tmonkey

3-1 win. 2-0 to us at half time, goals coming from a scrappy knockdown and a thunderbastard from Cabaye or Remy. Stoke come out in the second looking the better team, scoring a goal and threatening to turn the game around, but Hatem comes off the bench and we grab a goal from somewhere.

ManU - Cabaye scores a deflected goal where the bounce from the deflection beats the keeper. Southampton - Gouffran scored a goal after a ridiculously sliced clearance from the centreback gives him an easy finish. Crystal Palace - another deflected goal from Cabaye, pretty much the same as against ManU, and then an own goal to finish the opposition off (no chance they were coming back from 2-0). A few weeks ago prior to the ManU game there was a discussion on here how in some of our eyes Pardew is arguably the luckiest manager in the league. Given the responses from some of those who disagreed at the time on the basis that luck involves things like deflections, surely this latest run of games pretty much should have changed a few minds at least? FWIW we deserved the win as we were the vastly superior team and were unlucky to not score more, and I liked his positive substitutions. However it still feels like we're in a purple patch at the moment and that we're getting the rub of the green (maybe not so much against Palace as we should have scored more anyway), hence why I'm hesitant to wax lyrical about our recent form under Pardew. Furthermore, I still don't think the way we're playing at the moment is getting the best out of our players, even if the results suggest otherwise at this point in time.

Good player, nothing more for me. Was at his best between 98 and 2000, sticking to the wing in line with the opposition defence when possible, getting great crosses in, always providing width to his team, and generally keeping it simple for someone with no real pace, dribbling ability or trickery. But his game went to pot as soon as he started to drift around the pitch like a Zidane wannabe trying to spray 60 yard balls over the top, getting crosses in from far too deep as a result (as he was no longer interested in playing as a more orthodox winger). I think his media reputation was primarily responsible for affecting this change in his playing style (i.e. playing up to the ego of being a global superstar despite not having the talents for playing that way). And when he turned into "Beckham Superstar", I thought he absolutely ruined the balance of whatever team he was in because he added no width and was strolling around in useless positions trying the aforementioned long balls which destroyed team harmony. As soon as Real Madrid signed him (based on reputation alone) as a replacement for Makelele of all people, I thought he'd ruin their side, and surprise surprise they didn't win shit for nearly 5 years. Stood out like a sore thumb in that side imo. I think the media whoring of him was annoying at times, an attempt at times to create a hero for the nation to get behind. HTT mentions the Greece game, the one where he was proclaimed by the media to have single-handedly saved England's World Cup campaign having played like a God, but to my eyes he pretty much did nothing except for chase the ball alot adding zero width to the side, and missed about 5 free kicks before getting 1 in at the end (against absolutely dire opposition and at what should have been a comfortable saving height if their keeper wasn't so crap). On top of this, all of the plaudits seemed to be completely overlooking the fact that had he not scored that free kick we'd have had a playoff against a piss poor Ukraine side and qualified anyway (Germany beat them by 5+ goals iirc in their qualifier) - if you're worried that you're not going to be able to beat Ukraine over 2 legs then why even bother with the World Cup? But back to Beckham, at that point of his career his game was very much all about playing for David Beckham the Superstar, hence why I think Sir Alex dropped him for Solskjaer long before any rumours of rows and flying boots came out (and I'm sure Beckham being unhappy started entirely because Sir Alex dropped him, justifiably so). Solskjaer, despite being out of position, stuck to the wing as high up as possible, added width to his team, and played it simple - things Beckham used to do before he let his reputation get to his head. The sad thing is that there are many people who don't follow football (and some who do) who will definitely remember Beckham long after they've forgotten about Giggs, Keane and Scholes, players who were absolutely light years ahead of David and infinitely better footballers even in their twilight years. If anything, I think even at his best (as that orthodox right winger) David was the weak link in that "dream team" midfield ManU had. Put a Luis Figo in there instead of David and we'd have been in wet dream team territory.

