Newcastle United vs Tottenham Hotspur – What the managers are saying…
Posted on October 16th, 2011 | 19 Comments |
Bearing in mind the undoubted quality of the oppostion, this could be a watershed in Newcastle United’s Premiership campaign. After what has been a very good start, a victory would certainly greatly enhance our credentials and be a huge boost in confidence which would take us forward. On the other hand, a right old pasting would be a real reality check for the lads and could make it look like we have been somewhat “lucky” so far.
On the negative side, we could look at games such as the one against QPR, where we were dominated throughout the game and it was only their lack of quality finishing that enabled us to hang on for a draw. We could also look at our last game with the Barcelona of the Midlands, Mick McCarthy’s Wolves, where we were needed more than one helping hand from a blind referee, and were still holding on at the end for a three points that even Pardew himself admitted was “lucky.“
On the positive side however, we could also look at more convincing performances such as our 3-1 victory against Blackburn, and though only a 1-1 draw, we turned in a very creditable performance against Aston Villa at their place too. Despite being ultimately frustrated in terms of a win, mostly by Magpies old boy, Shay Given, we turned in a very stylish, flowing and creditable performance overall.
But over to the managers. Alan Pardew seems to see this game as a huge test for his side’s true credentials too, saying:
“It’s going to be a tough test for us.”
“Some of their offensive players are very exciting but first and foremost we must impose ourselves on them. If they manage to impose themselves on us, it could be a difficult afternoon because they are very good going forward but if we manage to make them defend then we can cause them problems, as we have shown in our previous games.
“Spurs carry much greater threat than most, so we will need to maintain the high standards that we have managed to set so far this season.”
However, imposing ourselves on a team such as Spur’s is easier said than done of course, where pushing forward can lead to us leaving ourselves open at the back against a skillful and high scoring team. On this Pardew mused to the Shield’s Gazette:
“You can’t throw bodies forward unless you know what you’re doing at the back.”
“We’ve managed to deal with those crisis situations very well, but we’re up against a team which causes a crisis every few minutes. It’ll be a test for us, and I don’t expect to keep a clean sheet, if I’m honest.
“If we can keep them down to one goal, or maybe even two, we can win the game.”
The Silver Supremo also compared the development of the two sides squads, seeing theirs as being somewhat further down the road than ours. Speaking on this he said:
“That’s something that’s been in process there, not just under Harry, probably you would have to say before that.”
“They have bought some very good young players and they have taken their time to build and are in a fine financial position.”
“That’s what we are trying to do, but we are much earlier down the line than they are now. The start of their process was probably about five years ago.”
Meanwhile, on the other side of the fence, ‘Spurs manager, Droopy Harry Redknapp sees this as a tough fixture too, but he was bullish about going for an away win saying:
“We will go to Newcastle hoping to pick up the three points. It will be tough but that’s what we’ll be looking to do.”
However he then went on to pay tribute to Pardew, the club, the players and the fans at St James’ Park adding:
“Alan Pardew has done a great job and it’s a great club.
“There will be 50,000 Geordies singing their hearts out and they live for their football.
“They are a strong team there. The midfield two are very strong, Tiote is strong, aggressive, a very good player, Jonas Gutierrez on the left is playing well at the moment and he’s a threat.
“The front players work their socks off and Alan is getting the absolute maximum out of his team, so they will be dangerous, that’s for sure.”
Well as always, time will tell as to what the result will be, but I do think that all of us will have a better idea about Newcastle United’s real chances for the season ahead when this game is over.
Howay the lads!
Newcastle United vs Tottenham Hotspur match preview
NUFCBlog Author: workyticket
workyticket has written 1095 articles on this blog.
Imo I think the Spurt always bottle it when they come to the Toon, 1 win in 9 games, we’re defo their bogey team & the fact we’re on an unbeaten run too, will boast our players confidence against these wannabe top 4 team…
Whoever is played on the right will have to subdue Bale, with Cabaye/Tiote cancelling out VDV/Modric, our defenders Colo/Saylor will keep Adebayor in check while Best/Ba rampage their over-the-hill defense to bang in a couple of goals… a lot of other teams are not concerning themselves with Besty & seem to think that Ba is our main threat but thats good because we all know Besty can pocket a few goals for us..
Floppychops team will be 1-0 down by half time & then they’ll have to attack but with our introduction of HBA, Marv & possibly Abeid at the hour mark, they’ll not be able to contain our attack as well as attacking themselves… I’m going for a 3-1 home victory, which will after yesterdays results put us 4 pts clear of Cessepool in 5th…