Dr Venkman

Chron:

Yeah, and loads of thick supporters.

There's ten players there who can make us solid, and only HBA can't really tackle. Just set the front 4 loose when we're in possession and backed up with Tiote while Perch sits incase of the counter. I don't think Ba is nullified out there, he's pretty good at going past people and he'd be lethal cutting in and shooting, plus if HBA's got it on the right Ba can tuck in with Cisse.

Krul Simpson Williamson Colo Santon Tiote Perch Cabaye HBA Ba Cisse

Yep, particularly interesting is the bit where Llambias says the objective for next season is 8th or above.

i've finally made it into someone's sig, I knew if I talked shite for long enough I'd get some recognition

Relatively confident about this one, think we're certainly in with a shout of a draw which would be a good result. Ba's due a goal and HBA is n fine form, Cabaye looked better against Norwich, Tiote should be be back and Perch had his best game last time out. May even see all three in the middle.

As good as Rooney's shinned over-head... I'm not sure how much of the contact was his shin. Did look substantial on my skygo stream. sarcasm

I would add however that if he does make a shift towards a style that's more likely to keep us in the top 6 next season without solely relying on a 20 goal season from Ba or Cisse, that having gone through this season of being 'hard to beat' first and everything else second, we do have a chance of being very handy indeed. How often do you see a manager change his philosophy so drastically though? It could be argued Mancini did it to a certain extent last summer and went from defensive to attacking? We'll see, good job this season results wise though OBVIOUSLY.

My concerns with Pardew are simple, on what I've seen this season I'm not convinced he can get anywhere near the best out of a squad that will undoubtedly be improved over the summer due to his over riding negativity. Yes we've been positive and passed at times but the default tactic has always been contain and defend no matter who we're playing home or away. We currently have the best recruitment policy i can remember and I don't want it to be wasted on a manager that doesn't know how to utilise players who can pass and move.

get in, that's absolutely brilliant news.

You're lucky he just became a dad, look how short that post is!

In my experience the best 5 a side players are the fittest. Oh, right, sorry. I'll concede the point to your greater experience. I didn't say it was greater! Bitch.

In my experience the best 5 a side players are the fittest.

Don't agree with what was said, but I don't agree in arresting someone over it either. Simply removing him from Twitter would suffice. Yeah, and online fraud should result in a data limit.

Yeah, I just posted that because although we were better at passing out from the back with Saylor fit I distinctly remember being really concerned at our lack of ability to put a few passes together going forwards earlier in the season, then Ba started scoring every week and I forgot about it.

Were we really that much better a side? I posted this on 12/09/2011 following the draw at QPR

I'd agree with that on balance. It's the manager's job to try and instil and maintain that confidence though. Reverting to awful football isn't the answer. I agree. But I'm just trying to be balanced in my opinion. It was frustrating viewing yesterday. Initially I'd say it was the players fault for resorting to long ball / deep defending, but Pardew should have sorted it. What I'm getting at though, is that it was clear that our game plan was initially to try and play "proper" football, so I'm not on the "Pardew sets up to play long ball" bandwagon just yet. I think performances like Norwich and Arsenal highlight why we should be training in a way that encourages football based on passing and moving. We tried to do it at Arsenal and essentially got nowhere and we tried to do it yesterday but stopped after 15 minutes. If the players were doing it day in day out they wouldnt look so bloody clueless on the odd occasion that Pardew decides he wants us to pass it about a bit. How exactly do you know what we do in training? I know that we spend 4 days out of 5 on stopping the other team. I'm speculating that we don't spend much time if any working on passing and moving, because we don't do it on a match day. You actually KNOW that 4 days worth of training is spent purely on stopping the other team? Hmmmm... I highly doubt that (both the fact that you know it, and the fact itself) http://www.nufcblog.org/2011/11/carver-on-pardew-and-the-way-newcastle-run-their-week/#.T2cYHWJNuB9 Aye, I've read that before. That still in no way means that we don't also spend time on passing and movement, set pieces, and all round play in the 4 days. Riiiiiiight

Well, it is. But I thought that was obvious so assumed he was saying we can't comment on it based on watching games, which I think is completely potty.

Eh? We watch every single minute the team plays in competitive games man, it gives you a pretty good idea.

We've done it this season though, with the same players. We did it well for 15 minutes yesterday, I was really pleased. Then Williamson went a bit mad and they all reverted to type and stopped moving and looking for it. It's a point I've been making for a while, we did the same at the Emirates, started well and at the first sign of pressure reverted to lobbing it. If the players were being coached to pass it we wouldnt slip so easily back into surrendering possession as our main mode of play.

I'd agree with that on balance. It's the manager's job to try and instil and maintain that confidence though. Reverting to awful football isn't the answer. I agree. But I'm just trying to be balanced in my opinion. It was frustrating viewing yesterday. Initially I'd say it was the players fault for resorting to long ball / deep defending, but Pardew should have sorted it. What I'm getting at though, is that it was clear that our game plan was initially to try and play "proper" football, so I'm not on the "Pardew sets up to play long ball" bandwagon just yet. I think performances like Norwich and Arsenal highlight why we should be training in a way that encourages football based on passing and moving. We tried to do it at Arsenal and essentially got nowhere and we tried to do it yesterday but stopped after 15 minutes. If the players were doing it day in day out they wouldnt look so bloody clueless on the odd occasion that Pardew decides he wants us to pass it about a bit. How exactly do you know what we do in training? I know that we spend 4 days out of 5 on stopping the other team. I'm speculating that we don't spend much time if any working on passing and moving, because we don't do it on a match day. You actually KNOW that 4 days worth of training is spent purely on stopping the other team? Hmmmm... I highly doubt that (both the fact that you know it, and the fact itself) http://www.nufcblog.org/2011/11/carver-on-pardew-and-the-way-newcastle-run-their-week/#.T2cYHWJNuB9

I'd agree with that on balance. It's the manager's job to try and instil and maintain that confidence though. Reverting to awful football isn't the answer. I agree. But I'm just trying to be balanced in my opinion. It was frustrating viewing yesterday. Initially I'd say it was the players fault for resorting to long ball / deep defending, but Pardew should have sorted it. What I'm getting at though, is that it was clear that our game plan was initially to try and play "proper" football, so I'm not on the "Pardew sets up to play long ball" bandwagon just yet. I think performances like Norwich and Arsenal highlight why we should be training in a way that encourages football based on passing and moving. We tried to do it at Arsenal and essentially got nowhere and we tried to do it yesterday but stopped after 15 minutes. If the players were doing it day in day out they wouldnt look so bloody clueless on the odd occasion that Pardew decides he wants us to pass it about a bit. How exactly do you know what we do in training? I know that we spend 4 days out of 5 on stopping the other team. I'm speculating that we don't spend much time if any working on passing and moving, because we don't do it on a match day.

Yeah, just like the other one he shinned into the top corner against Villa. Best shins in the league man.