Newcastle vs Liverpool: Steve McClaren could face axe with defeat today

A torrid season has led new manager to wonder whether he is the right ‘fit’ at Newcastle

Steve McClaren’s optimism has been tested by his team’s lack of confidence (PA)

Scene One: The press room of FC Twente in Enschede six years ago. As Steve McClaren, bottle of beer in hand, chats amiably, two Twente coaches pass by and parrot: “Clean sheets! Clean sheets!”

McClaren laughs back: “Clean sheets!”

His emerging Twente team had just kept one in a 1-0 home win against an Ajax side containing Luis Suarez, Jan Vertonghen and Toby Alderweireld. Twente’s victory was part of a league title-winning season, their first for 84 years. It was also part of McClaren’s managerial rehabilitation. He and Twente were a good fit, though it was not immediate.

This was his first job post-England and he looked more relaxed than for some time. “Relaxed?” he said, perplexed. “I’m not away with the fairies. I’m harder, more focused, determined.”

Scene Two: McClaren’s office, Derby County, 20 months ago. Derby have jumped since McClaren replaced Nigel Clough, and after short, unsuccessful spells at Wolfsburg, Nottingham Forest and a season back at Twente, McClaren is again on his way to credibility.

The following month, Derby batter Queens Park Rangers in the Championship play-off final – 14-1 on corners – but lose 1-0. On this day, McClaren is reviewing his time at Middlesbrough, which included a torrid first season. It was 2001 and he had just arrived from Old Trafford, where he was Alex Ferguson’s assistant. Boro promptly lost the first four games; by January, they were still in the relegation zone.

They recovered to finish 12th, but as far as McClaren the manager was concerned the jury was out. It could be said that it has been out ever since.

How did Boro recover? “We had to get through it pragmatically,” he said. “I say to everyone my first season at Middlesbrough was two banks of four: ‘Don’t move!’. It was awful. I remember thinking I don’t want another season like that.”

Scene Three: Newcastle United’s training ground, 6 August 2015. It is less than three months since McClaren was shown the door by Derby. Leading the Championship in March, Derby collapsed to finish eighth, not even in the play-offs.

In the Midlands they felt McClaren had taken his eye off the ball because he was being tickled by Newcastle. Now he was at Newcastle, upgraded to the Premier League after Derby won two of their last 13 matches.

He became the eighth Newcastle manager in the eight-year Mike Ashley era. “They want stability,” McClaren said, straight-faced. “Speaking to [managing director] Lee Charnley, that was one of the pluses to the job.”

There were others. Newcastle had entered the transfer market with serious intent for the first time since January 2013, when Mathieu Debuchy, Moussa Sissoko, Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa, Massadio Haidara and Yoan Gouffran had arrived in a £20 million spree. Now McClaren had Georginio Wijnaldum, Aleksandar Mitrovic and Chancel Mbemba, yet he was still being asked about the depth of Newcastle’s strength. Optimistic, he dealt with it. He was prepared to become the public face of Ashley’s club.

“I have come in and looked at the plan,” he said, “looked at the calibre of players [targets] and said, ‘Wow!’. We have talked a lot about the next three windows being huge – massive – for us. In a year’s time, after our third transfer window, we should have a damn good team.”

He looked at ease. The naked ambition which had riled Derby – and Middlesbrough – had gone. He was 34 when he took his first coaching job, as Jim Smith’s assistant at Derby; now he was 54, mature. “I’m a bit more level than I used to be,” he said. Yet last Thursday McClaren was asked about his future at St James’ Park. He used the word “confidence” more than 40 times, but suddenly there is a lack of it. Suddenly there is a question mark over him reaching the second window.

Things had started well: a lively 2-2 draw with Southampton. But it’s been stop-start since. Behind the scenes there is tension over who was bought and who wasn’t; in 16 games there have been three wins; Newcastle are conceding on average more than two goals a game. Clean sheets? Three.

Eight goals have been conceded in the past two matches, 3-0 at home to Leicester and 5-1 at Crystal Palace last Saturday. Today resurgent Liverpool visit, then it is Tottenham away. “I think McClaren will go after the Spurs game,” says Michael Martin of the fanzine True Faith. “He’s achieved nothing. There’s no tactics, no defending, can’t attack. There’s no identity. It’s been much worse than I feared.

“But he’s not 100 per cent culpable. The model the club uses is dysfunctional. The model is to bring in young players, put a shine on them and sell them on. That’s what McClaren, and [Alan] Pardew before him, accepted. They’ve been willing to accept these conditions. It’s not how you build a football club.”

So it’s stop-start McClaren versus non-stop Klopp. He encountered Jürgen Klopp in the Bundesliga. Klopp’s Dortmund beat Wolfsburg home and away. The second of those was McClaren’s penultimate game in charge, which is how some are viewing the situation on Tyneside.

Klopp has fitted seamlessly into Liverpool and McClaren has called them “title contenders – the League is so open”. But, when asked if he and Newcastle are enough of a fit, he replied: “To be perfectly honest, if it was enough of a fit, we would we winning football matches.”

For Newcastle United and Steve McClaren, that is an answer which only raises questions.