Lotus

Because he's not very good that's why. Under Pardew's management he'd probably be no better than Obertan despite what Ronaldo tells you. Selling Routledge wasn't a mistake but replacing him in the squad with Obertan was. Selling Routledge wasn't a mistake when Jonas Gutierrez ends up as part of a front 3? You're being daft, mate. No, Pardew said we'd be replacing WR with a better player. That turned out to not be the case.

Sounds tough. My 11yr old supports Benfica so it hasn't been a good week!!

Remember Pardew saying something along the lines Tiote having more energy so he asks him to press higher up the pitch. I do think all this 'He's our lion' and 'The New Essien' bollox has got to him. Football for him should be a simple game.

Probably the right thing to do. Totally. Unless we actually drop into the relegation zone i wouldn't even consider sacking him now. I think he can keep us up. However, the Summer would be an excellent time to look for an upgrade (if available and feasible).

You can with clever players. He really is all about the fitness and 'intensity'. We have the players to take the sting out of a load of overhyped headless chickens. We genuinely do.

That's quite a few times you read him saying he thinks he should have done things differently. I do admire the honesty of it but i keep worrying that he doesn't have the perception to get those kind of decisions right the first time.

Again, he hasn't grown with the potential of the squad.

What? We weren't clinical in front of goal and they were. What tactics would you have employed chris? Oh, you know, pass and move. Maybe practice with the ball more than once in training. You know, stuff other teams do. I'd try that.

First 2 sentences sound like the Benfica game.

Given they could have had a couple of pens and if given, a shout for a Taylor red card, can't say they were the reason we lost today.

Pretty good defensively. Didn't get much change out of one on ones with Rose. Was never played in with a bit of space which is what he needed.

He was out of position so i do think people should take that into account. He's had like, 1 good game at LB before. The other times he was there he looked a lot like this. He could have done better but it was quite obvious after 30 mins he was going to get caught out today.

Yep, you could see they had a shape, an approach. They knew what their jobs were.

you muppet. All the fault of a few fans on internet forum. OM diametrically opposed to his user name shirley?

you muppet.

The only reason to bring him on now though would be to see if we can hold them to 1 goal and hope we can nick a goal near the end. Saying that, i don't think he'd be dong any better than Tiote if i'm honest.

I have no idea what he's supposed to be doing and clearly, neither does he.

We're not doing much down the wings and we can't seem to play through them. Over the top, direct play would seem to be our only answer here. Shola is the only option from the bench for that kind of thing.

He's not having a good game so far.

Problem is, they look like they know what they're doing. Bit of movement when they get the ball. When we get it, player looks up see who might be free. No pattern to our play.

Has been coming, unfortunately.

Also, the idea that if we'd scored a second goal the match would have been all over. Looking at our personnel on the pitch at that time, they could have got the goal they needed. In fact, they did anyway meaning we had to score 3 more to win without going to penalties.

I'm convinced Pardew is clueless when it comes to combining the two yeah. That's something that I've commented on about him, it's either one or the other. We got to Old Trafford and The Emirates and try and play football and we get battered at the back. We try and keep things tight which means we aren't very good at attacking. Basically our transitional play under him is dreadful. I've said this a few times.

Would happily give his squad place to Remi Streete or Curtis Good.

Would wonder if it's best to only bring HBA on if we're actually losing. Might be a bit risky with that hamstring. Unless he just wanders about like Messi did the other night