alexthegreat

There can't be many teams in the league worse at defending set pieces than Man United

This was the most glaringly obvious one - the same two subs around about the 70th min would have seen us through Marveaux and Anita together in a midfield 5 resulted in arguably the worst 45 mins of the season away at Everton, and they didn't look even look great at home to Maritimo. They'd get completely overpowered by Stoke.

Fair enough, missed that thread

No posts on this thread in a month and a half compared to more than 25 pages in "Pardew Out" suggests to me hes getting a much easier ride than you might expect.

Hes been getting a little bit of stick in the press for the complete lack of transfer dealings (as much as they ever dare criticize the NUFC board anyway). But strangely, as posters rush to slaughter Pardew, he seems to have completely escaped any stick on this site. Its quite a change from just a year ago. Perhaps people just don't see the point anymore. The first time he hung Pardew out to dry in the transfer market was selling Carroll. Looks a stroke of genius now, but only because Pardew coped admirably with probably our worst forward line in more than 20 years. It didn't look too clever at 4-0 down to Arsenal. The second time Pardew was shafted over transfers was when he promised everyone that he would get a full back and a striker "over the line" and they never materialised, meaning we still hadnt properly replaced Carroll despite having 9 months to do so, (or so it seemed at the time) and we also had the apparent nightmare of Taylor at full back to contend with. Pardew actually managed to excel in these circumstances. This summer it was a right back, centre back who is a threat at set pieces, and a possible punt on Andy Carroll that Pardew wanted. He didn't get them and this time he has been completely unable to handle it. If we'd got 2 of those three I think we'd be in a much better state. He would probably still have to deal with the catastrophic loss of form and fitness in the middle of the pitch, but I think we would probably have enough elsewhere to be ok. As it is, the only thing we did was replace Guthrie with Anita, at the moment this looks the closest thing I can think of to replacing Aaron Hughes with Boumsong (the sort of thing we just don't do anymore). I suppose you would still have to say that we've had 2 good windows under Ashley, but the last one was disastrous. I don't see why he is suddenly immune from criticism on here. Perhaps if he realises he cannot consistently ignore his manager then maybe this spell will do us some good in the long run. At the least I hope it makes him realise that we cannot persist with Mike Williamson at centre back (with Taylor's injury it looks like hes going to clock up 100 appearances for us)

Krul Simpson Williamson Coloccini Santon Obertan Tiote Anita Perch Jonas Ba I'd definitely start Obertan if hes fit.

Happy with that line up. From his comments during the week I think Pardew wants us to get back to the sort of graft that we showed in the first third of last season. If we win in the battle in the middle and get Ba and Cisse the ball near the goal a few times we should win - their defence looks hopeless. Big game for Anita today - needs to show he can do the job Guthrie did for us.

Just watched Larsson whip in a brilliant delivery from about the same position he was in when he crossed for their goal v us. Could we not try that at least once?

Main problem for me is the midfield. We weren't very creative last year either, but Ba was taking all his chances and we had Cabaye and Tiote consistently controlling games in the middle. The stats after every game would show that those 2 ran further than anyone else on the pitch. Jonas put some shifts in as well - and the start of last season was probably the best form hes shown for us. Even Obertan seemed to cover alot of ground, however ineffectively, and Guthrie was excellent as a stand in. We just haven't had that this year. Jonas, Cabaye and Tiote have been injured, out of form, or suspended for all of this season. The worrying thing is that we arent going to have Cabaye and Tiote in the middle together until February. Anita absolutely has to make the step up for us - if he could manage an extended run in the middle with Tiote it would help us immensely. I would try and get Jonas, Tiote, and Anita grafting away in midfield for 5 or 6 games in a row to try and get last seasons spirit back. At the moment losing Guthrie for nothing and bringing in Anita for 7m is beginning to look like replacing Aaron Hughes with Boumsong, something the much vaunted 'new system' was supposed to have eradicated. Its time to chuck him in, give him a run and see how he does.

