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Alan Pardew picks NUFC team based on conditioning

16 Jul 2013 08:00

Newcastle United boss Alan Pardew adopts an unusual selection policy for his side's opening pre-season friendly at Motherwell

Alan Pardew will opt for an unusual selection policy tonight at Motherwell – by selecting his starting XI based on those who have returned the best fitness and conditioning stats so far.

None of United’s international stars are set to feature at Fir Park against the Europa League-bound SPL outfit meaning players like Yohan Cabaye, Fabricio Coloccini, Papiss Cisse, Mathieu Debuchy and Cheick Tiote were never in genuine contention to start the first friendly of the summer.

Cisse was not spotted at the club’s training ground yesterday.

United and the player’s representatives were understood to be in discussions with the PFA as Newcastle try to resolve the uncertainty over whether the No 9 will wear Wonga gear this season.

Cisse has yet to train with the main group of players and will fall behind fitness levels if he fails to fly out to Portugal tomorrow for the club’s training week in Braga.

Hatem Ben Arfa is also set to stay behind on Tyneside to work on fitness, despite remaining on course for completing a pre-season with the Magpies for the first time since joining the club.

Ben Arfa, though, is likely to appear in the two games planned in Portugal next week.

Tim Krul also misses out, United not ready to risk the Dutchman after a wrist injury sustained last term.

Yet the players who will start the game have been rewarded for producing excellent results in the first two weeks of pre-season training.

Pardew last week hinted a different strategy at the Magpies’ training HQ in Benton would “creep out” as the summer unfolded.

It appears he has used fitness stats to help increase competition for places, meaning several younger players are set to get a chance tonight on the big stage.

Speaking on his selection tonight Pardew told the Chronicle: “We have a fairly young team with a sprinkling of senior players. I am playing the team which is in the best condition.

“So the best-conditioned player in each position will play.

“For example, the best-conditioned No 4 is Vurnon Anita.

“He is in front of Yohan Cabaye and Cheick Tiote, so he will play.

“Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa is my best-conditioned centre-half, so he will play.

“That is the reason behind the team.”

Stuart McCall’s Well are preparing for the Europa League this season after taking advantage of Rangers’ financial demise by finishing second to runaway leaders Celtic last term.

Pardew is full of respect for the former Everton and Scotland Italia 90 player and his team.

He added: “We want to get off to a winning start.

“Motherwell have done really well so it will be a tough game.”

Pardew has always insisted he would give younger players a chance at first-team level and tonight is the opening of what will be a limited window to impress the boss.

It could see Geordie boys Adam Campbell and Paul Dummett plus fit-again Haris Vuckic, who spent most of last season out with a cruciate ligament injury, handed a chance as the manager experiments with some of his squad players.

However, he promised to put a show on for the fans making the journey north of the border.

He said: “I hope to see a few of our fans. We want to get off to a good start for them.”

http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/alan-pardew-picks-newcastle-united-5105856?tabPane=Comments

 

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Guest icemanblue

Because the others aren't fit enough to play? Some of them only reported back yesterday. We'd be risking injuries, etc.

 

I'm not sure why this is such a revolutionary selection policy, like. Pretty sure we end up doing it every year.

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Motherwell have no players. They've been decimated. Lost Higdon, Ojamma, Humphrey, Nicky 'nicky' Law and others who were all first teamers.

 

Big Stephen McManus is playing for them now. I used to think he was cracking but wasn't liking Middlesbrough.

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Motherwell have no players. They've been decimated. Lost Higdon, Ojamma, Humphrey, Nicky 'nicky' Law and others who were all first teamers.

 

Big Stephen McManus is playing for them now. I used to think he was cracking but wasn't liking Middlesbrough.

 

Any reason or did they just fancy binning off all their players?

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What I mean is, this is probably the new 'techniques' or whatever it was that Pardew said that we had up our sleeve that he wasn't going to talk about. So we'll more than likely use 'stats' during the season as well to pick the team.

 

I look forward to Obertan being picked over Ben Arfa because he had a 3% higher work-rate than Ben Arfa in training or some nonsense like that.

 

My issue is that stats don't measure skill or creativity in any way.

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