Where do we go from here?

Silverwear has passed us by again – but there is still a pot of gold to play for.

After Newcastle’s defeat in the third round of the FA Cup at Watford on Saturday, I read a Tweet from a fan which suggested that it’s only early January, and already 2016 can be written-off. If only that were true.

While they are right, in terms of winning anything this season, the biggest and most important fight is still ahead of us.

Anyone who thinks that there is no reason to worry, or that Newcastle will turn the corner any week now, or that it’s premature to say that we are staring relegation in the face, or that our performances are good enough and that with a bit more luck in front of goal we would be sitting in a much healthier position in the table, are sadly misguided, and maybe bordering on delusional. The fact that these opinions and insights belong to our manager/head-coach/incompetent leader (whichever title you prefer) beggars belief.

Saturday’s game saw a first half where many of the players were unaware of what their respective roles were. To put it politely – they were all over the place. Granted, once they got to grips with the new formation they looked more than capable of at least earning a replay, until Georginio Wijnaldum’s catastrophic misplaced pass on the stroke of half time. For a group of professional footballers to look so oblivious to their own game-plan begs the question of just what they had been doing in training all week? I refuse to believe that Steve McClaren’s latest ‘Masterplan’ was conjured up on the bus journey from the hotel to Vicarage Road, so surely they had worked on the formation and had their individual roles explained and demonstrated to them?

The second half was a familiar story of Newcastle’s first half of the season – having to chase the game, creating a number of decent chances, only for them to be found wanting inside the opponents penalty area. This is a recurring theme now, and it is not simply down to luck that we haven’t been scoring goals. It is down to a lack of quality finishing. Aleksander Mitrovic may well prove to be the answer in the long term, but taking time to get to grips with English football was a major concern of fans when he signed. This was the reason so many fans wanted Newcastle to (for once) just pay the money being asked for Charlie Austin in the summer, and bring in someone who could hit the ground running. There is nothing to beat experience. It has long since gone beyond the stage of frustration and has now become worrying.

Bringing a quality, experienced striker to the club is essential. Should Newcastle fail to address their goal-scoring issues, then Championship football becomes a near certainty. The time for quibbling over transfer fees are gone. Lee Charnley watches the same games that we do. He must realise that the benefits of paying the asking price for a decent striker far outweigh the risk of missing out on a player in order to save a few quid here and there.

I am not suggesting that we get fleeced into paying exaggerated, exorbitant amounts, but if (hypothetically) Queens Park Rangers are asking for £8 million for their star striker, don’t go in with a bid of £2 million an tell them to take it or leave it. Offer about £6.5m and if they stick to their guns, then just stump up the extra million and a half. It isn’t a time to be penny-pinching. One and a half million pounds will be a mere drop in the ocean compared to the millions it will mean if his potential goals keep us up.

Another worrying aspect about Saturday’s game at Watford was the booing of Florian Thauvin when he came on.

I am not here to tell other fans how to behave towards the players. They pay their money, they have every right to react how they see fit. However, I can still have an opinion, and mine is that booing and singing ‘You’re not fit to wear the shirt’ to an individual player, especially during a game, is not helpful or beneficial to either the player, or the team.

We need to get the best out of our players, especially if they are out of form, and they would be more likely to rediscover that with some encouragement rather than ridicule.

It must be remembered that Thauvin is a young player in a foreign country, playing a style of football that is new to him. It was always going to take time to get the best out of him. Alongside that, of course, is the fact that he has been used so sparingly by McClaren, and is usually being thrust into a game when we’re already behind, and under more pressure to produce something to salvage a point from it.

I understand that our current predicament means that we do not have the luxury of time on our side, and that doesn’t help, but to single out and blame one young individual from a plethora of under-performing experienced players – of who there are an abundance in black and white this season – while bearing in mind the fact that there have been some awful management decisions concerning both tactics and personnel, then it seems more than a little unfair.

Of course, most of these problems can hopefully be resolved in what is left of the transfer window. As I write, it seems that Henri Saivet is on the verge of joining, and he may well have already signed by the time you are reading this, and that would be a good start. But it must not, by any mean, be the finish.

We need to bring in an experienced striker immediately. No more pussy-footing around the situation. Put the money on the table, and bring in someone who will virtually guarantee us a double-figured return of goals during what is left of the season.

There is also talk of Jonjo Shelvey coming in. I must admit, he is not one of my favourite players, and to be honest, I am not a fan of his game. I always thought he was overrated, and failed to see what all of the pundits saw in him. That said, if he arrives, then I will, of course, give him the benefit of the doubt, and hope that watching him week in, week out I will see a side of his game that I don’t see when watching his games on TV.

Personally, I would like to see us also bring in a good left back, and a pacey, tricky winger (as well as Saivet), that will be able to pass a full-back and whip crosses in from the by-line. At least then we will be playing to the strengths of Mitrovic and hopefully A.N. Other.

One thing is for sure – we’re at the business-end of the season now. Failure to act, and to address the problems that have plagued us throughout 2015, will spell disaster for our once-great football club.

So let’s hope that by Easter we have righted many of our wrongs, climbed the Premier League to mid-table mediocrity, and that we are then writing-off the rest of the season as having nothing to play for.