Pardew: “We need to be a bigger squad”
Posted on May 3rd, 2011 | 22 Comments |
I thought we were pretty rubbish against Liverpool (who were also fairly rubbish themselves IMHO) except for about 20 minutes after the first goal, although I do tend to agree with Pardew that we were still in with a slight chance until the second goal went in. Pardew said:
“I thought the second goal was crucial in the game because after a fast start by Liverpool where they got the goal, we played well in that period and we took the emphasis away from Liverpool in terms of their exuberance and their movement.
“We kept the ball, we were patient, we couldn’t quite find that moment from a set play or a cross to get ourselves a goal before half time, but straight after we had a chance with Joey and normally I would expect him to score that.
“It was everything, the second goal, and unfortunately for us, Williamson has made a mistake that has cost us a goal, albeit outside of the box by the looks of it.”
I get the impression that Pardew wasn’t too happy with Williamson’s mistake and feels it may have cost us the match. He may be right.
Pardew continues:
“Our strikers and our attacking players could be improved and we have to work on that for next week but we had some good performances on the day.
“Jonas Gutierrez caused a lot of problems and they had to switch their full-backs to cope with him so we affected the game a little bit but unfortunately not the scoreline.”
He’s hit the nail on the head re the strikers. I have in the past been an apologist for both Ameobi and Lovenkrands, arguing that they need time and first XI starts in order to shine. Then, just as my patience runs out with them, one or the other would score and put me back on the fence again.
No longer though. I don’t think Ameobi or Lovenkrands have what it takes to lead the line up front and I don’t think they ever will. They are (IMHO) squad players and we need two quality strikers as a matter of urgency in the summer.
Incidentally, what was the point of Kuqi? I know he was only a short-term, stop-gap loan but I have no idea what he’s capable of given that he only gets at the most 10 minutes a game to do anything.
Pardew then looks ahead to next season:
“I’m not going to focus too much on our positive play because we were beaten 3-0 but we will have to bounce back, particularly for our two home games which will be important for us.
“We’ve got two games that are winnable and a tough one against Chelsea so we’ve got a nice mixture of games.
“The spirit in our group is fine and the effort they put in was honourable today but we lacked a bit of quality.
“I think we’ve got a good base to work from. We’re under no illusions. We can’t go into the season with this size squad.
“We need to be a bigger squad and have more options and have more competition for the first team places.”
Quite so, although time will tell how deep a squad Ashley allows Pardew to build.
This summer will be crucial for us. We cannot afford to lose any first team member and have to improve our squad in term of Quality and quantity also. I still confident we can make the good team to challenge Europe position but we need some ambition for Board and absolutely ASHLEY.
P.S. Where’s Best now ? i know he still injure but doesn’t he stay with team ? Just like he disappear from our squad. May he should stay on our line-up next season ?