Lotus

I thought he drifted out of the game as the ball was going over his head a bit too often. Hardly his fault.

Didn't Pardew say earlier that Cabaye had told him at HT it was tight? He was never going to last the game and shouldn't have been expected to. You KNOW you have to bring him off after an hour or so. That's why you leave Marveaux on. Especially if you're only 1-0 up. It's so f**king obvious it's insulting to try to read more into it. Just desperate to see some logic in a bad decision tbh.

Was it not just that our passing game wasn't as fluent without Cabaye running it? Before the Marveaux sub we started punting it over his head a little too often. To no effect whatsoever.

We started to go more 'direct' after about 60 mins. No idea why as it just gave them the ball. Then the Marveaux sub just said to them that we're not attacking anymore. Was ridiculous. As was leaving Shola on (compounding the mistake of starting him).

Is he really worth getting? Wouldn't be better to give Campbell some appearances?

Is rather contradictory to our MD's explaination of our colouring pens though isn't it? I mean 3 PURPLE CBs at the club. Financial ruin, man! I don't think it's as black and white as all that TBH, it's obvious we need a CB. If Taylor is the purple then he's always injured, and no way Williamson is anything other than brown. The 3 would be Colo, Taylor and New Boy. Willo won't be on much. FWIW, i do think the club will let Colo go if this lad comes in. Just hope they wait until the summer.

Is rather contradictory to our MD's explaination of our colouring pens though isn't it? I mean 3 PURPLE CBs at the club. Financial ruin, man!

I think he's almost interpreting what he's watching in a series of cliches. He hasn't got that sharp perception that seperates the men from the boys. Makes him indecisice too.

Doesn't trust flair players or ball players.

Actually, i think his half time team talk probably changed the game for us. I'm judging that on the way we started to play differently after the break.

This, some clearly stupid people questioning the Cabaye sub(after 2 month out it was always coming) but the Marveaux sub and the 'Do not lose' tactics in the second half at home were shameful. Leaving Jonas on for 90 mins didnt help, nor did some typically s**** defending but come on ffs that was embarrassing to watch! Agree. Cabaye i could understand and predict. But given Cabaye was always going to come off he needed to leave Marveaux to provide some attacking threat.

The starting line up was fine, but those substitutions were just astoundingly bad I knew and said a couple of days ago he's start Shola and Jonas. he just can't help himself. Neither contributed to us going forward. But then, how well a player can attack is not Pardew's chief consideration.

It's difficult because he might be the best manager we could hope for if we're a Championship side next season.

The substitution of Marveaux was utterly stupid.

You know, i bash on Ian a fair bit tbh but we have all been wrong about somethings, all of us. He's a very optimistic guy, and like most jaded people, it just kills me to see others happy!

As SBR said, every manager, if asked, would want just 1 or 2 more players. That's got nothing to do with the inescapable (and i'm sure you agree with this) fact that our players, pretty much every single one of them, has been playing below their optimal level and that as a group, they've looked disjointed and bereft of ideas. It's almost like they don't practive WITH the ball all week, like they the only time they see it is on matchday (obviously they don't but their is no pattern to our use of the ball). You can call it whatever you like, you can refer to last season or any of his previous seasons with any of his other clubs but the point is, we play like crap. Now i think he's just trying to do what worked last season because, imo, he hasn't got the nous to turn it around. If he had, even with the injuries because he's always had enough decent ball players at his disposal and as a collective they've played like poo. You can say we were alright sporadically but so you will be able to say that the all 3 teams that relegated this year. FWIW, im not kneejerking because it's going badly, i called him out last year when things were going well. I thought we were very, very lucky in some games where we got big results, results the performance didn't really deserve, and i thought we'd be found out if we didn't evolve. Guess what? We didn't. Great post. Belongs in the Pardew thread, but I'm sure there's a few versions there already. It's all perfectly reasonable, but my post was in response to people claiming that Pardew doesn't think he's responsible for our play. Which is a mad assertion IMO. I wasn't saying anything about whether he does or doesn't have the ability to improve things. I think the limit of his sense of responsibilty is that he'll want more players. I think he's of the philosophy that you shouldn't over coach attacking players, just let them do what's natural. His side is the organising of the defence. It's a good philosophy if it fits the players you have. Rather than adapt, i think he wants more players and if that doesn't work, he'll want more players.

As SBR said, every manager, if asked, would want just 1 or 2 more players. That's got nothing to do with the inescapable (and i'm sure you agree with this) fact that our players, pretty much every single one of them, has been playing below their optimal level and that as a group, they've looked disjointed and bereft of ideas. It's almost like they don't practive WITH the ball all week, like they the only time they see it is on matchday (obviously they don't but their is no pattern to our use of the ball). You can call it whatever you like, you can refer to last season or any of his previous seasons with any of his other clubs but the point is, we play like crap. Now i think he's just trying to do what worked last season because, imo, he hasn't got the nous to turn it around. If he had, even with the injuries because he's always had enough decent ball players at his disposal and as a collective they've played like poo. You can say we were alright sporadically but so you will be able to say that the all 3 teams that relegated this year. FWIW, im not kneejerking because it's going badly, i called him out last year when things were going well. I thought we were very, very lucky in some games where we got big results, results the performance didn't really deserve, and i thought we'd be found out if we didn't evolve. Guess what? We didn't.

Pre-season was weird. We seem to give a lot of playing time to the fringe players to get them up to speed for the Europa League but neglected the first team who seemed to just get a few minutes here or there. I'm guessing the idea with that is that the 1st teamers don't burn out around March.

Are we? I haven't checked, I must admit. Whatever the stats say, there's been a marked improvement in our football recently, and a massive decrease in the amount of hoofs from all over the pitch aimed at noone in particular. This does not take Mike Williamson into account, and he obviously got a rocket up his arse about them at half time against Norwich. Do the stats on long balls differentiate between clearances, set pieces and aimed diagonal or cross field balls? I wonder this too. I've definitely seen a big improvement in our attempts to keep the ball on the deck, yet every game is followed bys us being slagged off on here for hoofing it too much. Which we clearly don't do as much as we have. It's like everyone is waiting to pounce on every long ball, and ignores the rest of the play. It was like the Anita nonsense after the Norwich match - most of his supposed 'hoofs' were 30 yard balls that he was trying to clip in behind the defence for Cisse. Symptomatic of the same fundamental problem with attacking fluidity, movement and build up play. We know a thread about that don't we boys and girls? Tra la la la tra la la la

He might have some itk on Ashley's urge to follow in the footsteps on Sammy Davis Jnr for all we know..

Originally from Erebor until the dragon Smaug took control of the Lonely Mountain. Currently homeless as he seeks to reclaim his kingdom. He's having a go at the Dwarves now!

We're so bad with it on the floor tbh, i can't make my mind up which is more painful

Needs commas to be better racism .

Dunno, Williamson seemed to be defying that idea against Norwich, like.

They are meant to be losing Douglas to us Gor for both then! If we're reportedly prepared to pay 2.5M euro for a back up LB then 2m euro for a very good CB prospect can't be a stretch to far can it? Not like we're blessed with depth there even if we get Douglas!