Andy

No. He's a complete block-head. Thick as fuck, at all times... He'll occasionally do something encouraging where you think "Tiote is back!" then he'll shoot thirty yards over the bar from a throw in. In our own half.

I'm personally judging us on what I've watched over the last 12 months... I'm judging us on an array of increasingly more concerning performances as last season progressed, where we not only looked tactically inept, but also lacking in raw ability, discipline and effort in several areas of the pitch. I'm judging us on a manager who is unable to motivate the players, unable to pick a tactically coherent side, unable to make substitutions or effective changes to fix his shit-storm of increasingly-concerning initial mistakes... A manager who is unable to show a single ounce of positivity in his general outlook towards approaching a game, and, more pressingly, is unable to actually learn from any of the aforementioned issues and repeats them week-in, week-out. And, tonight, I'm judging us on our complete lack of progression over the summer; every single problem that was there when the final ball was kicked last season, remains. Yes, we were playing Man City, but no that doesn't excuse ill-discipline, a lack of effort, poor organisation and an all-round gutless and spectacularly uninspiring performance from pretty much every player on the pitch. This was the first game of a new season and they should have went into the game looking to send a message to the fans; "we're as pissed off as you about last season, we're going to fight to improve it this year". Instead, they turned up, put in the same 90 minute "shift" that they put in consistently last season, and went down with a whimper. If you're not at least semi-concerned about that you need to open your eyes. As much as I can, I'm trying to ignore last season and make judgements based on this season alone. Perhaps it's just my expectations of this game were for us to get trounced so I am not in the least bit surprised. Maybe i've just lowered my expectations in general. Anyway if we serve up the same type of performance next week I will be very concerned, yes. I just don't think it's fair to go over the top when it was a half with 10 men against a top side. I don't see much point in judging on this season alone, nothing has changed off the field so there's no clean slate.

I've yet to see anything to suggest that he's a better defender than Simpson like; he has a better first touch and passes the ball better, and in that sense is a better "footballer", but defensively Simpson didn't concern me half as much as this lad does. I don't think you can put it down to adjusting to the league either, it's mainly his positional awareness that is his weakest attribute (other than clumsiness), and that general instinct of where you should be standing isn't something that really changes across the top leagues...

Think we've had enough time to judge him now, and he doesn't look a good defender to me at all. He's positionally poor and wreckless, has the acceleration of a wheely bin, and doesn't offer half as much going forward as some would have you believe. When wingers run at him I expect him to give away a free kick or a penalty every single time; his tackling is clumsy as fuck and leaves a lot to be desired for an international full back... Probably the most disappointed I've been by a new signing, expected a lot more from him.

I'm personally judging us on what I've watched over the last 12 months... I'm judging us on an array of increasingly more concerning performances as last season progressed, where we not only looked tactically inept, but also lacking in raw ability, discipline and effort in several areas of the pitch. I'm judging us on a manager who is unable to motivate the players, unable to pick a tactically coherent side, unable to make substitutions or effective changes to fix his shit-storm of increasingly-concerning initial mistakes... A manager who is unable to show a single ounce of positivity in his general outlook towards approaching a game, and, more pressingly, is unable to actually learn from any of the aforementioned issues and repeats them week-in, week-out. And, tonight, I'm judging us on our complete lack of progression over the summer; every single problem that was there when the final ball was kicked last season, remains. Yes, we were playing Man City, but no that doesn't excuse ill-discipline, a lack of effort, poor organisation and an all-round gutless and spectacularly uninspiring performance from pretty much every player on the pitch. This was the first game of a new season and they should have went into the game looking to send a message to the fans; "we're as pissed off as you about last season, we're going to fight to improve it this year". Instead, they turned up, put in the same 90 minute "shift" that they put in consistently last season, and went down with a whimper. If you're not at least semi-concerned about that you need to open your eyes.

Sissoko and Tiote are clumsy as fuck.

Brazil will murder Spain if they're allowed to create half as many chances as Nigeria and Italy did like.

I'd let him go but I'd squeeze as much out of them as we can. Sissoko and Tiote in the middle with Marveaux pushed on might work better for us anyway. If we can get enough to invest in a good striker and a natural left winger and we'll probably have done well from this.

Don't rate him at all, he's always been one of those players who I was glad we missed out on.

I get the point he's making but it's horribly phrased.

Compared to most of the other greats of the game he had a comparatively limited set of tools, but he's one of the best I've ever seen at taking what he did have at his disposal and using it to its absolute maximum.

You definitely need to post more Andy. As long as we're not including the Games Forum in that. Obviously. I'm eagerly waiting for FIFA 14 and Red Dead 2 to be released so I can make my return...

I find it incredible that stats are being used to prove something when people’s eyes are telling them something else. We’ve been garbage for most of this season and that wouldn’t change if somebody found a stat to say that we were the best, we weren't, we've been shite no matter how it gets dressed up. Exactly, but some people could find a sugar strand in a shit and argue that the whole thing tasted nice if it suited them. When it comes to a complex game like football, statistics are generally pretty meaningless; the long-standing "but we won the passing" joke shows that. As you say, you can see with your own eyes if a team's playing well. My eyes tell me that we don't play with any kind of organised attacking system, that our transitional play is awful, that we don't get enough players into the box or even into the opposition's half most of the time, that we struggle to keep the ball along the ground, that we often have massive gaps between the defence/midfield/attack, and so on and so forth... These are things that statistics don't really cover, but that are plain to see just by watching us play over the course of a season.

Can't keep up with this thread, but defending our performances this season using statistics is mental. The key statistics are the ones sprawled across the league table which show categorically that we've been complete and utter guff, and even they don't tell the full story. We've produced nothing more than negative, disorganised shit all season long aside from a few select games.

First time I've ever been happy at the fact that I won't be able to see a match, genuinely shitting it for this.

Nationality has nothing to do with anything. The experience and passion you need in a team's "core" doesn't have to come from a homegrown player, it can come from any player that understands the league and the club and is blessed with a winning mentality; some of the biggest bottlers I've ever seen playing for us were from these islands. I'd rather have a core of Colo/Jonas/Cabaye etc than Carr/Butt/Duff/Owen... People are trying to partition the blame when it lies squarely on the shoulders of one man; perhaps three if you include the two dickheads who continue to employ him.

It's quite ironic that the French players are coming under fire for their stereotypical lack of fight, when our English cowardly cunt of a manager is the one who has tactically surrendered pretty much each and every game this season before the players have even had a chance to kick a ball.

Probably won't be quite as funny when it turns out he's our next boss.

He should have them fired up, that's his job.

Looks better when he comes inside like. Wasted on the left wing.

I think you have to attribute a lot of this season's mess to Pardew. Certain players have been below par in their performances and have at times looked utterly shot for confidence, but when you have a manager who isn't taking a confident approach to setting up his team that's obviously going to be the end-result. Our only game-plan is to cancel-out the opposition's gameplan and try to grab a goal, and frankly that's unacceptable with the players we have. We showed glimpses of a more confident set-up, designed to take the game to the opposition, following the arrivals of Gouffran and Sissoko et al, but that was short lived and we've slipped back into the old negative approach pretty quickly. I'd be willing to give him another season on the back of last years success alone but he desperately needs to look at his short-comings and change his approach.

Love it when we get foreign-club fans on here and they turn out to be pleasant

He's a liability at times but on the flip side he's also an asset going forward and part of the reason we scored 4 goals. 2nd goal was poor but there should've been cover from midfield when he went up the pitch.

I'd imagine that would hurt quite a lot to be honest, shin injuries are bad enough when the impact isn't even that bad