Joey Barton raises an interesting question about Newcastle United and Rangers please log in to view this image Subhankar Mondal 14 hours ago Queens Park Rangers midfielder Joey Barton comments on the current situation at Newcastle United and Rangers. View image | gettyimages.com Queens Park Rangers midfielder Joey Barton believes that Mike Ashleywants a say in team selection both at Newcastle United and at Rangers. Barton, a former Newcastle player, made his comments on social networking site Twitter this afternoon. Interesting developments at Glasgow Rangers. As I said on @bbc5live Mike Ashley wants a say in team selection at NUFCand GR... — Joseph Barton (@Joey7Barton) February 5, 2015 Makes it difficult to hold head coach/manager totally accountable if things don't go to play. This is creeping into the modern game nowadays — Joseph Barton (@Joey7Barton) February 5, 2015 Ashley has been the owner of Newcastle since 2007 and has recently ventured into Scottish football by buying a stake at Rangers. Newcastle are one of the biggest clubs in England, but results on the pitch have not always been great. At the moment, the Magpies are pretty much an also-ran in the Premier League, while Rangers are currently second in the Scottish Championship. On transfer deadline day, Rangers signed no fewer than five Newcastle United players on loan for the rest of the season. Should Ashley influence team selection? Since Ashley owns Newcastle, perhaps there is an argument to be made in favour of him having some influence over team selection. After all, it is he who is paying the players, and it is he who will suffer the most (along with the fans) if results deteriorate. SEE ALSO: Paul Scholes on key factor that is dragging QPR down However, the manager needs to be in control of the team all the time. It is up to him to play the players he thinks are up to the job. That does not mean that Ashley should not try to give his input, but the job of managing the players should be left to the manager. What do you make of Joey Barton’s comments?
Just read the Paul Scholes article - what a chump. In brief he said we need to play more defensively away and then contradicts himself by saying that at ManU they played the same home and away and tried to score goals.
He said Man U played same home & away but then: “Obviously, when a team is further down the table that is not always possible. In QPR’s situation I just don’t know why they haven’t tried harder to shut up shop and keep a clean sheet. Perhaps the players just don’t know how to do it.” So yes he's right teams further down the table do need to scrap for every point & a clean sheet would do that - one of our successes last season was that we didn't let in many goals (9 clean sheets in a row) so always had a chance.
The Newcastle - Rangers situation. It may be that contractually third party ownership is not involved. In reality though, surely this is the case. Paul Scoles I don't know how we could have attempted to shut up shop more than we have! Apart from have all eleven defending instead of the nine or ten that we have tried!
Ok. Last season we were in the Championship - that's comparing apples and oranges in terms of the ability to grind out clean sheets. If scrapping for every point means parking the bus - then we just don't have the pace or skill in our defence to do that - in fact my view is that by being more positive we would be taking some of the pressure off our creaking defence. This season has been a bizarre in that our successes have come by playing positively, but away from home we have not played to these strengths - and at the risk of losing what? After 7,8,9 successive defeats one would imagine that someone would have twigged that the overly defensive awayday system was patently not working. Last week at Stoke was a great example of playing more offensively in the second half and nearly getting something out of the game. Scholes' suggestion to 'try to shut up shop' is basically what we have been doing so unsuccessfully for the past 11 games - it would also suggest he hasn't seen us play very much. ...and Scholes actually did contradict himself - you can't advocate setting up defensively away from home and then say you should try to play the same home and away.
