Dr Venkman

what? sunderland have got average-poor players, they're just being carried along by new manager syndrome atm You were talking about the clubs 'around us' having plenty of average-poor players too. Liverpool and Chelsea are either side of us if you hadn't noticed. Name some of these players from the clubs around us to support you point. Our weak links are far weaker than those of the mentioned clubs, and you know it. Ok, if our weak links are in defence what's the reasoning for basing our entire game on being hard to beat? It worked earlier in the season, it hasn't been working for months and he's doing absolutely nothing about it.

They may as well treble that kit deal for all the good Kenny will do with the money, in fact I'd quite like to see him given Man City type money and complete control over transfers, would be fucking hilarious.

He's really, really bad at passing a football.

This is the thing though mate, when you spend your entire season training the players to play one way, just because you would like to play a different way for one or two games doesn't mean the team's gonna be able to do it. You could see last night that the players are so used to just lobbing it forwards and staying in formation that they looked frightened in possession and none of them were moving for each other. These are good footballers I'm talking about as well, Cabaye, Jonas, Tiote, they all look bloody hopeless on the ball. Occasionally football will 'break out' of it's own accord when an opposition player gets dragged out of place or we play a quick one two, but watch us when we have comfortable possession in the middle of the pitch, we're f***ing clueless. I don't see it that way at all man, sorry. I've seen us play good football on plenty of occasions this season, but I agree the last couple of months we seem to have gotten scared somehow, and Pardew / the players seem to have lost a bit of confidence in us playing passing football. But I've seen it enough from us this season to suggest we can do it, and do it well. The long ball stuff we are resorting to at times at the minute is frustrating but not fully representative of what we / Pardew can and have done. I guess what I'm trying to say is, no one will convince me that in the last 30 minutes yesterday Pardew actually instructed the players to hit it long. I think it was a mixture of the players feeling the pressure, and naturally dropping deeper to try to soak it up. Granted a few games over the last few months have seen us play that tactic, but I don't believe that's what we were trying to do at all yesterday... more that we just got sucked into it as the game wore on. Fair enough, we all see games differently, what I'm trying to say though is that it's almost irrelevant what Pardew instructed the players to do in the second half yesterday, when under pressure they'll resort to the usual game plan, hoof it. If no one will convince you that he instructed the players to do it, go back and watch games at home against Wolves, Swansea, WBA, Chelsea (where it worked for a bit) Mackems (except the second half when they had ten men) and away at Liverpool and Bolton especially. If he's asking the team to do it this much he can't just expect to decide to play football for one week and put out a team (including Obertan, ironically enough) to do so. The players have been drilled to stay in formation and hit Ba and they're doing it, he needed to re-evaluate this months ago and he hasn't, we'll get more of the same against Norwich. We're neutralising the only GOOD parts of our team with these tactics because our weak links are clearly in defending, what's the point of setting up to be hard to beat when you've got knackers like Simpson pulling shit like he did last night? Set up to attack with the likes of Ben Arfa, Cabaye, Ba and Cisse and we'll get more points.

He's been picking Taylor ahead of Ben Arfa ffs, never mind Danny Simpson. Well that's a totally different debate, I've always said that was a mistake. It's not though, the fact that Pardew picked Obertan and Raylor over Ben Arfa for so long sums up exactly what type of manager he is and exactly why we'll only go so far with him in charge. You can all talk about the players being the cause of the long ball shite all you want but it's heads in the sand stuff, Pardew could've re-evaluated what we are as a team when Saylor got injured and focused our efforts on making the best of what we've got. He didn't and he still hasn't.

His touch to make himself a yard for the shot was beautiful like

This is the thing though mate, when you spend your entire season training the players to play one way, just because you would like to play a different way for one or two games doesn't mean the team's gonna be able to do it. You could see last night that the players are so used to just lobbing it forwards and staying in formation that they looked frightened in possession and none of them were moving for each other. These are good footballers I'm talking about as well, Cabaye, Jonas, Tiote, they all look bloody hopeless on the ball. Occasionally football will 'break out' of it's own accord when an opposition player gets dragged out of place or we play a quick one two, but watch us when we have comfortable possession in the middle of the pitch, we're fucking clueless.

