At the Alan Pardew press conference today, the manager was keen to talk about competition for places but also the fact we must avoid injury to key players.

Poyet; “If we need to win one game in this football club it is the derby game.”

Well the way they are going on they may well end up only winning one game all season…just so long as it isn’t against Newcastle.

Alan Pardew; “They have got good players, definitely got the standard to stay up but if we can win it will put them in difficult position and obviously that is what we want to do. A win for ourselves.”

Alan Pardew; “I look at my team and I think it has got quality in it and what we are looking for is that fighting spirit we showed second half (v Everton), from the moment it starts to the moment it ends. If we find that we are going to be a good side.”

As well as that, the manager talks about how the Liverpool players will react to Suarez’ absence, Newcastle United’s home and away form and ‘getting over the line’. Oh and he might have sneaked in a little ‘if only we had everybody fit’ but almost got away with it!

At his pre-match press conference, Alan Pardew talked about his preparations for the match against West Brom and the impact the Europa League and Sunderland defeat have had. The manager also details the immediate target for his team, as well as the injury situation with Ryan Taylor.

Alan Pardew is clearly a lot more confident now he has his January reinforcements, whilst his Ukrainian counterpart is strangely happy that Newcastle have brought a full strength side!

Think of it like the 4 x 400m replay in the Olympics, on the last leg Newcastle are coming up on the shoulder of the opposition at the final bend.

Rodgers was youth team coach at Reading under Pardew and seem to share a similar footballing philosophy, watch our manager’s take on the upcoming match, it will only whet your appetite even further, hope it is indeed ‘Good’ Friday.