Pardew Deflects Blame Towards Younger Players – Madness
Pardew has recently turned to the Toon youngsters such as Sammy Ameobi, Mehdi Abeid, James Tavernier and Shane Ferguson, in an attempt to turn Newcastle’s fortunes around. But he was unhappy by their level of performance in the 2-0 capitulation in Bordeaux.
Here, we question Pardew’s decision to openly criticise the younger players.
Coming into the match, Bordeaux had only lost 3 out of their 18 matches this season in Ligue 1. And yet Pardew decided to field a heavily inexperienced side, captained by a player who’s only started two matches this season in the league (Shola Ameobi).
Pardew started 6 U21 players, in addition to the lesser-played Elliot, Marveaux and Shola Ameobi. There’s no doubt that it’s Pardew’s rightful responsibility to pick the team. But when the team understandably is outmatched in nearly every position, the blame, in my opinion, should fall squarely on Pardew. When you pick a much inexperienced side as he did, you have the face the consequences yourself rather than blame the players.
Here’s what he said:
“It’s highlighted a problem we’re going to look into – our younger players.
“They’re going to have to do more work – they need to improve.
“All those young players are good players – they could play in the Championship, no problem.
“But this is Newcastle, and they need to be better.
“We learnt a lot against Bordeaux.
“The young players are going to find out that they’re going to do a lot more work on the training ground.
“I’ve got to be honest – I was a little bit disappointed with them. They’re all going to have extra work to do.
“We’ve got to make sure, out of this period we’ve had, that we learn some lessons.
“Not just myself and my coaching staff, but the players, the board and all my staff. We’re really going to push on now.”
This criticism is only going to worsen their already-dwindling levels of confidence and adds an enormous weight of expectation to a group of players who shouldn’t be exposed to that position in the first place.
I believe that the best way to introduce younger players onto a competitive stage such as this, is to introduce one or two of them at a time into a team made of more experienced players. As a result, they’ll up their game in order to match and compete at an acceptable level. Pardew’s method of playing them all at once wouldn’t have acclimatized them to the level expected.
I don’t like to criticise Pardew given all that he’s done for the club. I don’t want to appear as one of those headhunting fans that call for the sacking of the manager after just one bad run of form. But I have found myself increasingly frustrated by his team selection.
I don’t understand how he can expect an extremely inexperienced XI to deliver against a side who I feel he considerably underrated, especially away from home.
The real problem that we’re looking at is not ‘our younger players’, but rather the lack of depth in the squad. It’s a problem that needs to be addressed in January. We were able to upkeep the performances and fitness of the players last season, but the additional European matches this season have killed us.
A main priority now is to add weight to the squad, not just in numbers but quality. If we want to recover last season’s form in the league, and continue to make advances in Europe, we need to buy big in January.
What do you think? Let us know if you agree in the comment section below.
The Spectator's View 
I’m same as you mate we all have great opinions . But if we are so good or you sound great why ain’t you a manger of football then come back and tell us how or what to do 🙂
Michael, what’s that even mean? It doesn’t make sense. I agree with author here. I don’t think that publicly criticising the younger players was a smart move. However, it might have a positive effect in giving them a kick up the backside.
I’m just saying what I think. I think that by publicly criticizing the players like that was not the right way to go about it. I dont believe Pardew should have played the team he did as it was swamped with inexperience. We have a paper thin squad and we need to bring in more depth in January
Have any of you seen Top Managers criticising their players in Public? Youngsters or not keep it in the hut. Do whatever just t don’t blame Wor Pardew
Bordeaux also had an inexperienced team on the field.
A lot of our younger players have been rubbish.
Sammy Ameobi has not progress one single bit, ditto Nile Ranger.
Shane Ferguson is improving, he looks a bit more confident on the ball and can deliver a cross, unlike Ameobi, who could not cross his legs!!!
Tavernier is raw, very much a work in progress.
Mehdi Abeid, not seen enough to judge him.
Haris Vučkić – always injured, always
These lads are making the same mistakes in every game.
They are not learning or progressing.
I agree that the younger players haven’t completely stepped up to the mark this season. But I think that playing all of them at once is not a good idea at all. They can’t learn from the best at the club as they’re surrounded by fellow young players who are making similar errors. It’s a harsh cycle.
But a wider issue that I think all of this raises is the fact that we’re becoming increasingly reliant on players who shouldn’t have such expectation on them. We need more depth in the squad.
we have been pants all over the field due to pardews tactics his a crap manager when will everyone take note ashley wanted a yes man thats what we got simple as that the sooner the fan realies that the better ba will leave and that shows no ambition others will follow to lets just hope benny stays put cant see it tho as we are getting worse dont blame the young lads and i would like to say give cambell his chance every other player seems to
“The real problem that we’re looking at is not ‘our younger players’, but rather the lack of depth in the squad. It’s a problem that needs to be addressed in January.” this really says it all.
We played to many youngsters against Bordeaux and got what we deserved. How can Pardew blame the youngsters for a lack of depth in the squad, if anyone failed it was Pardew and the management team.
NUFC should be a top 5 side we have a fan base.envied by many but we under achieve because we have an owner and manager trying to convince us we are not a big club and can not compete. Average gates of 40,000+ says we are big but our management is small minded.
I’m happy that someone has embraced this opinion. On Facebook,a lot of people seem to get angry when we adress this issue, but it’s true. I don’t however think that Pardew is too small for the club. I think that he’s the right man for the job, but he does need to realise that we need depth. He hasn’t managed a team in Europe before- now that he has, maybe he’ll bring in the necessary cover in January. It’s becoming embarrassing
I am not saying Pardew Out, but we can do a lot better than him. My preferred choice is Martinez, The Man just oozes class