Chris_R

Are they defo the SOS seats? Look nowt like the ones i remember its not Disappointing. I wasn't sure, but thought it must be when I saw he was wearing his "Invest in Africa" top, seemed like it must be some kind of official club photo. Dunno what it is then, maybe the trampy fucker was just doing a shot for this year's Shelter calendar.

Those seats. That's tragic. Well, if it was any other club it would be tragic.

Hmm, interent suggests 1 year for Saha. Most disappointing. I was sure it was about 3.

With any luck he'll be given enough time to repeat that magic at Sunderland.... Already got O'Shea and Brown on long, lucrative, frankly ridiculous deals thanks to Mr Bruce. And Saha's there too, how long was he given? Hopefully a decade or something.

O'Neil's a good motivator, poor tactician and dreadful in the transfer market. If he somehow manages to accumulate enough players that he accidentally ends up with a few good ones, he can motivate them to do well. The problem is that takes about £100m+ in todays money to get a mediocre league finish. Short won't give him anything like that amount, so he's basically fucked.

If Cisse is on the wing, Pardew wants shooting with shit. In fact if Cisse is anywhere other than up front centrally, Pardew wants shooting with shit.

This, to an extent. But it really has to be 4-3-3 with Ba left side and Cisse central that he "tries", considering we've seen how well it works. Because quite why he'd try something different and yet choose for it not to be that is frankly mind-boggling and terrifying at the same time.

I'm sick of hearing that we've allegedly got about 10 players out with injury and that's why we're shit. HBA Cabaye S Taylor R Taylor Shola Gosling Vukic Obertan according to Physioroom at least. Well OK, that's 8. Maybe a couple have come back since I heard 10 were out but still, only 3 of them are first teamers by anyone's reckoning, and they only got injured recently yet we've been dogshit all season. It's a bullshit excuse. And for the record, according to the same site Wigan have nine out, one more than us. So Pardew, put a f***ing cork in it. I don't hear Martinez bleating about injuries, he's probably too busy working with his players and trying to figure out how to take 3 points off us. Also, that tired s*** about injuiries sounds even more hollow when we were reprimanded for expecting inbound signings over the summer, being told instead we should just be grateful we'd not sold anyone. Now the same bloke is bemoaning an injury "crisis" to THREE first team players. If 3 players out mean we can't get a single point from West Ham, Swansea, Southampton or Stoke (Though Ben Arfa played the first 2 matches, and Taylor 3 so that in itself is laughable) and are now terrified of the impending visit of mighty Wigan f***ing Athletic then you really need to have a word with yourself. The problem here is simple, and the solution is more so: - Stop wittering on about injuries. - Play 4-3-3 - Grow some bollocks and tell Ba to either play wide left or else f*** off. I'm past caring which he does, but he needs to do one of them or we're going to play s*** for the rest of the season. - If you're that desperate to play 4-4-2, buy some (At least 2) proper wingers in January. And don't play Ben Arfa there because he's not a winger. So that's another problem you'll need to solve. And then after you buy them, play the wingers on the right bloody wings. - Put Santon to right back. He's right footed, that's where he should play. - Stop spending 80% of your training time on defence and stopping the opposition. Especially when the opposition are teams like Southampton, Stoke, West Ham and bloody Swansea - Easier than buying 2 new wingers, just play 4-3-3 since we've got the personnel for it already. - But still put Santon at right back. Buy a left-footed left back in January.

actually contemplating having a discussion about the possibility that we might seriously consider the chance that we might have a meeting regarding spending money*. *If the player: - has a release clause under £5m - is under 24 - Will agree to a 5 year contract - On under £15k/week - Is Frence

Aye, Pardew shamefully booted him out as quick as he could. Shamefully? Love a bit of melodrama this early in the day. "I mean, was Wayne gonna be a long term first team player for us? and I don’t think he was.” "we have to get better than Wayne and that’s what we’re gonna aim to do.” Pardew had only been here 6 weeks at this point so was it necessary to be so harsh publicly about a decent player who seemed a nice lad? And has he ever been as scathing publicly about any other of our players for no reason? Played 9, scored 4 and made 3 this season btw Those comments from Pardew are all well and good, IF you go out and buy someone who is obviously much better. But to bring in Obertan, who is at best on the same level but really hasn't even demonstrated that, is fucking idiotic.

