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Leaders needed to help United grow
May 5 2008 by The Journal
Resurgent Newcastle United face the biggest test of their revival when Chelsea arrive at St James’s Park today in need of points to maintain their challenge on two fronts. Mark Douglas hears how Kevin Keegan plans to emulate United’s title-chasing opponents.
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Some of those leaders on the pitch will be imported – with Manchester City’s unsettled captain Richard Dunne surely fitting the bill – but Keegan will also look at some of his existing players to take on more of a leadership role next season too.
Already Keegan has given Michael Owen a position of more responsibility by handing him the skipper’s armband. And the manager has clearly seen enough of those elusive leadership qualities in other squad members to convince him his team is capable of moving up a level.
A glance at today’s team sheets clearly adds credence to Keegan’s call for on-field leaders capable of turning things around when fortune appears to favour the opposition. Chelsea’s line-up is peppered with ‘leaders’ from the likes of Frank Lampard to captain John Terry.
It has helped them to stay in contention for titles on the domestic and European front when things appeared to be conspiring against them.
Reflecting on the size of the task United face at St James’s Park this afternoon, Keegan admits that if Chelsea reach anywhere near their peak they will get the win they need to stay in the title race.
“I talk about leaders here but they (Chelsea) have four or five leaders and that is why they are at the top. We need four or five leaders to take us up the table too,” he said.
“If we play to our very best and they do, it will probably be a great game and they will beat us. Unless, that is, we get lucky because they are a better team than us as the league tells you that.
“But if we play to our best and they feel: ‘Wow, this is another big game’ after two big games against Liverpool and Manchester United, then who knows? That is the fascination of the Premier League. We have got big-match players as well.”
Even though they are favourites to prosper on Tyneside this afternoon, Keegan is warning Chelsea to expect a wall of noise from the Newcastle supporters this afternoon. He believes the United players have earned that kind of support in the way they have recovered since the dark days of January and February, when he fully admits the loyalty of the St James’s Park faithful was only based on the nostalgia value of his return.
Now, though, he thinks the passion of the supporters is based on the fighting qualities they have seen from the team he has presided over.
“We will have a fantastic atmosphere in our stadium because the players have earned that now over the last six or seven games,” he said. “Geordies do support their team. Before my first game back I said it was manufactured because someone had come back and they remembered the good times from whenever.
“But the players the other week said: ‘Wow, it is unbelievable’ and I said you have got to earn that. Once you have earned it, it will be there every week for you and I believe it is now there by right. There will be no better atmosphere than St James’s Park on Monday. You won’t get anywhere any better than that, not Old Trafford or anywhere.
“It’s a great game and for us it is great to be involved in two games at the end of the season that both mean something. We are not thinking about our holidays and we are not thinking let’s just get this season over with and then start thinking about next year. We are thinking about how can we test ourselves in the best way possible against this team.”
Newcastle may have largely been guilty of underachieving with the players at their disposal this season, but despite the blue chip CVs of many of their squad they simply cannot compete with the Roman Abramovich-backed Blues for big names.
Petr Cech, Didier Drogba, Michael Ballack, Lampard – outside of Manchester United no team can rival them for international experience and know-how and it is a blueprint that Keegan would love to be able to replicate at St James’s Park.
One player that Keegan hopes will be afforded respect is Lampard – the Chelsea midfielder responsible for one of the most iconic Champions League moments in midweek when, in his first game since the death of mother Pat, he stroked home a crucial penalty before collapsing in tears.
Keegan was the England manager who first capped Lampard and is clearly an admirer of the attacking midfielder. Lampard has been a phenomenally effective player over the last four seasons but is regularly given a rough ride at away grounds all over the country.
His failure to replicate his club performances at international level – a problem which Sven-Göran Eriksson and Steve McClaren must surely share some blame for – have clearly contributed to that, but the ferocity of it may be dulled by his admirable contribution in midweek. Keegan certainly hopes so.
“Will Frank Lampard get booed? The crowd will decide what they want to do so the answer is I don’t know but hopefully it will be good,” he said. “I have got total respect for him. He has proven to be a top-class player and a leader. I gave him his first cap at the Stadium of Light and I hope he gets the reception he deserves. I got booed wherever I played and it got to the point where I knew it wasn’t anything bad. I would sooner the crowd did not boo because it just motivates players. It did with me. But I am not going to tell the crowd what to do – they pay their money.’’
