Happy Face

We weren't as good in the second half. Spudil never denied that though, so I never thought it was relevant.

You seem to be agreeing with me here. It wasn't Pardews half time talk that had a negative effect for us, it was Steve Clarke's. We had 8 shots on goal in the first 37 minutes of that game. None of them taken from our own half. We only had another 2 shots in the remaining hour of the game. It's not a lie, it's an opinion. I didn't say he spends the week on attack in training. I said the approach we take to a game from the get go is in all liklihood the approach that we worked on throughout the week. In terms of shape, attack, defence, the whole caboodle. Obviously Pardew is not averse to a long ball. But it's exacerbated by the quality of our rearguard. The current average is 69 long balls a game. Back in January following our really bad run of 13 games it was in the 70s. On occassion we've hit 80+. We're hitting less long balls now, which can be seen in our lowering average, that's due to our improved squad. Against West Brom we hit 67 long balls, another below average total. Though it was still comparitively high. Against QPR it was only 55. Which is less than the average of ALL teams, bar Arsenal and Man City. It's not his preference though. Clearly. He starts the game with the team he prefers. Shola only comes on ahead of our only other reserve striker...an 18 year old hobbit that's played 4 minutes of Premier League Football.

We're looking into the reasons behind solid, controlled performances in the first 45 minutes of a game versus backs to the wall out and out panic in the second 45. As far as i can remember people suggested that Pardew changes his tactics at half time, irrespective of scoreline, asking the players to sit deeper so we can just try to soak up the pressure. That argument doesn't hold any water with me, or we would take that approach from the first whistle.

I think people just like to argue with me. Someone mentioned him ALWAYS picking Jonas. I offered the justification Pardew would for that and it descended into 4 more pages of frothing over my methodology. Don't think we can attract Fergie either btw

Daily reminder. You keep quoting it. What was wrong about it? From the West Brom thread on here.... So everyone agrees we were good in the first half. So Pardew can get the team to play well. Following the instructions they've been given all wwek in the build up. Or do you think they ignored him in the first half?

I got a third actually

I'm sure this was said yesterday, but I'm not sure Tiote has ever been invisible. He's never hidden in any game I've seen. His problem is despite being solid for most of the game he makes errors that cost us dear. Certainly moreso this season. He's one of the internationals at the club being played where he is most comfortable though. There is an argument that Perch has had a better season when played, so he should play. If he made that selection choice though, the amount of grief given to Pardew on here would be unreal. Guaranteed.

Looking at the other end of the spectrum there is a level of 'confirmation' of which defensive players have let us down... Worst 5 Tiote - 41.3 minutes per goal conceded Sissoko - 42.7 Perch - 43.5 Marveaux - 46.7 Debuchy - 47 Tiote has been more of a liability than a help in shoring up our defence this season. His mistakes seem to be getting more and more frequent. Sissoko can't really be blamed. Never played where he is used to. Should really be playing deeper and making occasional forward runs to add to the chaos during times of pressure or when he spots a gap. The others...what we all knew.

If it's so obvious what Jonas offers, why do so many people say he's clearly wrong in playing him when fit? Think it's a question of whether people think the team needs his qualities or we would be better off sacrificing them for more attacking flair. The evidence is there that we aren't better off for it. When he's been forcibly sacrificed we have conceded by the bucket load.

Indeed. Santon, Haidara or Ferguson are going to have to get their arses in gear.

If it's so obvious what Jonas offers, why do so many people say he's clearly wrong in playing him when fit?

Ignore the little table and the numbers then. The point remains without them.

We'd conceded 4 before his first change.

Our first 11 when all are fully fit would be the envy of 75% of the Premier league. Our second 11 would struggle to get out of the Championship. Stoke sent Shola back 5 years ago....and he's still our best threat from the bench. I think the injuries have helped Pardew's because in the fact, with everyone fit, I wouldnt trust him to select the right personnel. I don't think Sissoko or Cabaye have played in their natural positions since January, plus it seems he'll always find a spot for Jonas. He always will too. We've conceded less goals in the games Jonas plays. I hate to go back to the stats but I do like to back up what I say, so here goes.... If you look at how long each player has spent on the pitch, and how many goals were conceded when that player was on, then it's clear the value Pardew places in Jonas... Top 5 Gutierez - 58.9 minutes per goal conceded Cabaye - 57.9 Williamson - 55.9 S Taylor - 53.9 Ben Arfa - 53.6 When he got injured we immediately conceded 4 at Man U then 7 at Arsenal in the next 2 games The next time he missed any football was when he got dragged off against Liverpool. we were 2 nil down then....but we conceded 4 in the second half alone without him. Most would prefer our attacking players to be attacking of course, and Jonas has done nothing for us there. But it's clear where Pardew sees his value to the team, defensively.

