Tachikoma

Lets just hope he won't totally chicken out after conceding a few goals and go back to his tried and trusted 4-4-2

What's the alternative? Appoint a bad manager? There's no guarantee that a new manager will be as bad or worse than Pardew. Pardew must be close to if not worse than Kinnear right now, can we seriously not do better than that? No he isn't as much as I hate the man, no, he isn't. He'll be gone in the summer, we just have to survive somehow.

If Pardew was going to go it would have been off the back of our defeats against Swansea et al, not Arsenal and Manure. Would be nice if we could get a new manager who has a decent track record but realistically its not going to happen.

It was correct in principle; however his tactics which followed made it look like he'd said the complete opposite. He looked like he was going for the jugular, when in fact he needed to protect the defense. Wasn't the bigi substitution made after we had conceded the 4th? It wasn't a good idea but still.

We need a new RB, LB and CB, and that's with Simpson staying on as a squad member. Not that we haven't needed these since 3 seasons ago.

Utter nonsense. This is a good a reason as any for Ashley to invest in some competent defenders. Yeah, for once, it really isn't Pardew's fault. Too many tired legs, too.

I don't think we've been better than Arsenal, every time they come forward they look far more dangerous and incisive, despite having slightly less of the ball. Cisse on the right still makes no sense to me, would rather have him on the left so he can shoot.

Santon Taylor Colo Tiote Anita Cabaye Marveaux HBA Cisse Ba

What are we trying to do anyway?

I thought he was better last game than he had been for a long time, at least he tried to cross the ball himself instead of rolling it to Santon every single time, and there were fewer "cut in and float" crosses and more direct left foot crosses for a change.

The impact Marveaux makes on our passing game is absolutely amazing

I reckon its Marv and not Obertan, unfortunately. Depends, they might see Oba as the right player to sit on the bench covering what they've got instead of Remy who can fetch them £10m and can be spent elsewhere. Don't really know the team that well, but thought they had someone big in that role who's name escapes me, his brother plays for them. Also , Marv is on a pretty penny. Edit: Ayew. I think I'd explode if Marv went in January

Don't think they give a damn as long as we win. Neither do we, but we're not.

I´ve said this all season, and even before it started. I don´t understand this "they both have to play at the same time". They don´t. We perform best with a 4-3-3 type of formation and also add the fact that we have a small squad, so resting one of them at times, only makes sense. Regarding that they should be able to work together, Ba and him, isn´t true i think. They are both to similar (read selfish), as I said 100 times. They don´t make runs for each either, and if they do, the other one doesn´t even look up. I think it is possible to have the two of them in the team together, centrally even, as long as: 1. There's a proper No.10 (Marveaux) to feed them passes, i.e. "tie" them together 2. They aren't making runs into the same position Something like: Santon Willo/Taylor Colo Fergie Anita Perch Tiote Marveaux Ba Cisse It would heavily rely on the fullbacks for width, though.

There was a lot more to Jonas than stats. But that was last season and before.

Every manager has those. For Pardew, it seems to be Jonas.

