Dr Venkman

Cool, I'll just watch the rest of the Man U match then

How much are we left with once we've replaced Tiote?

Already has.

So, so boring man.

Danny Graham just walks past him in the build up to their second goal while Tiote stares at the ball, unacceptable.

you needed that to give you a clue? thats what we did all last season. just because we finish 5th people seem to have develop this new romantic experience of us playing great football last season. we didnt! it was the same, play safe play deep and launch it long. only difference is it worked last season, this season it hasnt. what are you on about?

It's worrying if he genuinely thought Tiote would rectify any of the problems from last week, like. It was just nonsense, either he's not seeing the problems or he's too up his arse to admit we have them, it was a genuine question from a local journalist who's seen us playing poorly and wanted an answer for the fans, which we deserve, and he just fobbed him off with that shite, it's Souness territory.

It's the stuff I've been talking about for aaaaages mate, the default pattern of play should be to pass and move so when we are under pressure we can keep the ball and possibly create openings. The default pattern of play though is 'stay in your positions and stop the other team scoring, the rest will look after itself'. Pardew will think that we've lost that game because we lost our shape and conceded two on the break, I doubt it'll even enter his thinking that had we attacked the away team with the players at our disposal we could've actively won the game rather than passively losing it.

Do you remember his post match interview last week? The interviewer asked him how he was planning to get us back up to speed again and his response was 'we've got a game at home next week and we'll have Tiote back'. It was fucking laughable.

Starting to genuinely fear him sacking us off now, he's too good for this team under this manager.

This is from a post I made in March, last season: Please ignore the bit about the squad being improved over the summer

We are looking a bit like that team from 08-09 at the moment tbh. Shambolic at the back and clueless up front, despite the potential. We're shite, and we can't attack a team at all, but we WILL be better with our first 11 out, or close to it.

Those worried about relegation fights just need to calm down, once injuries and suspensions clear up we'll be better than we are now. Having said that, Pardew's a bit of a con man isn't he? Our default pattern of play has been either 'kick it long to Ba' or 'pass it to Hatem' for two seasons now. Last season the results, the solidity in defence and the lack of injuries really tided us over, but fuck me are we poor, and that all comes from Pardew.

I don't really understand this post, it's 45 mins of football for two young inexperienced attacking players playing in a team with no attacking game plan or cohesion, give them a chance.

We looked ok there, got caught on the break far far to many times though. We've been much better than last week but our attacking plan is still limited to 'pass it to Hatem, watch him score'. We can't just rely on individual brilliance to get results and it's been a mainstay tactic in Pardew's time here. We never work our way up the pitch as a team, it's still much too rigid.

We're gonna get caught on the break aren't we.

Tiote's made two crucial tackles already

Because the NUFC official twitter said it was four four two? Because the NUFC official twit is allowed into team tactic meetings? You don't know who runs the account, it could be Pardew for all you know, i don't recall it ever being wrong until the west brom game. It's the clubs PR lass who runs the account, the only way she knows the formation is if Pardew talks in his sleep. I thought it was odd when the twitter account started naming the formation pre game but like I say I can only remember it being incorrect once.

Because the NUFC official twitter said it was four four two? Because the NUFC official twit is allowed into team tactic meetings? You don't know who runs the account, it could be Pardew for all you know, i don't recall it ever being wrong until the west brom game.

Strikes me that it's to do with regulations, we were within our rights to stop him playing in the Olympics and they appear to be within their rights to invoke this 5 day rule thing.

Official club twitter said 4-4-2 but it was wrong in the build up to West Brom

Happy with the team, the way we approach the game is much more important today though.

Can't see how you can blame the club for this, a shambles would be letting him go and play injured and for him to properly knack himself, they've just got a chip on their shoulder after the Olympics.

Where are the starting line ups!?