Pardew uses break effectively
Newcastle Utd 2 Tottenham 1:A STATUE of Bobby Robson stands at the main entrance to Newcastle United’s home and, before matches, fans frequently take turns to be photographed in front of it. When a short detour before kick-off permitted Andre Villas-Boas the chance to admire a sculpture that was erected last spring, memories must have flooded back. “I like it,” said Tottenham’s new manager.
As a teenager growing up in an apartment block in northern Portugal he could not have wished for a better neighbour than the late Newcastle manager. Impressed by Villas-Boas’s tactical deconstruction of his Porto side – something contained in a document slipped beneath Robson’s front door – the former England coach famously began mentoring the 16-year-old, offering him work analysing games and players.
The ensuing 18 years have brought Villas-Boas unprecedented managerial glory at Porto, ignominy at Chelsea and now the real promise of a renaissance with Tottenham. After dominating the first half, Spurs narrowly lost this match due to an amalgam of characteristically clever second-half tweaking on Alan Pardew’s part, Hatem Ben Arfa’s talent-laden intelligence, Demba Ba’s opportunism and Villa-Boas’s current shortage of established strikers.
Featuring the impressive Sandro synchronising smoothly with Jake Livermore in central midfield, the first half suggested Tottenham’s new-look 4-2-3-1 formation will cause opponents numerous problems.
Despite Spurs’s eventual defeat all the indications are that little should be read into a subsequently deleted tweet from the omitted Tom Huddlestone, which apparently criticised Harry Redknapp’s successor. “Respect needs earning before being given. Fact,” it read, but the overriding message from the visiting camp is that the Spurs players like Villas-Boas and enjoy his varied, innovative coaching.
Reverting to an essentially 4-4-2 guise designed to afford Demba Ba a central attacking role alongside Papiss Cisse, Newcastle initially appeared clunkily one dimensional and over-reliant on an ineffective barrage of long balls. If Jermain Defoe and Gareth Bale had not hit a post and bar respectively, Tottenham would have been comfortably ahead at the interval.
Reprieved, Pardew used the break extremely well and Newcastle re-emerged in a more fluid, broadly 4-3-3 configuration. Facilitated by Ba’s relocation to the left, it was designed not only to promote shorter, smarter passing but to maximise Ben Arfa’s menace. When Kyle Walker inadvertently headed Danny Simpson’s cross into Ba’s path, the striker swivelled seamlessly before sending the ball curling imperiously towards the top corner.
It was Ba’s first goal for seven months. After scoring 16 times before New Year last season, his shooting boots proved defective when occupying a similar left-wing role supporting Cisse last spring.
After Pardew’s mindless shove on an assistant referee Stuart Burt over a disputed throw-in got him banished to the stands he watched Defoe equalise adroitly.
But if Ben Arfa’s diligence in tracking back suggested he is now a player who can safely be delegated defensive responsibility, attacking improvisation remains the France international’s forte.
In drawing Sandro and Livermore into the fouls which brought them bookings, he had prised the game open and now enticed Lennon into bringing him down in the area after running into the narrow gap between the winger and Rafael van der Vaart.
Ba was left looking startled when Ben Arfa seized the ball before sending Brad Friedel the wrong way from the penalty spot.
Pardew expects to be charged by the English FA today over the Burt incident and will not contest the charge.
“I’m still embarrassed about what I did,” he said. “I’ve never done anything like that before.
“I’ve apologised to him and I can’t really do any more than that.”
Guardian Service
