Dr Venkman

If Pardew was anywhere near 'striving' to play football we'd be implementing it on the training ground. Have you seen anything to suggest we are?

If a player doesn't do what he's told you don't play them and if it wasn't down to the manager, why did Ben Arfa, Ba and Cabaye who regularly attend training think it was down to the manager? Who do you play there instead ? Is it Pardews fault we have no one to play instead of Williamson, we have tried Perch, Raylor, Tavernier and Simpson there, none of them have made any improvement. Your reply would be valid if Pardew persisted with these players whilst keeping Debuchy and Taylor on the bench and lets be honest Taylor is still not the answer. Do you have any idea how Poyet managed to get Brighton playing passing football despite having footballers who are Championship standard? They're a highly inconsistent championship side, and have been for the duration of Poyet's tenure - I think you're barking up the wrong tree with him. I agree we need a manager with the attributes you've quoted, but you've based your opinion on two games against us as opposed to his managerial record in full. I have to agree with Mick's earlier post, think that really hit the nail on the head re our predicament. I'm quickly reaching breaking point, and have completely lost any enthusiasm for this season. The QPR game was one of the worst matches I've ever been to, and that's been followed by one of the most embarrassing performances I've ever witnessed yesterday. Also, the inevitably of the Everton loss was so galling its untrue - I really don't think Pardew has an idea what he's doing. Look at the majority of managers of teams in the bottom half. Most of them have players who wouldn't get into our teams, yet they are able to perform in the premier league due to an understanding of the system and philosophy that their manager is employing. They seem to have a style fundamentally understood, and players know what they are doing. The majority of footballers are simple beasts and are able to play to their maximum if they understand what is being asked of them. Look at Wigan, most of their players are individually poor and wouldn't get anywhere near our team. However, they all seem to understand what they're doing and play some terrific football at times. Imagine what somebody like Martinez could do with our team? Similarly look at West Ham, Norwich and Fulham - they just look better organised than we do and appear to have a system that all of the players understand. Our lot look like they've never met each other before and that's the fault of the coaching staff. The injury excuse is bollocks for me, because they've looked like that for the duration of pardew's stewardship with the exception of 6/7 games from the end of last season. Ideally I'd want to replace him, but I share everyone's concerns about the club's ability to replace him with anyone other than some cunt like Kinnear

This, and I've been saying it since the beginning of last season.

Funnily enough that's the exact attitude many of us encountered in here when stating that we thought we should be playing more of a passing game last season. 'We can't possibly do that with Simpson in the side' is what we heard, completely ignoring that every other fucker was knocking it long as well.

Are there any die hard defenders of Pardew? All I see are people that either want him sacked or dont want him sacked purely because of who might replace him. It's fucking desperate this.

It looks bad watching the games, it has for considerable time.

I'm as sure of losing this as I was of Stoke away. Nailed on loss.

In our predicament would you really have risked "bigger" players today? We were playing against Brighton today. We shouldn't need bigger players. I can bet anything you like that the side we put out today was worth a lot more than theirs. Btw Brighton made 4 changes for today's game as well. In our predicament would you really have risked "bigger" players today? We were playing against Brighton today. We shouldn't need bigger players. I can bet anything you like that the side we put out today was worth a lot more than theirs. Btw Brighton made 4 changes for today's game as well. I'm not debating how well we played, I'm just saying that I personally agree with the team lineup we put out. Wouldn't have liked to risk the better players in our predicament. I'm in no way defending how that team played. They were woeful. Any discussion of lineup is smoke and mirrors. Generally, we've been awful for this entire season no matter who we've put on the pitch. That's the managers fault.

Even the ITV pundits have picked up on how disorganised we are. We just aren't a team in any respect, with or without the ball.

We're not causing them any problems, at all. I'm so bloody worried about the way our team is coached.

Very rarely wastes possession, he's exactly what we need in the team.

Massive respect for everyone who's travelled down for this, really hope the team don't let you down.

I'm sure he doesn't care one bit, by his own admission he's 'made it' now, all about cash.

There were loads of players being linked for fairly big money, a fair amount of 'good backup, we still need a couple more' talk. Not many were looking at him as the player he became for us tbf. I was one of them as I was concerned about his fitness, and to be fair he proved me wrong. I don't dislike him at all, though I've thought for a long time now that selling him might not be a disaster.

why not eh? superb signing

I would like him to be a bit more vocal at times, there's been plenty of occasions this season where our players have needed a proper bollocking and that's the captains job at times imo. Usually Tiote and Simpson like.

What? He wants to leave us to play for San Lorenzo? One of the best centre halves in the league? Aye right.

Well this is good news, if it goes through and we sign a centre back I'll be pretty close to believing that MA and DL have.......learned something.

Don't know how anyone could be friends with c***s like that. Worst of the worst. There is honestly nothing I hate more around football discussion than talking to people that know absolutely nothing about football, about football. We all debate on here and we all think we know best and so on, but there's mutual respect, because the bottom line is that we all love football and there's a baseline of knowledge about it that pretty much all of us have. Talking to people who will pontificate about knowing it all and coming out with the same 'but it's the players. Why are you blaming the manager? They're all paid enough to be able to kick a ball!!!' does my fucking head in and I'd rather they just didn't talk to me about football at all. This place ruined football conversation for me, I can only talk about it with my close mates now, anyone else and I feel exactly like this.

Sounds like it'll be a central striker from that. 4-4-2 and hoofing it is then. I think that's what he wants given his quotes about getting someone who can play with Cisse better than Ba could. At least we'll have Debuchy to provide some width?

It is going to be such a relief having a right back that can play football. As others have said it's going to benefit HBA massively.

f***ing embarrassing. Lost for words tbh. I am very surprised the media aren't focusing on this really. What are the club going to do if we have a bad January? go down

I don't necessarily agree that ALL of our good players will leave mind, it just never works out like that unless you go down. I haven't got any fears about us finding good new players anyway, we're great at that. If only MA and DL delegated the hiring of managers in such a successful system.

There's a great deal of complex thinking and preparation that goes into a match of professional football. Go read a book or something. Have you played? You can tell me to read all the books you like, pouring too much thought into other teams and their tactics and worrying about what they are going to do is not a good thing imo. Don't get me wrong, preparation is key. Vital in fact, but it has to be preparation to play to YOUR strengths. This is what I mean, it's a simple game it really is, don't spend days worrying about opposition. I agree. I think you've got to know the opposition, know how to exploit them and how to stifle them but do it in a positive, constructive manner which focuses on your own teams strengths. You've got to do both really, play to your strengths and stifle the opposition. You're teams "strengths" also don't exist in isolation, you need to analyze how they interact with the opposition's qualities so you can leverage them for maximum effect. Either way, in no way, shape, or form is top level football a "simple" game. That's honestly just something fans make up to slag off managers and players. good post

Which was the wrong decision, incidentally. Just like it was the wrong decision every other time he's done it. Shola in for Ba is one decision he's being criticised for amongst a whole host of other shit.