Relief. Newcastle United escaped Premier League relegation by the skin of their teeth on Sunday as Geordie John Carver masterminded a 2-0 win over a hapless West Ham United. Or did he? Carver had made no bones about the importance of the game and shifted most of the responsibility onto his players' shoulders, revealing how he opened a training ground door and offered those players not up for the fight to walk through it. The Head Coach's decision to put more of an onus on his subordinates certainly became very clear during the game and seemingly played a huge part in the win. During Carver's 20-game tenure in the top job, the sight of him and first team coach Steve Stone deep in discussion on the touchline had become disturbingly common. What were they discussing? Why weren't they implementing anything they said? Maybe they were discussing what to have for tea... However, that was a sight that couldn't be seen from the Leazes End on Sunday at least. Instead, Stone was sent out on his own only a few times throughout the 90 minutes. The only time JC could be seen was when he went on one of those lung bursting runs after Moussa Sissoko and Jonas Gutierrez's goals. It really seems Carver put ALL responsibility on his players on Sunday. This begs the question why he didn't do this earlier? It was obvious for all to see that all of Carver's tactical work on the training ground, ramblings from the touchline and team talks during games were falling on deaf ears. Clearly, the players' tactical nouse and footballing brain power are a lot stronger than the Head Coach's so why didn't Geordie John swallow his pride and take the reserved role that would have undoubtedly made his win/loss record look a lot better? His display, or lack of one on Sunday is another damming assessment of his time in charge. He simply isn't a manager/Head Coach. If he is given the job on a full time basis taking a backseat role and letting his players think for themselves must be the way to go forward, as mad as that sounds. For all the latest NUFC News, Views and Transfers make sure to follow WhatCultureNUFC on Twitter and Facebook.
