Newcastle United’s Pardew: ‘We are pushing these players to the limit’

Alan Pardew admits his drive for peak fitness comes with costs, saying 'we lost one or two that perhaps we shouldn't have'.

Alan Pardew has guided Newcastle United to eighth in the Premier League table, with 16 points from 11 matches. Ian MacNicol / AFP

Newcastle United manager Alan Pardew is to ease the workload on his players after admitting they have been pushed to the limit.

The club have put together a run of five successive victories, four of them in the Premier League, to completely change the complexion of their season.

However, they have lost men along the way to injury, some of them on the training ground, and that is something the manager and his coaching staff will look to address as they attempt to strike a balance between achieving the highest possible fitness levels and the demands that places on the squad.

Pardew told the Shields Gazette: “I met my staff and we are going to change one or two things. We are pushing these players to the limit. We’re trying to get the maximum we can out of them, and if you do that, you are going to lose players here and there.

“The other players, you can tell, are really super-fit, and we’re strong. But we still need a few more bodies back.

“As a group, we have to make sure we protect the players and give them the best possible chance to be at their maximum on a Saturday.

“We’re pushing the players, and we’re going to get injuries. We’re pushing them because we want them to be fitter and stronger than everybody else, and so you’ve got a balance there.

“We’ve just got to make sure we get that right, because we lost one or two that perhaps we shouldn’t have.”

Captain Fabricio Coloccini is one of the men currently on the casualty list, although he picked up his calf problem in the 2-0 win at West Brom last time out and could be missing for several weeks.

With Steven Taylor battling a similar injury, Newcastle recalled 20-year-old Remie Streete from his loan spell at Port Vale last week, although Taylor is hopeful of being fit for QPR’s visit to St James’ Park on Saturday.

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