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Pre Season Essential For Newcastle Players To Get ‘Rhythm and Timing Back’

10 years ago
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Newcastle keeper Rob Elliot has described the club tour of New Zealand as ‘almost perfect’.

While Alan Pardew hasn’t commented on the injuries that forced off De Jong, Coloccini, Aarons and Abeid on Saturday, in terms of results and some of the football Newcastle played, then you can’t argue with Elliot.

The United reserve keeper held his hands up to some atrocious kicking, especially in the first half, though he felt he redeemed himself with the two outstanding saves he made early in the second half against Wellington Phoenix.

 
This is what Rob Elliot had to say to the official club website;

“It’s almost perfect in a way, if you could ask for it you’d want 2 games – one where you played free flowing technical football and loads of movement, then the second like an away match; a big stadium, loads of noise and a team who put you under pressure.

“Really pleasing we came through both with two wins and two clean sheets…it shows we’ve got a great group here.

“I was a bit sloppy in the first half, especially my kicking, so I went out in the second half and made sure I was back on top of my game – it’s always good to make saves.

“These things happen pre season and you need to use friendlies to get your rhythm and timing back, fair play to Wellington because the way they played made it very intense.”

The big worry for me is the lack of preparation the squad are going to have when key players such as Sissoko, Krul, Tiote, Cabella and Janmaat are at last involved. As Elliot states, players need pre season to get their ‘rhythm and timing back’.

Considering those five players are guaranteed starters and represent almost half the first choice eleven, having only two weeks to get the team as a unit up to speed is a big ask.

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