Pardew: Newcastle will be like Spain and Best’s a Blackburn player now
Posted on July 2nd, 2012 | 61 Comments |
So, Radio 5’s Richard Bacon pulled him in for an interview during the station’s coverage of the latest Wimbledon tournament for a chat. In it he talked about tennis, the recent European football championships in Poland and the Ukraine, as well as some things which undoubtedly be of interest to Newcastle United fans about his tactical thinking for next season, as well as Papiss Cisse, Demba Ba, and also Leon Best’s move to Blackburn Rovers. Here, I’m dropping in at the point where Bacon “grilled” Pardew (sorry for that) on what he can take from the Spanish national side’s performances for his work with Newcastle United.
Take it away, Richard!
Richard Bacon: “As a manager, do you look at Spain and think ‘Do you know what, let’s nick that, whatever they’re doing, I’m going to borrow that’?”
Alan Del Bosqiola Pardew”: “Well, you’d be naive as a coach or manager not to pick off some of the best bits that you could try and implement into your team.”
Bacon: “What yer gonna nick?”
Pardew: “Well I’m going to try next year, well, we did this year, to try and implement more possession in our game; it’s very difficult to do you know. They make it look very simple, they’ve got world class players all over the pitch. But, you know, can you trust our left back, can you trust our centre half to actually manoevre past a player and make a simple pass that works for us? You’ve got to trust your players and so that’s what you have to gain. All this debate about young players not coming through and all that, it is changing and we’re trying to do it and in the Premier League, I think there is a gear change to a more attractive game. Thank goodness after the kind of football we’ve had over the last 20-30 years.”
Well Pardew certainly changed tack tactically speaking towards the end of the season, changing from his usual M.O. of a rather direct 4-4-2 to a 4-3-3, or some would say even a Terry Venables style skinny “Christmas Tree” formation (4-3-2-1), with a conventional centre forward (Cisse) right at the front rather than the Cruyffian style faux centre forward or “false 9” who would actually drop back and pull opposing teams out of shape, as Barcelona or the Spanish national side do. It could certainly be exciting in attack, and effective too. Although it could be highly effective when we were on the ball though, we certainly didn’t dominate possession the way the likes of Barcelona and Spain do, or press in the same way when we were off the ball. Also, Pardew would often beat a retreat and return to something more akin to his old system too when the team had a two or three goal advantage, hence we never scored more than three goals in one game last season. But I digress.
Moving on, Bacon also slipped a couple of crafty questions on whether Leon Best was having a medical at Blackburn and moving from Newcastle United, Pardew responded on the medical saying:
“I beleive so. If he passes the medical then he will, yes [move to Blackburn]”
When Bacon the asked if he was “disappointed” to be losing the striker, he continued:
“I think it’s a great move for Leon because he wants first team football. He’s a great guy but he wants to play. Last season he was in and out, had injuries and was off-form. He needs to play and so, for Blackburn it’s a good signing and for us the money is okay too.”
Pardew didn’t reveal how much it was, but things have moved on since then, with Blackburn subsequently confirming that he’s passed the medical and is now a Blackburn player on a four year contract for a fee of “over £3 million.” The club’s statement on it’s website said:
“Blackburn Rovers have this evening completed the signing of Leon Best from Newcastle United. The 25-year-old striker makes the move from the North East to the North West for a fee of more than £3m, signing a four-year deal.”
Before he went though, the Silver Supremo was also grilled by Bacon on whether Senagalese scoring sensation, Papiss Cisse, would be joining the Sengalese squad for the forthcoming Olympic games in London. On this he was also very forthcoming, revealing that the “Lions of Teranga” had enquired about Cisse, but not his compatriot at Newcastle, Demba Ba:
“We have to give our permission and we’re sort of discussing it. I’ve only been asked for Papiss. It’s awkward because we want to prepare for a difficult season ahead. Premier League and Europa League, a lot of extra games” said Pardew.
Well, I for one will certainly be looking forward to Pardiola’s Newcastle United emulating Spain by winning the Europa League final 4 – 0 in May at the birthplace of modern Spanish football, Amsterdam!
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NUFCBlog Author: workyticket
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Northern Echo reported a £1m add on if blackbum get promoted too.