Given that the only alternative is Shola, we really have nothing to lose to try Ben Arfa in this number 10 role behind Remy for at least a month. Whilst we may not get the benefit of Ben Arfa picking the ball up deep on the right flank and skipping past 2 players, we do get him closer to the edge of the box where he's arguably one of the most dangerous players in the Premiership, and in theory it should utilise his underrated shooting abilities more. Whilst I'd agree that Hatem has looked lost/less effective in that area of the pitch the few times he has played there, and there is a significant possibility that he's just not mentally sharp enough to ever play in that role/area of the pitch effectively, I don't think the actual judgement (that he can't really play in that position/role based on past attempts) is fair given that he's randomly been thrown into that role for 45 minutes every 6 months or so. You can't just chop and change at will randomly, throw someone into an alien position, and still expect the team/players to perform as though they've been playing there their entire lives. It surely takes time to build up some understanding of the role, for teammates to know how to use the player, etc etc. Time he has never been afforded when far lesser players have. And I'm in no doubt that Pardew's preparations for these changes makes matters worse, i.e. if Hatem suddenly and randomly plays in the number 10 role one week, spending 4 days of the week working on defensive tactics isn't going to help the team as a whole to suddenly start utilising an entirely new role that they've not used before at all, in an area of the pitch where they've been coached by said manager to ignore (i.e. to get the ball into the strikers quickly as opposed to working the ball through the middle). Having said that, as we've passed the ball alot better this season compared to last, there should now be some scope for looking at Ben Arfa in the number 10 role just behind Remy, though I'm under no illusions that we'll still probably ask too much of Hatem because the movement and linkup play just isn't good enough. But again, with Shola as the alternative, what is there to lose?

Smashing goal.

Nasri is so fucking shit it's unreal.

Giroud

Goodbye to Ronald De Boer's forehead for another year.

Althetic track around the pitch and half the stadium empty. Typical.

Talk about extremism

Opened up far too easy there.

Kneejerk opinion time: Judging Swansea by the handful of games I've seen: Swansea have p*ss poor-to-average players who are simply coached exceptionally well in a style of play that makes them significantly greater than the sum of their parts. They play moderately attacking, penetrative, creative football with surprisingly smart linkup and quick, confident interchanging between the entire team, allowing complex team moves to build. Their points come from being effective as a team. Judging us by the past few years: We have average-to-good players who are coached exceptionally poorly in a style of play that makes us significantly less than the sum of our parts. We play dull, defensive, workman-like football with minimal linkup play and interchanging that is usually limited to two players passing it between themselves a couple of times at most, leading to very basic "team moves" that inevitably results in a hopeful, blind punt into the penalty box. Our points come from those good players capable of regularly putting in excellent performances here and there and a reliance on the opposition being consistently s***/wasteful in the final third.

Obermong

Better than going into half time 1-0 up.

Kudos to Pardew for finding a team that is grinding out results. 4 wins in a row in this division is always impressive no matter the circumstances in individual games. Me personally, I'm not happy with our performance despite the result (yet again). Thought we were poor in the first half (West Brom being worse), gradually improving, but then came out in the second half looking piss poor and unable to adjust to West Brom pushing players forward. To my eyes we barely created a clear cut chance in 90 minutes of football at home to a mediocre team, and were yet again reliant on hoping the opposition were piss poor in the final third, which West Brom duly were - it's almost like Pardew has found a method of rope-a-doping the opposition just about enough to nick a lead and then hold on. I think Sissoko's cracker came against the run of play with the momentum being with West Brom, hence the reason why I'm not happy with the performance - it's not sustainable over the long term imo and we should be doing alot more with the players we have (including those sitting on the bench). I'm sure the likes of Brett, Ian W, etc, were watching a completely different game (good attacking/creative football from us, solid defense, only one team going to win it, etc etc), but then that's part of what makes football such a great sport, i.e. the differing opinions on the same players, matches, managers, incidents, etc. In terms of Pardew himself and the bigger picture, firstly I don't think this method of playing is sustainable over the long term (e.g. beyond this season), secondly that we're wasting some premium talent (Ben Arfa, Anita, possibly Marveaux) by having a manager who just can't work with them, and thirdly even if it is (e.g. we finish top 5 again), we'll be back to struggling again as he clearly hates European campaigns. And I suspect the latter is because his only real gameplan is all about containment and nicking the lead, which inherently relies on high levels of workrate, fitness, preparation, concentration, etc - add in a lengthy European campaign and the stamina/distraction issues kick in. Which is a shame really, as perversely I think Pardew's tactics are more suited to European football given the benefits of taking a more conservative containment approach.