Our first 11 when all are fully fit would be the envy of 75% of the Premier league. Our second 11 would struggle to get out of the Championship. Stoke sent Shola back 5 years ago....and he's still our best threat from the bench. Who's on the pitch? Cisse, Ben Arfa, Cabaye, Marveaux, Sissoko, Goufrann? Of those, only Cisse and Cabaye appear in our starting 11 for the season http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012%E2%80%9313_Newcastle_United_F.C._season#Starting_XI

Aye, it's the flids who say stuff ike "you don't know football" if you disagree with them that make this thread a joke, not HF. Like I wrote above I might have misunderstood his post and I'll apologize and do a Pardew and use language barrier as an excuse. But it seemed he was deeming 95% of this forum to being wrong? I meant 95% want him sacked, without any knowledge of who might replace him and irrespective of mitigating circumstances. No need to apologise like, I'm a right prick

Our first 11 when all are fully fit would be the envy of 75% of the Premier league. Our second 11 would struggle to get out of the Championship. Stoke sent Shola back 5 years ago cos he couldn't score in that league....and he's still our best threat from the bench.

We're all here because you sent Christmas Tree back.

Are you projecting here? Computer Games? I played Sonic Racing last night. My 6 year old nephew fucking hammered me.

You're mostly listing teams we've finished above though...or still could.

Never thought I'd change anyone's mind. Surprises me how anti-Pardew this board is though. Seems 95% are militantly opposed to the bloke managing another game, it suggests a view that ANY other manager could turn Mike Williamson into a solid, classy CB that can pass the ball out of defence with aplomb rather than hoofing the fucker . Anywhere else it seems to be 50-50, largely people can see Pardew's clear flaws, but also the limitations he (and any other manager that replaced him) face. There'll be extremists who are stupidly supportive and just say "5th! 5th! 5th!"...and at the other end who say everything is an excuse. But most people see both sides. Here though, more than anywhere else it tends to be the latter "no excuses" sort. To the extent that protests are being planned. Are any other sites doing that? Just wanted to temper some of that extremism if I could.

It's from the perspective that he is poor, but not as poor as people are making out. From the perspective that he has been dealt some unbelievable luck this season, despite people refusing to accept his "excuses". The perspective that he's the best appointment Ashley has managed in 6 years and I fear for the standard of manager he is capable of attracting otherwise. I would be delighted to see a manager brought in who was not a footballing dinosaur or an inexperienced youth looking for any opportunity. However, even if it did happen, I don't think they could do significantly better than mid-table with a team that has more often than not consisted of Simpson, Taylor, Williamson and Perch (all not good enough), Anita and Marveaux (not experienced enough yet...but don't look good enough to me), Cabaye and Gutierrez (consistently playing worse than they have previously).....leaving only Krul and Cisse as the players that have performed.....though the latter has been incredibly wasteful while always being the most likely to score for us.

We played as a unit last season. It was a negative unit, but it was an remarkably rigid system for at least the first half of the season which proved very effective. Do you give Pardew any leeway on not being able to get back to any sort of consistency on that front due to injuries? We're very poor at transitional play, both going forward and back. My opinion was that last season we had results some of our performances didn't deserve. This season we have, by and large, had the results our performances have deserved. I'm certainly not in the 'anyone but Pardew' camp but there are a couple of attainable options i would have instead of him (with Prem experience which i think is important). Yeah, I started a thread on TT last year when we shot into the top 4 about how lucky we had been. Think we had the easiest start of anyone in the league which galvanized us. That said, I don't think it would have been particularly harsh this season if we'd picked up a few more points on the performances against... Wigan (A) Swansea (A) Tottenham (A) Reading (H) Man U (A) Fulham (A) Stoke (A) Sunderland (A)

Cheers marra I don't think he can make us ATTRACTIVE either. I don't think he (or Ashley) care about how attractive we are. I think for him to at least be EFFECTIVE though, like we were last season, requires some semblence of consistency in the formation used and the first 11 filling the places.

We played as a unit last season. It was a negative unit, but it was an remarkably rigid system for at least the first half of the season which proved very effective. Do you give Pardew any leeway on not being able to get back to any sort of consistency on that front due to injuries?