Pardew hails important result – still has his critics though
Posted on March 19th, 2012 | 73 Comments |
Alan Pardew has suffered some criticism for the way Newcastle United went about getting 3 points yesterday but hails the win as possibly the most important of the season.
It wasn’t pretty and we were outplayed for portions of the game but Pardew defends the win, saying:
“It could well be one of our most important results of the season.
“My players are absolutely elated with the win. Mike Ashley said after the Sunderland game that it was fantastic theatre. It wasn’t much theatre today, but what there was was a real professionalism on the pitch. Both teams put in a full stint.
“The flair players could have done and shown a bit more ‘je ne sais quoi’ but it was a battle and it’s always good to win a battle. I’m really proud of the players today. We knew in the dressing room we weren’t balanced. We knew we had to give a little bit more and we did that.
“Everybody is pulling to trying to get us this finish we need. We are going for Europe, that’s how important this win is. It’s the last 10 games, we have won the 10th game if you like, it makes the task do-able.
“We are not firing on all cylinders. If you win when you’re not at your best, it is a great attribute.“
Personally, I think he has a point.
Pardew is heavily criticised by some and often labelled as a one-horse cowboy with a particular brand of hoofball and little else. That may be true and for all I know that’s the conclusion I might come to in the fullness of time too, but I think it’s too early to be judging him on artistic merit. Newcastle is still very much a ‘work in progress’ and I think we sometimes forget that, particularly on the back of our unexpectedly lofty League position.
Pardew has only been with us for 13 months. For the moment he’s just concerned about points and getting them the way he feels he best can with the players at his disposal. He’s been successful at that too this season.
I doubt he’s the next Pep Guardiola but I think – or at least hope – he will develop in the same way that players do. If, in a couple of seasons’ time, we’re still playing hoofball and constantly scraping wins in the same fashion as yesterday, I’ll be the first to complain. For now though, I’ll take the points thanks.
Anyway, Paul Lambert thought he should have had something out of yesterday’s and said:
“Our play deserved something. I’m not disappointed with the way we played. We took the game to someone who is playing very well and the performance was very good. We never sat back, we tried to go and win the match. On another day we might have got something.
“That is good as we have played. They don’t need me to sit here and say well done. I have a great belief in the lads.”
Roll on next Sunday where a somewhat resurgent West Brom awaits us. If we get another 3 points in the same fashion, I won’t be complaining!
It’s easy to say the players should play more of a passing game but when you don’t have the quality of players who’re able to play that way, then you can’t expect them too… I mean, players like Willo & Simmo aren’t the best at passing & at 1 point in the game, Willo was trying to dribble his way out of defence & almost gave the ball away on the edge of our box, which I wasn’t too happy about & the fact that every time he did hoof it up field, it went straight to a Norwich player really got on my tits…
So yeah, I’d love to see us play the ball up field but first of we need defenders who can play that style & as it stands this season, we don’t have them, not all of them anyways.. Colo & Santon are the only 2, not even Saylor plays that style of football, so in the summer, I hope we get another CB & LB who are able to & used to playing the passing style of play & then that in itself will help our midfielders & strikers…
Got to say also that I was mighty impressed with Perchy yesterday, I think he’s found his position & did well.. having HBA on the field too helped a lot but we’re still weak on the right side, thats where most of Norwich play came from… just glad Holt wasn’t on until the last quarter as he terrified our defence at their ground!!!
Also, I want to know why Whitbread wasn’t booked & us given a penalty for short pulling, he had Willo’s short almost over his head & the ref did naff all about it… surely the peno given against us a couple of games ago would have set the precedent for these incidents but it seems its only against the Toon players & not for in the eyes of the match officials…. shocking!!!