Steve McClaren

[nufc4eva]

They need to pull the trigger soon, can only see us going down at this point

[Altamullan]

The concerns about SMc for me are: not as responsive re substitutions and tactical changes as I would expect (slow to act, and reluctant to stick his neck out?); he seems risk-averse and sticks when he should twist; he looks scared, exasperated. God knows the game can be cruel, but I want to see confident and passionate leadership on the sidelines/in the cauldron--not least to model this to the players and also as this suggests that will be what the players are consistently receiving behind the scenes.

[Dave]

“I think the half-term report, or half-time maybe, would say that we didn’t start the season very well.

 

“We were very inconsistent, but I think we’ve ended the first half of the season with a bit of consistency. We’re going to places now with a consistency of performance, whereas before we were inconsistent.

 

“We’ve been unlucky with the last two results – a last-minute goal against Everton and then losing this one like we did.

 

“I’m more disappointed for the players because they’re fighting and showing attitude and endeavour.

 

“They’re playing football, and we have to keep doing that, and get back to picking up points like we were in the previous three games when we were unbeaten.

 

“I would say we’re getting consistency and we just need to keep that going.

 

“The harder you work, the more your luck will turn. We haven’t had a lot of that over the last two games.”

 

ok

[Heron]

If that's the case then we've had a lack of effort for all of your reign, Steve.

[steve_69]

Steve, you're talking shit mate.

[mrmojorisin75]

He has improved fuck all, if anything we look worse. The football is disgusting to watch and substitutions left too late. He seems scared to drop certain players and we are generally playing long ball now albeit fucking badly

 

Exactly. How many players have got better since he came vs those who have got worse?

 

He's shit.

[merlin]

Any 'manager' employed by Spor - I mean, NUFC - must toe the Party line, i.e.manage the expectations of the mu- I mean, fans, downwards. That is the ONLY way he will survive as any words out of line with Ashley's policies will result in him disappearing pronto, a la Hughton...and we were mid-table when he was fired.

McClaren was heading for the managerial scrap heap when he was 'rescued' by Ashley's stooge, Charnley, who knows as much about football as I do about being an astronaut - and there is NO way I'd ever get into a space capsule, but McClaren is not going to turn down a last pay day before he fades from the scene for good and so he will hang on until either Ashley sells and the new owners fire him(not happening for a few years yet)or he fails in the Championship to and is fired then.

We all know that no manager worth a light will work under Ashley's terms so suck it up....Pardew toed the line to keep his loot coming in until Palace - his former club - took the chance and only another season or so will show whether their gamble has paid off in the medium term and that is the type of manager who would take the job, or perhaps a young guy seeking a springboard to better things....much the same as is Ashley's buying policy with players.

[steve_69]

Yeah but this time there's £60m of TV money at stake. In the past they've been patient but i'm not so sure they will this time around

[Dave]

They have to back him this January or sack him. We're going down otherwise.

[Guest neesy111]

Yeah but this time there's £60m of TV money at stake. In the past they've been patient but i'm not so sure they will this time around

 

Make that £100m for next season.

[mrmojorisin75]

They have to back him this January or sack him. We're going down otherwise.

Yep, it'll be fucking insanity for them to do nothing. They've employed a manager who can't get anything out of the players they've given him so they need to give him new players or get a manager that can work with them.

[ikri]

Any 'manager' employed by Spor - I mean, NUFC - must toe the Party line, i.e.manage the expectations of the mu- I mean, fans, downwards. That is the ONLY way he will survive as any words out of line with Ashley's policies will result in him disappearing pronto, a la Hughton...and we were mid-table when he was fired.

McClaren was heading for the managerial scrap heap when he was 'rescued' by Ashley's stooge, Charnley, who knows as much about football as I do about being an astronaut - and there is NO way I'd ever get into a space capsule, but McClaren is not going to turn down a last pay day before he fades from the scene for good and so he will hang on until either Ashley sells and the new owners fire him(not happening for a few years yet)or he fails in the Championship to and is fired then.

We all know that no manager worth a light will work under Ashley's terms so suck it up....Pardew toed the line to keep his loot coming in until Palace - his former club - took the chance and only another season or so will show whether their gamble has paid off in the medium term and that is the type of manager who would take the job, or perhaps a young guy seeking a springboard to better things....much the same as is Ashley's buying policy with players.

 

I actually disagree with this bit.  Most managers at the highest levels are egotistical dicks, they have to be to be able to manage the egotistical dicks that play for them and cope with the egotistical dicks that own the clubs.  A good number of managers probably look at us and think I could do better than that, in fact I'm not sure I'd want a manager who didn't think that way.  Our problem is that the club employs people at every level who seem to believe that this is as good as it gets and don't want to hire people below them who might challenge them to do better.

[Beren]

They have to back him this January or sack him. We're going down otherwise.

 

Not sure about that. The league is rubbish and Norwich/Bournemouth could easily go down with Villa (who have all but assured their Championship berth) and the mackems.

 

In any case, 7 points out of the last 15 available may be enough evidence for Ashley that things are moving in the right direction without further need for his intervention. Two more points might have been had but for late-ish goals also (ignoring performances/deservedness etc). It'd be a gamble on his part, but one I think he is tight enough to take a punt on.

[Dave]

I don't think Ashley gives a shit about performances. He'll merely see we've been in the relegation zone nearly all season and even he is clued up enough to know that is a problem. If he cares about his advertising vehicle then he'll be concerned.

[mrmojorisin75]

I don't think Ashley gives a shit about performances. He'll merely see we've been in the relegation zone nearly all season and even he is clued up enough to know that is a problem. If he cares about his advertising vehicle then he'll be concerned.