Over the course of nearly 2 years he has taken over this side: Harper Simpson Williamson / Taylor Colo Enrique Jonas Nolan Tiote Barton Ameobi Lovenkrands And delivered a mid table finish without having the player the side was built around for half the season (despite being assured that he would have him) He then put out this side and delivered an 11 game unbeaten run. Again he had to do this without the striker and the left back he was promised in the summer: Krul Simpson Willo / Taylor Colo Taylor Obertan Tiote Cabaye Jonas Best Ba Then when that side ran out of steam in the middle third of the season (and a lot of people on here, who have clearly learnt nothing, started absolutely slaughtering him), he made the transition to this side: Krul Simpson Williamson Colo Santon Jonas Tiote Cabaye HBA Cisse Ba And delivered a 5th placed finish, far beyond anyones expectations. Thats not "a fluke", thats consistently good management over nearly 2 years. Compare to the many other managers we've had who don't manage to impose any system of play at all, and have clearly lost the players completely after less than a year. A big part of it has been the faith he has shown in squad players. I never saw any way Perch could play in the Premier League. Since leaving Guthrie has disappeared off the faith of the earth. I remember being incredulous that Best was starting v West Ham. Pardew talked him up in the press, stuck him in the team despite the barracking he would get if we lost, and Best got a hat trick and was very effective for the rest of the year. Hes now properly struggling for the 1st time in 2 years, but we are improving, and I'd back him to deliver a 4th effective starting XI. How about supporters actually show a bit of faith in him? You cannot possibly say he hasn't earned it. I believe the first 6 words of your final sentence reveal a lot about the motives behind your post in this thread, and that of a lot of other posters as well. The first side was what I was talking about. It was essentially Hughton's side without any tactical changes - we played EXACTLY the same as we had before. Also, we'd have finished higher if Pardew hadn't made that Alan Smith substitution in the second half against WBA. Yes, Pardew did well to get the best out of Perch and Best, and he did extremely well last season no doubt about that. Starting Obertan over HBA consistently is not something that I'd give him credit for however. What that proves is that he is a good man manager, as someone had already pointed out. Not getting the players he was "promised" is something that every manager works with unless you're Roberto Mancini. My criticism was aimed at Pardew's inability to come up with an actual game plan, besides those games against sides like Man City et al where we try our best to cut off all playing space in our half, then countering either through a long ball to Shola or getting the ball out to Ben Arfa, which obviously isn't a sensible thing to be doing against teams who are at our own level or worse. When our players have the ball in the opposing half, you can see that the players are just winging it out there - there's no one making decoy runs, no quick interchanges between the midfield and the forwards, Ba and HBA simply trying to do everything on their own, etc. Every time a player gets the ball you can see them pausing for a second to think about what they're meant to do next (especially Tiote and Jonas), and you never see that in teams like Wigan/WBA/Fulham.

The main reason I dislike Pardew is that its very hard to see any intelligent or logical thought behind his tactics, beyond personal preference. Even when we were going direct with Hughton, we had a game plan, i.e. getting Barton to hit long diagonals at our front men to get behind their defensive line, or setting the team up to benefit from Carroll's flick-ons. Our defence had a proper game plan too; remember the high line, which was actually effective at pressuring the other team off the ball quickly? Or our triple-layered defensive line which made us impregnable in some games? When Pardew took over he brought nothing new to the team for a while and we did just fine. That, and he's a smug egoistic prick who will never learn from his mistakes or put any blame on himself ala Souness.

Voted 7 before, sticking to that. I think I voted 7 on our relegation season as well

Didn't get rub of the green? Only 10 days left before the end of the world.

You're probably right, but when he does set up the team the way people have been talking about (i.e. anything but the 4-4-2 and 4-5-1) we've looked infinitely better for it. The players can still deliver, he just refuses to let them.

Tbf taking Ben Arfa off boiled my blood so hard it was hard to see anything over the blood rushing to my head.

We were playing a team who were just above us in the league and who had form that was as bad as ours, the positives should be seen with that in mind. Yeah forgot about that. Fulham hadn't scored in 5 games and had won 1 in their last 5 home games. Rodallega hadn't scored in 20 as well, I think?

Erm, I've never been fond of ad hominem, but... you high? Why? Well lets see- the Keegan fiasco, xisco, Kinnear, relegation, sport direct, refusal to show ambition in transfer window blaa blaa... Do you feel that after sacking Pardew the fat one will replace him with a better manager and support him as he should have Pardew in the last window? I'm just repeating myself now, but we've been trying to get rid of our board the entire time I've supported Newcastle United, and it just isn't going to happen. Who is this amazing owner you have lined up to replace Mike anyway?

Yet how many clear cut chances have we created? More like, when was the last time we've properly cut anyone open, the way teams like Fulham/WBA/Wigan do to us regularly?