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Managing Expectations by Chris Rickleton

Keegan described the experience of managing Newcastle as ‘a bit like riding a tiger’, after a low key close season will the fan power drive the beast.

Discuss on our fans forum.

With the recent tournament in Mallorca revealing fully the limitations in our threadbare squad, one of Kevin Keegan’s biggest tasks ahead of August 17th’s season opener, will be ensuring a so-far low-key close season doesn’t trigger fully fledged apathy amongst the ranks of the Toon Army. Kevin himself described the experience of managing Newcastle as ‘a bit like riding a tiger’, and it is fan power that drives the beast. In getting the supporters on board and doing the ‘twelfth man’ thing home and away, Keegan has one advantage his predecessors didn’t: he’s Kevin Keegan. Aside from that, he’s been pegged back by his boss’s cash-bashful transfer policy and the burdensome expectations of fans old enough to remember the successes of his previous tenure at the club. Eternally positive, Keegan continues to talk excitedly about adding a ‘few new faces’ to ‘what we’ve already got’, but the questions are, ‘what have we got?’ and ‘if the season started tomorrow, would what we’ve got be enough to prevent another Old Trafford mauling, a horrendous precedent for the first few games of the season?’

Well, whether you begin from the front or the back, things don’t get too gloomy until you arrive at the middle. With Steve Harper and Shay Given, the club have a very enviable goalkeeping combination, the only snag being that you can’t play them both at the same time. In Habib Beye, Keegan can call on the most consistently solid full back that we’ve had in recent memory, with the one paced but combative Geremi as potential back up. Moving along the line, the arrival of Bassong, impeccable in the recent friendly against Mallorca and the mooted signing of Collucini, have increased hopes of competition and competence in the heart of defence. Only the young Enrique, and the lack of experienced cover for him suggests a possible problem at the back.

At the front, Keegan has a strike force that most clubs in the top flight would swap their own for. Micky Owen remains the best finisher in the national setup, whilst Keegan can reasonably expect an improvement in Martins’ tally from last season, as he begins one which won’t feature the African Nations Cup and a manager hell bent on playing him wide-right. To my mind, that leaves Viduka with Andy Carroll as his understudy. Smith has shown in the last four matches that a non-goalscoring striker isn’t a luxury we can afford any longer (even if Everton can), whilst Shola seems Championship bound, since Stoke aren’t stoking up their evaluation of him. People will then point to the lack of depth and injury issues regarding Owen and Viduka, but few Premiership squads can boast more than four out and out strikers. Barring lengthy lay offs for all of the main three, I would think Keegan will have enough in the way of attacking options, with the opportunity for a re-assessment in the January transfer window.

So if all games kicked off today, it’d only be the midfield where we’d be short on both numbers and quality. But given that we’re kicking off against Manchester United, and the effect on squad morale an opening day thrashing might have, it seems critical that we reinforce in this area with one or perhaps two players before the season begins. The fact that the centre of the park is a Bermuda Triangle in which the twin ships of craft and creativity have apparently been swallowed is not lost on Keegan. What worries me is his recent proposal to remedy it by sticking James Milner in midfield. This can either be interpreted as the gaffer making the case for a new creative midfielder to Ashley by showing him how dire the situation there actually is, or some kind of delusion that Milner is suddenly going to turn into Rob Lee overnight, moving infield to take advantage of the greater goal scoring opportunities to be had as an attacking midfielder. The suggestion was all the more cringe-worthy, because even in his early days as a right winger, Lee’s game was epitomized by precise passing and presciently timed runs into the opposition penalty box. Milner by contrast, runs more but with less purpose and gives away possession of the football more than anyone else in the squad, Nicky Butt included. In short, whilst turning this particular winger into a central midfielder might give the appearance of more cover in those two positions (Keegan has confirmed he plans to go with 4-4-2), his inclusion there as part of a first XI would surely exacerbate the existing problems in the fluency of our play, without adding either pace or height to a midfield that sorely needs both.

