Nowadays, the job of a manager is almost impossible, as Ange Postecoglou discovers.
You can't say what you really want to say and using phrases like “unacceptable” after a derby is the strongest thing you can probably use in public nowadays. The strongest words are for the locker room.
But he has used these terms before and you can't keep repeating it game after game, especially when you have lost 11 Premier League games in January.
Obviously the message does not arrive. As Ronnie Moran, our manager at Liverpool, used to tell us: “This is the second time I've had to tell you, that means one thing, if you need to tell me again, you're not a Liverpool player and you won.” I'll be here a long time.
It's tricky, as you'd like to express your true feelings, but if you do, you'll lose part of your wardrobe before inevitably losing your entire wardrobe.
There are very few times you can say 'it's unacceptable' because both the fans and the board will ask, 'Why can't you fix this problem?'
Ange Postecoglou discovers that today the job of a manager is almost impossible
You can't say what you really want to say in public: the strongest words are for the locker room.
If you express your true feelings, you will lose part of your wardrobe before, inevitably, losing everything.
If you lose the locker room, then it will be a simple monetary decision that the board will have to make. Then it all comes down to the value of the assets. And when it comes to losing a multi-million dollar team or coach, there is only one winner.
I think now is the time that Ange has to try a different approach and also use different phrasing to convey her message, to see if she can get a new tune out of this group.
I understand your frustration. It is a mystery how his team can beat Manchester City, even though they were in a difficult period, beating Liverpool and Manchester United in the cups and failing so often in the Premier League.
The problem is that the coach has a group of players from whom he does not know what he is going to get from six or seven of them in each game. That's not a great place to be and it makes for indifferent performances.
On successful teams, the coach knows what he is going to get from the majority of his players in each game. As a coach, you have to be confident in what you're going to get when you take them out of the locker room. The Spurs have been labeled “milky” and that's the correct terminology when you're up and down as they are.
The challenge for Ange is to have a Plan B. It's good when you coach Celtic and you have the best players in the national league. There, their approach would have been the same every week, both home and away: let's just beat them. We will get to the halfway line and teams will occasionally play against our pressure, but eventually we will score more goals than them.
But when you come to England and try to play the same forward football against teams who are better than you, there is usually only one result. You're asking your players to outgun opponents, except one big problem is that they have more powerful weapons than you!
Their squad has good players but not great players. And with captain Son Heung-min, the evidence is that his best days may be behind him.
They play in a way that if they face the best teams, they will invariably be beaten, as happened at Arsenal on Wednesday. Sometimes, they will have to find a more pragmatic approach against the best teams, or Ange will pay the price.
The coach has a group of players where he does not know what he is going to get in each game
Ange needs a plan B: you will be surprised if you try to score more than your opponents in England.
Record-breaking magpies
My experience at Newcastle United was that you were only one game away from collapsing the roof.
By beating Wolves the other night, Eddie Howe's team surpassed my Newcastle team's record of eight consecutive wins in 2005. That streak ended against Aston Villa when Lee Bowyer and Kieron Dyer decided to exchange blows on the pitch and They were both expelled.
They're actually both pretty good guys to be fair, but, on that day, frustration with the way the game went got to them both. We reached the quarter-finals of the UEFA Cup and the semi-finals of the FA Cup, but it still wasn't enough.
It is a very difficult job that can quickly turn negative, in part due to not winning a major trophy since 1969. Everything may be rosy at the club on Friday, but on Sunday everything is bad.
Eddie's team have now won nine in a row, a run achieved by Kevin Keegan's team, and I would say this is the best Newcastle I have seen since Kevin's team. They are nine points off the top and, if they are lucky with injuries, they can be serious rivals for Liverpool.
None of the big boys will want to play in that team, they are full of energy and in Alexander Isak they have the striker in Premier League form. It's a tremendously difficult place to go, Newcastle, when the fans support their team.
Inside that dressing room, they won't shout it publicly, but they have to believe they can take Liverpool close.
Eddie has done well, but the main reason he has been able to do it has been his fabulous recruiting.
They have two young full-backs, full of energy and quality, and a midfield that loves to hunt you down. They are not only stylish players but also talented and hardworking players who work hard and make sure that no one enjoys playing against them.
I also have to give credit to Anthony Gordon. I gave him shit for being a jumper when he was at Everton but he has worked to improve. He was unlucky at the European Championship because, in Gareth Southgate, he had an England coach who should have trusted him more. Like Isak, he has become a true revolutionary.
The big job for Newcastle and Eddie going forward is to retain these players now.
Eddie Howe's team has won nine games in a row, equaling Kevin Keegan's team.
This is the best team since Keegan's team – they can be serious rivals for Liverpool.
Alexander Isak has the fittest striker in the Premier League: he is on a good streak
Havertz is too good to be an elite striker
It is obvious that Arsenal need a 20 goal per season scorer. Declan Rice came out the other night after the win over Tottenham and said: “We could have scored 10.” But they didn't.
They have a disproportionate number of goals from set pieces, 12 of their total of 41, 10 from corners alone. By comparison, Liverpool, the team Arsenal are trying to catch, have scored three goals from set pieces.
Other statistics say that Arsenal's big problem this season is taking advantage of opportunities. Kai Havertz is their top scorer with seven goals in the Premier League. After him, there are Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Martinelli with five, Leandro Trossard with four and Gabriel Jesus and Gabriel Magalhaes with three.
They don't have enough goals in that team if you compare them to Liverpool. Take their set pieces, where would they be in the league? Fighting to be in the top six.
I wondered why they paid £65m to Chelsea for Kai Havertz. I said at the time that Arteta must think he can improve it because you wouldn't pay that for his performances and goals. He scored 19 league goals in three seasons. That's not enough goals for a striker or an attacking midfielder.
My description of him would be that he is too nice. I'm sure he'd make a great son-in-law, but he doesn't have enough evil in him. And Jesús is more of the same: 18 league goals in 70 games. If he were a top-level finisher, Manchester City would not have let him go. It's blatantly obvious that those two are not the answer.
They have to do the hard work in recruiting to find that guy who scores for fun on a regular basis and takes them from almost men to champions. It is essential.
The current Liverpool team has its leading scorer in Mo Salah and a host of contributing players. All successful teams have players who share the goals.
In the Liverpool team I played for, I foolishly used to bet £100 every pre-season with Terry McDermott that I would score more goals than him. On Christmas Day I had already paid. I scored a few but Terry was ahead of everyone, scoring from the center of the field. When he won the PFA Player of the Year award in 1980, he scored 16 goals in all competitions, but in the following two seasons he scored 22 and 20.
Arsenal's favorite forwards are struggling to get close to those numbers now. The current Liverpool has more scorers in its team than Arsenal and that is why it is the great favorite for this Premier League title.
Kai Havertz has scored 19 league goals in three seasons, that's not enough… he's too kind
Liverpool has more scorers in their entire team, which is why they are favorites for the title
Kelly Cates (left) and Gabby Logan (right) are excellent choices for the Match of the Day lineup.
The talented Kelly and Gabby are perfect for MOTD
I'm so happy to have Gabby Logan and Kelly Cates joining Match of the Day. line up. They are both very talented and have a great knowledge of our game, having grown up in football families.
In Kelly's case, we go back to the early days of my careers (mine and Kenny Dalglish's) when we were all residents of the Holiday Inn, Paradise Street, Liverpool, and I had to take her out for walks under strict orders. of Marina, Kelly's mother, not to bring her back until she was fast asleep in her stroller.
I wish you the best.