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Alan Pardew ‘Obertan is unplayable when he believes in himself’

9 years ago
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I’m all for managers trying to inspire players but Alan Pardew never seems to know when to stick on the subject of Gabriel Obertan.

Before the Leicester match the United boss claimed that the [intlink id=”48962″ type=”post”]French winger was \’absolutely breathtaking\’ at times[/intlink].

After Obertan had put in a decent performance and scored the winning goal, Alan Pardew ramped up the language even further by asserting that the Newcastle winger is ‘unplayable’ when he believes in himself.

Unplayable;

“Well he is a player who is all about self-confidence.

“When Gabby believes in himself he’s unplayable.

“I was so pleased for him to get the result today, it will only boost his confidence.”

Still a young player;

“He’s still a young player, still such great potential, and if we can get it out of him every week, we will be a very fortunate club.

“In the past his defending hasn’t been of the highest order but really disciplined today and always carried a threat.

“He delivered crosses, he is taking people on, suddenly he puts the other team on the back foot.”

Why can’t Alan Pardew just say that Gabriel Obertan had a decent game, scored a very good goal and if he keeps doing that then he will keep his place in the team?

The Frenchman is not suddenly some great player with the potential to do magnificent things, neither is he ‘unplayable’, at least he certainly isn’t if based on what any Newcastle fan has seen on a football pitch.

As for being young and great potential ahead of him, he is a football player who turns twenty six in a few months time (February) and currently has started only tweny eight Premier League matches in his whole career.

Good luck Gabriel and hopefully you can turn in a few more decent displays and goals to help save this season but you aren’t the answer to our hopes and expectations.

The thing that Alan Pardew often forgets when he tries to milk the odd bit of good news amongst this season’s debris so far, is fans may justifiably ask why this ‘absolutely breathtaking unplayable’ superstar has been lying dormant while Newcastle have been absolutely terrible for almost the entire time since that fifth place finish in 2011/12?

Indeed the manager didn’t even take him to New Zealand in pre-season while players who clearly have no future at NUFC such as Haris Vucki, still traveled to make up the numbers.

Until that Swansea match two weeks ago, Gabriel Obertan had started only four Premier League matches (three defeats and a draw against Norwich) in two years seven months (12 March 2012 to 4 October 2014) worth of football

If Obertan is indeed this unplayable breathtaking player, then it suggests that Alan Pardew possess anything but these qualities as a manager.

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