A direct style naturally favours Cabaye, Cisse, Santon, Jonas, Tiote, Ben Arfa, Anita, Coloccini, Ba? The only one who suits a direct style is the manager. Of the 9 players you named 3 were not playing today. And I would Jonas, Tiote and Ba certainly suit a direct style of football. All 3 played when we overpowered Man United 11 months ago. I remember Santon was excellent in that match as well.

I remember looking forward to watching us play. I remember watch him re-develop and nurture a relegation squad. I remember feeling proud about the players and the mood around the club. I remember how he got better, and learnt from his mistakes - and I don't remember him hitting any glass ceiling in his growth as a manager. Oh. I can now also remember Hughton drawing level with us with f***ing Norwich's squad after 12 games, and in more entertaining fashion too. I remember that in 3 months after getting promoted Hughton lost at home to Blackburn, Stoke, and Blackpool and drew at home to Wigan and Fulham. Pardew has lost 8 home games in all competitions in nearly 2 years. Pardews having his first bad run in 2 years in the job. You would have to be absolutely stupid to swap them purely on the back of home defeats to West Ham and Swansea

4-2-4 for the whole second half and we still rarely threatened the goal. Formation has very little to do with that performance. The passing was utterly atrocious throughout. Ba, Krul, Ben Arfa, the Ameobis, Bigirmana when he came on, and of course Williamson. Ben Arfa's dribbiling is fantastic, but he too often lets himself down with a sloppy pass and I think only one of his shots was on target. That is not that unusual either. Doesn't matter which team we are playing, they know to stand off Williamson and just let him have it - the ball will soon be chipped straight to their centre half. As a result he touches the ball far more than any other player in the side. Barcelona have Xavi on the ball more than anyone, we have Williamson. The sad fact is, that while some bemoan our direct style, our real undoing comes when our overrated players start trying to pass the ball to each other. Theres quite a few things wrong with this side atm, but more than anything they are missing a real target man to help them play the direct style that naturally suits them. Pardew was right to try and sign Carroll in the summer.

the players he is widely believed to have wanted in the summer are exactly what we are missing: Andy Carroll (how we could have used him in the last 2 games) Debuchy - obvious improvement on Simpson A centre half who can get goals from set pieces(and presumably would be a better footballer than Williamson). If we had them and our central midfielders got settled and found some form we wouldn't look too bad imo. I think we absolutely have to buy in January.

Another classic Read more: http://www.readytogo.net/smb/showthread.php?p=13780518#post13780518#ixzz2BmDbld3U

Aaron Hughes was 33 years old today. Hes not far off the top 10 for all time Premier League appearances, and recently got a 2 year contract extension at Fulham. Rarely injured, never sent off in his career, yet sold at his peak for £1m. Hes ended up having a fine career, in spite of being managed by Souness.

There are quite a few teams with eastern sounding names, most of whom I have never heard of, who are currently in the top 2 in their group: Anzhi Makhachkala, Plzen, Dnipro, Videoton, Met'st Kharkiv, Rubin Kazan Meanwhile, the likes of Bilbao, Sporting, Twente, Eindhoven, Marseilles, and Udinese are all struggling. Is there a lot of money floating around Eastern European football at the moment? They are beating some famous names. Theres potential for some very long journeys in the knock out stages.

Makes more interesting comments than the average footballer: When I look back to my childhood, many concrete scenes come to my mind, good ones and bad ones. I had a difficult childhood, and even though I don’t live in my country at present, I’m well aware of what’s going on there and the devastating effect it’s having on our poorest children. I’ve always believed that our public actions need to take account of our social responsibility …” Javier Zanetti, 2001 Zanetti, along with his wife Paula, created the Fundación PUPI in an attempt to improve the social integration of poorer children via educational opportunities and better healthcare. Along with team-mate Esteban Cambiasso, he also co-founded Leoni di Potrero, a charity association to help coach young children with social isolation problems and motor coordination difficulties. And inbetween captaining Inter and Argentina, he also found the time to declare his support for the Zapatista guerrilla cause in Mexico. Zanetti organised a collection of over 5000 euros from Inter’s first-team squad via fining players for late arrival at training or use of mobile phones in the changing rooms. Following Mexican government forces attacks on the Zapatista stronghold of Zincantan in Chiapas, the club also donated an undisclosed sum of money to enable the rebels to rebuild a school, housing and a water pipeline. Zanetti also sent the following message to the Zapatistas: “… We believe in a better world, in an unglobalised world, enriched by cultural differences and customs of all the people. This is why we want to support you in this struggle to maintain your roots and fight for your ideals …”