If I were Keegan, with a lengthy ban for Barton in the offing, I’d be more tempted to give the equally diminutive Charles N’Zogbia a shot there, and hope that we can land a defensive midfielder with more puff, power and passing than Nicky Butt. I think even Zoggy must be resigned to the fact that a move to London is off the cards, and he’s always made known his desire to start in the centre, in Souness’s words, ‘where bodies are’. I reckon on him being a stronger runner than Milner overall, with the acceleration to get beyond the forwards as Dyer used to during the early part of Sir Bobby Robson’s reign at the club. If he can get his game up and running again, he’s also got a left foot that can wreak havoc in and around the box. It was tried a few times last season in without obvious success but midfield partnerships aren’t born overnight and at least part of the problem was that Butt couldn’t move quickly enough to cover him when he ran out of position.

With a fifteen game plus ban in the offing for Barton and Smith declaring that he now sees himself as a striker, (the semantics of the word ‘striker’ apparently unimportant to a man who goes games without making an effort on goal), the only other viable option to a winger in the middle of the park is Guthrie. Not a bad option from what I’ve heard told, but having only managed to get ‘Sop Cast’ up and running for the two matches in Mallorca, I didn’t see a player capable of taking the game by the proverbial or bringing the war to a team that’s just won the league and the Champion’s league in the same season. His goal scoring record in competitive fixtures isn’t eyebrow raising (1 in 54) and despite a range of passing which was apparently even better in the Hartlepool and Doncaster Rovers fixtures, he looked a little lightweight from what I could see. That’s not to say I’m not pleased we’ve landed a young player who’s come through the Liverpool academy and can obviously move the ball around a bit, but if he can’t carry his goal scoring form from the friendlies into the season proper, and he’s not combative enough to play deeper, he can surely only be considered a squad player for now.

In terms of defensive midfielders, our options are even more limited, because not even Kevin Keegan can justify putting a winger in front of the back four. Faye has only just come to the fore for selection there because last season his services were required in defence. The arrival of young Bassong and the more experienced Collocini, coupled with some good pre-season showings from Steve Taylor suggests that a credible centre-back partnership can now be formed without him. Keegan has put the likes of Barry Venison and Phillipe Albert in midfield before, and to good effect, but Albert and Venison were probably a bit handier technically than Abdoulaye. What I do tend to like about Faye is that he’s strong and imposing, and would provide aerial ability to a midfield that rarely won the headers in the middle of the park last season. If you do play with a defender in midfield though, you have to be confident that the other elements are going to provide enough of a spark when going forward, and the jury’s still very much out on that. For the current incumbent of the DM spot, Nicky Butt, 2008/9 might be a bridge too far. A lot of Newcastle fans will tell you that when Butt plays well, the team wins. The number of times that happened last year is probably indicative of the consistency we can expect from him next term. He tends to play well in bursts, which inevitably go hand in hand with winning streaks, as was the case towards the tail end of last season. Without dissecting Butt’s game, which has been done many times already, I think it’s sufficient to say that we should be looking for someone a bit younger, and that our ginger veteran should be bringing his undoubted quality from the bench, as and when it is needed.

One area where Keegan appears to have definite cover now, is the wings. The overall quality of the four wingers we have is dubious, but I would say they all have something to bring to the party, as they have all shown it on odd occasions. Jonas Guttierez, as the new boy who has shown real evidence of flair in the minutes he’s been given, will be charged, unfairly perhaps, with providing the sort of wing play that the other three have failed to provide with any degree of consistency. But whilst much of the criticisms levelled at Duff, Milner and N’Zogbia have been fair, all three have been mismanaged by Keegan’s predecessors and have suffered from moribund midfield partnerships that couldn’t get the ball out of the middle fast enough. I haven’t been alone in pronouncing Duff finished, but a bright start to pre-season (albeit against League one opposition) has fuelled hopes that he might at least be more effective for us than he has been in the last two terms. I’d be more than happy to eat my words. Zoggie and Milner are different propositions. The first is more obviously talented than the second, but both are capable of running the show, contributing goals and assists to the cause. Making sure that more of the duo’s crosses beat the first man and make their target must surely be a top priority for the Toon coaching staff. Whether or not they succeed in that, in Guttierez, Keegan has a player with the ability to play on both flanks, go inside and outside, and as a result, limit opportunities for the rest of his wide men if he hits top form.

That, for me, is the sum total of what Keegan has to work with. Can he make it work, and will the Toon faithful be patient?

Discuss in our fans forum.