Pardew missed experience of Nolan and Barton in Wolves game.

Posted on October 2nd, 2011 | 21 Comments |

Pardew: Missing the old codgers in midfield?
Pardew: Missing the old codgers in midfield?
Speaking in a rare interview, Newcastle United manager, Alan Pardew, bemoaned the loss of experienced players such as Kevin Nolan and Joey Barton from the side in games like yesterday’s against Wolves. He also added that Newcastle United still need to learn to see out games.

Of course, Newcastle chalked up their fourth win of the Premiership season against Wolves, though they took something of a battering in the latter stages of the game, and were undoubtedly helped by a couple of incorrect decisions by the referee, Mark Halsey and his linesman. The first was a free kick which should have been a penalty for a Steven Taylor foul which took place a yard inside the area, and the second being a perfectly good goal which was ruled out by the linesman. Pardew acknowledged the luck in his post match interviews, and also gave credit to the performance of Mick McCarthy’s Midlands men.

Speaking on the lack of experience in the revamped side, Pardew said:

“We haven’t got that experience of a Kevin Nolan or Joey Barton who might have stopped or slowed down the game.

“We’re a different team and we need to see games out better than we did.”

However he also acknowledged the significant role played by young goalkeeper, Tim Krul, in the tight victory, with Krul having recently snatched the number 1 jersey from the much more experienced Steve Harper since the latter’s return from injury. On Krul, Pardew added:

“Tim had more work to do than in about three of our games, if I’m honest. That’s why you need a good goalie. But we have a lot of attributes to our team and we had to show different sides to our game.”

Of course, while the club still has experienced outfield players in the side, the average age of the squad has gone down significantly in recent times, and Pardew was probably referring to the midfield area, which is now populated with younger players who have spent the majority of their careers so far in different leagues such as France’s ‘Ligue 1’.

Pardew’s seeming desire to see more experience for such situations as the team faced in the latter stages of yesterday’s game, and also to show different sides to their game is somewhat at odds with the club’s policy of selling or releasing older members of the squad and putting the emphasis on young, more inexperienced players who can be sold on at a profit in the future.

Could it be that Pardew wants to see a more balanced policy, and feels a certain dissatisfaction with the manager’s current lack of influence in choosing the squad?

NUFCBlog Author: workyticket workyticket has written 1093 articles on this blog.

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21 Responses

  1. Funny how Pardwho thinks experience on the pitch would have helped yesterday !

    Maybe if there’d been a little more nous on the touchline we’d have won more comfortably ? Next time I see Lovenkrands play it better be for the reserves :(

  2. Oh well, down to 4th – let’s all have a group whinge!
    Best defence in the league, 4 conceeded in 7 games – yes but we used the wrong subs!
    Doom & gloom.

    Have you seen the swedish had who scored with a header from his own half? Good job he wasn’t playing for us – we would have pointed out the 6 things he did wrong.

    Pleased to see boro 2nd.
    And Arsenal beat again.
    And QPR despite asbo’s “experience”

    HWTL

  3. AndyMac says:
    October 2, 2011 at 7:37 pm

    “Next time I see Lovenkrands play it better be for the reserves”

    Newt time I see Lovenkrands play I hope it’s in Sky for someone crap like an SPL or Bournemouth…

  4. As long as we keep beating the sides around us. The top teams look like they’re going to be quite stingy with the points this season. I’d expect we won’t see quite so much parity this campaign, but it’s early days yet.

  5. Yeah, that’s his MO (Pardew), blame it on someone else.
    While our side dominated the midfield in the first half, that changed with McCarthy’s substitutions.
    Look ! what were the instructions at half time, just go out and protect the lead ?
    Because there were few attempts to, either counter or set up any offensive moves and teams don’t play in a certain manner unless instructed.
    Not only that obviously we had good defensive players available, to bring on fresh legs, in Gosling and wor Davide, if in fact that was the game plan ? but who did we bring in Guthrie?
    Erm ! i dont get it , sorry.
    But on saying that i have seen similarities in a number of games, I just think the guy who had two of Argentinas best players sitting gathering blisters on the bench, while the club W/Ham, were going down the tubes, is tactically inept and a detriment to the club.
    A case of bulls**t baffles brains.

