Shak

Says it all that I wasn't bothered to stay up and watch it, there's no excitement in watching us play at all this year. Best case scenario is generally a lucky three points after a disjointed performance, but we're a fucking chore to watch at the best of times. I'm appreciative of the good things Pardew has done but I'm finding it difficult not to really lay into him right now. The fact that this group of players have shown they can play good football if set up to do so yet he insists on his shit, negative approach to games makes it hard to have any sympathy for him. He's looking more and more like a coward, afraid of getting the odd thumping by allowing his players to go out and express themselves, it's so disappointing. Still giving him a bit more time to get his shit together, but honestly I don't know if I expect him to do so.

We all make mistakes Dave, don't beat yourself up about it.

http://thesecularity.com/download/file.php?id=721&t=1

Can't remember who exactly, but one of them was in fucking acres of space for that, just Cabaye's cross was fucking shite.

I'm guessing this may have a lot to do with why we're not seeing him. Gonna be very hard for him to break into the first team and make an impression if his mind isn't fully focused on football, would make sense for Pardew to keep him out of the firing line until his head is in the right place for it.

I love the smell of victory in the morning.

What an absolute pile of fucking bullshit. Jammy fucking shit goal and a pathetic sending off, what a miserable season it's been so far.

Would appear that Stu and I shall be watching this together in a pub in Melbourne. I'm gonna start shouting anti-Ashley abuse at the screen if we're losing, see how he takes it.

Krul Simpson Colo Taylor Santon Tiote Cabaye Jonas Ben Arfa Ci(Ba)sse Is how I expect us to line up by the way, same as usual. Looks so tasty on paper, hopefully we'll play some great stuff like we have been doing with it all year.

This might just end up being the worst game of football the world has ever seen. Would take a point right now, no fucking doubt about it.

Losing to Man U is never the end of the world. The fact that the game was over after 15 minutes has to be alarming though. Had they really wanted blood I reckon they could have absolutely hammered us yesterday. Wouldn´t hold my breath. Been saying that all season. Luckily the Mackems have been fairly shit themselves this season, agree that I'm not too hopeful that Pardew has learned a great deal. He seemed to be attributing it to Man U being amazing yesterday rather than us being shit again, but we'll see.

Gonna be a real pity for him if he persists with this 4-4-2 rubbish and we struggle this year. The fans will start to get on his back and, to be quite honest, I'll find it hard to have much sympathy for him. He found a system last year that had us producing fluid, entertaining football and winning games while doing it. This year he's dumped it in favour of playing a narrow, defensive, long ball system and we've been brutal to watch as a result and quite frankly are lucky to have as many points as we do this year. He continues to talk a good game but the fans aren't stupid and his words are going to carry less and less weight each week while the performances continue to be as bad as they've been. Needs to sort his shit out, to be quite frank. Another shit performance and a loss against the Mackems and there'll be the first real murmurs of discontent amongst the fan base. That'll be a bit harsh on him given how well he did last year, but as I said any fucking idiot can see how shit his tactics have been this year and as long as he persists with them it'll be hard to have much sympathy for him.

Another rubbish performance tbh, game was over after 15 minutes and Man U just cruised their way through it. Kind of result that's been coming this season tbh, hopefully it serves as a wake up call before the game against the Mackems.

Don't think there's any way Pardew will drop Jonas, which is unfortunate if we're staying with a 4-4-2 because he's absolutely finished as an offensive force out wide. Would love to see Ferguson get a few games on the left wing for the first team. Another option would be Ferguson at left back and Jonas LW. Ferguson overlapping down the left giving us width and Jonas helping to protect Ferguson defensively. Hope to see plenty of him in the coming months in any case, he's at that age where he really needs to start breaking through and as others have said he's impressed pretty much every time he's gotten a chance in the first team.

Kick off is at 5am for me.

It's not even close.

I still can't believe they don't allow the physios on the field to treat an injury without stopping play. It would immediately get rid of this bullshit where players feign injury to stop a counter attack. Must happen a couple of times a game on average and has been doing so for years and yet still nothing is done about it.

Very good idea btw and there's not a single good reason not to implement from what I've seen. There are other, much more obvious changes, that should have been made ages ago though so I wouldn't hold my breath on this one.

Because in a regular game the ball is only actually in play for around 30 minutes a half. Under "real time" rules the clock would be stopped every time a free kick is awarded or the ball goes out for a goal kick/corner, which isn't the case now.

Krul Anita Taylor Colo Santon Tiote Jonas Ben Arfa Cabaye Ba Cisse Would be my best eleven right now. Maybe switch the fullbacks, i'm in the camp that believes Santon's best suited to RB long term. Right now I'd be looking to move Ba to the striker role and give Ferguson a go on the left.

I think expecting Colo to solve our problems in terms of building play from the back is very optimistic. Until our movement off the ball improves dramatically we're going to resort to long, hopeful balls a lot during games. The wingers are the only players in our team that venture from their base position at all. We need Cisse and Ba to start drifting into wider areas and finding space to receive the ball there and in turn create space for our midfielders to run into. We also really need to allow one of our central midfield players to play in much more advanced positions than they currently do, at the moment we're essentially playing with two holding midfielders which means that only really Ben Arfa gets in positions to link midfield to attack. Unfortunately by drifting inside to do that we then lose all our width as neither Cisse or Ba are pulling wide to create space. Our fullbacks offer little in terms of width either, our formation in possession yesterday was essentially this. Harper Taylor Williamson Perch Bigirimana Tiote Santon Jonas Ben Arfa Ba Cisse

I really don't think the results are what's worrying people. If we'd been playing better football and getting the same results the vibe would be much better. It just doesn't seem like we have any sort of plan in regards to how we're attacking teams, and the fact that we keep going out with the same ineffective approach game after game suggests that our manager either doesn't see the problem or else doesn't know how to fix it. Either way, it's a concern.

http://images.icnetwork.co.uk/upl/nechronical/jun2012/0/1/newcastle-united-s-french-midfield-duo-gabriel-obertan-and-sylvain-marveaux-279035752.jpg Obertan right and Ben Arfa left would be an improvement IMO. Obertan at least offers some width.