Lotus

I know! You could plant flowers on our left with that set up

Player in a contract dispute eh? (nah) Born in Middlefart apparently. Wasn't aware they could come out of the sides !!!

I don't understand that. For a CB to be actually poor as in very, very bad indeed. You would have to want him dropped.

How highly do people rate in comparison to someone like Franco Baresi?

Reckon i'd be tempted to play Mbiwa and Saylor 1st leg and if we win comfortably Willo and Mbiwa 2nd leg. Just to keep Satlor and Colo relatively fresh.

I like that.

I hope that's sarcastic, like. If you can be at fault for 2 goals and still have a really good game overall, Titus Bramble would be winning trophies. Why mention Titus?

Shouldn't have started ahead of Anita today. He'll dropped for next game anyway.

Thought we were a bit unlucky tbh. Bad decision by Colo cost us the game unfortunately. Gouf staying on would have made a big difference too. All in all though, we played better and should have had a point. C'est la vie. HBA back for Soton, we'll win that i reckon.

i'm not sure, i think we'll have the same starting XI as last week. for me it's not just the defensive side but the way perch kept it simple and kept the ball moving quick, which has been tiote's biggest failing recently. as someone said earlier i have no doubt tiote is the better player for that role but perch has been the one in form. Anita is better than both of them put together for that imho. better at keeping the ball moving without doubt, not so sure on the defensive side as i see it with nouse needed to sit in so the centre halves can spread or drop wide to directly cover the full backs. Funnily enough i think that's one he can do! I think it's what he does without the ball, the ability to defend that space in front of the 2 CBs where he needs to improve. Just being able to nick the ball (he's never going to be a heavy tackler) or intercept passes. He gets that to his game he'll be practically undroppable.

I thought the same!

i'm not sure, i think we'll have the same starting XI as last week. for me it's not just the defensive side but the way perch kept it simple and kept the ball moving quick, which has been tiote's biggest failing recently. as someone said earlier i have no doubt tiote is the better player for that role but perch has been the one in form. Anita is better than both of them put together for that imho.

I'd play Anita or Tiote ahead of Perch. He didn't do enough to keep his place imo. Just because we won doesn't mean we can't improve.

Has Vertongen struggled a bit lately?

The one player i would be definitely looking to change would be Perch. Just think Bale will glide past him or draw a foul. Would actually think about getting Anita to mark him, Anita has the pace, not the strength to tackle him or knock him off the ball but he has the pace to keep up with him and hopefully nulify him a bit. I also reckon Sissoko's too much of an athlete for Parker so that's where we'll do our damage.

Tbh, if he was out for 15 mins then i'm glad to hear he's ok. That's quite long actually.

Souness managed the biggest teams in Mickey Mouse leagues. But the point was, comparing only their Newcastle careers, Souness has a higher win % than Pardew.

Mate was telling me Pardew has a lower win % than Souness (at Newcastle, GS's is far superior throughout his career).

Given that he's been out for a while, i didn't actually think Taylor was that bad. There was that instance when he was knocked over fairly easily but on the whole, he was considerably better than Williamson.

It doesn't depress me, like. Though I think I differ from many on here in thinking no game is lost before it's started. Very few think a game is lost before it's started. After half time team talks, subs and tactical tinkering however....... Aye, righto. Have yourself a look at some of the pre match threads, especially after the lineup is announced. Tbf, those thinking we wouldn't get a result must have been right about 75% of the time this season. And the line up is a fairly good indicator (although not perfect) of how we're going to play.

Is the point not reasonable anyway though? We scrapped as hard as Villa really, just they were scrapping to get a goal and we already had the lead. Both are types of battling. Obviously nobody can argue we've been playing brilliantly like. I think Dave's asking why we can't fight to get back on level terms or win when we're chasing a game. Why is it, we've never won a league game when going behind under AP? Quite a baffling stat, actually

Yeah, but Shola ended up around the edge of our box, Anita was further forward.

Out of interest, do you think he tells them to retreat and hold onto the lead and play possession football or does he tell them to retreat and hold onto the lead by panicking and hoofing the ball to the opposition? Both, when stress is slightly applied and we are in the lead or holding out for a drawn, we will sit deep and the players will drop dribbling forward. Just watch the last 20 games again. in the second half our players stop dribbling up the field and choose to hold positions. Its exactly why we start hoofing it. GO watch the Game stop being muppets of Pardew when you guys dont actually watch it properly. Sitting deep and not dribbling in itself is not a tactical flaw. Plenty of teams can effectively close a game out by retaining possession and not taking risks. Nothing wrong with sitting deep in itself, I agree. It's a great opportunity to hit teams on the break if you set your team out right to take avdantage of the opposition throwing everyone forward. But you need to pass the ball out when you get possession, not thump it 70 yds down the pitch in the direction of 6'5 substitute striker. Well - I agree entirely with that. Lumping the ball upfield is brainless and self-defeating - especially when Shola had no-one within 20 yards of him to even play the ball to. What I am trying to gauge is whether people think that Pardew actually tells them to do this or it is the reaction of a team that is low on confidence, desperate to get a win and was under severe pressure. I just don't believe that Pardew actually instructs them to hoof it upfield whenever they have the ball. What else are they going to do when you bring on Shola then ask your centre forwards to drop onto the right wing? I don't want to labour this point because I'm sick of making it. I just don't see any evidence that we've ever planned how to bring the ball out of defence in Pardew's time here. Let's hope now he's got his quality players he'll be able to develop it. We still had another 10 players on the pitch other than Shola...! It's not like you suddenly have to abandon all rational thought just because we've got a tall striker on the pitch. They had plenty of options every time they had the ball. Like pass to Cisse on the wing? Come off it man, like Wullie said, if it was one game you might have a point. I do find putting Cisse on the wing a bit baffling, but why can't the ball be passed to Cisse on the wing? Are you genuinely trying to say that a professional footballer can't fill in effectively on the right wing and have the ball passed to him? It wasn't like we were playing him as a centre half. You can put professional footballers wherever you like, but it's generally a good idea to play them in their natural position. Putting Cisse on the wing is not a justifiable excuse as to why we can't keep possession of the ball. The focus of our coaching and game preparation is not to do with having the ball. We practice mostly what we do without it. Given that pass, control, move, receive, etc is not an ethos of the club currently, trying it on matchday when we're under pressure is inviting trouble. Hence, we treat a bit more like rugby, get it out of our territory or in to touch so we can regroup.

We've done it so many times that it's not a coincidense. Pardew is clearly setting us up to defend the lead, with every fucling player, except Shola, behind the ball. Of course, that just invites pressure. Also, what Steve Stone said a while ago... Pardew is a tactical mess which has it base in him being a f***ing coward. When did Steve Stone say that? After the Swansea game at home. Can you point to the quote? Or was it at a talk in?