Shearer's priority is restoring belief
Apr 6 2009 by Mark Douglas, The Journal
Before then, Shearer is looking forward to a full week of working with his players – who he says still retain the belief that they can haul United out of trouble.
“I enjoyed the day but I didn’t enjoy coming away with nothing and then walking into the dressing-room afterwards. But that is a part of the job I was well aware of,” he said.
“It was a tough start, but I have tried to drum the positives rather than the negatives into the players. The confidence is not high. You can see that in the way we conceded the first goal and we started giving them more chances after that.
“I have no complaints about the effort and the workrate. They came in at half time tired but they’d enjoyed it. To snuff a team out with the ability of Chelsea, everything had worked well for us. I said at half time, the game lasts 90 minutes, not 45.
“I have told the players not to worry about making mistakes in the right areas. I will not criticise them for trying something in the right areas.”
In return, Shearer is demanding a change in mentality from his players.
“I will try a bit of everything to raise their confidence. I am sure they have had everything tried, with the tellings off and the arms around the shoulder, but a different voice and different personalities might just work in a different way,” he said. “When we have conceded goals this season, we have tended to go on and concede more and lose games. That mentality has to change. It is a great arena to play in with 52,000 demanding fans, but it is an arena which demands success.”
One of his main concerns will be repairing the supply-line to his forwards, and increasing their sharpness.
United have scored only three goals in six games and Michael Owen again looked off the pace – failing to create any kind of rapport with Oba Martins. Shearer defended his former England colleague, saying he had been asked to play a deeper role.
“We asked Michael to do a role that takes a little bit away from his game, because we were playing Chelsea and because of the ability they have and their quality in possession,” he said.
“It was very important we did that. We sacrificed Michael in little spells and he was not able to get into the areas we would like him to. If we are playing a different team with a different system, we will be looking to get Michael into scoring positions.” There is one positive for United though – Owen has indicated his desire to stay on Tyneside next season provided the club is not relegated.
