To steal a phrase from page one of Michael Owen's book of Premier League cliches, yesterday's matchup between Newcastle United and Manchester City was a game of two halves. The first period saw the away side well on top. The black and whites continued with their new fearlessly bullish approach that worked so well against champions Chelsea a week prior. Steve McClaren's side weathered an early storm to take the lead through a stooping Aleksandar Mitrovic header. They should have doubled their lead but a tap in for the Serbian was wrongly ruled offside, before the 21-year-old had a one-on-one brilliantly saved by the toe-end of Joe Hart. All was going well. One thing I noticed sitting in the Etihad's press box was how United's touchline management team of McClaren and Paul Simpson were conducting their business. Simpson - one of the assistant managers at the club - didn't sit down for the entire half. He was the one on the edge of his technical area endlessly barking orders to his charges; orders the players were responding too with some aplomb. The only times Steve got out of his seat was to bemoan a Mitrovic miss. With Simpson's help from the sideline, Newcastle simply wanted it more than their counterparts. They were first to every ball and hunted the Citizens in packs, mauling each of their classy ball players with devastating ferocity. It was a first half that seemed to confirm the new Newcastle United. The Chelsea performance could have been a one-off; a fluke bred from necessity rather than endless hours of endeavour on the training field and planning by the head coach. But the team followed it up and arguably surpassed their achievements against the current Premier League leaders, no less. Then, Sergio Aguero's late equaliser and the second half came... The Magpies were guilty of dropping deeper in the draw at home to Chelsea which, allowed The Blues back into the game. They were culpable of doing the same here, and even more. The simply stopped playing. Goodness knows what McClaren must have said to them at the break. There's a good chance the former England boss doused his players in booze and sleeping pills. Goals from Aguero and Kevin De Bruyne saw City 6-1 up after 62 minutes and they could have had more. Newcastle imploded on a far greater scale than was ever seen in the dark days of Messrs Carver and Pardew. And who was taking the lead from a management standpoint during that second half? You guessed it; it was the head coach. Something that is even more worrying than the scale of the team's depression. While Simpson was still trying to lead from the front next to his head coach, McClaren was at the forefront of everything that was happening. He was the one barking the instructions now; instructions absolutely no one was responding to. It's fair to say that Newcastle faced a far superior City side - with that man Aguero on serious top form - compared to the one they had the better of in the first. But it's the way the team stopped doing everything they did so well earlier so suddenly that is the worry. Has McClaren lost the dressing room? Is it nothing more than a coincidence that Simpson was able to garner a response from the players while McClaren was rendered completely powerless? We all saw the vine that emerged from last weekend's game just before Siem de Jong was about to be introduced (seen here); well McClaren was behaving just like that. It's actions like that which will undoubtedly be lost on foreign internationals who believe they're above that. Saying that, would anyone over the age of 12 appreciate being spoken too like that? It will be interesting to see who takes the lead for Newcastle from the touchline in their next game at home to Norwich. Judging by yesterday's happenings, McClaren would be better off taking a backseat on the day. Follow me on Twitter @RWTweddell!
