Assistant first team coach Steve Holland reports both the management staff and the players have benefitted immensely from having a full week to prepare for tomorrow’s game against Newcastle. Holland was stepping in for Jose Mourinho at this afternoon’s pre-match press conference at our Cobham training ground and, as somebody who works very closely with the players every day, he was able to explain the benefits of having extra time to prepare for a game. Excluding international breaks, when the vast majority of the first team squad are away anyway, this is the first midweek free of a game since late August. ‘It makes such a difference,’ stressed Holland. ‘There’s been a really good focus this week. ‘When you’re playing every two or three days, in training you have 10 players recovering from a match, and 10 players that need work, so you’ve got a split group. You’re doing very little training with the group that are continuously playing. ‘You try to top up the others but you’re always so close to a game you have to be careful with how much you load the players, so to have a week where we can have 20 players together for three or four days with a highly organised build-up is a big advantage. ‘You get to this period – January and February – and you do get a chance to really work with a group of players on the training pitch every day. Everybody trained today, everybody is in good shape physically and there is a strong determination within the group to win the game. We lost there recently and it’s not something we want to repeat. ‘The tactical preparation we’ve had this week is the best it’s been for months given we’ve had a clear week to prepare so we’re in good shape and we’re ready to play the game.’ steve-holland-training-PA-20700014 Newcastle travel south with a caretaker manager in charge, John Carver, while they will be without a number of first team players including both Cheick Tiote and Papiss Cisse, on African Cup of Nations duty with Ivory Coast and Senegal respectively. Cisse, who would have missed tomorrow’s game through suspension anyway, netted both of Newcastle’s goals in our 2-1 defeat at St James’ Park last month. ‘They have a good squad and whoever plays in that position will be a quality player,’ noted Holland. ‘It’s one of those situations where we’ve been on the flipside in the past, with players like Drogba and Mikel. It’s a tournament that happens frequently at this time so you know what you’re going to get, and I’m quite sure Newcastle would have been aware of that well before now. They will have factored that into their planning. ‘From our point of view it’s always good to have a situation where the opposition is playing without some of their best players. It could well be the case with Swansea the week after with Bony and then Man City with Yaya Toure. That’s the way it falls sometimes but from my experience of playing against Newcastle is it’s always a hard game under any circumstances wherever you play them. We’re expecting no different tomorrow.’ During the conference, Holland commented on transfer speculation and reiterated the manager’s expectation that nobody will join and nobody will leave the first team squad this month, although the club are prepared to be reactive if necessary, as they were last January. When asked what it was like working alongside Mourinho, Holland stated it was a fantastic education and the Portuguese was the best he had ever worked alongside, citing his skill in the different fields of coaching, man management, psychological work and changing the direction of a game. Turning his attention back to matters on the pitch, Holland summarised the season so far with the tight title race in mind. ‘The pressure is equal at both ends. If you look at the league table we’re 20 matches in and the two teams at the top are not separated by anything. The records are identical, so small margins define success and failure. ‘This is the most competitive league in the world. At any moment points can be dropped. In the 18 matches we have to go maybe we will get a big gap again, maybe we will go behind, who knows. ‘The most important thing from our point of view is that we have played 30 matches since our last pre-season game and we have lost two. That is certainly the best record of any English club and for sure it is one of the best in Europe. We’re in the semi-finals of the Capital One Cup, the fourth round of the FA Cup, and the last 16 of the Champions League. ‘Yes we’re a little bit disappointed we don’t have a bigger cushion but at the same time you have to say the players have had an incredible first half of the season. The level of consistency has been truly exceptional and we’re in a very good state heading into the back half.’
Posted on: Sat, 10 Jan 2015 04:01:37 +0000
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