Some sort of 433. Cisse was often out wide on the right. Tiote, Anita and Jonas were more or less central, but Jonas drifted out wide at times. Ba played quite deep for some time too. It was a little bit all over the shop, but it seemed to work ok because the players stepped up a notch from the previous few horror shows. So he finally goes 4-3-3, and has a choice of whether to keep Ba or Cisse central, and guess what it's bloody Cisse who ends up out wide. Pardew's actions in keeping Ba central are so blatent they're almost laughable. Has Ba got photos of Pardew nobbing the Queen or something? Cisse can only play centrally. Putting him anywhere else is just a joke, especially when Ba is reasonably competent as a wide forward.

I went out when this was on and got drunk, I couldn't face another game. So just a quick question for those that watched it: What formation did we play, and who played where?

I think its obvious that Pardew is scared of Ba upping and leaving. Problem is, who's going to stay if we continue playing 4-4-2 and getting no results and playing utterly shite? Even if we scrape 17th doing that and Ba stays, I assure you that Ben Arfa, Cabaye, Tiote, Coloccini and Cisse won't exactly be chuffed to bits to stay here another year. I'd rather keep the majority happy, which we'll only do by winning games. And we simply do not have the personnel to win games consistently and play well under a 4-4-2. Also, there's no way in hell Ben Arfa is a right-winger in a 4-4-2, he's half the player he was last season playing wide right in a 4-3-3. Therefore we MUST go 4-3-3. That means Cisse plays centrally, and Ba plays on the left. If he leaves, he leaves. Shit happens, replace him and move on.

Thing with attacking training is it's largely transferrable from game to game. If you attack in a certain way against Swansea, you'll probably do the same against Villa, bar maybe highlighting a couple of areas they're weak in. Spend time on attacking training and you'll (hopefully) build up a fluid game that carries a lot of threat to opponents. Defensive training, the way we seem to be doing it, is 4 days spent focussed on stopping one opponent. That's fine for that game, but it's wasted for the next 18 matches until you play them again by which point they'll possibly have different personnel playing anyway. Apart from meaning we play shite football that's about as easy on the eyes as sandpaper, it's just not good use of time.

Not sure I can face another borefest, think I'll find something else to watch. perhaps there's some paint drying somewhere.

http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/361065 HOOOOOOOOOFFFFF!!!!!!!!!!!!

If Newcastle and Sunderland were bald men, the NETD trophy would be a comb.

15th and you've got a deal.

If we're going to play 4-4-2, as seems inevitable given the Demba Ba situation, Obertan is probably one of our best wingers. By best, I mean he's about the only genuine right-winger we have therefore is the best by default. Maybe him on the right, Marveaux on the left could work? No idea where we play Hatem, not a chance he's a 4-4-2 winger so I guess we rotate him with Cisse and Ba and have him play just behind a single striker. It's sad that we have 3 brilliant forward players in HBA, Demba Ba and Cisse all vying for the same couple of positions, yet we have bugger-all competition anywhere else in the whole squad.

Because his partner was due to give birth? Yeah, because without the extra cash from QPR you'd have been buying the kid second-hand shoes. Fucking clown.

Surely the small squad's his fault as well. It's not like he only took over last bloody week. The squad size is his fault The players we have are his fault The tactics we employ are his fault The performances are his fault The results are his fault Needs to give his head a shake, pretty fucking sharpish.

Fucking disgusted with that "performance".

Taking off the only man who has managed a shot on target. Interesting.

"Southampton looking a completely different side from even 2 weeks ago" Yes, that's because they're playing against us.

These are shit, but they're playing us off the park. That's so depressing.