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We'll get beat at Stoke and if we lose to Wigan at home, things will be seriously unhinged with regard to Pardew being able to pull things round. The team looks lost at the moment. Lacking ideas, confidence and certain players look like they have lost faith in the project they clearly believed in last year. He didn't manage to turn it around at West Ham or S'hampton, nothing suggest he will here. There is a tiny chance he has learnt from those experiences and ironically I maintain he is a better coach now in some areas - preperation and man management...But tactically he is still the same: Direct and percentage.

 

For the sake of the club I hope he does and I also hope that MA doesn't dither in the Jan window (we need at least 2 first team players). These so called weaker sides are beginning to play the kind of football that is beginning to make others relegation candidates - even S'thampton now look much more cohesive and confident.

If we lose to Wigan? 

Wigan have SIX players that drop into midfield in their current formation. If Pardew lines up in 4-4-2 they will annihilate us.

We cannot handle teams that play any kind of decent passing and movement game as it is.

That Moyes comparison is boring now. It's the only example that gets trotted out that has any relevance but if it's such a winning strategy shouldn't there be loads of similar examples? (Ferguson and Wenger both won trophies before they joined their clubs).

 

Having the right manager for 20 years only works if he is actually the right manager and Pardew's history doesn't suggest stability.

Honestly, the suggestion that keeping any manager in place for long enough, eventually leads to success, kills me everytime.

Stoke away ... the gods can be so cruel.

This will truly be an emasculating experience for a team that is currently devoid of all confidence.

They will score from at least three of their set pieces. I am actually going to put money on this. Might as well benefit in some way.

Moyes never had anything resembling the kind of players currently at the club though!

He did a hell of a job getting the likes of Cahill, Lescott and Jagielka, and effectively coaching them up to be much better players, and essentially making them premier league players.

This season is arguably the first they have a team of players of real quality, and he is excelling. Give him our team, and you think he struggles like Pardew is? Don't see it myself.

Cisee and Ba / Jelavic and Mirallas - Pretty comparable, but we probably have a better two in all honesty.

Fellaini / Cabaye - Both great players. One bieng used to his strength, the other not so.

Pienaar / Ben Arfa - Ben Arfa is the better player, but I swear Pienaar looks more effective for his team than Ben Arfa does for us most of the time, because he isn't getting the ball in dangerous areas often enough.

Anita and Tiote / Osman and Neville - Ha! Come on ...

Hibbert / Simpson - Tie.

Any of their central defenders / Coloccini - Colo

Any of our full backs / Baines - Baines

Jagielka and Distin / Taylor and Williamson - I'll take their two, obviously.

So, overall is their team really that much better than the table currently shows? Defensively they are a bit better, but we should be a bit better going forward.

Our manager is woefully underachieving I reckon.

Imagine yourself as one of the players. You have a manager you like and the team did well last season. Cool.

This season however, things haven't been going well for the team, and everyone is playing poorly, literally everyone. Every single person.

I imagine the whole team must be frustrated with the whole situation. A dressing room full of frustrated irritable players. Not good.

Okay, so they all look to the manager, to do something different, and I would guess some of them even suggest changing things. I mean, this is how I would be thinking anyway!

However, the manager sticks with the same formula, and 'encourages' them to run harder and jump higher.

Yeah, that would eventually p*ss me off. A lot.

Will be moved on to Fulham in the summer, as he won't be considered good enough to play our expansive football.

Will then go on to become the best midfielder in the league before moving on to Real or Barcelona to become one of the finest in the world.

I mean everytime I watch the team, I am startled by how much Ba and Cisse struggle to hold the ball up when the long balls are launched at them. They're both terrible at it, and lose it under the slightest bit of pressure.

How can the manager of the team continue to see this and not try to change it? I really struggle to understand such things.

If we had Carroll up there winning everything then great, but we blatantly don't.

It's November, and this has been going on since August. How much longer do you continue to implore the two strikers to work harder at somethign they don't seem capable of doing, before you consider a different approach?

This guy still doesn't seem to be showing any inclination to try something different tactically.

Thinks it's just a case of the players having to give more? I mean is this guy for real? They are all underperfroming because the setup and approach isn't quite working.

Please change things around a bit you joker! The guy is looking completely devoid of any mangerial ability at the moment. My God.

Up until now he hasn't even tried changing the formation or approach.

Couldn't believe he started Ba and cisse up top as a two again today.

This is completely crazy behaviour.

Love the whole give the manager time thing. So cliche.

What is he doing at the moment to earn more time?

The team is tumbling down the table.

None, absolutely none of the players are playing well, and we do have number of very good payers.

Never mind ugly, the football is pointless and completely unproductive.

What is he showing to allow any kind of faith in him? Help me understand.

How do people expect this to be turned around exactly?

The simplest thing you would have expected him to try by now i.e. changing formation, he has refused to do! Arrogantly exclaiming that none of the fans were talking about formations or tactics last year.

The situation is ridiculous. It's only going to be harder to recover the longer he stays.

Martinez turned down Aston Villa and Liverpool, he won't come here to work with Ashley.

On top of that Whelan would never allow him to join Newcastle.

They wanted Gustavo Poyet at one pint didn't they. I swear he'd do much better with these players. I mean come on! Anyone who understands the basics off passing and movement would.

Worst possible season to go down with the new TV deal coming. Hopefully Mike Ashley has this in mind.

