The Newcastle manager Alan Pardew has come out today and said he thinks the odds are stacked against Premier League sides in Europe, simply because of the grueling and difficult games they have to play in England every weekend, which is not the same in other European leagues.
Alan Pardew – hard for England sides to do well in Europe
This has been a reason we are told that England don’t do well in their major competitions, because the players are exhausted after a long hard season in England, but we have to be careful that this doesn’t come over as ane excuse for failing.
England have done poorly in competitions simply because we haven’t been good enough, that’s the truth, and our top players rarely produce their club form on the International stage.
Newcastle will play Belgian league leaders Brugge tonight at St James’ Park, and it’s a game we will be looking to win.
This is what Alan Pardew told the local press today:
“It’s not right.” “For a Premier League team, it is almost impossible.” “And that’s why I think it favors teams from the other leagues who have less games, and their domestic cup competitions are not so strenuous as ours either.
“It is a tough competition for Premier League teams.” “It has had an effect on our league form and you can’t get away from that. The impact is massive.”
“We haven’t made a big deal about it but we know in-house the effects it is having, and we are trying to combat those effects.”
“I don’t want to have to go to Bordeaux needing to win.” We’ve got Brugge at home tonight and then we play in Brugge in the next game in a couple of weeks’ time.
“I’d like to think if we can get two or three points out of these next two games then we will be pretty close to qualifying.” “Then we’ve got Maritimo, so you’d like to think that there is a good chance we can do it.”
“What we can’t afford to do is take only one point from these next two fixtures against Brugge.”
Newcastle currently lead Group D on four points, and all being well we should be able to advance from the group stages with the first two teams going through.
Brugge may be top of the Belgian league at the moment, but they were beaten 4-1 over the weekend, and we expect a strong Newcastle side tonight can get the 3 points, and we’ll be disappointed if that’s not the case.
Maybe Newcastle can show other English clubs this season how to win a European competition – wouldn’t that be something.
Howay The Lads!!
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13 comments so far
obatoyou
Oct 25, 2012 at 10:44 AM
Comment #11st?
Graeme
Oct 25, 2012 at 10:44 AM
Comment #2Sounds almost defeatist?
They were all well aware of what was involved, long before it actually happened. Damn, they were even talking Champions League which would be 3 times tougher.
Maybe the fact that we decided NOT to buy the players we so obviously needed is now hitting home!!!
obatoyou
Oct 25, 2012 at 10:47 AM
Comment #3That indeed would be something Ed, and I think we have a good shot at it, we’ll know after (if) we win tonight that we’re out of the group, and maybe that’ll be a comfort to Alan. Though we have been fiddling around with the team a little, hopefully we’ll be lucky with injuries and maybe settle on a good league side and European side asap. HWTL!
obatoyou
Oct 25, 2012 at 10:50 AM
Comment #4Graeme, quantity of players is not too much of an issue with all the youngsters we have, with Sammy, Tavernier, Vuckic and Ferguson now all having had the chance, we now may have a much better idea of which positions need filling. We didn’t buy and said we’ve got plenty of youngsters, ok fair enough, now those youngsters have had a go, we can see where we’re at and where we need to go.
Jamiemac
Oct 25, 2012 at 11:10 AM
Comment #5Anyone know if the game is being shown on ITV4 tonight? Or is that given to spurs and liverpool again?
Graeme
Oct 25, 2012 at 11:13 AM
Comment #6Oba – it never has been. Its the quality of those players that makes the difference. We needed a Quality CB brought in during the summer window – they chose not to do it and the team has suffered greatly because of it.
The same thing could be said about a quality FB to match Santon’s undoubted ability on the opposite flank – but it didn’t happen and the team is not as good as it should be, because of this.
Jamiemac
Oct 25, 2012 at 11:13 AM
Comment #7Just noticed it’s on ESPN.. Surely ITV would rotate the three English clubs? Obviously not..
ArtyH
Oct 25, 2012 at 11:42 AM
Comment #8Did Cloughy not win the European cup with a very small side? We all know how small our squad is. and writing about it doesn’t change anything, and its not defeatist. We have a small squad and lets be fair we over achieved last year, this year will be a leveler and show just where we are in this league. Just hope we can keep Bemba in January.
Grafton83
Oct 25, 2012 at 11:44 AM
Comment #9ESPN has been great for us, I haven’t minded paying extra for it this year as we seem to be shown on it all the time. Unlucky or non subscribers but that’s what pubs are for.
blew
Oct 25, 2012 at 11:46 AM
Comment #10The match is on firstrowsports at 2005. Try at 2003 and be patient, there are several links
Ruddy Marveaux-lous
Oct 25, 2012 at 12:05 PM
Comment #11What do you expect, the man’s a born loser.
ash1001
Oct 25, 2012 at 1:58 PM
Comment #12To me it looks like AP is on his knees again crawling to MA’s feet, begging forgiveness. instead of hammering on his door saying the squad is not big enough.
Check back to the last time we were in Europe and look at the squad then, we played with just about the full first team every game – what changed, just every manager saying TOO MANY MATCHES etc.
They play less matches now, have better facilities, first class travel and accommodation.
It just does not wash!
Ericles
Oct 25, 2012 at 3:49 PM
Comment #13I agree with the comments of Graeme and ash1001. Once again we are getting the routine waffling exuses from AP. Does this mean, reading between his intakes of breath, that we can expect another weakened team to run out tonight? We can go on as top of our group. And AP, think about it, if you do get around to trying to win the Europa with our strongest side, instead of half of the reserves, we may have the right to play in it or better next season.