Parky

Agreed here. Players need to take some blame too. Cabaye is nowhere near as good as what some people make him to be. Except he is. Cabaye is very good. Even the best central midfielders in the world would look dejected playing for this team at the moment. This team isn't as good as many say. Don't agree this is top 6-7 team on paper in anybodies reckoning. It just has no attacking routines or interplays drilled into it.

Looking at their former clubs Tiote is a holding mf. Sissoko and Cabaye should be ahead of him and then a three out of Hatem, Guoffran, Marv and Cisse. I would leave Guti and Santon out for the rest of the season. Both seem they've had enough this year.

I don't really know who plays where anymore, it's become a kind of mind fuck figuring out what's going on....Sometimes the right back is so far ahead of the whole midfield he might as well run all the way back with the ball.... Guti was playing BEHIND Haidara the other day (pards finally admitting the former can't cross with his left). Sissoko a former holding mf/cm is playing as a support striker...Subs come on and play in front of fullbacks..Anita played a few games where Sissoko is now (running around a lot - playing through balls) now he's out of favour..Cabaye might as well play as a sweeper...It's all wrong. Should just sit down and ask them where they want to play... We don't break as a team.

All what we're on about Ba and Canaye were moaning about in France a few months ago. Lost in translation my arse.

They both look lost - like they've not a clue where they're meant to play - Sissoko especially. There's always the bit someone runs forward with the ball - Marv or Siss and then they look up......

I'd take Sacha Baron Cohen right now...

Well we would all just be looking at the screen with no words on it.

We'd be playing football anyway, rather than a turn based strategy game on a Celeron.

He's top notch. I really rate him. Might have got a bit jaded but a new challenge in the PL would suit him.

Said this would happen. The incubation period of the pardavirus is about 6 weeks.

You can see for Pardew football is all about energy levels, organisation and staying compact. Lamentable. This is getting to the point where it's truly sad.

Someone.

I don't see enough clipboards in the dugout always a bad sign.

Yanga should be bringing the ball out...He used to do it all the time...When he does Cabaye and 3/4 should be ahead of him/options. What we have instead of Crabaye picking the ball up almost from the keeper and trying to hit one or two players around the half way line with Cisse with 2/3 def around him snacking on energy bars. It's a hopeless state of affairs.

What? We weren't clinical in front of goal and they were. What tactics would you have employed chris? I watched Barcelona in the CL semis, wanting to see how a good team sets itself up. Now I know we don't have the players Barca do, but Sunderland are not exactly PSG either and the aim is the same either way, or should be: Try to score goals. So anyway, EVERY time Barcelona attacked, they had six men ahead of or trying to get ahead of the ball. Normally at least 2 or 3 in the box increasing as they get close to the opposition goal. Contrast that to us. We attack with Cisse, Sissoko and Goufran. Everyone else sits back for the majority of the time. We don't need 2 holding midfielders ffs. That's crazy. We need 1. Cabaye is completely hamstrung by playing there, he should be further up. We play to deep. We defend the edge of the box, sometimes inside of it. That invites pressure on us. We should be pushing the back 4 higher up which in turn pushes the midfielders closer to the attackers and gives the opposition less space to play in. Yes, that means teams can play in behind us but we're over-cautious to the point of stupidity. We need to spend less time worrying about the opposition and more time making them worry about us. Perversely, that will almost certainly mean we concede FEWER goals as we'll not be on the back foot all the time. We never attack with more than 3 players unless a full back has overlapped. It's my main bugbear. Defending sides just find it too easy to nullify that kind of static - safety first approach. And Cisse is usally by himself with two or 3 players around him. He's normall ahead of those three players tbf.

One thing DiCanio said about 10 days ago and the first fix was their habit of sitting deep (MON). When we did push them back he was jumping and fuming on the touchline getting them to step up the park.

What? We weren't clinical in front of goal and they were. What tactics would you have employed chris? I watched Barcelona in the CL semis, wanting to see how a good team sets itself up. Now I know we don't have the players Barca do, but Sunderland are not exactly PSG either and the aim is the same either way, or should be: Try to score goals. So anyway, EVERY time Barcelona attacked, they had six men ahead of or trying to get ahead of the ball. Normally at least 2 or 3 in the box increasing as they get close to the opposition goal. Contrast that to us. We attack with Cisse, Sissoko and Goufran. Everyone else sits back for the majority of the time. We don't need 2 holding midfielders ffs. That's crazy. We need 1. Cabaye is completely hamstrung by playing there, he should be further up. We play to deep. We defend the edge of the box, sometimes inside of it. That invites pressure on us. We should be pushing the back 4 higher up which in turn pushes the midfielders closer to the attackers and gives the opposition less space to play in. Yes, that means teams can play in behind us but we're over-cautious to the point of stupidity. We need to spend less time worrying about the opposition and more time making them worry about us. Perversely, that will almost certainly mean we concede FEWER goals as we'll not be on the back foot all the time. We never attack with more than 3 players unless a full back has overlapped. It's my main bugbear. Defending sides just find it too easy to nullify that kind of static - safety first approach.

Crabaye might as well play as a sweeper he's that deep.

Everyone sits too deep.

We were a bit tired from Thu. [/Pardnoclue]

Why does Crabaye have to get the ball from the defenders? Pards has turned him into Ray Wilkins.

We sit too deep. When we finally started playing first 30min of the second half there was always a chance of a couter attack goal and game over. Cisse goal was onside and if that had stood would have been a different game.

Out thought, outplayed and finally out of luck.

Jonas has been awful.