oldtype

Also, a short pass for Williamson could be passing it back meaninglessly to Krul, while most of Cabaye's short passes would probably be contested.

Where is this from btw? http://www.whoscored.com/Teams/23/Show/England-Newcastle-United via Opta. I admittedly haven't done the math, but you'd assume that Cabaye plays significantly more long passes because he plays significantly more passes period. It's average per game, although it's actually "accurate long passes per game" which may skew the figures somewhat in favour of Cabaye playing more as he's more likely to find his man. They show we play a fair amount more than anyone else, both as a percentage of our total passes and in general. What I mean is Cabaye plays 45.9 passes per game while say... Williamson only plays 32.5, so obviously Cabaye's long passes would be higher than Williamson for that reason, regardless of whether we're going by total or per game. Just briefly doing the math, Cabaye comes out as about 20.47% long passes as a proportion of total passes. Williamson is 19.61%, Colo 21.5%, Simpson 20.54%. I doubt any of those differences are statistically significant.

Where is this from btw? http://www.whoscored.com/Teams/23/Show/England-Newcastle-United via Opta. I admittedly haven't done the math, but you'd assume that Cabaye plays significantly more long passes because he plays significantly more passes period.

I highly doubt that any manager specifically instructs his players to "always play it long" or "always play it short." (Okay, there might be a couple exceptions...) There's no question Pardew does prefer a direct style as his primary mode of attack, but that doesn't mean that he tells the players to always hit it up to Demba even if there's an easy pass 5~6 yards away. We'll be set up to primarily exploit longer passes, but the players should also be ready to take opportunities to bring it up from deep when possible. A lot of our strength last year was our ability to mix it up. We were primarily focused on being solid defensively and relying on getting it up to the final third quickly for our attacking players, but when space was there, we had the capability to set up deeper, more gradual attacks. This made it difficult for the opposition to stifle us by adapting to a singular mode of play. This year it's all Plan A and no Plan B. As far as I'm concerned that's down to the players who had previously been responsible to the transition phase of our less direct attacks being horrendously out of form. Not because the tactical instructions have changed.

Find that very far fetched personally. I find the idea that Pardew would specifically instruct the players to always just lump it forward to be significantly less probable.

It's funny how since coming back up to the Premiership, we've very rapidly gone from being a team that's heavily reliant on wide play and set pieces to being a team that doesn't do any of either.

I think there's a bit of a "Chicken/Egg" problem with the whole "only plays long balls" thing. I sincerely doubt that the players are specifically instructed to hoof it long. I think it's just that a lot of our less talented players end up reverting to that because overall movement off the ball is extremely poor so there's rarely an easy pass to pick out. The fundamental problem is a lack of movement and understanding between the players, everything stems from that.

Cabaye was pretty anonymous for his first few appearances and he was playing in a much more functional team. Think it's just a matter of time for Anita. All of his problems seem to stem from lack of understanding rather than lack of ability.

It's revisionist history to be saying that "we were always like this." The tactical shape is the same, but what's different is that with a few exceptions, the individuals are massively out of form. Obviously there weren't a lot of games we "dominated" last year, but it's the norm for most games in any competitive league to be very close. If anything, six dominant results a season is a ridiculously high number for us. What we should be counting is the number of games in which we've looked utterly and completely inept. I think I can count the occasions last year on one hand. This year it's basically every week.

It's perfectly fair since our quality of play is making us look like the second-worst team in the league, but I don't think he gets to shoulder all the blame. We're basically playing the same (mostly uninspired) tactics as last year, but the difference is that individuals aren't preforming. Pardew in my opinion has always been a mediocre tactician but an effective motivator and man manager. The question we should be asking is why the latter part isn't working anymore.

To be honest, this is just about what we've been used to for the past decade or so and what a club in our position should be expecting for the foreseeable future. Last season was a happy fluke, but it makes this season feel that much worse. I think I'd be pretty 'meh' about the whole thing if we finished 10th last year or something.

Aye, it's been way too long since we've had a "sack the board" discussion. Good to be back.

Surely your trips over (you've been to a few games, haven't you?) are what has cemented the support, as opposed to here? I hadn't been until I came on here and the local people I've met in person were people from here. I don't think I'd have gone as often as I have without this place and even so, I certainly wouldn't have had such a good time and positive impression of the city.

To be honest, I probably wouldn't still be supporting NUFC, or at least not to the same intensity, if I hadn't discovered this place. It's a shame that the football section is like a fucking wake whenever we're not playing well, but it's still one of the most wonderful places on the internet. So yeah, I blame everything on you guys.

Everything from relegation to last season has been a hell of a ride. This year is like going back to the kiddy pool. We're not going to get relegated or anything, but it's just so safe and boring and unremarkable. I suppose I might get more excited once we hit the UEFA knockout stages.

Absolutely zero this year, but I suppose that was inevitable.

When are you going to crawl out of his arse? I think I've been very fair tbh. He needs to take responsibility for the poor performances but players like Cisse, Cabaye and Tiote have all been poor this season. There's no real argument against that. That's because they're footballers and need a side set up to play football. How good do you think Rooney or Nani would look if Man sat back and whacked the ball long rather than push forward and play passing football? Obviously our style has never been particularly attractive, but it's the same tactics as last year and questions do have to be asked why the players are suddenly playing like shit.

Has to be said there's clearly something wrong with the players mentally. A lot of this reminds me of when things started to go bad with Roeder after that Southampton loss in 06/07. Everyone just looks terrified of everything.

You sure about that? The rest of his tenure aside from this season can't have been dumb luck. Clearly something has changed, whether that's just mass complacency or some actual behind the scenes bullshit I have no way of knowing.

Something's terribly wrong. Obviously Pardew's not an idiot and sacking the manager is not the answer, but as it is I don't expect us to start spontaneously playing well again next week or any week. It's going to be a pretty boring season.

Phew. Williamson almost scored there. Destruction of spacetime continuum averted.

Don't even start with this shit. Selective memory keeps me sane

We'll never get any decisions ever, will we?

Played decently. Pretty unlucky.

No Colo for the next three is just going to be really, really shit.