McClaren under fire as Newcastle crash at Palace
Newcastle boss Steve McClaren has admitted that his players are “not coping” after a 5-1 hammering at Crystal Palace left them one off the bottom of the Premiership.
His comments came at the end of a week in which former Magpies’ boss Kevin Keegan added his voice to the growing dissatisfaction with the state of affairs at the club. Newcastle have only two victories so far this season and have leaked thirty goals, a total matched only by struggling Bournemouth.
Former England coach McClaren called for character and fight from his players but there is a growing concern that his players are not up to the task. They faced the indignity of being booed off by their own travelling supporters at the weekend. Those fans had briefly been offered hope when Papiss Cisse put the visitors ahead after just ten minutes. Palace rallied strongly to go into the interval with a 3-1 lead and Newcastle could offer nothing in the way of a response.
There have been reports of angry exchanges between players and coaches on the training ground and there were clear signs of tension within the team on Saturday. Newcastle were relegated in 2008-09 but bounced straight back. Former Newcastle and England striker Alan Shearer added his voice to growing band of critics by slamming the recruitment methods at the club. It was Shearer who was put in charge for eight games in 2008-09 in a failed attempt to avoid the drop.
Both Keegan and Shearer believe that Newcastle’s players are simply not good enough to perform at the highest level. They also feel that McClaren underestimated the task facing him when he took over and fear for the long-term future of the Magpies.
McClaren built a reputation as a good coach when working as assistant to Sir Alex Ferguson at Manchester United. He enjoyed some success at Middlesbrough and succeeded Sven-Goren Eriksson as manager of England but was sacked after failing to qualify for the European Championships in 2007. McClaren has since had two spells at Twente as well as managing Wolfsburg, Nottingham Forest and Derby County.
Newcastle are at home to Liverpool on December 6th before travelling to Tottenham the following weekend. If they cannot gain any points from those matches, McClaren could find himself under enormous pressure for the visit of bottom club Aston Villa on December 19th.
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