Chris_R

Shola on the left wing is my over-riding memory of his tenure here.

I agree that this is worse than Souness. We had lower expectations then anyway, we had a decent though unremarkable squad. However I genuinely believe this team is the best we've had in a decade, yet we're going to get a brush with relegation (or worse) out of it, which is just so sickening. And the horrid, horrid ways he sets the team up. Results are more important than style, which is why last season we tolerated the shit football. This season our luck's run out and we're not getting the results either. He simply must go.

If we keep Pardew over the summer, we'll lose half the squad. We simply have to get rid of him.

Re: Stability: Change for the sake of change is bad. Change to get rid of a negative, awful manager is a perfectly sensible course of action. Must go.

Commentators saying how if the ref saw the replay he'd give a penalty. Erm, no. If he saw the replay he wouldn't give anything. Clearly got the ball.

Obviously I hope we win above all else, and will take no delight in us getting beat. However like many I fear I know what's going to happen today. The team Pardew has put out is not far removed from what I'd pick in his position, but where we differ is how we'll utilise the players. He'll go for a rigid formation where we only attack with 3 or 4 men at once, meaning we're predictable and easy to defend against. He'll rely on a moment of genius from one of the front 3 to win us the game or get us a goal rather than pressurising the opposition and getting men forward. Our defence will sit deep whilst we attack, as will our two sitting midfielders. Two. Against fucking WBA. So when we attack, we'll see the following (I've pushed Debuchy up further than Haidara due to his natural predisposition to bomb forward, irrespective of managerial instruction): http://oi36.tinypic.com/2zrl20g.jpg Tbh looking at it, I've probably pushed Taylor and Yanga-Mbiwa further up than Pardew will, he'll have them a good 10 yards further back than that. When any decent, attack-minded manager rather than our incumbent coward would push the defence up, have only one sitting midfielder, and 2 midfielders trying to get into the box with the wide forwards actually offering some width whilst still being in a position to support the attack. If the ball goes wide, the corresponding fullback will be in a good position to overlap. Something like this: http://oi36.tinypic.com/35338z7.jpg I've watched many matches over the last week or 2 involving good attacking teams, and they all push the back line up to half-way and do something like the above. I urge everyone to watch other teams as well. Contrast that with how we play today and it's heartbreaking that we're so negative when we've got such a good team out there. There's a massive difference between attacking with 3-4 players and attacking with 5-6 players in how easy it is to defend against and how many options you give yourself when attacking. Anyway let's hope we somehow sneak a win. Also personally I wouldn't play Perch, though I've no problem with him as such. I'd play Anita instead and drop Sissoko back to DM which I think is his more natural position, with Anita up supporting Cabaye in the AMC roles.

Can't wait to see what dross we get served up with tomorrow. Irrespective of the result, it'll be 7 or 8 behind the ball at all times with us relying on Ben Arfa, Cissoko and Cisse to unlock the entire opposition for 90 minutes.

Pardew just never learns. Every match it's: - defensive, rigid formations - Attack with no more than 3-4 men at a time - Keep the defence back. We never push the defence up to compress play. We never have 6 men attacking at once like all the good teams do. We're predictable, awful to watch and lack any movement or creativity at all. Pardew is yet again pinning his hopes on Ben Arfa coming back and doing the work of 3 forwards so we carry a threat without sacrificing his precious defensive borefest setup. It's sickening to think that we're so reliant on HBA being in the side just to look competent in attack, rather than looking competent without him and looking excellent when he's fit.

So what does EPL stand for in this context then?

Giving our fans more coverage for what they did after the game deflects attention from how s*** the players were during it and lessens / deflects any pressure on that coward Pardew.

Just in from work. Has this cunt been sacked yet?

We were quite long-ball under Hughton. Barton with his diagonal punts up to Carroll, knocking them down for Nolan. I didn't mind though, as it worked. There was no 3-4 months of exciting free-flowing football under Pardew last year though. We had a period where we got some good results, but it was magnificent play from our forward triumverate rather than any kind of tactical masterstroke from the manager. He just got lucky that 3 great players hit a purple patch at the same time. You can't base your tactics around that and expect long-term success.

You mention windows and look who shows up. The most relevant windows here are the ones being licked by the handful of people voting "No" at the top of this page.

JUST FUCK OFF. Work on our shape? Make sure we're solid? You utter fucking cowardly shitstain. Just pack your bags and fuck off. We need to learn how to break teams down ffs, get more players forward, look threatening. Not be solid and attack with 3 fucking players, you cunt. Look at the results. It's NOT WORKING. If you keep doing the same thing, it will continue to NOT WORK. The occasional victory that we sneak does not vindicate your awful approach to tactics. You are holding back a good team by being an abject coward.

