Alan Shearer

[Craig_H]

To be honest, i dont dislike the guy and he took the pisstaking well yesterday. Decent all round fella, from what i can see. And obviously was a superb player.

But as a manager, what exactly IS he?

What i mean is, most managers, you have a clear idea of how they set their teams out to play, what they're teams will produce and what style they use.

But with Shearer, i dont have a clue what he's about. I dont even think he knows.

Since taking over, he's used various different systems and styles. His side havent really played with any clear method or tactic. It's just been random. Most teams have a certain identity, in terms of how they play, and it's a blueprint of how their manager sees football. But Newcastle play as if their management team just had a list of formations and tactics, just closed their eyes and pointed to one.

What do you suppose he says to his players before a game? What do you think he would've said at HT yesterday?

I can just visualise a dressing room scenario with Shearer wanting and trying to send him team out with a particular message and playing style, but not really knowing what that is, and what to say. He's just the ultimate novice and comes across to me as being clueless, naive and not having any idea of tactics or motivation.

It's typical of the geordies to have appointed him, it's a decision made with no actual thought, and just fuelled out of sheer emotion. But that's Newcastle all over.

In terms of management, what exactly is Alan Shearer?

[TheStig]

Me and my mates were saying yesterday it's probably Dowie who does all the tactics and stuff, Shearer is just there as a figurehead.

I agree with you though.

[ELNINO 9]

how many managers do they have? shearer, dowie,colin calderwood, chris hughton, and joe kinnear !!! ffs and they still crap

[wiw]

Clueless

[Neil Young]

I suggest they're trying everything they can think of in the vain hope something will work. It's a bit late to impose a strategy on a squad of someone else's players with only a few games remaining in a relegation battle. I agree he certainly looks out of his depth and they'd have been better going for an experienced hand but it's a bit unfair to draw any conclusions about him as a manager.

[Craig_H]

But surely the best thing they could do for the players is adopt one particular style of play and stick to it. Asking the players to learn and execute a different style for each game, is giving them no chance whatsoever.

They seem to just be trying something different every game, without letting the players get used to what they're trying to do.

[Darth Marty]

I like Shearer too, one of the best centre forwards ive ever seen play.

I reckon hes there purely for motivational purposes, he gave his all as a player and will expect that from his players, as a manager id say he has no clue and has just tried anything & everything he possibly can. But was it 8 games he had? Not a lot is it, and to be fair those players look really really bad this season. If it wasnt for Hulls amazing freefall they would already be down, as it stands I reckon the winner of boro vs newcastle will stay up at hulls expense.

[Neil Young]

But surely the best thing they could do for the players is adopt one particular style of play and stick to it. Asking the players to learn and execute a different style for each game, is giving them no chance whatsoever.

They seem to just be trying something different every game, without letting the players get used to what they're trying to do.

So keep it the same and if it doesn't work just stick at it until it does?

I entirely see your point but there were arguments both ways when there were so few games left when he took over.

[Craig_H]

So keep it the same and if it doesn't work just stick at it until it does?

I entirely see your point but there were arguments both ways when there were so few games left when he took over.

Obviously with only 8 games left, the opportunity to let the team 'learn' to play how he wants was pretty limited. But with the players they have, they should be able to get their head around a system well enough within a few games.

I'd have expected him to maybe allow 3 games to let the team gain some kind of playing stability and see where they went. Far as i can see, he hasnt retained the same playing mentality for consecutive games since he was appointed. It's given them basically zero chance IMO.

I agree about arguments both ways. Thing is though, he didnt actually let them stick to one method of playing for even 2 consecutive games, so to worry about it not working without having given it a chance is a bit 'cart before the horse'.

[dww]

I'm with the camp that says it looks like there are too many cooks. I think bringing in Dowie was a poor decision as he is too recently a manager and likely to want to be so again and will want to do things his way.

I'm not sure that given the injuries he has had and the apparently piss poor attitude of some of the players at his disposal that his/their hand hasn't been forced more often than not. I can't see Shearer wanting to put Duff at fullback for example but when you have to do things like that it has knock on effects on what you can choose elsewhere in the team. It does however amuse me that he was one of the pundits most prone to 'put a square peg in a square hole and things are bound to improve' type pronouncements but now he seems to be assigning players to positions in a more or less random fashion.

[dww]

Obviously with only 8 games left, the opportunity to let the team 'learn' to play how he wants was pretty limited. But with the players they have, they should be able to get their head around a system well enough within a few games.

I'd have expected him to maybe allow 3 games to let the team gain some kind of playing stability and see where they went. Far as i can see, he hasnt retained the same playing mentality for consecutive games since he was appointed. It's given them basically zero chance IMO.

I agree about arguments both ways. Thing is though, he didnt actually let them stick to one method of playing for even 2 consecutive games, so to worry about it not working without having given it a chance is a bit 'cart before the horse'.

I'm genuinely not sure that the players they have are interested in learning a new system. So many of them seem to have regressed - Barton and Smith now seem to have shed all pretense of being footballers and resorted to being full time thugs, Viduka has never knowingly broken a sweat anyway, Martins does what he does and the idea of him playing a specific role seems anathema to him, Owen clearly can't be arsed, Collocini appears to have had a footballing lobotomy. I think even Shearer must look at it and think it is a harder task than he anticipated.

[Parm]

I'm with the camp that says it looks like there are too many cooks. I think bringing in Dowie was a poor decision as he is too recently a manager and likely to want to be so again and will want to do things his way.

I'm not sure that given the injuries he has had and the apparently piss poor attitude of some of the players at his disposal that his/their hand hasn't been forced more often than not. I can't see Shearer wanting to put Duff at fullback for example but when you have to do things like that it has knock on effects on what you can choose elsewhere in the team. It does however amuse me that he was one of the pundits most prone to 'put a square peg in a square hole and things are bound to improve' type pronouncements but now he seems to be assigning players to positions in a more or less random fashion.

if he had any square pegs I'm sure he'd use them. He is however hamstrung by being stuck with this motley crue of mercs and ******s and is doing the best he can with them. Doesnt help when Barton gets himself suspended for the rest of the season

[dww]

if he had any square pegs I'm sure he'd use them. He is however hamstrung by being stuck with this motley crue of mercs and ******s and is doing the best he can with them. Doesnt help when Barton gets himself suspended for the rest of the season

I'd argue it probably does.

[Exiled_red]

Newcastle obviously thought that bringing Shearer in would lift the club, give everyone a boast and they would get the couple of wins they needed to stay up. They knew he lacked experience and tactical ability but they gambled that the players would be inspired by him. And it's back fired big time IMO.

I imagine in the dressing room it's good cop bad cop with Shearer and Dowie, but the players aren't responding to it. None of the players are working hard and half of them are lazy, it's not that they lack ability, it's more that they lack the bottle. When a team is down there they need to fight for everything and give it their all in every game, and that's something they're not doing. I suspect for half the season they thought they were too good to go down, and by the time they realised they were deep in it it's too late. On sunday they looked like a team that had already been relegated or a team with nothing to play for. And that has to be they biggest worry for them

[-V-]

I think its unfair to judge him on team style because its not his team. Imagine you took over that clueless, useless bunch- you would desperately try to find a way to make them play football. He knows that the squad is so so bad that he just has to convince them to somehow nick a couple of victories and survive and then it can be dismantled and overhauled