Great, I look forward to the new attempt at playing passing football this season. My view is though it's one thing talking about it, but another knowing how to implement it. For some managers it comes naturally, like Dario Gradi who was (is?) at Crewe, Martinez and Keegan. Pardew is a long ball man, and when the pressure comes it's what he'll revert to when the heat is on IMO. We'll see.
But we have played passing football under Pardew before, it seems logical to suggest he knows how. He didn't revert to long ball when the heat was on last year either. Happy Face posted on here that post-January, there were 14 teams that played more long balls a game than us iirc. I don't dispute that he didn't revert to defensive football though.
We don't have enough posession to out long ball the long ball teams.