Lotus

I don't think he'd have set up this way had we had Coloccini/Taylor and Santon fit. I think a lot of his thinking was not having a particularly strong back four, and not having his "door openers" available to play much more than half an hour each. Haven't we set up the same way (defensive and hoping to grind out results) pretty much the whole season? We see weaker squads play better football every week. It's all about psychology and inspiring players to push themselves to play better. Just because we have alot of international class professionals doesn't mean they don't need inspiration to push them from time to time or that arm around them to help. That said the players are clearly united with pardew and have bought into what he feeds them. For me it just looks like it's easier for him to play defensive than try to inspire his players mentally to step up. If Swansea play the way they do against someone like Benfica next season, I think they'd get ripped apart tbh. I think our best chance of winning the tie tonight with the players available, was the way we set out. That, imho, is bollocks. Swansea may well get seen off for a variety of reasons but because they have the ball a lot more than the other team won't be one of them. And if the only chance we had of winning the game tonight was the way it panned out, 10 mins of pressure out of 90, then we just had no chance, simple as. That's bollocks like. No chance? When Cisse scored there wasn't a person in the ground who wasn't fairly confident we would win it. We were incredibly close. Not for me. ON is of the opinion that the way we approached the game was the best tactically that we could have done. Don't agree with that and my point was, if that was the best approach possible then we weren't ever really in it.

We had 90 minutes to score 2 goals. We leant on them for 10 of that. If today was the best way we could have approached the game and it resulted in a draw then, QED, we had no chance.

Doesn't that almost seem a waste of a position though? Tiote wins, passes it to Anita who passes it to Cabaye. I'd kind of think about skipping the Anita bit there! Not with Tiote's passing this season Aye, fair enough! He has been , er, erratic!

I don't think he'd have set up this way had we had Coloccini/Taylor and Santon fit. I think a lot of his thinking was not having a particularly strong back four, and not having his "door openers" available to play much more than half an hour each. Haven't we set up the same way (defensive and hoping to grind out results) pretty much the whole season? We see weaker squads play better football every week. It's all about psychology and inspiring players to push themselves to play better. Just because we have alot of international class professionals doesn't mean they don't need inspiration to push them from time to time or that arm around them to help. That said the players are clearly united with pardew and have bought into what he feeds them. For me it just looks like it's easier for him to play defensive than try to inspire his players mentally to step up. If Swansea play the way they do against someone like Benfica next season, I think they'd get ripped apart tbh. I think our best chance of winning the tie tonight with the players available, was the way we set out. That, imho, is bollocks. Swansea may well get seen off for a variety of reasons but because they have the ball a lot more than the other team won't be one of them. And if the only chance we had of winning the game tonight was the way it panned out, 10 mins of pressure out of 90, then we just had no chance, simple as.

Right now he looks like he needs the sort of time on the ball that was afforded him at Ajax. Maybe next year he'll get to grips with the pace.

Was so great to see him.

He's not growing with the potential of the squad for me.

Doesn't that almost seem a waste of a position though? Tiote wins, passes it to Anita who passes it to Cabaye. I'd kind of think about skipping the Anita bit there!

He's pretty good picking it up from the CBs and getting it going. He's not all that useful without the ball though, and as we're not a possession based side i can see how it's a struggle to get the best out of him.

Thought Anita looked a lot better tonight tbh.

He's playing ok now. Wouldn't be in my 1st choice 11 but defo a sub option - professional, works hard, doesn't try stupid passes, can draw a foul, etc.

He's starting to behave like he belongs on he pitch. About f**king time tbh. He's got a bit of swagger now. Starting to look tasty.

You're pissing into wind mate. 'Our tactics were spot on', 'Pards did nothing wrong' blah blah.

Who ever thinks we deserved to win the first match or the first half of this one is rewriting history.

They were the better team. Much better understanding of how to play the game. Oh well. Roll on Sunday!

You bunch of ignoramuses! That quote is a classic

Better an army of sheep led by a lion than an army of lions led by a sheep

At least you're honest about it Aye! Takes one to know one

No probs, no doubt someone will be along to correct everything i said mind does seem a fiercely debated subject! Odd that numbers can be so open to interpretation.

Oh, ok. Cheers for the help! I'm just not a logical thinker (probs obvious) so this sort of stuff is impossible for me.

OK, thanks for this. Is the worry then that if he does take back the £18m it will mean our transfer budget will be severely affected?

The bank overdraft was at £11.8m at July 2012, with Ashley taking out another £18m by June 2013 plus the January buys i cant see him going the extra mile any time soon tbh. Another summer of 'penny pinching' accusations coming up. I don't understand this all very well, could you highlight the £18m by June bit. It's just all Greek to me unless someone spells it out!

Vermaelen & Koscielny?

I guess my worry is that next season is just an average of the 1st two, so we finish about 10th (ish), the good players leave for better things, we struggle to buy replacements who as influential if not more so. Thing is, i know he's been very unlucky this season, however, i also know that he was very lucky last season. Neither will be the norm. Last year you could see there wasn't the consistent quality of our play to warrant a 5th place but somehow we managed. We did't build on that, we didn't evolve a style, a method. This year we've played better than our league position so it's swung the other way. I don't think he's sure of the philosophy he wants to implement. Actually, that's painfully obvious but 'a thought', just look at it and you can see it. Another thing is, you look at managers who are recognised for their ability, obviously, Ferguson, Wenger, Mourinho and then others not quite mentioned in the same breath, Benitez, Redknapp (christ knows why), Moyes, etc. They can instill a bit of awe in their team, a bit of fear. I think Pardew goes for the buddy buddy approach because he knows he can't pull that off because he, as a manager, as his charges. He's never had a squad this good (and it isn't even that good) but he's never managed players of this calibre and if he gets sacked from here he never will again. If he gives that dressing room a fire and brimstone talk they're gonna think, 'f*ck off, pal. You haven't got enough about you to dish that out'. He knows it so he goes about it being Mr Nice, arm around the shoulder, etc. Deep down, i reckon he knows he's a mismatch. If he really believed his talent made him deserve this he'd have got stuck into the bigger players earlier on in the season, shaken them out of the stuper that just seems to envelop everyone before January.