Team Focus: Clueless McClaren Struggling to Fix Broken Newcastle

As easy as Newcastle United were to completely pull apart, it was hard to know decide was worse about Saturday’s destruction at Selhurst Park - the hapless performance of the players at Crystal Palace on Saturday, or Steve McClaren’s deeply unimpressive attempt to talk around the logistics of a 5-1 battering that could have been even more humiliating. 

Either way, it was all so unconvincing. 

The players didn’t seem to know their jobs on the pitch, and McClaren didn’t seem to know what to say - but still said an awful lot of it. 

Eyebrow-raising statements flowed from his mouth as freely as the pacy Crystal Palace attack flowed through Newcastle’s dismal backline. He was initially trying to front up and talk about their errors honestly, only to increasingly wrap himself in confusing riddles. 

Take the question over whether his players lose heart in adversity, since they have not claimed a point from a losing position since the opening day of the season. 

“It’s one of those things you can see,” McClaren said, again furrowing his brow. 

“I’m not making excuses. It’s not rocket science, and everybody can see. That’s what’s happening. We’re getting setbacks and not reacting well enough from that setback, and that’s what we need to turn around.” 

When asked how he’d plan to do this, how’d solve the key issue that will define the club’s season, McClaren offered this. 

“That comes through the players, their own individual motivation. We have to draw that out, we have stay calm, we have to keep doing the right things, and keep delivering the right messages, and keep saying ‘you’ve got to do this, you’ve got to do that’.  

“We lose, and we stop our doing our jobs when some disappointment hits us. That was especially after three goals and especially after four. You can’t have that. You’ve got to keep, keep, keep, keep, keep doing your job. That’s what we have to force, and keep forcing away.” 

Given the fact that McClaren said the word “keep” five times in close proximity to the word “job”, you’d be forgiven for thinking there was something subconscious going on here. 

There are probably already grounds for the former England manager to be sacked on the basis of badly he’s doing that job, and internal pressure is known to be building ahead of a likely January review.  

He just doesn't give the impression he knows how to address this, and there's a fragile limpness about his entire demeanour. It's all so evidently lacking his substance, despite his constant attempts to massage a public image. 

At the same time, hapless as McClaren has been so far, he is really just one problem of many.  

Almost as big a problem is players like your notional defensive leader Fabio Collocini frantically trying to cover every gap only to make each of them wider, or Vurnon Anita regularly being left for dust in the middle of the pitch. 

The way in which the fans sang “you’re not fit to wear the shirt” at the squad reflected a deep dissatisfaction with a long-term lack of commitment, and there appears to be something broken within the culture of the team. 

It all adds up to a fundamentally broken team itself. The stats emphasise it. You name it, and Newcastle are probably doing it badly. 

They have the second fewest shots per game in the Premier League, with their 9.4 only better than West Brom (8.9), but have conceded the most amount of efforts at the other end at 16.9. 

In other words, they don’t create much and don’t stop the other team creating much either, nor do they have much of a discernible plan themselves. Newcastle have the fourth lowest possession in the division at 45.8%, but win the second lowest amount of aerial duels at 12.4 per game. 

They are obviously fairly simplistic contrasts, but it begins to point to a side who don’t really play a passing game, don’t try and hit teams aerially and generally don’t seem to have much of a plan. 

Both on the pitch and in the numbers, Newcastle look like what they are: a shapeless mess. 

McClaren pointed to his experience between 2001 and 2006 at Middlesbrough, who he got to a Europa League final after a poor start, saying that something similar can happen at Newcastle. 

“Kind of every job I have started has been difficult at the beginning," McClaren said. "From my first experience at Middlesbrough where we lost the first four games. We were pointless and clueless as we were called then and it took a good six, seven months to get through that. Really bad times. Then, second year we built a bit of belief. But the first 18 months were very, very difficult. We expect the same here. But that’s what I can draw on. 

“It's getting back to work. You’ve just got to do the right things. While everyone else around you is losing their heads, you’ve got to keep yours. You’ve got to keep calm, perspective." 

Right now, Newcastle don’t look good from any perspective.

Can Steve McClaren turns things around at Newcastle before it's too late? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below