Newcastle Utd 3 Liverpool 1:IN A former life, as a glazier, Alan Pardew worked on some of London's tallest skyscrapers. It is a job suited only to those with the strongest heads for heights but that early experience of conquering fear has served Newcastle United's new manager well during his turbulent years in football.
These are early days but the indications are that the Pardew approach – sharply confident banter, intense logic, zero sentimentality and assiduous planning – might just make him an ideal replacement for Chris Hughton.
If the Geordie managerial jury will be out for some time, many on Merseyside have long been insistent that Roy Hodgson is not the right successor for Rafael Benitez. An ability to hold your nerve under often hysterical pressure is a prerequisite for managing in cities such as Newcastle and Liverpool. The growing suspicion is that Hodgson’s impressive judgment has been skewed by the demands of restoring Liverpool to former glories. On Saturday his tetchy, strained demeanour was much at odds with a previously urbane persona as manager of Fulham. Suddenly the man proficient in five languages seems stumped by the idiosyncrasies of Scouse.
As fine performances from Andy Carroll, Joey Barton, Cheik Tiote and Kevin Nolan ensured that protests against Newcastle’s board morphed into full-on support, Hodgson sensed a change in the prevailing wind. Suddenly a storm was gusting out of Toon and heading fast towards Liverpool.
“It’s a major setback, a major blow, I’m angry,” said Hodgson, who had seen his side fall behind to Barton’s chipped free-kick, Carroll’s flick on and Nolan’s near-post finish. The key moment came when, not for the first or last time, Carroll out-jumped the hugely disappointing Martin Skrtel.
“I thought we played well in the first half, we had most of the ball, asked a lot of questions of their back four and got into good positions,” added Hodgson, who left Joe Cole on the bench. “But we didn’t do that in the second half.”
Liverpool did equalise after the break. In the absence of Steven Gerrard and Jamie Carragher, the underrated Dirk Kuyt proved their most reliable galvanising influence.
When the ball bounced off the head of Sol Campbell – who had such a shocker that the off-colour Fernando Torres will surely cringe at his failure to test Tim Krul’s goalkeeping reflexes – Kuyt controlled it with his right foot, switched it to the left and took aim. Thanks to a deflection off Steven Taylor – who is poised to leave Newcastle in January after declining a new contract – Liverpool were level.
Briefly, Hodgson’s team looked the likelier winners but Pardew made an astute substitution. With Nile Ranger’s pace now worrying defenders, Barton stole in to toe home Newcastle’s second before Carroll’s sublime long-range, stoppage-time drive added an unexpected gloss to scoreline.
The only shame was that Barton marred an excellent display with a needless bodycheck on Lucas Leiva and what could be interpreted as an obscene gesture towards Torres, although the English Football Association said yesterday it was unlikely to investigate the incident.
Hodgson was ridiculed for a bizarre piece of technical-area behaviour, performed in the wake of Barton’s goal. It saw Liverpool’s manager repeatedly rub his hands so violently across his face that it appeared as if he were attempting to exfoliate the pain with an imaginary pumice stone.
When asked why his team have won once away in the league this season, he replied: “Because we can’t win away.” If, given the dubious legacy Hodgson inherited from Rafael Benitez, it cannot be seen to be a disaster that Liverpool are only just behind Newcastle in mid-table, their manager’s defensive body language does not inspire confidence. Nor does it seem remotely likely to unlock the team’s creative impulses.
By coincidence, Pardew highlighted the perils of cautious touchline mindsets.
“I’ve never looked negatively at things,” he said. “If you have any negativity on the training ground or the pitch it will turn into a defeat and then another defeat. Then you’ll be in trouble.”
Guardian Service
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