Alan Shearer Exclusive: Shambolic West Ham situation, brilliant Newcastle and VAR | OneFootball

Alan Shearer

Alan discusses West Ham, Newcastle and much more

Betfair Ambassador Alan Shearer isn't impressed with how West Ham handled their managerial change, thinks Newcastle fans can be excited and believes complex rules are hampering technology in football...

Football... Only Bettor. Listen to the latest episode now.

The way West Ham have handled their managerial situation has been shambolic

Graham Potter has been waiting for the opportunity, and has been doing media, which builds his profile and keeps him in the public eye. He's been waiting for an opportunity at a big club and now he's back in - I wish him well.

However, I think that the way West Ham have handled the situation has been shambolic. You know the rules when you go into a club as a manager, what goes on behind the scenes, but for that to play out in the public eye like it did, I thought was shambolic and really pathetic.

How on earth Graham Potter can go into a meeting and be photographed - whether or not that's a recent photo or from a while ago I don't know, but the way it was handled was really unprofessional.

Potter inherits a side with good players

They've got decent players, and should be higher in the league than where they are. They have had some decent results - I was at the Newcastle game where they won away at St James's Park, frustrating them and coming away with three points.

He's going into a football club that is struggling for confidence and belief; so that will be one of his first jobs, to try and get them believing in who and what they are as a football club.

He'll tweak the system, he'll have his own ideas, but whether he can bring players in this window remains to be seen. But I think in the main they've got some good players in that squad.

Newcastle fans can be excited with a good advantage going into second leg of semi-final

Newcastle are in a brilliant position to make it through after that first leg. I thought it was one of the best away performances that I've seen in a long time from Newcastle. From start to finish they were really impressive, they were aggressive, they were tight and compact.

They had loads of energy about them and in forward positions, Alexander Isak gave William Saliba and Gabriel a torrid time. I've never seen them struggle so much in a game against an opposition centre-forward for a while, like they did against him.

Anthony Gordon as well, getting the goal with Jacob Murphy getting an assist. All in all, it was a brilliant night for Newcastle United and their fans, who had not only travelled to the Emirates on Tuesday, but to North London for the Spurs game last Saturday as well.

It was a brilliant night for them, and a very, very good performance. They're in a really good position now.

Eddie Howe's midfield tweak has helped turn things around

It's amazing, isn't it - a month ago we were talking about how it was such an important week when they were playing Leicester, Brentford and Ipswich. I think they were sat in around 12th position at that time, so if you rewind back to then there were one or two concerns.

At that stage, it was the inconsistency which was the problem. They were playing well in one game and then not so well in the next two games and that was hurting them.

I think that the switch from Eddie, with the midfield two and Tonali stepping into the number six role has allowed Bruno Guimaraes and Joelinton to do things further forward.

This has suited the team down to a tee, because it's made them more compact and aggressive. Everyone has just upped their game by 5% I think and the energy is back.

They've also got Sven Botman back now as well, who was in the starting line-up against Spurs on Saturday. In the absence of Fabian Schar, I think him and Dan Burn have been superb in the two games they've played.

They seem to be loving their football at the moment, and they're on a roll. They look as though they can beat anyone and they also have a really good set of fixtures coming up in the next month.

If they can come through the next set of fixtures like they did in the past run of games then everyone will be absolutely delighted.

The Newcastle changing room will be buzzing

When you're on a good run as an individual it's great, but when you're on a good run as a team, it's even better.

The feeling that Alexander Isak will have, standing in the tunnel not expecting, but knowing that he's going to score goals, it doesn't get any better than that.

Not only does he have that feeling right now, but the team does as well because of the way that they're playing. Long may it continue.

I suspect there will be a few changes at the weekend for Bromley on Sunday. He'll be able to give players a rest because they're back in league action the following Wednesday night.

