steve_69

Is he any good? Can he play at RB?

Absolute tosh! Even with a depleted squad the teams we put out against Swansea, West Ham and Southampton were far superior player-for-player. We had home advantage in two of the three games and remember, the opposition didn't scrape lucky wins, they played us off the park. To further strengthen my argument, take a look at the Maritimo game - we put all of our big guns out and got outplayed by a small-time Portuguese team. I just think calls for his head are a bit knee-jerk in the circumstances. Even the loss of Colo, HBA and Cabaye is bound to play a part. I don't think there's a glut of great managers who'd be prepared to take over and work under Ashleys restraints either. Let's weather the storm until we get our 1st X1 back and hopefully he's given the chance to reinforce in Jan'. The calls for his head are due to the fact that there are no signs of light at the end of the tunnel. There has been very little, if anything positive to take from our last 4 games and much of the season before. If we were losing but playing well then fair enough, we'd be confident of turning a corner at some point. I personally hope he turns it around but I've lost all faith and confidence in him. To turn a top 5 team playing winning football in a winning formation into a shit, static long-ball lumping team who don't look like winning at all, in the space of 5 months takes a very special brand of terrible football management. And as if that wasn't bad enough he's turned one of the most potent strikers in the league into a hapless poor-man's Carlton Cole in the same time period. We cannot score from set pieces and we do not have the mental strength to win games after going behind. It's not looking good at all.

And that is exactly what he reckons wins games, he then proceeds to completely go against that with his formation and long ball tactics. The blokes a f***ing idiot. He is like

Absolute tosh! Even with a depleted squad the teams we put out against Swansea, West Ham and Southampton were far superior player-for-player. We had home advantage in two of the three games and remember, the opposition didn't scrape lucky wins, they played us off the park. To further strengthen my argument, take a look at the Maritimo game - we put all of our big guns out and got outplayed by a small-time Portuguese team.

We need to stop worrying about what the fucking opposition are going to do and go out there to impose our own game on them. We've got the players to do it but our manager is a toilet. If you think like a bottom half team that's exactly what you'll become. Arseholes!

seems to suggest he's capable of something better

I think you're basically right, it's not really a 'crisis'. Most of the players on our injury list would never be playing anyway. Not having Colo and Cabaye and HBA is bound to effect our play though. Take the best defender, midfielder and attacker out of any team and see how it effects them. Which is exactly what Pardew will say when/if we lose on Sunday. Even without those three, that team is significantly better player-for-player than Southampton, so for me that's no excuse. The personnel isn't the problem - the tactics, style of play and general approach to the game is the problem.

A lot of the points we won last season were based on decent first half performances followed by serious backs-to-the-wall second half performances. It was good to see us winning but for the most part it was shite to watch. Sadly this season we don't have the good spells in games to set us up for the wins we need - it's like we're playing every game like we played the second half of games last season. We're struggling to retain possession, struggling to create chances, struggling to score goals and struggling to defend - that is all fundamental stuff that any manager should be addressing. Pardew seemingly isn't, which is totally unforgivable. Add to that the fact that we haven't scored a goal from a set piece for about 2 years, we haven't won a game after going behind for about 2 years and our world class striker who could do no wrong last season now looks like he wants to top himself every time he's on the pitch, and it points to a pretty serious set of circumstances. I hope i'm wrong but I can't see Pardew turning it round. There are just too many individual problems contributing to this mess and he doesn't seem to have the answer to any of them.

Fuck this, I'm off to watch Jungle Gold.

To be fair though, they don't continually invite pressure onto themselves by playing hit and hope balls to the opposition defenders - they pass the ball on the deck and retain possession. For me, every player in a Premier League team should be having an impact on most games, either offensively or defensively but preferably both. Simpson doesn't have an impact on any game unless he makes a goal line clearance - he is one of the most anonymous players i've seen. Modern top-level fullbacks have so much more to their game than Simmo - look at Rafael, Clichy, Kolarov, Kyle Walker, Baines, Richards etc etc. The gulf in quality and technique is absolutely massive He has an impact by knowing things like where he's supposed to stand, which is very important as a defender. Kyle Walker strikes a ball well and runs fast but defensively he's an utter mug. Who would you rather have between Simpson and Walker?

