Newcastle United defender Steven Taylor is relishing the clash against Tottenham Hotspur this Saturday at the Sports Direct Arena and has called for focus ahead of the game.
Taylor made his return to the Newcastle side during their pre-season tour of http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Germany-c2904 after being sidelined for the greater part of last season. His absence from the team was compensated by the brilliant Fabricio Coloccini and Mike Williamson,
but Taylor was still missed as Newcastle lacked depth and options at the back.
His return to the team was a welcome sight for manager http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Alan-c4244 Pardew who now has multiple options at the back, and goes into the new season with a stronger and better squad.
Having acquired Curtis Good, Gael Bigirimana, Romain Amalfitano, and not to mention the imminent arrival of Ajax starlet http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Vurnon-Anita-c36486, Newcastle look set to give a tough time to Saturday’s opponents Tottenham Hotspur.
However, there were some major setbacks and areas of concern for the manager as Newcastle lost their last pre-season friendly against Cardiff City. The game ended in a score line of 4-1, and some of the Magpies’ most important players limped off with minor
knocks that may prevent them from featuring in the Premier League opener.
Cheick Tiote and Fabricio Coloccini received knocks and had to be substituted. Later on, Pardew’s injury woes worsened as he lost http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Yohan-Cabaye-c37423 and Papiss Demba Ba out to injuries. Newcastle may not go into the match with their strongest
side, but Steven Taylor remains hopeful and confident that they will be able to get a result.
The player talked about his thoughts on the 4-1 defeat to Cardiff and the visit of Spurs this Saturday:
“We’re very disappointed - we’re gutted with the result.”
“We feel we let the fans down a little bit, but we’ve learnt a valuable lesson. It was a lesson we needed to learn. The main thing is to move on to Tottenham. That’s the thing we’re really looking to now.”
“All over the pitch, we weren’t together, and that wasn’t a Newcastle performance.”
“We’re not going to take the fact that we didn’t have some key players as an excuse. We had a http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Job-c18684 to do, and we didn’t do it. But we’ll deal with it and learn from it, and put it right.”
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