Archive for author: Johann

Pardew’s defensive quandary – What’s the solution?

December 8th, 2011 | 46 Comments |

Perch and Kadar: Stepping out from the shadows.
James Perch and Tamas Kadar: Stepping out from the shadows.
As someone once said: “Defence is just another way to attack.“ You can just start to imagine (go on, imagine it) how important our stable defence has been for our attacking play this season.

Take the two central defenders out of the equation and what happens? Well, we may find out next weekend if Coloccini doesn’t make it as he hopes for our next game against Norwich. Alan Pardew and Newcastle United have managed to keep the same defence throughout the season, but could now be forced to make a big change with Steven Taylor out for the season and Coloccini possibly missing with a thigh strain. The aim of this piece is to shed light on the different defensive options for the team, and then argue which would be the strongest.

Natural Defenders Available:

Danny Simpson, Ryan Taylor, James Perch, Tamas Kadar, Shola Ameobi and Davide Santon.

Possible Defenders:

Alan Smith, Cheik Tiote, Yohan Cabaye and Jonas Gutierrez. (more…)