Souness to blame for the injuries? Far from it...

By Chris Baker
January 15 2006

Forum poster Chris Baker's backlash on those who think Souness is at fault for our current squad status.

When a manager isn't liked, it's so easy to blame him for everything that
happens. And let's be honest, Souness isn't popular amongst a lot of fans.
To be more honest, a lot of fans never gave him a chance since day one,
blaming him for all sorts of things ever since whilst they live in hope of
his sacking.

One such topic which Souness has been continually blamed for is the crucial
topic which has effectively ended our season - injuries.

I'm not a pessimist, but I think it's fair to say our season has been and
will be ruined by injuries. We're halfway through the season now, and we've
certainly had plenty of injuries so far. Still our first choice eleven
hasn't taken to the field. For the second half, it's not going to improve.
Our best striker - Owen - is already out for at least two months of it. Our
best defender - Taylor - is out just as long, if not longer. And there's no
doubting how vital players like Dyer, Emre and Parker are - the latter of
which is also out for at least a month.

It is perfectly understandable to want to look for someone or something to
blame for this. After all, on paper, our team looks top quality. And with
the majority of these players fit, the performances have been promising. The
highlight of that is West Brom away, where we had Taylor, Parker, Dyer and
Owen playing in the second half. There was no Luque then, neither a Solano,
so even that wasn't full strength, but very close to it. Personally, this
season has been one of the most frustrating for me in history, more
frustrating than season's where we performed so poorly and finished low in
the league. That's because I know how strong we can be, and have shown to
be, when at full strength.

Blaming Souness for our crippling and continuous injury list is nothing
short of pathetic. To be fair, that's far from the truth.

Dyer has always been injury prone - under Gullit, under Bobby, now under
Souness. Did our training ground contribute to his latest setbacks?
Probably, but that isn't Souness' fault, as I'll explain later.

One moment that the anti-Souness brigade has never forgotten is that game
against Man Utd early on in the season. Both Dyer and Emre had been
struggling after injuries, but made their returns in this game. We started
the game promisingly, matching Man Utd, just as we had matched Arsenal a few
weeks earlier. Then the injury curse struck - Emre, Dyer, as well as Bowyer,
all hobbled off injured. Just like in Lisbon, the game was lost with
injuries. Or because of Boumsong if you're an anti-Souness fan and generally
a pessimistic "fan" who criticises the players all the time and even boos
them when they get subbed. To the shameful people who booed when Luque went
off against Mansfield, I am talking about you.

Yes, Boumsong made two awful errors that led to their goals, but Man Utd
were better than us after our three forced changes. However, that's drifting
off the topic here, which is injuries. The point is, many were quick to
attack Souness over his decision to start with Emre and Dyer. "Shouldn't
have rushed them back" they say. Let's be honest, which of us here a) had
any solid knowledge on the conditions of either players b) knew what the
club doctors and physios had said and c) have any medical knowledge of their
own whatsoever? Let's not all act like doctors.

I'm not going to say Souness didn't rush them back, because like those who
think he did, I don't have knowledge of the situation, just like you don't.
But what I do know, is that Souness wouldn't have ignored the advice of club
doctors and physios, who will have certainly declared the players fit,
otherwise Souness wouldn't have put them in the squad. And as far as I'm
concerned, if the physios pass players fit, you aren't rushing them back. A
risk to play them from the start and play them the full 90 minutes? Perhaps
so. Rushed them back? No. If you think they were rushed back, you should
direct your anger at the medical staff.

Similar outrage was heard just a few weeks ago when Taylor made his comeback
against Anfield and injured his shoulder again, confirming the need for an
operation and a lengthy spell on the sidelines. Indeed, on one such forum,
people were saying that Souness was ruining a young player's career, as well
as being careless and just stupid.

Do these people not have a brain? I will recap the Steven Taylor injury saga
for those unable to think for themselves.

1. Taylor injures his shoulder when training for England U-21's (not with
Newcastle - another conspiracy theory shot down). The diagnosis is that it
has popped out, but medical EXPERTS are not able to determine whether it
needs an operation or just rest. They decide that he should just rest it for
a few weeks and take it from there, as an operation will put him out for
weeks which may not be necessary at all.

2. Taylor returns to training with Newcastle after some weeks out. At first
it's fine, and then he unfortunately falls in training and it gets hurt
again (no doubt Souness shoved him over eh?). Doctors reassess the
situation. Again they are torn between an operation or further rest.

3. Further rest is advised, and the shoulder now looks good. Taylor returns
to training again, and trains an entire week with no setback. There is the
possibility of it popping out however. It could pop out in training, in the
next game, in a few months or even next season. The possibility was there,
but there was every chance an operation could be avoided.

4. Typical luck for us, Taylor's shoulder pops out on his first game back.
The operation is necessary now. Souness is slammed by people with no brains.

Taylor himself explained it how it was after the game. Why not listen to the
player rather than blame Souness? Do you not believe Taylor either? He
explained clearly how the shoulder could have popped out at any time, that
it needed to be tested. Nonetheless, Souness gets the full blame once more.
Unbelievable.

Moving on from Taylor, we have the Owen injury. A collision with an opponent
during a game. Surely, surely, nobody can say anything against Souness here?
This, like all our other injuries, was just unfortunate.

But I will end this piece with the killer blow for all you Souness haters
out there who just love to try and blame Souness for our injuries. As we all
know, Owen, Taylor Dyer and Emre are hardly the only casualties this season.
In fact, if I'm not mistaken, every single member of the senior squad has
had an injury of some sort this season with the exception of Steve Harper. I
may be mistaken, but if I am, it's not far off the mark.

But the rest of these injuries have been muscle injuries sustained in
training. Must be Souness' training methods, people suggest. "I've heard a
rumour that Dean Saunders injures them by being too rough, it was the same
at Blackburn," pipes up another idiot.

Of course, they are wrong.

It is no secret that Souness has criticised and raised questions about the
quality of the training pitch. Like any dedicated manager wanting to achieve
the best, he set about getting experts in to look at it and see if it
contributed to the muscle problems that, quite frankly, were ridiculous.
Once again, the anti-Souness brigade starts up, laughing off the
suggestions, convinced that it's his training methods "because he has a
track record of having lots of injuries at all the clubs he's been at." I've
yet to see conclusive proof of this. Probably because it's a load of shit.

Also probably because Souness was right. The Chronicle (ironically), spilt
the beans. It was this article which prompted me to write mine, because in
my eyes, it put to bed all the claims that Souness was to blame, even in
part, for injuries. With the team relocating to the Academy's training
facilities, the Academy thus had to use the first team's training ground. Of
course, this shouldn't be a problem, if indeed it is Souness' methods and
not the pitch that causes the injuries. Right?

Wrong. "In the three months since United's first team players began training
at the Academy they have not picked up a single groin or hamstring strain in
training. In contrast, according to Souness, United's Academy coaches have
seen a total of nine players forced out by such niggling injuries over the
same period."

It continues: "Souness said: "Yes, there have been a number of hamstring
injuries suffered by Academy players since they moved to the training
ground, nine as I understand it."

So there we have it. Whilst it's entirely possible some of these muscle
injuries picked up in training where due to bad challenges, awkward
movements, whatever, the fact is, with proof, that the training pitches WERE
the reason for most of, if not all of these muscle injuries.

Of course, there are as many wild accusations and conspiracy theories thrown
at Souness as there are injuries this season, but this one can be well and
truly dismissed. Souness wins.

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