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Steve McClaren


Dave

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It was the Watford and West Ham that really shafted us, especially with the unusually awful performance against West Ham.

 

???

 

I thought we were showing some decent signs before that.

 

I see.  I was going for a sample size of about 8 years rather than 8 games.

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http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-3261019/Alan-Shearer-zero-sympathy-Newcastle-manager-Steve-McClaren-fears-relegation-looming-former-club.html

Alan Shearer says he has no sympathy for Newcastle manager Steve McClaren and fears his former club will be relegated this season.

 

The Magpies are bottom of the Premier League and – along with North-East rivals Sunderland – are one of just two teams in the entire country yet to win a league game.

 

McClaren repeatedly talks of 'change' and 'process' and has asked for time to turn things around, but he is also frustrated with a lack of influence over transfers – the club refused to sign QPR striker Charlie Austin, for example.

 

'No, I don't have any sympathy for him, not really,' said Shearer when asked if he felt sorry for McClaren given the constraints within which a head coach operates at the club.

 

'I don't know if the transfer activity was different to what he expected, hoped, needed or wanted.

 

'But he knows what he is signing up for.' Newcastle were smashed 6-1 at Manchester City on Saturday, meaning McClaren has now presided over the club's worst start in 119 years.

 

Only Newport County – bottom of League Two – have a worse goal difference in the top four divisions and Shearer believes Newcastle are in real danger of dropping to the Championship.

 

'If they perform like they did against Watford (0-2) and Sheffield Wednesday (0-1) and the second half at Manchester City, then yes, before long they will be relegated,' he said.

 

'I don't know what Newcastle are going to turn up. I don't think anyone does. 'McClaren doesn't know and I don't know, and that is the worry. There is a fragility and a losing mentality about the football club.' It is hard to disagree with Shearer's damning verdict, for not since December have they come from behind to win a game.

 

And the club's record goalscorer believes that trend is unlikely to change anytime soon given their failure to address areas of need during the summer.

 

'I don't think many people can argue that they needed a new centre-back and a goalscorer,' he said. 'That is what everyone wanted or hoped was coming in. They got the centre-forward (Aleksandar Mitrovic). But my worry with Newcastle is always defensively. They don't seem to have shored that up as yet.'

 

Mitrovic – the £12.5million striker who opened his account against City – has impressed Shearer with his aggressive approach. But, again, he fears the Serbian will not score the goals the team desperately needs.

 

'I have been impressed with him. He has bullied defenders, worked hard, held it up, brought team-mates into the game and been a threat,' he said.

 

'But we have only seen that once or twice at the minute. It is still early days to say that he is going to be a roaring success. He has not got a fantastic goalscoring record.

 

'But you can be a great goalscorer, you still need your team-mates to create chances for you.' Alan Shearer was speaking on behalf of the Sir Bobby Robson Foundation, the charity which has now raised £9m fighting cancer.

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That's completely fair, I don't think anyone should express sympathy for McClaren. But I'd say it's also fair to understand the circumstances he's working in, mainly the culture of non-achievement embedded throughout the club.

 

And he is just as much of par of it also - the whole lot need clearing out but let the sheep tell you different

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"Not since December have they came from behind to win a game".

 

Little things like that annoy me, when they're stated as if they're new. We went about 2 years not doing that under the previous manager IIRC, us going behind has meant we're almost always going to get beat for at least 4 years now and once again Pardew's getting off scot-free.

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