Gordon Strachan has delivered his verdict on the situation facing Rafa Benitez at Newcastle United.
Newcastle have endured a torrid start to the new season and have failed to win a single game.
Benitez’s side have picked up just two points in the Premier League and sit third bottom of the fledgling table.
They were also dumped out of the Carabao Cup 3-1 by Nottingham Forest.
Poor performances on the pitch are set against the backdrop of continued unrest off it at St James Park.
Magpies fans adore Benitez and continue to push for the hugely unpopular Mike Ashley to sell up to a more ambitious owner.
Newcastle finished 10th last season, an achievement widely praised in football circles given what Benitez had at his disposal.
It looks like the Spaniard will have his work cut out to keep the Magpies up this season, though, if their dreadful start and the disharmony around St James’ Park is anything to go by.
Reports this week suggest the players are planning on holding a meeting without the manager present to sort out their issues (The Guardian).
Speaking on Sky Sports’ The Debate, former Premier League manager Gordon Strachan delivered his verdict on the situation facing Benitez at Newcastle.
“I’ve done that before, I’ve done that meeting before, but as long as it’s not a cosmetic kind of a meeting, it needs to be a ‘Here we go, I’m going to tell you something’ kind of a meeting,” Strachan said on The Debate.
“As long as it’s not cosmetic because sometimes they have a meeting and go ‘Oh the training’s not very good’ or ‘The manager’s tactics are not right’ or ‘We need to have more golf days or to have nights out’ you know that sort of nonsense.
“What I do know is they’ve still got to score goals, but there’s nobody really there to score goals as a threat, I don’t know who (is going) to score goals for them.
“It’s very hard, and you can try as much as you want, but if you’re not getting that break and a goal goes in, then you know that one (against) is going to kill you and you play with a bit of fear then and you step back a bit and you think ‘Well I better not go forward because if I lose possession we have to get back because if we lose a goal that’s a problem.
“I think when everything (is in sync) from the top of the club all the way down you’re ok.
“But I don’t think the club itself knows where it wants to go just now and that is a problem.
“And players will say ‘Well it doesn’t really affect us’, well it does because it affects the manager and if if affects the manager, it affects the players and it’s like the domino effect.”
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