I f***ing hate Pardew man. His workrate ffs. Argh. Go buy Kuyt this summer, you moron. Was gonna post something similar, it seems like nit-picking when he is praising him but that quote really tells you all you need to know about Pardew and why we'll only go so far with him. He uses his interviews as a tool to instill discipline and confidence in his players. We know this. Very little of it is intended to provide insight to the fans. Yeah I know, I've just got a general sad on about Pardew at the minute and I can't shake it. I really want to, honestly.

I think we are training too much on the defensive part of the game, would fit into Pardew's philosophy etc. this is why.... “Every Monday he [Pardew] comes into work having compiled a defensive report on the opposition. That’s his project, working with our video analysts to provide players with the best information. “This week, for example, he will talk about Manchester City’s angles of attack, their set-pieces, their movement, as well as focussing on individuals. The lads will be made aware of Dzeko’s strengths and weaknesses, the best way to nullify Silva, Milner’s incredible work-rate, everything. “That takes care of Monday to Thursday. On Friday it’s my turn when we look at ways to get at opponents. Put simply, Alan concentrates on how not to lose and I then find ways to win.” scary sh1t http://www.nufcblog.org/2011/11/carver-on-pardew-and-the-way-newcastle-run-their-week/#.T16UKc5Gxok Genuinely shocked by that, 80% of the preparation for EVERY match done on stopping the other team? Every match, so that's Wolves, Blackburn, Wigan, QPR inclusive, at home, and we're concentrating that much on how to stop them playing? For fucks sake man.

I fucking hate Pardew man. His workrate ffs. Argh. Go buy Kuyt this summer, you moron. Was gonna post something similar, it seems like nit-picking when he is praising him but that quote really tells you all you need to know about Pardew and why we'll only go so far with him.

4-4-2. Hoof. 1-1.

He's been awful all season, it's March and he's just started away at Arsenal in place of a striker that's scored 2 in his first 4 games. Pardew's fucking insane.

On the plus side the hammering everyone predicted never happened, they really are poor in front of goal with one obvious exception. As for us, it's heartening to see us play a formation where we have the opportunity to pass, however we've been hoofing it for so long that our players just look clueless in possession in the middle of the pitch. It's not just the defenders either, Jonas, Tiote, Cabaye, all of them good players and looking totally redundant when we've got the ball.

Ba 2-2. 131/1

Other than 4-4-2 we've only played 4-2-3-1 this season, expecting that. Edit - forgot the games where HBA was off the striker, dont think it'll be that!

Obertan :'(

Just a massive banner with FTM on it and you all sitting there in toon tops, i suggest we take it back a la Man U supporters with the 'who the fuck are man united' song. They'd fucking hate it if we started saying it as well, it's all they've got.

And Pardew, because I'll kill him.

No way I've been critical of Pardew and I'm teetering on the edge like, he can fuck right off if this happens.

Grammatically it wasn't great and it pissed me off that he kept starting paragraphs with 'that's not to say' but I got through it

If Obertan starts instead of Ben Arfa

The build up to this is starting to remind me of the Brighton cup game, they're all talking about getting a point

me either, 2 in his first 4 games in the premier league Because we want five in the midfield 5 in midfield and Cisse playing aren't mutually exclusive

me either, 2 in his first 4 games in the premier league

The only one i'm worried about losing is Ba as it sounds like we wont get good money for him, everyone else is tied down to long contracts so it's just not worth worrying about. Players leave clubs all the time, it's what you get for them that counts and we're really well protected in this regard at the moment. The club have proved they'll reinvest and we have great scouts, chill, Winstons.