Lotus

They were utterly crap. Really don't belong in this league. We were streets ahead of them. Thought we were largely composed and well organised. Really could have won by a greater margin. Thought Cameron was going to score for them on the turn. He had 2 good chances but he's sh*te so he didn't get anything worthwhile on either of them. We did seem to turn off a bit in the 2nd half but our subs brought the momentum back to us. I thought we could have brought HBA on a little earlier. Think he made a big difference. Our best performers - Cabaye, thought he was really good today, if Remy had been in the mood they'd have carved them open. Colo was top. Our right side in general. HBA. Worst - no one was bad but i thought Santon could have done more to defend a couple of crosses that came in from his side. He also gave the ball away by cutting in and presenting them with an attacking opportunity. Same as against Soton. That was silly. Couple of times Tiote just stood about as they won the ball and let Anita do the defending. He's not normally like that (Tiote). Was good to have a comfortable win. Hope Cabaye's ok....

I think if the TEAM attacked better as a result of him being on the pitch then there would always be a place for him.

Swansea fans didn't lool overly tense in the 90th minute the other week now i think about it. Suppose it can happen to some....

Pardew's career win % is 42.99, Hughton's is 42.45. Pretty much the same, so say the stats tbh tbh.

Agree that that's how we'll line up. Think we'll get a draw. Yeah! Sorry!!! Actually didn't HBA's name! There's no way he's starting this unless there's an injury. Shola a certainty.

Agree that that's how we'll line up. Think we'll get a draw.

We had some good chances to win against Soton. They seemed to come from mistakes from them though, we didn't move their defenders around enough and create openings for ourselves. The basis of our formation seemed to be all about stopping Soton playing. I thought we did that pretty well. We worked really hard to close them down. You could tell we wouldn't be able to keep that up. The way Anita was charging about, you knew he was going to run out of gas.

I said more or less the same thing in the Pardew thread without even seeing this post. We were 1-0 up at home against a weakened S'ton team and regardless of the result we should have been able to impose ourselves more in that second half. It is weird we can do it at Old Trafford, yet bottle it against Southampton. I know Cabaye was missing but Pardew's attitude that we needed to keep the ball last week but not so much this (hence Krul going long a lot today), well i hate that. We should always want to keep the ball. No, at Manu the onus was on them to play and us to stop them. We were the underdog, players know it and they went out there to prove themselves. Today, we're favourites, we have to impose ourselves against a team of lesser players. Unfortunately they had most of the ball, we had a couple of decent spells but we seemed to rely on mistakes or breaks to get good opportunities at goal. We don't a particularly effective system of attack.

Basically, we have better players but they're a better and doing what they do than we are at doing what we do. Result=Draw.

It's exceedingly rare that we ever manage more than 45 mins of decent football.

Waste of a sub for me. Rarely picked the right choice.

Not from what i've seen (which isn't much tbh). Been more like a 4-4-1-1 with Rodriguez basically sitting in midfield when they don't have the ball.

will it be a midfield 3 ? Aye! I've been presumptious there! They seems to play normally 1 upfront so i think they'll look to crowd the midfield. Would imagine we'll look to counter that. I could imagine Pardew playing with idea of a 2 man midfield and 2 strikers if he had Cabaye. Without him i'm not so sure.

If we are right in their faces from the kick off, Our midfield 3 closing the down, denying them time and space for the first 10 minutes or so and, give ourselves some confidence, i think we'll then start to play some good football and dominate the first half barring any stupid mistakes.

Didn't other players say his relationship with the players was all a bit too close, a bit too buddy buddy and that's what got the side in difficulties? Think it was John Hartson.... Personally, i think he is liked. That's different though. That's never enough.

tmonkey. http://www.newcastle-online.org/nufcforum/index.php/topic,93975.msg4704726.html#msg4704726 Thanks LRD.

If posters disagree that's all and well and good, it's a discussion! If someone thinks that Pardew is a good motivator, please state some reasons for thinking that. Personally, whoever the poster was who raised this (sorry i can't remember the name, sure Dave can) it made me think. I look at the results, see teams who we should be stronger than but we struggle. Why is that? You can see the effort against 'name' teams. Why not against the less glamorous sides?

I see what you mean. Haven't been particularly emphatic performances though. I suppose the question is why we can't seem to get up for it enough to steamroller a team. Other teams have certainly steamrolled us. They did it because they were better and also highly motivated. When we're better, are we motivated enough to truly turn another team over? Not really. Winning tight is the Pardew way. It has nothing to do with motivation. So you're of the opinion that he asks us to only win by 1 goal. Seems a bit far fetched...

I see what you mean. Haven't been particularly emphatic performances though. I suppose the question is why we can't seem to get up for it enough to steamroller a team. Other teams have certainly steamrolled us. They did it because they were better and also highly motivated. When we're better, are we motivated enough to truly turn another team over?

Horseplop ! You can't make that statement based on this season's performances alone. NUFC 0 Liverpool 6 plus many more no-shows. So, do you think we'll show the same commitment and drive against Soton as we did as against Man U?

Someone made a canny post that Dave picked up on regarding Pardew's motivational skills. He pointed out that against the big teams (apart from Man City) we seem to be up for it but against less glamorous opposition we don't . The theory is that the players can get themselves motivated when playing Man U, Liverpool, Chelsea, Spurs, etc but against teams like Hull, Cardiff, Swansea, WHam, etc it needs the manager to get them gee'd up for it and that doesn't appear to be happening. All i'm doing here is highlighting someone else's idea but i think it's worth commenting on. Southampton is going to be a test of this idea. Coming off a win at Old Trafford the players should be full of confidence but they need to show a focus and an intensity against Southampton. Obviously, we all hope we do but let's see what our attitude is on Saturday.

Believe it or not i thought Poyet made a lot of sense and made some vary good points (especially about midfield) when he was commentating.

Except for injury, i would be genuinely surprised if the starting 11 wasn't the same as yesterday.

Didn't think Santon looked much kop last night but, tbh Haidara didn't really look a whole lot better. Was a nothing substitution. Didn't make us better, didn't make us worse.

I don't know if he was better, but both were at least equally s***, yet people rather have Williamson on than Colo. Against Man U I'd play MYM and Colo, no need for having Willo against technical players such as Kagawa and possibly RvP. ManU are bound to get a few corners. They're also quite good from them. I'd have a CB on who can jump.