We shouldn't discount the possibility, no matter how small, that Shola may be a very late bloomer. 15+ years of playing like a retard to get to the stage where he understands how to play the game.

Holy shit.

Is Shane Long the striking equivalent of Ryan Taylor? I.e. always looking fucking class against us.

Same old story.

Nice ball from Sholadinho.

Thought that was an utterly dire first half from both sides. Zero real creativity in both teams.

Dat keeping

Class

Samaras needs a haircut. That hair must be impeding his vision.

Pardew is the luckiest manager in the country imo, by virtue of a number of factors, the biggest of which relates to his entire/only gameplan being built around getting the first goal - the "luck" element being that much of the time opposition teams/strikers have had the chance (or numerous chances) to take the lead or reverse ours but have frequently inexplicably failed to do so. "Luck" is always going to be subjective - for some people it'll be limited to something like a striker slicing wide a tap in from 2 yards out, for others (like me) it includes good chances being missed that at this level should be expected to be buried. I've said many a time that I've never seen a Premiership season before where so many opposition teams/strikers have missed chance after chance like they did in 2011/12. Even on Saturday I felt we were "lucky". Norwich had 3 damn good chances when we were 1-0 up, including one chance where one of their lads was clean through on goal and proceeded to punt the ball 20 yards over the bar. Much like the Spurs game, they should have made much more of at least some of those chances than they did - the fact that they didn't was entirely out of our hands and had nothing to do with us. To go back another game, if Terry's header had been placed 2 centimetres lower it would have gone in off the bar - why it didn't was nothing to do with us. Again, going back to the subjective definition of luck within this sport, for me we were lucky in that game, especially given that we had no intention of really "playing football". And these are examples all from the last 3 games... Of course anyone could argue that we could/should have scored here and there too, as obviously the "luck" element applies both ways, and whilst that would hold true for the Noriwch game and other games where e.g. Cisse has sliced something wide from 6 yards out, to my mind we've had an unreal number of games where that hasn't been the case, i.e. games where we've taken the solitary 1 or 2 chances that have come our way whilst the opposition proceeded to miss all of theirs (on top of being comfortably the superior "footballing" side whilst we've played aimless hoofball garbage for the most part). There are other factors where I think he's lucky - he's lucky to be at this club (or in the Premiership for that matter) given that he was an unemployed League One failure who noone else in the top tiers would have touched with a barge pole because of his track record of failure and horrendous football that his teams played (recently worked with a Charlton fan who thoroughly dislikes Pardew and described him as a "long ball manager and nothing else" during his time there). He's also lucky to have Graham Carr scouting some of the best French talent available to anyone outside of the CL clique, providing him with some gifted players that I severely doubt he'd have ever wanted to sign had he been in full control of transfers - not much evidence for this other than being based on whatever snippets we've had from the club, so that last point is admittedly debatable. He's lucky that he wasn't sacked last year when he nearly butchered this squad of talented footballers to relegation with his negative tactics/defeatist mentality. He's lucky Jose Boswinga decided to gift us 2 goals in a must win game which probably killed off all hope for Wigan Athletic (maybe it would've made no difference, noone will know though). He's also lucky that for a variety of reasons the media never really picked up on his caveman approach to the game (until very recently that is, when by coincidence we've had 2 great results immediately killing off the criticism). So yeah, I do think it's reasonable to argue that after a year's sabbatical Mr Souness' Lady Luck has shown up at Pardew's bedroom door ready for a serious, committed relationship.