AlanSkÃrare

I don't like how he is suddenly pointing to facts and circumstances are blatantly untrue in his post-match interview. As some have stated, we could hardly be tired from the EL game as barely anyone remotely important played in that game. Secondly, "about time we got a break"? At Everton, they scored two perfectly good goals that were disallowed. At Reading, Demba scored with his hand to give us a point. We've had more "breaks" than most teams this season, especially in terms of direct impact on results.

I think we might be going for Sissoko. I have no idea why. Where does that leave Anita? I'd much rather we focused on getting defenders in.

Don't know why people are turning on Jonas. Fully agree his days as a winger are a something of the past, but he's decent at keeping the ball moving and still wins us times by transporting the ball and winning free kicks. By no means was he one of our worst performers yesterday, he's never been a good full-back so I have no idea why he was put there for the last 30 mins.

Everton 2nd half Sunderland 1st half Are the only games where we can say we've played well! The rest, if judging on last season, has been average at best and awful at worst I think we played well against Bordeaux and put in a decent performance at Man Utd in the cup. The first team however has only managed one good half which was indeed at Everton.

Don't think he "struggled massively" against him yesterday. When they won at SJP last season Colo was famously "left for dead" and Long did the occasional attempt at repeating that yesterday. Still think Lukaku unsettled us more than any striker has been able to do so far this season.

Playing wise and in terms of settling into some sort of rythm, I think they are miles ahead of us. We have no concept, just randomly grinding out results and relying heavily on individual brilliance from Ben Arfa, Coloccini, Krul and Ba so far. I would have though Pardew waited until he had the "right" players available before trying to implement the system he alledgedly wants to play. Apparently, he's resorting to an even more direct football but using the formation he had in mind. Starting Shola at RW yesterday was complete madness and such an undetermined move from him. Going three up front but still using players more suited to the long ball game is a recipe for disaster. He seems undecided. I think Cissé on his own up fron will prompt us passing the ball better. We simply can't keep lunging balls forward to Cissé. If that's the plan he'll surely go Shola instead. Then we have a real problem.

The one good thing so far is that this season hasn't completley gone yet with us having 13 points on board. Also, we haven't really fucked up any game that we SHOULD win on paper other than Aston Villa at SJP and perhaps at Reading. Add to that a good win over Spurs that not many teams will claim this season. I do also have some sort of faith in Pardew to sort things out. We've seen him do it before. It's about installing confidence in his players and encouraging them to to what they do best. We keep referring to that period during March/April when we played some of the best football I've seen us play. The same players and the same manager are all still here. It is more than anything down to Pardew. Maybe the injury to Demba will turn out to be one of those famous blessings in disguise. I love Demba and think the world of him, but Pardew has an unhealthy view of how to use him. Papiss is lethal as hell playing in the CF position. If we support him properly with two wingers and a dynamic midfield, I think we'll see an upturn in performances.

I think our best performance under Pardew was Stoke at home last season. That's what I want to see. Pure entertainment and a team playing to it's strengths.

Gerarrd to have a stormer as usual. We have to show something very different to get anything.

Mulumbu looked class as usual. So bored of us. Every week is the same. No concept or idea at all. If Pardew wanted the flexible dynamic of 433 then Shola on the right was one of the worst decisions I've seen a Newcastle manager make. Sounessesque ffs.

All Hatem that

Unbelievable

The lack of quality and belief today has been as appalling as anything.

Comedy today. Lacks an idea about how he wants us to play.

Definitely. We've got nothing here. Miles apart the different parts of the team. Getting worried about Pardew now.

433 again then. 3rd formation of the day.

Why is it so immensely difficult to find any coherent performance level and figure out how not to put ourselves through this? The players are there!

This is turning the wrong way. Need to change thugs up as usual. Shoal needs to come off, awful for their goal.

Get Shola off fairly soon please

Ben Arfa and Santon has looked like one hell of a wing this half. Jonas is so much better in the middle

This set up he's gone for today, it's really saddening more than anything. There's just no ambition to play it on the deck and be "fluid", as he so elegantly puts it all the time. There's just one simple plan involving route 1 to Shola and Ba. Like Wullie said in the pre-match thread: the gameplan is poor to a degree that's forced him to bench one of Europe's best finishers. Can't get my head around what he's hoping to achieve with this sort of football.

This.

So Cissé isn't the problem, Pardew is just a straight believer in 4-4-2 and direct football.

Fucking shit lineup

Your line-up is what we really should be looking to field today.