The frustrating thing is I'm not even sure I can accept that our squad isn't good enough, because the way we play isn't helping.

What's to say players like Marveaux, Amalfitano, Anita, Bigi, Sammy and even the Obertan aren't being negatively affected by the way we play? They don't suit the current setup whatsoever, and I can't help but feel they'd be much better squad players if we played in a way to suit their games.

Just as an example, look at what Routledge is doing at Swansea this season. He's been excellent. Leads the league in assists I think, or is somewhere near the top. This is the same guy that looked scared of having a go when he was here, and was invisible a lot of the time.

We need a manager that has a clue how to utilize attacking players. Period. our team's strength is on the attacking side, and we are not taking advantage of this. Instead it seems the manager is trying to transform them all into defensive juggernauts. It's absurd.

Even someone like Ian Holloway would put Pards to shame in this area. That Blackpool team a couple of season's ago, was probably the worst squad in the history of the league! Look at the football they played, and how close they came to staying up.

Pards needs to be at a club where he can have total control over who comes in, so he can bring in the type of players to suit his style, as he isn't capable of adapting whatsoever.

Wow ... this guy is in complete meltdown mode. Some of the stuff he's coming out with is just cringeworthy.

Losing respect for the guy very quickly. He sounds completely and utterly clueless.

We have a good number of top quality players in this team at the moment, and we haven't produced anywhere good enough football, and that's a fact. Forget the results even. If we had been playing well people wouldn't be as caught up on them, as it would just be a matter of time before we strung some wins together.

From his quotes he's insinuating the system and tactics don't matter, as long as the first 11 is all out there. Sounds like Souness! Very worrying.

If I were owner and i saw the way the team wa sperforming with the number of decent players we currently have, I certainly wouldn't be looking to buy any more for the manager currently in charge that's for sure.

Pardew man, how are you screwing this all up so quickly.

It's not about getting rid. It's just really dissapointing to see really good technical players not being utilized properly.

Basically the team and the manager don't fit.

MA wants to buy better priced players from abroad, who are going to tend to be more technical sorts, but we don't have the manager who seems to know how to setup for the type of game they would thrive in.

Pardew is far more geared to the team we had with Barton, Nolan, Carroll etc, as the core I feel.

Swansea, West Brom and Wigan all have fundamentally attacking gameplans though, and a belief in movement off the ball and short passing.

Yeah, that was my point. We suck at these things, and I doubt the coaching staff even encourages such a mindset at all, so no surprise the majority of our defenders look scared of the ball. They look as though they're all afraid of making mistakes. No confidence whatsoever.

Not a big fan of Simpson, but the more I watch the team the more I can't help but wonder some things.

My biggest gripes with system are the backign off thing when defending, which is something he takes way too far sometimes, but it's definitely not as bad as it used to be. Secondly, he has no composure on the ball, and seems very hesitant to get forward whatsoever.

The first issue is one he needs to sort himself, and as I said it's not as bad as I remember.

The second issue I'm actually beginning to think is just down to our general cluelessness of how to link up as a team with our passing and movement. I think if you put Simpson at right back in a team like Swansea or Wigan he'd look a lot more comfortable on the ball in general, and would pass it better and join the attacking play more often too.

Basically our coaching just sucks, and this affects the likes of Taylor and Williamson also, when it comes to using the  ball better. If some of the defenders lining up for Swansea, West Brom and Wigan are able to play the ball without hoofing it up the pitch everytime, then I'm sorry, but I really expect the likes of Taylor, Williamson and Simpson to be able to do so too.

No surprise that the only defenders who have this ability have all come from clubs where they would have been schooled in playing the ball from the back, and so it's is essentially ingrained with the likes of Colo, Santon, and Enrique previously.

Pardew expressing shock at DiMatteo's dismissal, and claiming it's unfair. He sounds a bit nervous.

 

Wonder why these managers continually expect to be given time, when it isn't the nature of the job anymore. So many of them aren't even worthy of the extended amount of time they all want. They'd only keep flopping anyway.

 

They might come out and say they want to be given time, but deep down they love getting sacked early, picking up a huge windfall on the way, then walking straight into another job. Rinse and repeat.  It's the cushiest job out there.

You're right. The unfair dismissal tripe is just to prevent them looking bad, and therefore less desirable to any future employers really. Can totally see that.

This guy never had the job really. Roman has just been waiting for the perfect time to strike. Pep's apparently ready to resume management, and ultimately that's all that matters. Not at all surprising. Was a farce from the outset.

Pardew expressing shock at DiMatteo's dismissal, and claiming it's unfair. He sounds a bit nervous.

Wonder why these managers continually expect to be given time, when it isn't the nature of the job anymore. So many of them aren't even worthy of the extended amount of time they all want. They'd only keep flopping anyway.

West Ham and Stoke employing centre forward defenders. Crikey.

I find this thread deeply depressing ... even realistic links to good players upsets me. The manager is struggling to get the good players we already have to play football, so really what's the point.

Unless Sissoko is also a top attacking football coach as a hobby, there really is nothing to be excited about.

What's the fee to make this loan permanent at season's end again? £18 million?

Can't see that being sanctioned at board room at West Ham anymore. He's just not scoring the goals.

Carroll firing off a sucession of F-bombs at Allardyce's decision to take him off