ATB

But has someone else bar Ben Arfa completed a dibble for us...?

It´s sad when you get exited when someone else besides of Willo gets the ball at a free kick or a corner :'( I agree though. If we can continue and do what we did last game, then maybe we will see some goals soon...

Because it's not in Pardew's nature to play a pass and move game. He's come from low profile teams where the long ball is used effectively to punch above their weight similar to Sam Allardyce. He does try and incorporate some passing, but it's mostly just impressive talk. It doesn't look like we practice it on the pitch at all, and under the slightest bit of pressure it's Shola up front and long balls to the big lads. He doesn't really believe in the passing game IMO, and looks unsure how to implement it. It looks to me that players like Cisse and Marveaux are getting stick on here when more than likely the style of football is more suited to the Sholas and Martin O Neill type of players. Agree with all of that. Pardew sticks to what he knows which is percentages. Players moving around or going forward too much and losing position in a passing movement worries him. Our players try as much as possible to hold thier zone and their core position and then reboot. This keeps the team profile solid and hard to score against (that's the theory anyway -MON - Allardyce and Moyes - but he's changed the last couple of seasons). I suspect he's been pawing at statistics too much which often don't tell the full picture. Often 3/4 touches may lead to a goal (like the kick from Krul goal on Sunday) and nobody has to have deserted their positon (Shola just moved in a bit). He looks at mistakes (goals conceded when there is a corner up the other end and the breakaway). Ironically these kinds of stats are the surface of the game but now with prozone and so on they have become the new gloss. Tbf to Pards he's a bit like an unpolished Mourinho who has had his fair shair of very static and defensive formations (remember how Chelsea used to lob it to Drogba a lot?) Just that a lot of Mou's overfocused research (see all his assistants and their number crunching - Clarke etc) is gilded with teams full of stars. P like Mourinho is only interested in winning football. Even now two sprinters wait on the half way line (Benzema and one other) while the whole team defends. P still really wants Carroll as the focus, that should tell you everything. What a bunch of tripe, Pards consistently produced attacking, creative football teams with much lesser sides. How on earth do you compare this to Allardyce? Is this the chalk and cheese thread? No... Besides, it´s not so weird that he may get lesser teams finishing above the quality of his squads. If you just play simple football and work hard you can get wonders (there are tons of examples of that) but in the long run that isn´t a type of football that will get you places. And most of all. It´s not a type of football that suites "footballers". It´s not weird that players like Raylor, perch, Best, Willo etc is playing good under him. It´s a simple football we play and they work hard on the pitch. I don´t understand the different between him and Allardyce and O´Neill that everyone despise.

Shouldn´t be a starter. Does nothing going forward, only slows down our attacks with keeping the ball until he lose it or get a free kick. Better in the center though, but shouldn´t be starting.

With Shola at the wing... only on the pitch because he is better than Cissé at flick ons. better than I thought it would be though.

Colo how is he doing that otherwise has HBA and Ba been fantastic. It´s all about individuality brilliance that makes it. Happy with a 4-3-3 and we playes better than I could hope fore. So fair enough. But Shola ahead of Cisse? Is he taking the piss

Never really seemed to be that big a problem for other teams. Particularly the Champions League regulars, who've had their domestic seasons interrupted on a consistent basis for the last twenty years. Nonsense from Pardew, tbh. Starting to throw away excuses isn´t going to help our season.

I´ve said it a long time now. Pardew isn´t good enough to coach a team to the top and that won´t chance. Yes, yes, superb last season. But that seems to be a one off (and that´s the Roeder comparison). And tbh, bar a few games last season, we have never played really well. As said. He is wasting good players for poor players with an easy tactics. He should be coaching a West Ham, Stoke, Sunderland, QPR etc. Not us. Good looking though.

The problem with our start of the season isn´t the formation per se, but the absolutely lack of movement. I even think Stoke is moving around the pitch better. This is a home game against a team we should win. We should be the team that puts pressure at them, not the other way around.

Hopefully he has start to understand that diving isn´t the solution.

Not if I have anything to say about it. Good luck with that!

Would rather see him than Jonas in this game. Still think a 4-3-3 is the best though (with the ball after the ground).

Obviously not come up against anyone playing 4-4-2 yet. Not our horrendous one anyway.

Yada Yada Yada. I believe it when I sees it.

wtf

I also agrees with the last posts. The only reason Tioté, and all of the other midfielders is banging it long, is because of lack of movement or direct orders from Pardew. Our players are standing so far away from each other it gets impossible to have a good passing game. I want the team to start to play more closer to each other, both in defense and in attacks. What has happened to Tioté I don´t know. The first season he definitely was one of the best midfielders in the league. He was a beast in the defense, never lost the ball, and always played it simple and was really good to keep the ball within the team and setting the tempo in games. Now he always tries to dribble with the ball in every departments, seems so frustrated all the time and, as said, always tries the long ball. I don´t think he´s that bad at them. But It´s always harder to play a long ball than a short one. I think the biggest problem, and that´s why Tioté is suffering, is the formations and tactics. Cabaye too always looks for the long ball.

Best crosser I have seen in the club since Robert/Solano - which was ages ago.

4-3-3 or Ferguson.

Some good performances. But as a team I though we was quite disappointing.

Don´t understand why he always runs into players really starts to be quite annoying.

Best game so far - really is spectacular! But still has a long way to go before he will really make it in the PL. Still have some problems with the decision making, me thinks.

I would give anything to not see Jonas in this game. So glad it´s going to be Saylor and Colo though!

Him and Pardew can take turns. Seems to be great coaches the first year.

tbh this is starting to look like the Roeder era. Superb first season that leaved us with an exiting summer and start of the new season. But instead of improving a already good playing side it got worse and worse. And it wasn´t even the tactics. The players looked unfit and got individually worse and worse. I´m not only questioning the tactics. I´m also starting to questioning the fitness and individually coaching. The players just don´t look up for it like last year. A lot of the seems unfit and a lot of them is individually playing poorly, the same syndrome as under Roeder. Maybe this is completely wrong. But this is what I feel and tbh I´m starting to think this is true. I just can´t understand how hard it is to get a good coach that will get you play some good football. If we won´t win the league anyway. Way can´t we just do it with good football like the last 10 games last season? I will never get over the fact that Pardew has gone from the 4-3-3 we played for this. He has definitely shown what kind of coach he is.

I can say this. It´s hard to be to critical when we was 10 men in 60 minutes. BUT we just have no structure in our game. Just hit it long and hard. I can´t see anything that suggest we will improve this season. We will have games when we play well, and we will take some good and surprising games. But more than often we will be no better than when Allardyce was here.