Alexander Isak is going nowhere

Other than possibly Chelsea, I genuinely don't think that anybody could afford to buy Alexander Isak; because of the way that the rules are structured with PSR, I don't think that anybody could afford him.

I'll never say PSR rules are a good thing - even without them in place, I'm not sure if anybody would be able to go to the price that Newcastle would ask for to sell him.

I'd guess that they wouldn't even entertain it. If you've paid £63 million for someone and he's smashing the league up like he is right now, what would the price be?

I've looked at £150m being talked about, but I don't think that they would even entertain that, why would they?

The problem then would be getting somebody in who could do as good of a job. That, at the minute, is what everybody needs - a centre-forward.

There isn't a club in the country who wouldn't go out and buy a centre-forward like Isak if one was available.

When you're playing as well as Isak is it is the best feeling in the world

The confidence is flowing for Isak, I think you see it all in his performances. Even if you were to take his goals away and look at his all round performances; his touch, his technique, his movement and runs in behind, his positioning - all of those things he's looking red-hot at the moment.

Then you add in the goals, which are the most important thing, to give you a striker who is at the top of his game playing to the peak of his powers.

It's an incredible feeling for any player that's in great form, full of confidence - it's the best feeling in the world. You just feel as though you can play every single day because it just feels natural and as if it's going to happen whatever you do.

As a player, when all eyes are on you, you have to enjoy it and embrace it - you're not normal if you don't want praise and attention for performing well. Let's face it, in today's world, when things switch the other way and you're not scoring, people still talk about how crap you are.

He'll be loving it, I'm sure he wakes up in the morning and can't wait for training. Even more so, he can't wait to get to the matches. You have to embrace everyone loving who you are at these kinds of moments in time.

Positives to take for Spurs against Liverpool even though goal scorer shouldn't have been on the pitch

It was an eventful night for Spurs youngster Lucas Bergvall against Liverpool. Before he scored he should have been sent off - it was an awful decision. Without doubt, the referee has missed a foul, I know he's since let it go and he's gone to the other end of the pitch to score. It was a terrible decision from the referee but that's the way it is - you have to accept it.

With the issues Spurs are having at the moment, without doubt they would have snapped your hand off for that result that they had this week. The result puts Spurs in a healthy position heading to Anfield.

In terms of positives, they played a goalkeeper who signed just days earlier - I thought he played really well. That was a really good result for them.

They needed something to go with to Anfield - I think that it would have been a disaster for them if they'd been beaten. I even thought a draw would have been a good result, but for them to take a one-goal advantage they've got something to cling onto.

With their forward players, I think that Dominic Solanke gave Liverpool a tough time and was impressive in the way he held the ball up and created the goal in the way he did. They've got a chance going to Anfield but it will still be tough for them.

The technology in football is complicated by complex rules and changes

After the match Ange Postecoglu was critical of changing technology in the game. With VAR, if it had gone the way they told us it would be, where they only change the howlers and weren't going to re-referee games, if they had gone that way and said what they were going to do, where they weren't going to change our game then yeah it would be a really good thing.

However, that hasn't been the case, and it has sometimes been taking up to three or four minutes to make decisions, sometimes even longer.

I wonder if that is one of the reasons why we've been having a lot of injuries? Because players are stopping and starting, hanging around for three and four minutes waiting for decisions to be made.

I was for it, and still am, but it's not gone the way they told us it would be and improved the standard of refereeing, which is nowhere near where it should be.

It's a different era and a different game with a different set of rules around tackles and handballs to when I was playing. I really don't think they have helped themselves, particularly with the handball rule, where they really have complicated that beyond belief.

It's just incredible how they expect a referee to just have all those thoughts and make those decisions within five or ten seconds. It's just crazy the handball law.

Also, the sooner they get the semi-automated offside technology into our game the better. It should be in by now. That needs to happen quickly, but the refereeing standards also have to improve as well.

I don't think that I would have particularly enjoyed it if I was a player nowadays.