Lotus

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.

Had a better game than Williamson imo. Neither of them were helped by Swansea having midfielders ghost in and around the box.

The game is about results - or seemingly it was whilst Pardew was getting them...the result tells you that you are wrong. They beat us by 3 clear goals without their best two strikers. Your Emperor has no new clothes..... Which of their players last night would've been picked if he was a member of our squad? I'll save you the trouble of looking, none of them.

Depending on which camp you sit in: We were utterly crap and Pardew is a w***** as is Howard Webb or They had loads of the ball but we looked more threatening, Krull had a mare for their first (and could have done better for their third), we could easily have had 2 penalties, one nailed on (at 0-1) and another could easily have been given. Scorer of their third could/should have been sent off. Sissoko and Cabaye were very poor and Obertan was Obertan - you really can genuinely question why he came on (Oh and HBA has the flu so not involved, Cisse injured in warm up and similarly unavailable). Howard Webb is a w*****. You'd be better off just not posting at all. You bring absolutely nothing.

Looked exhausted yesterday after about 60 mins.

I'm not sure that even Laudrup could bring about an improvement in Obertan. The level he's at is utter shite. If we wants to better than utter shite he needs to be playing regularly in an enviroment with far less pressure than the Prem.

Handball should have been a pen. Ref was wrong side to see the push.

We had better players 1 to 11, they had a better tactics.

He's got more end product from ben arfa than any previous managers of the lad. Players get better as they mature shocker!!!!!111

I really think Sammy Ameobi would've contributed considerably more than Obertan. Oh well.

Scoreline didn't reflect the game tbf. Must say though, i can't think of a single Swansea player, that if he were in our squad, would've been picked over any of our players. Think we had better players 1 to 11. The way they moved the ball in and around our box was pretty impressive. I understand watching them pass back forth near the halfway line can be frustrating but they were just trying to draw us out, make us press so they could pass into the space we left. It's not a revolutionary tactic, we did it against Hull in the first 15-20 mins Just the way they keep getting the ball centrally near the edge of our box and from there getting it wide. They did that well. Stretched us. They just didn't have a striker to cross the ball to or to play it in to. We also looked quite dangerous in attack but it was with direct balls. Very direct to be honest, not diagonals in behind the fullback, just straight balls to the front. We did win quite a lot of those but didn't seem to have a plan as to what to do from there. To summarise, they have inferior players to ours playing superior football to ours. Sometimes our better players will win out, sometimes their better approach and tactics will win out. Yesterday was theirs.

Imodium can sort that, mate.

Nice.

To be fair going from £20m for Cabaye to a swap for Ramsey before the goals started would rightly be questioned a little bit angrily He has doubled his career tally this season hasnt he? Think Ramsey sums up why confidence is one of the biggest factors in football. Think Bentdner sums up why confidence isn't one of the biggest factors in football.

He'll be sore now though!

Also, one night out after the season is hardly 'party lifestyle favoured by some Newcastle United players during his time on Tyneside.'

The bit in bold is absolute bollocks by the way. Is it? They've said they don't want to be in the Europa League. They've said they don't prioritise the domestic cups. Pardew has played down Champions League aspirations so that whilst it's an alleged 'goal', it's not exactly a priority. The bolded part is 100% correct. It's all Ashley's bothered about. In the cold light of day, it's all any club (outside the top 4/5) have as their first priority, anything else is icing on the cake, secure that first, as absolutely paramount, then see what happens. Our lot happened to put it into words, but doesn't make it any less true for them all though. Don't agree at all, tbh. I highly doubt Ashley's mindset is one that is reflected in every single Premier League boardroom. The top 4/5 remark is even more irrelevant now, given how open the league is this season. So, at the start of the season do you think anyone but the top 4/5 were expecting it to be so open and didn't have getting to 40 points asap as their numero uno priority thus being safe ?? I suppose everyone prioritises Premier League survival in the same way that when humans are born, we intend to live until the next day and so on. I suppose it's numero uno priority in that sense. The absolute bare minimum. But Ashley has no substantial interest in anything beyond that, and that's what disappoints me. And I don't think there are many others in the league that have that thoroughly 'anti-sport' attitude, regardless of what backgrounds they come from. You have no proof of that. Equally neither do I have any proof of the contrary. But based upon his business track record he'll want one hell of a lot more than average, but he'll do it his way. People like him don't do second best (I've worked closely with/for a few in my time and they weren't anything like the scale of Ashley, they were "only" worth tens of millions, they were frighteningly driven/ruthless enough for me though, but I bet they were like kittens compared to this f***er) they'll do it their way and everyone be damned and they play a VERY long game. Absolutely I accept I could be totally wrong, but as ever, only time will tell but he'd be going against every instinct in his make up to be happy with so-so or bare minimum in my opinion. I'm disappointed to say that there has been absolutely nothing during his ownership to suggest you're remotely right. Best stick to the actual evidence then.