You do get the impression he'll just phone up and they'll tell him it's all fine then he'll get back to Sports Direct business.

[Unbelievable]

They have to back him this January or sack him. We're going down otherwise.

 

Not sure about that. The league is rubbish and Norwich/Bournemouth could easily go down with Villa (who have all but assured their Championship berth) and the mackems.

 

In any case, 7 points out of the last 15 available may be enough evidence for Ashley that things are moving in the right direction without further need for his intervention. Two more points might have been had but for late-ish goals also (ignoring performances/deservedness etc). It'd be a gamble on his part, but one I think he is tight enough to take a punt on.

 

This wouldn't surprise me one bit. I still believe that gamble would probably pay off too.

[Mole_Toonfan]

At this point surely even Ashley realizes that just buying a load of players doesn't change anything

 

Who the fuck am i kidding of course he doesn't.

[midds]

“I think the half-term report, or half-time maybe, would say that we didn’t start the season very well.

 

“We were very inconsistent, but I think we’ve ended the first half of the season with a bit of consistency. We’re going to places now with a consistency of performance, whereas before we were inconsistent.

 

“We’ve been unlucky with the last two results – a last-minute goal against Everton and then losing this one like we did.

 

“I’m more disappointed for the players because they’re fighting and showing attitude and endeavour.

 

“They’re playing football, and we have to keep doing that, and get back to picking up points like we were in the previous three games when we were unbeaten.

 

“I would say we’re getting consistency and we just need to keep that going.

 

“The harder you work, the more your luck will turn. We haven’t had a lot of that over the last two games.”

 

ok

 

Hard to believe he's having to remind folk that we actually managed to go 3 games without getting beat. 3.

[Robster]

Hard to believe he's having to remind folk that we actually managed to go 3 games without getting beat. 3.

Heady days.

[BlueStar]

We've been very consistent this season.

[Guest firetotheworks]

 

 

He's not worse than Pardew like. Or at the very least, he doesn't have the quality of players that Pardew had in order to make a comparison like for like. I still think McClaren's s***, but the players Pardew had were far, far better throughout.

Towards the end of Pardew's reign the players were fairly similar in quality

 

I disagree, mainly because we had Remy, we replaced Debuchy with Janmaat and we sold MYM and HBA by choice and they weren't being played anyway. Even so our form was still s***. The point is that when our team was filled with a lot of quality, we played badly and got s*** results.

no we didnt.

 

Yep. My mistake. The point still stands though. We still had far more quality than we do now (HBA, Santon and MYM were available to him) and even if you think that both teams were comparable in quality, Pardew's results were no better.

[TRon]

It's either all a front or he's wildly deluded with little grasp on reality. We're currently not creating more than 2/3 chances a game to score and we're sitting too deep which is killing 2 out of our supposed front 3. We actually play 451 for round 80% of matches. I'd be interested to see how much Sis and Winj play in our own half...The reason is that both our holding CM's rarely carry the ball forward with menace so our wide am/f pick up the ball too deep and have to do all the work. This whole scenario is compounded by a striker with no pace which means we rarely turn a defence with one or two quick passes out.

 

His gameplan is no different to Pardew's in that we basically sit deep in our own half and hope for a break up front, only the execution is slightly different in that we try to pass more rather than lump it long. It's producing few chances and fewer goals. It might sneak a couple of surprise results against better teams, but against other struggling teams it's like crossing your fingers and hoping we take our chance and they don't.

[Unbelievable]

It's either all a front or he's wildly deluded with little grasp on reality. We're currently not creating more than 2/3 chances a game to score and we're sitting too deep which is killing 2 out of our supposed front 3. We actually play 451 for round 80% of matches. I'd be interested to see how much Sis and Winj play in our own half...The reason is that both our holding CM's rarely carry the ball forward with menace so our wide am/f pick up the ball too deep and have to do all the work. This whole scenario is compounded by a striker with no pace which means we rarely turn a defence with one or two quick passes out.

 

His gameplan is no different to Pardew's in that we basically sit deep in our own half and hope for a break up front, only the execution is slightly different in that we try to pass more rather than lump it long. It's producing few chances and fewer goals. It might sneak a couple of surprise results against better teams, but against other struggling teams it's like crossing your fingers and hoping we take our chance and they don't.

 

I agree. The most discernible difference for me is that we now use Sissoko and Wijnaldum's driving runs from the edge of our own penalty box to break away more as opposed to aimlessly lumping it forward, but what we are seeing is a million fucking miles away from the possession football that McClaren prides himself on. In fact, our possession stats are probably very similar and this approach is helping us create even less chances per game. If nothing else I was hoping McClaren might make usplay a bit more attractive football again, but even that would be debatable now.

[The College Dropout]

 

 

He's not worse than Pardew like. Or at the very least, he doesn't have the quality of players that Pardew had in order to make a comparison like for like. I still think McClaren's s***, but the players Pardew had were far, far better throughout.

Towards the end of Pardew's reign the players were fairly similar in quality

 

I disagree, mainly because we had Remy, we replaced Debuchy with Janmaat and we sold MYM and HBA by choice and they weren't being played anyway. Even so our form was still s***. The point is that when our team was filled with a lot of quality, we played badly and got s*** results.

no we didnt.

 

Yep. My mistake. The point still stands though. We still had far more quality than we do now (HBA, Santon and MYM were available to him) and even if you think that both teams were comparable in quality, Pardew's results were no better.

 

Last season we didn't have any of those players lol. Santon was "injured" then sold in January. We where 10th with something like 26/27 points at this very stage last season. SMC has done noticeably worse with a better squad.

[The College Dropout]

The possession shit was awful anyway. Fuck possession. I like attacking football. SMC has never been an attacking football manager.