summer.

Tim Krul is another who has never recaptured the form of 2011/12 – I sadly don’t see him now as at the same level as Premier League rivals – same with likes of Tiote and Cisse who are shot through.

As for Obertan, Marveuax and Thauvin, I think we have had our fill of substandard, hearts the size of a pea, French wingers for now.

I really hope Newcastle do bring in a replacement for this dope, what we see on the pitch is bad enough but Steve McClaren’s patter is just shocking. At least I could have a laugh (up to a point) at Pardew and Carver and the ridiculous nature of their excuses, I can’t even seem to get that with the current idiot.

So good luck to the replacement (hopefully) for Steve McClaren, you are going to need it with this group of Newcastle players.

(To feature like John, send in your articles for our website to contribute@themag.co.uk – all views those of the author etc etc)

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