  6. Pity Joey’s experience didn’t ‘stop or slow down the game’ when we were 3-0 up after 47 mins in the final game of last season against WBA. If he had we might not have dropped so many league places in the final seconds of the season.
    It is long since time to forget about who has gone – the current bunch are doing a great job and you would expect to be under pressure at times away from home when you are leading. Would Nolan even get into the team now?

  7. chuck says:
    October 2, 2011 at 8:24 pm

    “Yeah, that’s his MO (Pardew), blame it on someone else.
    While our side dominated the midfield in the first half, that changed with McCarthy’s substitutions.”

    As I wrote yesterday Chuck, Joey’s old mate, “Kelvin” Henry, really did look like a “Sunday League player” in their midfield. When bendynose pulled him off after about an hour, an improvement in their midfield was fairly predictable, though I’m not saying that was everything.

  8. @supermac I assume you mean it’s nice to see the Smoggies doing so well because we can bank on an extra six points next season if they get promoted and we stay up (Which we will).

  9. Hang on.. Barton and Nolan – who were involved when we allowed late leads slip against mackems, spuds and west brom last season? It’s got nothing to do with them – it’s about teaching the team to continue until the game is completely won. To be honest we were guilty of sitting back against blackburn – before Ba’s third.

    I think Pardew is performing very well, but how many times do we need to buckle from winning positions before it sinks in?

  10. Y do some fans just f****** yap yap yap about something else do your coaching badges brainless c****.. Pardew is doing an amazing job.

    There is a reason Y these 2 arent playing for us anymore and they drop down to lower teams if they were so good they be playing for even half decent teams?? even swansea bolton said no 2 barton. nt 1 prem team wanted nolan an even if they did shows you how greedy he is to drop down a level to get more wages.. P.S nufc has had enough doom and gloom this past couple of years enjoy the good form while it lasts.

  11. He’s a bastard that unbeaten coach of ours, what a tw@, we’re having to moan about having nowt to moan about, bastard!

  12. Sack ’em I says. Sack ’em now so we can get some much needed stability and start dropping points again.

  13. Good win yesterday at mol. It seems officials were wrong disallowing wolves that goal you could see that the wolves goal was in play. Also they were denied a penalty, that was a clear penalty. should have been atleast a draw – if you study the playback – but that’s football. Swings and roundabouts.

  14. Benny, there are three blokes on here who really don’t like to see Pardew, and ultimately the Toon I suppose doing well. Of course we have deficiencies in the line up, carry luck and can improve. But these three blokes think they are “in the know”…yeah right. In the mean time the rest of us get on with supporting the toon, and enjoying the short time spent in the spotlight, ffs there has been enough doom and gloom.

    Howay the lads…

    Until the doom mongers and abusers re-appear that is…

  15. I agree Farley, its football.
    We got lucky at QPR.
    We got unlucky at Aston Villa.
    We got lucky at Wolves.
    So we are probably going to get unlucky at Spurs.

  16. Its always easier for the doom mongers. A win means less to moan about, a loss well you can sit and moan all weekend in your beer, its AP, MA, DL, the team etc to blame. Great Geordie malcontent fans on here I bet they would be happier if we were 17th coz that would be just about their own expectations.

    Im sure they will be glad when we lose a few games on the trott then they can be glorified i their misery. As for luck winning games well we should take all we can get there is plenty of the season left.
    Still Im glad there are a few people who are pleased we are doing well at the moment long may it continue. NUFC to storm into Europe.

  17. Tooneye ….Europe would do nicely…but we’re still going through a stabilising phase. This season will have it’s ups and downs, but no-one could have expected the start we’ve had, even though we have been lucky and played poorly every game, we’re amazingly still fourth top. Can you imagine how things will be when we actually start to play well and take all the chances we’ve been missing of late ?

  18. tooneye says:

    “Its always easier for the doom mongers. A win means less to moan about, a loss well you can sit and moan all weekend in your beer, its AP, MA, DL, the team etc to blame. Great Geordie malcontent fans on here I bet they would be happier if we were 17th coz that would be just about their own expectations.

    Im sure they will be glad when we lose a few games on the trott then they can be glorified i their misery. As for luck winning games well we should take all we can get there is plenty of the season left”

    Where were you on Saturday afternoon tooneye ? and for that matter on Sept 17th ?