That’s the job of a striker. He shoots; he scores. Job done. Go home happy. But generally what happens is, he shoots; he misses by a mile. He shoots; he hits a player’s leg. He shoots; he falls over the ball.

How hard can it be? Ball; goal; join the dots. Sergio Aguero can do it; why can’t everyone else?

Because scoring goals is hard. Not the physical act itself, but getting into the position when its even possible to consider scoring. Mainly because there’s 11 people on the other side trying precisely to stop that from happening. One of whom is even allowed to use his hands. Or 4 of whom if you’re playing Chelsea.

And lack of goals leads to losses. And losses lead to unhappy league positions. And that in turn leads to sacking. You don’t sack your strikers when you’re failing to score and win. You sack your manager.

Two such events happened yesterday. Dick Advocaat was sacked by Sunderland, currently second from bottom only on goal difference. If Aguero had only scored 3 on Saturday instead of 5 then Sunderland would be bottom now. More importantly, they are shit. Just rubbish. Couldn’t hit a barn door from 3 yards. Even though they scored twice against the Hammers before letting them score 2 back. Sunderland don’t have another manager in line. Though I’m sure Europe’s finest are forming a long line right now outside the Stadium of Light for the honour of dragging those virtual no-hopers back from death by relegation.

So how long can Steve Mclaren last at Newcastle? The team currently right at the bottom of the heap. In every sense of the phrase. And Newcastle are in many ways unlike Sunderland. Firstly they have money. Well, their owner has money, whether he chooses to spend it or not is another matter. And Newcastle have a ‘big-club mentality’ which Sunderland lack. A bit like Spurs. They just decide that they’re a ‘big club’ and with no evidence to back this up, they think success is some kind of rite.

A bit like Liverpool. Which is why they sacked Brendan Rogers yesterday just after the draw with Everton. Liverpool are a big club. They have a massive world-wide following, which goes back to their amazing glory days in the 70s. So the new generation of Scouse reds only have their parents’ word for it and some old black’n’white footage that their team was, at one time, probably ‘the biggest’ in the world. And so expectations are high. Whether they’re realistic or not. So Rogers had to go. Even though he’s lost 5 of his best players in his 2 years who haven’t really been replaced. Though how you replace the likes of Suarez and Gerrard is beyond me.

Worst of all; there was not one born Liverpudlian in the Liverpool team yesterday. And for some reason that bothers me. Though it needn’t bother Brendan Rogers any longer.

Happy Monday

A xxxx