• Europa League

Rodgers helps Pardew with Anzhi gameplan

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Liverpool boss Brendan Rodgers provided Newcastle United with inside information on Europa League opponents Anzhi Makhachkala, Alan Pardew has revealed.

Speaking ahead of his side's crunch second leg tie on Thursday, Pardew confirmed discussions with the Reds' boss had taken place but was unwilling to divulge just what insight he had provided.

"They've had experience of playing against Premier League opposition in Liverpool," he said. "I think they lost 1-0. I think this game will be tougher for them,"

"I spoke to Brendan Rodgers about their fixture and the two fixtures that they had, we've also done an analytical study of their games. We've watched and analysed their game on Sunday [a 2-0 defeat against Mordovia Saransk] and we know all we need to know about the opposition. That doesn't mean we can stop them, they have some outstanding players.

"They have one of the best managers of the last two or three decades in charge, so its a tough agenda for us. I still have a strong feeling we can win and our fans will on the back of three home wins. We're going into it with good confidence

"Of course I'm not going to disclose the ins and outs of what we both felt tactically might be the answer. He [Rodgers] was very complimentary of their ability and their players in particular. A couple of little warnings and a couple of pieces of thought that we could benefit from, no more than that."

"They [Anzhi] pose a counter attack threat," he added. "They can control the game and take the sting out of the game and make it difficult for us in terms of trying to penetrate them. They did that very well in the first game we made hardly offensive impact. So we're trying to give them a few different questions like we did at Stoke and hopefully come up with our own answers rather than them coming up with defensive answers."

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