Happy Face

Sorry. I was confused. Thought you were saying our form isn't good enough. But what we have and what you excpect is in the 50-54 point range. I think that's achievable, but nowt much more. I wouldn't demand the managers head if we got 48 points though.

From those fixtures, absolutely. Yep, 4 wins from Villa, Hull, Cardiff, Fulham, West Ham & Sunderland with a couple of draws dotted around should be standard. How many clubs managed 14 points from those 18 last season? Swapping hull for Wigan and that? Genuinely interested to know. City will also get points against the top 6-7 which we seem to struggle at. Fwiw, we've only got 10 from those 6 so far. 14 points from 9 games would be a good tally because I doubt we'll get many more than 6-7 points in our next 6, so 20 from 15 games isn't so impressive. 50 points over a season. Enough to finish 8th last year. I think 7th/8th is the best we could realistically hope to achieve. Unless you're really optimistic.

Think man city took 13 points.

From those fixtures, absolutely. Yep, 4 wins from Villa, Hull, Cardiff, Fulham, West Ham & Sunderland with a couple of draws dotted around should be standard. How many clubs managed 14 points from those 18 last season? Swapping hull for Wigan and that? Genuinely interested to know.

I don't think Fergie ever signed a Liverpool player. Get the feeling he'd have rather chopped his nads off than admit they had something he wanted.

http://i42.tinypic.com/2ryhs37.jpg

Just based on the first goal and the final result. Not to say Pardew actually was to blame...but that Pardew was in charge at the time. Oh right, I thought it was supposed to be some measure of how effective managers are at turning things round etc. Sorry. Those 2 posts were independent of each other

Titchy

Just based on the first goal and the final result. Not to say Pardew actually was to blame...but that Pardew was in charge at the time.

Another worrying trend from Pardew to report, following our draw from a winning position on Saturday. Wins Pardew turned into a loss or a draw 11/12 - 11% (4/38) 12/13 - 18% (7/38) 13/14 - 25% (2/8)

http://cdn.eplindex.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Capture3-495x410.jpg Interesting comparison of Managers in the Premier League. Points awarded for how they effect games and ting. It's interactive so you can see where each manager wins or loses points by hovering over them at the link below.... http://public.tableausoftware.com/views/MIIWeek7/Dashboard3?:embed=y&:display_count=no#1

We don't have a single "great" player in any position

This the same Steven Taylor that was called up into the England squad earlier this year? He is many things, but rotten isnt one of them. He's almost as good as Carlton Palmer then eh? Except Carlton got a game for England.

Taylor and Williamson are both rotten. Especially against the mackems, Taylor is even more of a liability. They might be better than 3rd and 4th choice of a few teams, but not many in the top half.

Most were long shots though. Remember a number of highly speculative attempts from them. 56% from inside the box. we were down to 10 men ffs We've been down to 10 men several times over the last 2 seasons. I didn't offer any judgement. Just an interesting factoid. Whatever reaction you have to it is up to you. From my own perspective i'm quite pleased we looked as comfortable as we did under such a rearguard action. Any other time we have surrendered possession to such an extent we have resorted to the old hoofball, but we continued to at least try to play it out of defence until the final whistle. Very pleasing.

Most were long shots though. Remember a number of highly speculative attempts from them. 56% from inside the box. Does that include blocked shots? 2 shots blocked

Most were long shots though. Remember a number of highly speculative attempts from them. 56% from inside the box.

If I saw the game turning and looked at a bench to see Obertan, Amalfitano, Abeid and 2 Ameobi's looking back I'd probably have no idea where to start either Back to the players aren't good enough then are we? First team is good enough, squad never has been. We need great fortune to have any chance of a canny season. Here we are with Dummet and Williamson potentially our starting CBs for the Mackems with no cover on the bench.

Liverpool took more shots against us than any team in any game this season or last home or away (23). More than twice as many as when they beat us six nil (11).

If I saw the game turning and looked at a bench to see Obertan, Amalfitano, Abeid and 2 Ameobi's looking back I'd probably have no idea where to start either

That was mad when Williamson clearly never got a touch, before you even ask if Dummet was beyond the last man.

It's still really tight margins. Given the start we had last year that's what I would expect too. The only results we've had that have gone differently so far have been to pick up draws off Liverpool and West Ham where we lost last year and to lose away to Everton where we drew in 12/13. The real show of whether Pardew will improve on last season will come in November/December. We lost 8 out of 11 in that period last year. He cannot afford a similar mid-season run like that this time around. Chelsea (H) Tottenham Hotspur (A) Norwich City (H) West Bromwich Albion (H) Swansea City (A) Manchester United (A) Southampton (H) Crystal Palace (A) Stoke City (H) Arsenal (H) Those Green games should see us much better placed Come January 2014 than in January 2013.

Debuchy's main problem is going walkabout and being too far up the pitch and not having the recovery pace t come back. Letting someone cross the ball when you're a foot behind them isn't a stat but it's a problem. Those stats are based on absolute values. Debuchy has been picked out as a weak link and has had to do more defending than Simpson generally did. He's also more likely to dive in. Which is great when it goes right and he wins the ball but he also often gives away dangerous freekicks. I was very impressed with Debuchy on Saturday. Looked a real defender. But in the 5 or so games i've seen this season he's been average to terrible on most occasions. His attacking is a large part of why he was brought in surely? Like Santon. Both are keen to get forward and apply some additional pressure to opponents. In a 433, that's a must. The let down has been in terms of all the players understanding the system and their decision making to implement it, both the wing backs deciding to make those advances and the midfielders/forwards chasing back to help cover. What was annoying on Saturday was Ben Arfa had been more central and Gouffran had worked his arse off providing cover for Debuchy, we switched that round moments before Liverpool scored their second, easily passing it around Debuchy down our right while Ben Arfa was a spectator.

Also interesting to note that the only team in the top half of the league today to have had a harder start than Newcastle is Man U.

Going down to 10 men could perhaps have suited Pardew in this instance, just in terms of PR after a good first half. He's being praised for the backs to the wall performance of the second half now, but there's a nagging doubt we would have succumbed to that approach even if we had 11 men on the pitch. It's certainly happened in the past and he's had plenty of stick for it.