Alan Pardew: “We genuinely enter these games thinking ‘What can we get out of them’?.
“We have confidence. What you get sometimes when you play the top three or four is a lack of ambition to win those games.
“I’m sure all (coaching) staff initially have a good tactical plan to win the game.
“I don’t think anyone will go to Man City and say ‘We can’t win’ but of course that inner belief has still got to be there after 30 minutes, when they start producing their power on you.
“And that’s when you need your team to be where my team is.
“Confidence, knowing that they’ve gone unbeaten for a while and then they can get past that 30-minute barrier and then stick to the plan.
“That’s what you see happening nine times out of 10 – you can see a team has a plan and that it goes astray a little bit, one or two players go offline and then you’re asking for trouble.
“If I can keep my team online and on my tactical plan, we’ve got a chance.
"I know how tough the games will be.
“I think it’s a bit more than (just world-class attackers). You’ve got world-class defenders in Kompany, Toure and people like that.
“Suddenly when you’re a player and you come up against a top- class player they grind you down.
“I’ve had it happen to me when I came up against Bryan Robson (pictured right) in his heyday – you kind of realise that there’s nowhere for you to go today, you’re just on the back foot.
“That’s what they can do, the top teams, they can really hurt you – and hurt your confidence.
“That’s something we will be hoping we can avoid.”
(* PS . Do you think that photo looks like Messi? Or is it my eyes?)
Source: FOOTYMAD
