Lotus

We need to start running at Britton btw.

I actually think i'd consider putting Marveux on. It'll be Shola though for a more 'direct approach'.

Everytime one of their midfielders get the ball, at least 2 Swansea players move towards him and present themselves for a pass. When one of ours gets it, everyone moves away expecting us to go direct which the guy with the ball is then only left with as an option.

Tbh, Swansea pass and move better than us with (on the whole) inferior players. Makes you realise how little we must do it in training.

........................Krul....................... Santon...Willo.......Saylor.....Fergie ...............Anita.......Tiote............... Marveux..........HBA..........Obertan ........................Ba........................

Looks like we may need him against Swansea. I don't think he's done much at all but i'd still definitely start him ahead of Sammy.

He's already made us a difficult side to beat though IMO (something that he deserves a tremendous amount of credit for), do you not think he should be pushing on and trying to build on that? The next logical step seems to be to focus on our attacking play, which on the evidence if this season he either isn't doing at all or else he has no idea how to go about it. True, but there's the added complication of squad rotation (cup games) and having the prep time for matches reduced. He's never had to deal with this before as a manager (European competition) IIRC, so he's got to cut his teeth too. He's very good about worrying about other teams but he doesn't seem to be very good about making other teams worry about us. In any sport, when you haven't got much time to analyse and concentrate on your opponents strong points you do the next best thing, you concentrate on your own (of which we SHOULD have a shit load) and then enjoy watching THEIR arse fall out after 15 minutes. We have no attacking momentum, no cut and thrust.

He's still the weakest player in our first choice XI. True but even so with how we are playing at the moment i'm not sure we would get the best out of almost any signing we would make. The way we are playing is more of a concern to me at the moment than any potential signings. Whilst it by no means excuses the style of football we're currently producing, a proper RB would help us out. We're extremely unbalanced at the moment. Santon gets into good attacking positions and overlaps whoever is on the left but on the right we're pretty much solely relying on Ben Arfa to create everything. I struggle to think of Simpson getting into the box which doesn't help us out one bit. Signing a RB to replace Simpson would at least offer us another outlet down that side of the pitch. Be nice if Santon actually crossed from his left once in a while. That stopping, turning around and giving it to someone else thing is starting to get on my nerves tbh.

Waaaaaaaaaayyyy too early to be starting Sammy imho. Think a lot of the game would pass him by and Fergie would have a hard time at LB with Sammy in front of him in the prem. Maybe when they've both grown up a bit but not now.

This would work imo. Nee chance of it though.

Has he bollocks.

No pattern to our attack at all. No recognisable runs or effective pattern to our passing. We can't be doing ANY attacking drills. Every time we go forward it's like the players have only just met. West Ham in contrast had a pattern. What's more, if that score was the other way around in the last 15 mins we wouldn't have defended with any where near the same discipline. Fat Sam is better than this manager lark than Pardew. Our squad deserves better than both of them imo.

They'll target Simpson and Williamson and try to get us on the break with early balls to Maiga. Can see them scoring again.

We've had one player, ONE, who's moved into space after he's passed the ball. Anita.

Seen a couple occasions where he looked annoyed with Ba. They rarely pass to eachother, proper odd. And they're never going to change imo.

Ba and Cisse are always looking for the same space. Pointless playing them together as a CF pair. I suppose the Senegalese manager figured that out a long time ago.

What's odd is that they play through the middle better than us and we keep pumping long pointlessly.

We'll be so concerned about how not lose against them that we'll have no gameplan as to how to actually win the game other than hoping luck and opportunity allow one of our forwards to have a smash at goal.

Despite not being impressed with him so far this season i did think he showed some glimpses yesterday of what he's about. Controls the ball very quickly which allows him to get his head up and look to see what's on. Wanted Pardew to put Cisse on for Ameobi so we could see what Marveaux would have done with a proper forward in front of him.

He's a midfielder imo. Got pace enough to recover while playing at FB, positionally not great though.

It's true that Jonas doesn't add much to our flow or buildup play. He does make a significant defensive contribution though. I would think we should play the Tiote-Anita Cabaye trio in games where we want to boss possession and then play Jonas against the bigger clubs. See. This is what´s wrong here. Everyone is happy if a player is running around and then hoof it long and hard. How can anyone be happy with that? I think we just have to be honest about the fact that when we come up against the big clubs like the Manchesters, Chelsea and Arsenal we don't have a squad that can outplay them. Or West Brom.

What does he offer going forward as a LB?

What does Santon offer going forward from LB? Crosses, no. Cutting in and playing a killer through ball? No. Shots? No. Running towards the byline, stopping turning around and rolling the ball to someone else? Yes.

I'd take him. Was a very good defender and it would do us the world of good to have a bit balance and actually have a left footer on the left. He also had a very good partnership with Colo.

I think you get managers who have an idea of how they want a team set up, formations, etc and then encourage/coach/coerce the players to fit into that system. Other managers look at what they've got and choose a system/style that suits the players at his disposal. Both these attitudes have there merits imo and there have been very successful managers from both schools of thought. I think Pardew is in the former camp. His problem is that the team isn't really performing the way he wants because they're not best suited to that style. His other (and massive) problem is that i don't think he gets to choose (100%) the players that are bought and sold. So, i think he's looking at it and is trying to find a system that suits the players he's got. But he's not getting it right (yet). He'll know this better than anyone but to keep the players believing in him he focuses on the positives of the performances