Voted. Pretty easy decision. OK he's smart and presentable and comes over as intelligent, but he's far far too defensive in setup and he's shown no signs whatsoever that this is something that he'll ever contemplate changing. Utter coward, and leading a bloody good team to the bottom of the league. It's disgusting.

Look, when we're needing to identify who is braindead and beyond hope and who isn't, it needs saying.

You sir, are a cunt. Week's ban for this kind of behaviour, shirley?

Because we're stretched and too deep. When one of our 3 designated attacking players loses the ball, there's a mass of space for the opposition to attack into which means we get pulled all over. By pushing the defence higher up, we give the opposition less available space to play in if they do get the ball unless they want to play over the top of us and I can't see that working too often with the pace and athleticism of Yanga-Mbiwa. We should attack as a team and defend as a team. We don't.

There's plenty wrong with only ever having 3, or 4 if a fullback joins in, players attacking. It's crazy. And our defence stays way too deep. There's nothing wrong with the 1st pic as a setup if you don't have the ball, but it's f***ing stupid way to try to score goals when you do have the ball. That's the problem. We can play as image 1 when they have the ball, or deeper even if need be, but we just don't push up to the second image. I dont mean the depth mate, i meant the actual formation itself. Same formation but pushed up is fine with good movement, should have made that clearer. Oh for sure. That's really all formation 2 is: Formation 1 but pushed forward. Except Cabaye moves forward as well so there's only 1 holding midfielder, but it could still work (but be a bit less gung-ho) with Cabaye further back but I think that would be a waste of his talents, as we're seeing now.

In my hurry to do the pics and because I watched swathes of the match through gaps in my fingers, maybe Sissoko, Gouffran and Marveaux could be interchanged a bit. But that's the formation, either way, and that's my point.

There's plenty wrong with only ever having 3, or 4 if a fullback joins in, players attacking. It's crazy. And our defence stays way too deep. There's nothing wrong with the 1st pic as a setup if you don't have the ball, but it's fucking stupid way to try to score goals when you do have the ball. That's the problem. We can play as image 1 when they have the ball, or deeper even if need be, but we just don't push up to the second image.

This is how Pardew set us up to attack today: http://oi47.tinypic.com/14o61j4.jpg Watching a bit of the Man U game, this is how Fergie would set the same 11 up: http://oi47.tinypic.com/2w4wh1d.jpg Now I know which I'd rather watch, and I know which I think would have this team highest up the league.

Agree with the 1st bit. Not about Tiote. I'm no great fan of his, when he came here I was ridiculed for saying his passing was shit and would hold him back when everyone else was busy licking his hoop out, but I do feel he can have a role to play for us. Imagine, if you can, a team where we attack with 5 or 6 instead of with 3 or 4. Tiote would be a great player to have sitting in front of the 2 DCs who are on the half-way line. 3 in or around the opposition box, 1 wide each side, fullbacks bombing forward when the ball goes wide. We could be frightening. Instead we're frightened.

We attack with 3 players. We sit too deep. These are tactical decisions from the manager. Irrespective of the summer, we'll STILL play s***, uninspiring football. We did well last season despite Pardew, not because of him. We ended up with a front 3 of Ba, Ben Arfa and Cisse and it worked well. We still only attacked with 3 players, but they were 3 very direct forward players and they offered enough threat to the opposition that we got a few goals. Now we've lost Ba, Ben Arfa has missed nearly all the season and teams know what we're about and how we'll play. Also, loads of other teams underperformed last season and allowed us to sneak in. We can't be so utterly reliant on 3 players for any success whatsoever because when something goes wrong (Ba sold, Ben Arfa injured) we're f***ed, as this season shows. Our system is rubbish, it relies on exceptional individuals performing moments of magic. Spot on. Our lack of direction and movement just screams poor coaching. And aside from how crazy that is in the first place, this season 2 of those 3 players capable of such magic haven't been part of the team, yet we persevere with the same setup and scratch our heads when it doesn't work. As Einstein said, the definition of craziness is doing the same thing again and again and expecting a different result. But that's Pardew and his tactics for you.

We attack with 3 players. We sit too deep. These are tactical decisions from the manager. Irrespective of the summer, we'll STILL play s***, uninspiring football. We did well last season despite Pardew, not because of him. We ended up with a front 3 of Ba, Ben Arfa and Cisse and it worked well. We still only attacked with 3 players, but they were 3 very direct forward players and they offered enough threat to the opposition that we got a few goals. Now we've lost Ba, Ben Arfa has missed nearly all the season and teams know what we're about and how we'll play. Also, loads of other teams underperformed last season and allowed us to sneak in. We can't be so utterly reliant on 3 players for any success whatsoever because when something goes wrong (Ba sold, Ben Arfa injured) we're f***ed, as this season shows. Our system is rubbish, it relies on exceptional individuals performing moments of magic.