To be fair though, they don't continually invite pressure onto themselves by playing hit and hope balls to the opposition defenders - they pass the ball on the deck and retain possession. For me, every player in a Premier League team should be having an impact on most games, either offensively or defensively but preferably both. Simpson doesn't have an impact on any game unless he makes a goal line clearance - he is one of the most anonymous players i've seen. Modern top-level fullbacks have so much more to their game than Simmo - look at Rafael, Clichy, Kolarov, Kyle Walker, Baines, Richards etc etc. The gulf in quality and technique is absolutely massive

Can't wait for the day that this toilet doesn't play for us any more.

Bit more worrying that he sees Obertan as a potential solution for something. We went on an amazing run from the start of last season with Obertan playing right wing and Hatem on the bench. I'm not for a minute suggesting that we drop Hatem but moving him inside and adding Obertan's pace and directness might not be the worst idea. I've got a pretty short memory myself, but why do people keep coming back to the idea of Obertan? He's been under par/s**** for the most part, especially in Premier League. For me it's because he would offer and outlet and provide some well-needed pace and movement to the side, no end product mind, but pace and movement. I think Ben Arfa is wasted out there because he spends half the time tracking back, which means his runs always start from deep. If we moved him inside to just behind a lone striker he'd be more of an attacking threat, but in order to do that we need to stick someone else on the right - Obertan seems like the best option at the moment Sounds fair enough tbf, but when he's on the pitch you just want him off again. It's time and time again, and I just can't be bothered anymore. I wouldn't be averse to seeing Marveaux out there instead but he's looked pretty shite so far this season - at least Obertan has looked a threat at times in Europe

Bit more worrying that he sees Obertan as a potential solution for something. We went on an amazing run from the start of last season with Obertan playing right wing and Hatem on the bench. I'm not for a minute suggesting that we drop Hatem but moving him inside and adding Obertan's pace and directness might not be the worst idea. I've got a pretty short memory myself, but why do people keep coming back to the idea of Obertan? He's been under par/s**** for the most part, especially in Premier League. For me it's because he would offer and outlet and provide some well-needed pace and movement to the side, no end product mind, but pace and movement. I think Ben Arfa is wasted out there because he spends half the time tracking back, which means his runs always start from deep. If we moved him inside to just behind a lone striker he'd be more of an attacking threat, but in order to do that we need to stick someone else on the right - Obertan seems like the best option at the moment

Bit more worrying that he sees Obertan as a potential solution for something. We went on an amazing run from the start of last season with Obertan playing right wing and Hatem on the bench. I'm not for a minute suggesting that we drop Hatem but moving him inside and adding Obertan's pace and directness might not be the worst idea.

My brother broke his leg tripping off a curb and didn't realise for 3 days, only when he went and tripped off another curb and made it worse, before he went to the hospital. Clumsy fucker!

Surely that can't be true, he's only played about 5 times - that would be the shittest clause ever written into a footballer's contract

Dougie Freedman confirmed as #bwfc boss. DF said Wilfried Zaha could do better than #nufc . Let's see if Zaha ends up at the Reebok. Not exactly a rumour but....

To be fair to them, Belgium do have a shit hot team. I take your point though

One of my 'buddies' is from bumfuck nowhere Pennsylvania, supports the Yankees in MLB, Patriots in NFL, and ManU. Today on FB he goes "We should sign Hummels." f***ing chafes my balls, epitome of a bandwagon fan. Like he feels ManU are entitled to sign someone mint whenever they want. They're also the worst losers i've ever come across. Bunch of cliche spouting, dummy spitting fanny wipes. Makes me think that's why they support ManUre in the first place - they can't deal with losing so they support a team that's likely to win more often than not, rather than supporting a team they have an actual affiliation with. I've lost count of the number of true arsehole ManUre fans i've met.

This pretty much sums up the situation perfectly.

Commentator made some comment about Pardew saying Colo and Williamson are our strongest CB partnership. Anyone else hear this?

I still can't believe the turnaround in this guy. He was so woefully out of his depth in his first season here. Credit has to be given to both Perch himself and Pardew for his improvement.

Someone might want to tell Old Bacon Face - he keeps leaving him on the bench

He looks like a proper unit in the latest training photos. Fuck knows what he's been eating