Alan Pardew shares his thoughts on a disappointing result on our return to European action....
Hard done by? Yeah. I felt that their organisation and the way they pressed the ball was always gonna make it difficult for us. We played well under pressure. I thought the breaks didn’t go our way. I was particularly unhappy with the refereeing. Some of the tackles should have been punished with yellow cards which would have put one or two of their players under threat for the rest of the game. He didn’t encourage them to speed up which was a problem for us. In terms of two fighters in the ring I thought we were evenly matched. The seconnd leg will be an interesting psychological game – with a 1-0 lead it’ll be interesting to see how they approach it tactically. We know how we’ll approach it – we’ll take the game to them.I haven’t seen the replay but I’ve been told that the ball was out of play. That’s one of the breaks we didn’t get. We’d had the chance just before when Tevezproduced a great moment for the save, then hitting the post – this tie was that tight.
The fracas at the corner? It was the other end of the pitch from me. It looked like someone got heated and there was some pushing and shoving. I don’t think anyone came out of that with any credit to be honest.
The shape of the team at the start was designed to ensure that we didn’t concede an early goal. We then pushed Tevez on to a 4-4-2 to try to hurt them a bit. We almost did that when he nearly scored. I thought Mascherano’s passing, the delivery, you could see it raised us a level. After half time he certainly had the bit between his teeth. He raised the tempo for us. It was an accomplished display. I’m very pleased with him. Tevez – you can see he has special talent. We need to harness it. We’ve had a few problems – people coming back from injury and we’re trying to get back to our best. I don’t think we’re far away, I really don’t. It’s a matter of harnessing that talent without taking away from what we’re about.
Even though they’ve won there’ll be some fear of us. It’ll be difficult for them. If they play similar tactics to tonight that would be no problem for us. It’s evenly poised a few breaks and it’ll be a very different result.
I was very pleased to get a full house tonight. It was an outstanding effort by our fans and we’re disappointed for them that we haven’t come away with anything.
The physical side of the game here? I don’t think there’s a problem with either Tevez or Mascherano on that front!
Have we had to learn a lesson? I heard that after Bolton last year when we went on a run. It’s easy to say we were naive or caught out tactically but I honestly thing that with a couple of breaks here and there we could have won. Our performance level was high but the breaks favoured them.
(To the UEFA interpreter) – I don’t think I’ve ever spoken so well by the way!
How did marlon and Mullins take being dropped? That’s a tough old question to get straight after some banter! As you would expect they’re disappointed. They want to play. They’ve been a big part of this club’s success. Let’s be honest there’s big competition here. Etherington didn’t start. He wasn’t pleased. Teddy didn’t come on. It’s like that when you have a big squad. Tomorrow they’ll say that the result might have been different if they had played. I can’t argue with that.
Sunday’s a big game. We need a result and I’ll pick eleven to get that result. Yes I am concerned that there’s been no clean sheets this season. No there aren’t any fresh injury worries for Sunday.
Were Palermo more physical than I thought they would be? No but I thought the referee would be stronger. Maybe the corner incident was a build up of what had gone on previously.
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