Alan Pardew’s unlikely lads.

toonsy

Pardew puttung the lads through their paces.
Alan Pardew is yet to impress some, which is harsh in my opinion but everyone is entitled to one I guess.

Judging Pardew is tough at the minute as this isn’t his team.

The right time to judge him is after the summer and beyond, way into next season. He’ll have his own team and will have been able to put his own stamp on the way we play and so on. However, it hasn’t stopped me being impressed with what he has done so far.

There isn’t much difference in terms of results between Chris Hughton and Alan Pardew, but what I will say is that despite the injuries and lack of players that Pardew has had at his disposal he has matched the points rate we achieved under Chris Hughton earlier on in the season. However, comparison isn’t the point of this article. It’s the lack of players that I want to focus on.

When Andy Carroll went we lost a big part of the team. We got a big fee for him but that wouldn’t have mattered one bit if the gamble of selling Carroll had backfired and we slipped into the relegation mire. It’s thanks to some fantastic performances from some unlikely lads that we aren’t involved that relegation battle. It’s that last line that I want to concentrate on.

Everyone loves Kevin Keegan, well almost everyone, but he had his flaws whilst he was manager of Newcastle United. Tactically, especially first time around, we tended to know one tactic – attack. It was great to watch and nearly got us to the title, but it ended up bringing us nothing. Keegan’s strongest suit was instilling self-belief into players and making them perform beyond their ability, which is something I believe Alan Pardew also has the ability to do to an extent.

Take Leon Best for example. Widely condemned as a failure and looking like heading out on loan under Chris Hughton. Change of manager, give the lad a chance, partly because the player himself was asking and partly through necessity after the Carroll sale admittedly, and we get six league goals in nine league starts (10 appearances) as a result. It would have been easy to include Best at the time, but giving him the confidence to do it on the pitch is not so easy.

Steven Taylor is another example. People scoffed, including me, when Pardew was banging on about Taylor and England and how he needs to live up to his early career expectations. I’ve been critical of Taylor in the past, but these last two performances, in which he has scored two times, have been superb. Maybe Pardew’s influence has helped him to up his game?

You can even look at some of the young players if you like. The majority of them have come in and have looked decent, or exceptional in the case of Shane Ferguson. It’s widely reported that Pardew is heavily involved with the the younger players and often attends their games and training sessions, which will give them a bit more belief in my opinion.

One again, a lot of this has been through necessity, but it’s easy to play a player and let them get on with it. It’s a whole different affair to play a player and to get them to perform. Pardew has done that in the main, and long may it continue!

About toonsy

A lifelong Newcastle fan and current webmaster of this very 'blog who has the sole aim of creating a place by Newcastle United fans, for Newcastle United fans.

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125 thoughts on “Alan Pardew’s unlikely lads.”

  1. Richie I think bus tyres are smaller but 😆
    Dan you should use that as your avatar 😀 its a pity you didn’t get one of Raylor for your mate 😛

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  2. @Moreno

    It’s sounds like he’s that deflated, flat and tyred he’s in the gutter.
    😆

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  6. 🙄

    Mind you, I’m coining the wedge this week 😉

    Good job really as I’m only working four days next week 🙂

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  10. Toonsy you might be a bit stressed until you get use to flying solo but have faith in ye 😉
    Dan looking good mate its a pity it wasn’t a bit bigger 😆

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  11. Dave, I was just having a look round the club shop and Jonas came from nowhere 😆

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  12. Dan glad to hear it 😉 if I had of known 😆 I just ordered the Son a tracksuit and they charged £12 P+P the robbing gits 😯

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  14. Typical of the club that!

    I think am going to get the limited edition shirt with the gold badge, looks decent 🙂

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  16. I see Man City are selling naming rights for their stadium.

    They’ll probably be lauded for increasing revenues, yet when we try its an outrageous betrayal of our history.

    If we are to start increasing revenues (which we need to do to improve on the pitch) we need to start doing things like this.

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  17. lookin good Dan, ya could do with a haircut though and if I was you, I’d ditch ya mate on the right, he does nowt for your street cred 😉 😆

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  22. Rich – It’s all about money, mate. If we’re to bring better players here we need to increase our turniver.

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  26. whats the crack with nzog? is he cumn? plenty of speculation 2day that he is !! tranfer window opens in under 2 weeks !!! 5 players please ashley!!!!!!!!!! ( and guduns)

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  28. hav u seen the plight of our away strip next season if its true?? bahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

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  29. Ohurley, It’s a good one like 🙂

    I’ve got one with Barton as well someone but it was at a signing session and not as good as this one.

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  30. Yeah that’s pretty awesome, mate! I’m jealous. I’ll trade all the country music stars I meet here in Nashville for all the mags you meet in Newcastle 😉

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  31. And does anyone kna where I can get one of those awesome SMB t-shirts?! I want one SO bad!

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  32. Ohurley, I know it’s sounds obvious and you’ve probably checked but am sure the club shop do some of them.

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  33. Stuart…..true but the money they were talking about before was peanuts which would buy **** all,I think Arsenal only got £6m a year from Emirates(maybe wrong) and they’re in the UCL every year so God knows what we would get, it’s also assuming the money would be spent on the team. If it’s a decent wedge and will be used to improve the team then fair enough, it’ll still alway be St James’ to everyone.

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  39. I tried to invite you but it invited you to the party and not the game 😆

    I don’t even how David does it, the teams worth like 2 million coins 😯

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  43. I’ll have a look, if you click challenge friend you can have a look at their team 😉

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  44. Ive gone off now, i made that in about a week, it deleted my old one and I had a right good team.

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  45. At the minute mines;

    De Gea
    Alves Carvalho Pepe Coentrao
    Alonso Diarra
    Di Maria Di Natale
    Aguero Pato

    (All higher rated)

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  46. 😯 😯

    Play yourself 😆
    Mines

    Hart
    Johnson-Dawson-Taylor-Cole
    Albrighton-Nolan-Irenland-Young
    Bent-Abonglahor

    all normal ratings.

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  47. I hate Agbonlahor, hate him!

    He goes for next to nothing but unstoppable 🙄 👿

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  48. Thats why I love him 😛
    Jerome is the same, but he wins alot in the air aswell, I had black howson in my old team and i was gunna sell him and start making the toon, then Ea the pile of shyte decided it would be funny to get rid of my team..

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  49. I dinna what I’d do if they did that to my team 😯

    My favorite player is Diarra, well worth 180k. He’s like what Tiote’s like in real life 😆

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  50. Ohurley, since you’re an American like me you’ll have to go online. I got mine on whoareyadesigns.com

    Of course nobody over here gets it 🙄

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