Jump to content

Sam’s fury at switch block


Scottish Mag
 Share

Recommended Posts

SAM Allardyce has taken a swipe at the Metropolitan Police as he blamed fatigue for Newcastle’s Carling Cup exit at Arsenal last night.

 

Despite just about holding a young Gunners side for 80 minutes as they tried to hit on the counter-attack, particularly in the first-half, Newcastle conceded two late goals to Nicklas Bendtner and Denilson.

 

And Allardyce – who believes Michael Owen will miss England’s Euro 2008 qualifiers next month because of a tear in his groin – was adamant that, had his side been given another 24 hours to recover after the 3-1 win over West Ham on Sunday afternoon, they would have been able to give Arsenal a far better contest.

 

Newcastle’s manager had asked for the game to be moved to tonight, but he claimed the request was turned down by London’s police force because Tottenham were already scheduled to play Middlesbrough this evening.

 

“I’m disappointed that we have lost, but more disappointed that we were forced to play this game in the first place so soon after Sunday,” said Allardyce, whose counter-attack plan could have worked if Obafemi Martins had not had such a poor night in front of goal. “What we got in the end was a fatigued set of players who couldn’t run anymore.

 

“As good as Arsenal were on the night, we were difficult to break down. In the end we were victims of the situation we were put in and they finally capitalised on that. Our legs ran out and the players fatigued badly in the last 10 minutes. I couldn’t have asked for any more from them in terms of work-rate – they just couldn’t give any more in the end.

 

“We’re out of the competition and that’s a telling factor. Five or six of my players had to play a full 90 minutes after playing 90

 

minutes on Sunday. Some of Arsenal’s players didn’t even play on the Saturday.”

 

Allardyce continued: “We tried to get the game changed but ran into a brick wall. I don’t know why we couldn’t play on the Wednesday night the same as Tottenham. I believe the police said we couldn’t. That wouldn’t have happened in the North-West and I believe they have more police down here.”

 

Nevertheless, while Allardyce was quick to divert blame away from his club, he admitted Martins – who failed to take three good chances, the first two when the score was 0-0 and the third just seconds after Arsenal had taken the lead – could have done more to ease their fatigue.

 

He said: “We can’t control the timing of the game, but the other thing we are disappointed with is that Oba is not sitting here with the match ball. Those three gilt-edged chances were the reason we didn’t take it into at least extra time. Even though we didn’t pass the ball very well, I thought we contained them. We knew Arsenal would pass the ball about well, they’ve got all the experience now and they’re a slick team.

 

“For Arsenal, this competition is fourth on their list, but for us it’s a high priority. Drawing Arsenal away is hard enough anyway, but to do so under these circumstances has contributed to our defeat. Not all of it – we contributed ourselves with the chances we missed – but it was definitely a factor.”

 

Despite the pain of an early cup exit, Allardyce was also forced to field more questions about Owen’s injury situation and he admitted the club’s record signing is almost certainly going to miss England’s qualifiers against Estonia and Russia next month. However, United’s manager does not know if the striker – who will see another specialist in Germany on Thursday – will need to have a hernia operation, or just minor surgery on the tear in his groin. He said: “Michael has a three-centimetre tear in his abductor muscle and will see a specialist on Thursday to decide whether he will need an hernia operation or not.

 

“Whoever does the surgery won’t be able to say whether he definitely needs an operation until he has seen him. Unless of course he’s magic and he can peer into his stomach over from Germany.

 

“How long will he be out for? Probably three weeks. I would have thought he will miss England, but he’d miss those games with his groin anyway so we might as well check if he needs a hernia operation or not while he’s out for three weeks with his abductor tear.”

 

Meanwhile, Arsene Wenger hailed his next generation of Arsenal stars following the game, and said: “For me, all of them can play on a regular basis.”

Link to comment
Share on other sites

bollocks

 

these guys are fully trained professionals - in the old days they used to play 3 games over an Easter weekend ffs

 

crap excuse

The game was a lot slower back then and the players covered a lot less ground in a match too.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share

×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.