ElDiablo

Should go for Sigurdsson for the third midfield slot if we're looking to go 433 full time.

http://images.mirror.co.uk/upl/people3/jan2012/7/4/pics-image-4-135036102.jpg Still can't get over how suave and debonair the silver fox is in this. Also, note Woody(?) in the background for a classic sinister gusta stare.

Had a little cry before I noticed the date. I'm just too relieved to be angry atm.

You'd have think people would have learned by now, especially after the recent emergence of Perchenbaeur.

I have an exam in Norwich until 2.15pm... reckon I could scrape it. Now to source a ticket...

Black up all of our white players too. For the craic.

88 points this week, and had Yaya on the bench. Benny boy, Cisse, McClean and Evans biggest earners.

http://fuldans.se/?v=tpoljgeecn

I wouldn't say people want perfection but expectations are constantly changing and getting to an unreasonable point. At the start of the season 99% would have cut their balls off to be in this position no matter what, now we are in this position quite a few aren't happy with the style of football. Seen quite a few comments about getting a replacement in, even a manager who was behind us when he was sacked despite having a multi million (well into the hundreds of millions) pound squad and spending £60m in the summer. I for one raised my concerns about the "style of football". Yes, it was not pleasing on the eye; but always more importantly - and what people seem to forget when reffering to "style of football" or "good football" - we were not utilising our playing resources effectively and efficiently. This is/was the crux of my issue with Pardew. It was no use having players with specific strengths on your books (and the intention of recruiting similar types in future), yet implement a style that does not play to their strengths. Today we saw what can be acheived by developing and executing a game plan based on the strengths of our team. So I will give Pardew credit for that and hope that it continues. But really let us all enjoy the victory. As unexpected as it seemed, we won and did so with some style. That's true, summed up well, but the manifestation of some people's "concerns" in here have been ridiculous, and that's the issue some of us have.

It's all about the bigger picture and getting bogged down in semantics and throwing dirt at the manager because of a few poor performances is really annoying and childish and something which we criticise others for. A holistic approach...something we have needed for years.... I'd wager the majority of us want it, but it doesn't stop this bizarre need for absolute perfection all of the time that some seem to expect, or stop them from spitting the dummy when it doesn't happen. Think the holistic approach left football for good when the big money came in, fans want success now and aren't prepared to wait.

The problem isn't the view that we could play better football, it's the disparity between praise and criticism when a good or bad result occurs, and the overwhelming feeling in this thread that some are watching Pardew's every single move and jumping on every minor thing they don't like. Sometimes you just can't win playing whilst playing great football and have to win ugly, and we have done that when need be. It's all about the bigger picture and getting bogged down in semantics and throwing dirt at the manager because of a few poor performances is really annoying and childish and something which we criticise others for.

Love this man.

Blatantly rocking to a bit of celebratory Daniel Bedingfield.

Fanks guys.

MOTD being streamed on BBC's website does anyone know?

:lol: Stolen.

Think he means we've conceded a lot so going more positive would mean even more goals conceded. Not true imo, but I can see the reasoning.

That's simply the most pompous post on here in quite some time. Just because you coach a kids team doesn't make you Mourinho you know? The funny thing about that quote is, it's exactly what I think of HTT. He writes well and is very expressive, but the content is often lots of hot air which fails to acknowledge a whole host of variables.

How good was that save by Ruddy, after Cabaye crossed it and Ba flicked it on, incredible reaction. One of the best saves of the season imo.

Don't think we were hanging on, but we handed them the initiative which we didn't need to do. The movement, again, is absolutely fucking shit, the man on the ball often looks bad because nobody near him attempts to make himself available or create space by moving. It's horrific to watch and needs to be sorted, the players either need to think a bit more or Pards needs to take the shackles off them. We're so predictable and needn't be because we have the players to play good, inventive stuff. So grim that second half. Hopefully playing away might mean a bit more space to work with next week, but if we're so static and scared of moving out of the flat formation assigned we'll be beaten comfortably. Pains me to say it, but we should take a leaf out of the way Sunderland have started playing under O'Neil if we're going to sit back. At least they have a gameplan for when they sit back, high pressure and then ready to break quickly. We seem to just put 9 men behind the ball and hope for the best, there's nothing organised about it at all. We got away with today because Norwich are pretty poor, but looking at some of the games we've got coming up, we'll get turned over easily playing like this.

Wigan going down.