But, after Saturday's horror show against Malaga, he must have been pleased to see a very strong performance.
Pre-season friendlies are always difficult and the manager knows it is never encouraging to go into the new season on the back of a defeat.
So this victory, just 26 hours after the Malaga game, was welcome.
Alan Pardew: “We came through against Schalke unscathed, and that is a major plus.
“We’ve got no injuries, which we’re really pleased about.
“It was a high-calibre tournament, and the best team won.
“Malaga were better than the other teams in terms of their technical levels.”