IN THE space of a week, Glenn Roeder could not be expected to banish the malaise that has gripped Newcastle United for the past 12 months, but the club are no longer in a state of denial. “The way I was brought up,” the caretaker manager said yesterday, “if you admit there’s a problem, you’re halfway to solving it. If you get someone who says there isn’t a problem, you’ll never improve.”
For the victory over Portsmouth last weekend, for which he had only one full day’s preparation, Roeder asked his wingers to get wide and cross the ball. In the subsequent days, the former centre half has worked with Newcastle’s maligned defence. “The back four this week appreciated a couple of practice sessions, enjoyed it and got something out of it,” he said.
To utilise a weary cliché, this is not rocket science, but amid the uncertainty and instability of the Graeme Souness era, certain fundamentals had become blurred. A desperate sequence of injuries to pivotal players overshadowed coaching and organisation, while demands from the boardroom for European football exerted unsustainable pressure. The former has been embraced as the latter has been removed.
With a brief to restore order, Roeder has returned to basics, a factor that can only assist Jean-Alain Boumsong and Titus Bramble, the comedy double act otherwise known as Newcastle’s centre halves. They have lacked belief, communication and guidance, but given that Roeder once recommended Bramble to Sven-Göran Eriksson and watched the “highly rated” Boumsong excel for Auxerre, he can see no reason for it.
“The clean sheet [against Portsmouth] should help their confidence,” Roeder, whose side travel to Aston Villa today, said, “but we will do more. We have two individuals who I would like to work with and get together as a partnership. Shay Given is as good as any goalkeeper in the Premiership and, with the two centre backs, there is a triangle there we have to get working in tandem, working with the full backs.
Advertisement
You cannot let in two goals a game at any level; it is too hard to win games by scoring three goals. So many things I’m saying are obvious — how often do Chelsea let in two? That gives you a chance to win. I got our IT man to put together a video of the goals we’ve conceded and I’ve looked at it a lot of times. Say no more. We have given goals to the opposition.”
There will also be “careful management” of Kieron Dyer, who, after a long absence with hamstring problems and illness, was a substitute against Portsmouth; while there was a context for it, rushing back injured players was another criticism levelled at Souness.
Dyer played for 60 minutes of a practice game on Tuesday and, according to Roeder, could yet be present in England’s World Cup squad. “Kieron was desperate to come on last week,” Roeder said. “That’s how you want a player to be. He kept nudging Terry McDermott [an assistant coach] to get on. We have to protect him and be patient. We don’t want him back in the fire, but by managing him carefully we can easily get him through the last ten games of the season, and it is possible he will make the England set-up.
“Sven has said that there are only a couple of places up for grabs, but he seems to be a particularly loyal person. If Kieron plays to his maximum, he must be knocking on that door. He is very close to being 100 per cent and looks like the old Kieron Dyer; receiving the ball, running with it, giving one-twos. He looks very happy. He has been joking and laughing and that is one of the keys to anyone having success.”