Has Benny now earned himself the free attacking role he craves?
January 9th, 2012 | 33 Comments |
Newcastle United manager Alan Pardew has baffled fans for a lot of the season by not playing Hatem Ben Arfa, but Pardew has now explained his reasoning and how Benny’s work on Saturday may just have earned him the free attacking role he craves.
Until recently, Alan Pardew has seemed reluctant to start with Hatem Ben Arfa, much to the frustration of the player himself who had a few choice words to say about Alan Pardew’s tactics last week.
However, in a recent interview in the Journal, Pardew has explained how he sees the Ben Arfa situation developing on the pitch. Talking about the weekend’s game at Blackburn, Pardew said:
“It’s all about balance. His work-rate was quite good, it’s just sometimes intensity that’s the difference. It didn’t help in the first half that Mehdi stepped off a little bit and was a little bit too deep and therefore that didn’t help Hatem either. It all sort of combined.
“I was really pleased with his attitude when he went on to the right. He could have gone, ‘What am I doing out here?’ but he attacked the position. That’s really pleasing.
“I knew if we got the ball to his feet he was going to cause the full-backs a problem.“