Note to Pardew: It’s not the squad size, it’s the injury management.
Posted on April 12th, 2011 | 27 Comments |
Amongst other things, he said of our capitulation in that game:
“We didn’t have the options we should have for a club our size. That is a little note for next year.
“We don’t want to get in that situation again. Villa bought on the likes of Reo-Coker, Heskey and Pires and it makes a big difference.”
Yet, in terms of numbers in the first team squad and the value of the players, Newcastle United are by no means amongst the weakest in the Premiership. We have one of the larger first team squads in the Premiership in terms of numbers (29, which is four larger than Aston Villa’s) and are lower mid-table in terms of squad value. However, putting aside the suspension of important players for the last game, our biggest problem has been the amount of injuries which have gradually started to deplete the squad since Alan Pardew took charge in December of last year. One thing that Pardew didn’t mention in terms of the “options” Aston Villa manager, Gerard Houllier had in that game was that there wasn’t a single injured player in his first team squad on Sunday.
Of course, all sides have injuries to contend with at some stage, and sometimes there is nothing that managers can do about them. But when players who have been injured are then rushed back into the side too quickly, only to re-injure themselves by being pushed too hard, too soon, then this is a case of poor injury management and is preventable. It is also something I suspect has been happening with the Newcastle United first team squad. Recent cases of this have included Stephen Ireland, Joey Barton, Dan Gosling and Jose Enrique.
In the case of Ireland, he was carrying a knee injury when signed on loan from Aston Villa in January. Despite the fact that his current loan agreement ends at the end of the season, or in six games time to put it another way, he is still to play his first game for the club. Ireland originally was all set to make his debut for the club against Everton on the 5th March, however a thigh strain picked up in training ruled him out once again for another fairly extended period.
Speaking in an interview at the time on Ireland’s re-injury, Newcastle United manager, Alan Pardew conceeded that pushing the player too hard may have been a possibility, saying:
“We knew when we took him he was injured but this thigh strain, like anything when you’ve been out for a long time, you pick up these little injuries.
“I don’t think he has played a game since December 9 or something.
“Maybe we forced him back too early because of Joey Barton’s situation. I think we’re at fault a little bit because he’s picked up a thigh strain.”
On the subject of Joey Barton, who I think most will agree has been a key player for the side this season, he also picked up a knock in training before the same Everton game where Ireland was looking to make his comeback. Despite the knock, Barton was selected for the game, only to suffer from a recurrence of the injury in the warm up just before kick-off. Thankfully though, unlike Ireland, he was only out for a fairly short period, and of course, returned to the side fit some time ago.
However another player, like Ireland, who was signed while injured is Dan Gosling. After over nine months out with a cruciate knee ligament injury, he resumed training and played for a 70 minute spell in a reserves game. After a few minutes of his reserve appearence in the Tramps game, he had to pull out once again with a swollen knee, which is thought to be a recerence of the old problem.
On that one, Pardew commented at the time:
“Anyway, we’ve brought him back and in all this time there was a slight swelling that wouldn’t go away…”
adding later:
“If you’ve got swelling, it’s not right. Unfortunately for Dan, he’s going to have to be patient, and we are too because we all got excited when we thought he was ready to come back.”
Perhaps a little too excited?
In another interview from the time, Pardew gave another quote which reveals that he may have been sailing close to the wind recently with regard to selecting players who are carrying knocks, and / or need to be rested. Speaking on our current injury situation, Pardew confessed:
“I am going to pick the team on Thursday. In recent weeks we have been trying to get players through Thursday and Friday to be able to play on Saturday, and it hasn’t worked for us.”
Finally, in Enrique’s case, he risked him despite major doubts on his fitness for the game against Stoke on March 19th, only to see him pull up after 22 minutes with his hamstring. Thankfully though, like Barton, it didn’t lead to another long term absence as it has with Gosling and Ireland
Getting back to the game which started the wailing in the first place, our disappointing defeat against an under par Aston Villa side on Sunday, our midfield was certainly depleted, as were our strikers though the strikers injuries may have been caused by other factors. Admittedly, the missing players in midfield were caused more through suspensions for Captain, Kevin Nolan, and midfield enforcer, Cheick Tiote, who of course were both huge misses for the side. That being the case though, we could certainly have done with a defensive midfielder such as Gosling being available for selection in that side (Ireland was ruled out of the Villa game anyway because of his loan agreement). Whilst I cannot claim complete certainty, I think that there would have been a much greater chance of having Gosling, if not Ireland available in that game had their original returns not been so rushed in the first place, and both available for other games.
NUFCBlog Author: workyticket
workyticket has written 1086 articles on this blog.
It wouldn’t have mattered if Ireland was fit or not ,I doubt he would have been allowed to play against Villa.With Gosling I thought at the time it was silly,he had already played a match arranged for him that week and then to bring him on against sunderland was asking for trouble.Also I’ve noticed with Pardew when it’s a mistake he says “we” when it’s a good thing he says”I” and blows his own trumpet.