Yep, that would be a good season for us. Whether it'd be enough to convince these players who apparently believe they could play for a top four side to stay at the club is another question, but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. The funny thing is that Pardew keeps going on about 4th as a genuine target and yet if any of the fans said the same they'd be shouted down as typically deluded and with unreasonable expectations etc. We signed one f***ing player for the first team in the summer, and he's featured in about half the games so far. That's not the actions of a team trying to improve on their league position and take one of the biggest steps forward possible. 4th. Win tomorrow and we will be 1 point behind 4th. May as well aim at it for now.

When his team is doing well hes one of the best players in it, when doing badly he can be one of the worst. Liverpool have been poor for nearly all of 2012 and from what I can gather Enrique has been too (on the occasions he actually plays). Think he needs a decent manager more than most players, something he has rarely had.

Liverpool in the 2nd half of last season: 18 points from 19 games First quarter of this season: 10 points from 9 games They have been pretty consistently shit for some time now. Last time we went there Dalglish actually wasn't doing too badly, they started to completely capitulate about a month after that. If we had both Tiote and Cabaye available and on form I'd be feeling very confident.

Even though hes a class above Ben Arfa?

Was exciting to see a Shola header on target from one of our corners. Unfortunately, shortly after that the best chance of the 1st half for Lukaku also came from one of our corners. The best set-piece related moment in ages was Colo absolutely launching himself at a cross in the penalty area in around the 86th minute. A bit more of that from our players please.

im not convinced. Whose is better? i remind you we finished 5th with that line up last season We never once had that line up out last season. These are the players Pardew used to finish 5th last season, in order of appearances: Krul 38 Jonas 37 Coloccini 35 Simpson 35 Cabaye 34 Ba 32 Tiote 24 RTaylor 23 Williamson 21 Santon 19 Obertan 18 Best 16 Ben Arfa 16 Guthrie 13 Cisse 13 Perch 13 Shola 8 Also Vuckic, Sammy, Ferguson, Lovenkrands, Barton, Smith, Marveaux, Gosling making no more than 2 starts apiece, and he even had Alan Smith on the pitch at one point (home v Fulham). And these are the players that AVB and Di Matteo finished below us with: Petr Čech Branislav Ivanović Ashley Cole David Luiz Michael Essien Oriol Romeu Ramires Frank Lampard Fernando Torres Juan Mata Didier Drogba Mikel John Obi Florent Malouda Raul Meireles José Bosingwa Romelu Lukaku Paulo Ferreira Salomon Kalou Daniel Sturridge Gary Cahill John Terry Ryan Bertrand We had absolutely no business being anywhere near teams like this, and with the total lack of meaningful transfer activity the same is true this season. Its not been said in this thread often enough recently that Pardew has shown himself to be a f***ing good manager. We have had charlatans and bluffers before and they have all been exposed and f***ed off within 2 years.

He would have started today IMO. Midfield is one of the biggest disappointments for me this season. Abeid, Marveaux, and Amalfitano appear to have disappeared completely. Vuckic out for the season. Jonas looks a shadow of what he was this time last year. Tiote has been utterly reckless and is now paying for it. Cabaye has been inconsistent. And our one major signing from Ajax cannot dislodge James Perch from the starting line up. Only Bigirimana has really exceeded expectations Theres not much doubt Guthrie would add something to that bunch.

Taylor instead of Williamson against Suarez. I'd start Sammy - deserves it for what hes done in the last 2 games imo. Pardew was starting him away at City this time last year and he looks to have come on since then. I'd like to see Anita in there as well unless he really isn't up to it - we rely far too much on Cabaye producing in midfield and hes been inconsistent so far. Didn't sound too positive about Ba. Krul Simpson Taylor Colo Santon Anita Cabaye Jonas HBA Cisse Sammy