Lotus

I hope we go for the jugular right from the off next Sunday. Will be a packed and busy midfield next Sunday imo. Would think quick balls down the line like we did against Soton would work well. Pace of Gouf on one side and maybe Sissoko getting on the end of those would be very useful. Would start to force them to sit back a bit, give players like Marveaux and Cabs more time to pick a pass.

Thing to try and calculate is that Harry alleges that there is no free transfer for Remy if they go down but you'd have to think it's a fairly reasonable price. Thenn there's his signing on fee and then his wages over 5 years. If you add that all up, would it be a lot less than PEA? PEA's transfer would be higher but i would reckon his signing on fee and wage demands maybe a little lower. Anyway, i'd be delighted with either of them. As will every other team in Europe i would think.

Over the moon with the 3 points. Couldn't believe it took us so long to score. That being said, i thought Fulham looked like they were going to score too. We're pretty bad when we lose the ball unexpectantly, from any where on the pitch. That transition, from looking to build an attack to having to defend, we don't do that well. Still, i thought the game looked like a 2-1 to us but happy we managed to keep a clean sheet and Cisse finally managed to nick one. Was surprised at how much time and space Fulham gave us. Still, Berbs isn't the sort to go closing down the backline incessantly.

There's also that controversy when he was taped in a meeting agreeing with keeping the percentage of non-whites in the French academies at or below 30%. Something like that anyway. Given we have HBA, Sissoko, MYM, Marveaux and Obertan in the squad, i'm not sure how that would go down.

Tbf though, i would say that Pardew has had more joy in the transfer windows than Moyes on balance. Maybe Neil can shed some light on this.

Saw us 'coached' by Souness, Roeder, Allardyce, Kinnear and Shearer. Quite happy to keep my penny in my pocket, thanks. Doubt any of them would be doing any worse with the current squad tbh. The only two from that bunch that would do worse is Kinnear and Souness. Doesn't Souness have a better win % with us than Pardew? Think he does, actually.

No Presume Perch is injured and Anita is getting smaller to the point of disappearing altogether. Sort of need Tiote to be back for this.

Sissoko Marveaux Gouf Cisse Would score a few i reckon.

Is Tiote defo out for this?

The thing with stats showing a lot of corners, it shows that the team had attacking intent. You don't win many corners from your own half like.

Benefica-------------------Newcastle Possession 55%-------------------------45% Goal attempts 23----------------------------7 Corners 12----------------------------0 Fouls 8----------------------------15 offside 0-----------------------------3 Bookings 2-----------------------------2

Marveaux is a good player for Cisse.

It will be a close game. We'll be tired, feeling low about the loss last night and nervous about relegation. We've better players than them and hopefully that will show through eventually. It does look like a draw at the mo. If we start well you never know though.

if you weren't such a tub-thumper, I'd be laughing at the hilarity of this post. Dire reading. If you were so obviously naive and lacking in knowledge about what makes a decent manager, I might be taking those comments seriously....as with most of your comments about Pardew, I won't be. Time to get real for you I think.... Where did you get your knowledge about "what makes a decent manager"? I'm more interested in where you got yours.

I don't think we did this deliberately either. I think our problem is we are unable to control posession. We give the ball away a lot. We rarely string more than 5 passes together when in the opposition's half. When another teams presses us we go for an 'over the top ball' very quickly. Would be great if it worked, but it hasn't. Everyone can see we can't hold onto the ball. Pardew knows it, players know it, opposition knows it. Wiss we could address it but it obviously we aren't.

How have his game plans been so far this season, in your opinion? Given that precedent is an indicator for future behaviour.

19 of those came in 5 games against the top two sides and a freak final 20minutes at Arsenal. That's 39 in 26; a bit more reflective of our struggles. So, when you cherry pick out the games where we concede quite a few our defence looks a lot better. Respectable even. Maybe even good! You must be AMAZED we are 15th. Troll.

?? It was an awesome pass to play Sissoko in. He defended ok as well.

Think Simpson can do ok vs Fulham. More worried about Duff vs Santon tbh.

Sissoko looks a better option at RM than Marveaux tbh. Waste a bit of him there i know but you waste a lot more of Marveaux. Sissoko's certainly got the pace for it and can ping a nice low ball in. Played there for France. Not optimal i'll grant but we're struggling to find a good combo in MFbecause of the players missing.

Exagerrating for affect.

Shame about Haidara as Duff will more than likely p*ss all over Santon in his present form.

Was a bad mistake yesterday. Was obviously surprised the ball came to him after Moussa ducked it. He clearly didn't think about it. Was just instinct to get something to the ball.

I certainly don't think our midfielders are excellent. Better than this, yes. What they lack is any cohesion or plan, both attacking and defending. Every match they play they look like strangers. I know what the glib answer to that is but it really is baffling. For a group to train together everyday for god knows how long but still look lost on matchday. I think when you're in a relegation fight as we are players just lose so much confidence and the game seems to hapening too quickly for them. We haven't been sharp all season though. We've looked fatigued from about the 2nd match into the season!

As will often happen during a bad season, i think the manager and players have lost confidence in each other. Doesn't mean they don't like one another, just deep down i don't think they believe in each other. Our attacking players have a skill set that Pardew doesn't trust and the players are looking lost and directionless for large swathes of each match.