WATFORD PILE ON TOON WOE
McClaren bemoans strikers as Newcastle slump to another loss
STEVE McCLAREN said that managing Newcastle during the early weeks of the season was like heading for a car crash — but he did not expect to be sifting through the wreckage of another defeat at home to relegation candidates Watford.
It is McClaren’s side, however, who are heading for the Championship on the evidence of six winless — and fairly joyless — matches.
But credit must also go to Watford’s two-goal hero Odion Ighalo, who took his tally for the calendar year to 20 — one less than Newcastle have managed in the Premier League in the same period.
McClaren, meanwhile, can only look on with envy at a player of Ighalo’s predatory instinct.
He was forced to start Papiss Cisse, the striker who showed a lack of respect for his boss by failing to show for an arranged one-on-one meeting during the international break and then gave a disinterested performance during Monday’s 2-0 defeat at West Ham.
How has McClaren been left so short that Cisse is his only option? The Senegal forward lasted 45 forgettable minutes before being hooked at half-time. By that point Newcastle were trailing 2-0. If anything, the scoreline flattered the woeful hosts. Watford were simply quicker, stronger, fitter and better organised.
Newcastle managing director Lee Charnley sent an email to supporters earlier this month in which he trumpeted the £52million invested during the summer.
But the transfer committee of Charnley, chief scout Graham Carr and, of course, McClaren, have left this team desperately short of goals.
Indeed, former Newcastle manager and captain Alan Shearer tweeted: ‘Even I won one in six! NUFC awful again. Charlie Austin looks cheap at £15million now.’
And McClaren, whose side were booed off at the end of both halves, said: ‘To win football matches you have to score goals. We had to score three to win today — are we capable of that? We came up short, like we did against West Ham. I’m under no illusion this is a hard job, we have the proof of that now. But we have the experience in the backroom to turn this around.
‘We are lucky that it’s early. There is a long way to go. We are not hiding behind anything, there are things wrong and things we need to work on.’
Save for a frenzied period in the wake of Daryl Janmaat’s secondhalf reply to give Newcastle hope of stealing a point, it was another unimaginative and uninspiring performance.
The Magpies are only being kept off the bottom by Sunderland and it looks like being another sorry season in the North East.
But McClaren is refusing to panic. ‘I said to the boys in the dressing room — it’s not a crisis and we can’t panic,’ he said. ‘We have to stick together. We are going to get a lot of criticism. We know there is a lot to work on. It’s not easy and we didn’t expect it to be. You are where you deserve to be and that (second bottom) is where we are.’
Hornets boss Quique Sanchez Flores said: ‘ The win was well deserved. I want to praise the whole team but Odion was very good.
‘We took a decision to keep him two months ago, there were offers from other teams. It was a clever decision.’
The warning signs were there for Newcastle as early as the sixth minute. Almen Abdi flicked into the path of the unmarked Ighalo but he slammed wide with just Tim Krul to beat. But the 26-year-old made no mistake four minutes later when he stepped away from Janmaat before cutting a low shot into the bottom corner from 12 yards.
The home side did have a chance to level when Moussa Sissoko played in Cisse but he lashed wide.
His opposite number, Troy Deeney, was giving a far better demonstration of attacking play. At the other end of the pitch he rolled Newcastle skipper Fabricio Coloccini all too easily before slipping in Ighalo for his second on 28 minutes.
Janmaat halved the deficit just after the hour mark when he charged into the area and swapped passes with Sissoko before slotting calmly into the bottom corner.
His 25-yard blast was then flipped around the post by Watford goalkeeper Heurelho Gomes soon after and from his cross substitute Siem de Jong headed wide on 69 minutes.
De Jong had another chance to level 10 minutes later but shot tamely into the arms of Gomes.
It proved to be the last time United would threaten — the effort was in keeping with their overall performance, weak and painfully predictable.