Pardew Plays It Cool - But Something Is Wrong At St James' Park

06 March 2011 14:32
Alan Pardew says "we have some outstanding players" but some of them are not up the pressure of the expectation of the Geordie crowd. James Perch isn't the only one who shits his pants when he pulls on the Too shirt. Four wins at home in the Premiership - in March - something, somewhere, is going wrong. Alan Pardew: "We have got some outstanding players at this football club and one or two did themselves no harm on Saturday in the squad for going forward. "But we are going to need our best players for these last nine games to try to finish as high as we can, and that's what we are going to do. "But you can't play a game at this level and lose the quality of players we did - Joey Barton, then we lost Ireland, then Enrique on the pitch. "For all the effort and commitment we put in, sometimes that's just too many players to lose. "Arteta caused us problems, you have to say that, and the two strikers were good too. "They have got great players, they have got internationals who are respected around the world. "Ten years in the Premier League, they have built and built and built. They are not having a great season, but if those quality players produce like they did on Saturday, then it takes them up a level and at times, their quality was up a level from us. "That's why you need your best players on the pitch to match that. Hopefully at Stoke, we will have a few more on the pitch. "Shane Ferguson is so slight at the moment, we are trying to do the steak and milk trick and every other carbohydrate we can get into him to fatten him up a little bit."  

Source: FOOTYMAD