oldtype

Was pretty sure he was moved over to the wing for the last ten minutes or so.

Nobody really instructs their players to exclusively play "long ball" (well, almost nobody. Hi Big Sam!), players just tend to naturally gravitate towards hopeful punts when the team's movement is bad and they're not getting any space to pass into. It's a natural tendency. It's not a coincidence that we're punting it when we're playing badly and passing it short when we're playing well. It's just that the causality is in the opposite direction. It's also not a coincidence that basically all of our managers for the past decade have been criticized for "long ball tactics" when the team is in bad form. Pardew's weakness is his affinity for bad players and pig-headedness on certain issues (Ben Arfa on wing), long ball tactics not so much. That coupled with inopportune injuries (Taylor,) players taking a while to return to fitness (Tiote, Colo), and fatigue (Jonas) is what's wrecking our form.

Given Obertan and Jonas' obvious fatigue today I don't look forward to seeing them start again just five days later.

Feels like we'll never win again

I hate his fetish for shit players, but we're technically still 7th. If this same set of results had come in a different order nobody would be complaining about him.

Pretty accurate ratings those really. Scapegoat. There were worse players than him out there tonight. Having him in the backline destabilizes everything and makes us prone to stupid goals. Happened at Norwich and exact same thing happened today. Two goals should be enough to get you a point at least.

Having calmed down mildly, I think "fatigue" just about sums up why we lost that match. Our wingers are fucked and need a rest. We need more wingers.

James Perch at CB = no points Simple really.

Crumpy back in full force

Same as Norwich really. We huff and puff all day long and can't score, they just get the ball anywhere in the general area of our box and GOAL! Steven Taylor getting injured has derailed this season completely. Oh, and fuck Pardew's fetish for bad players.

All the good work of the first half of the season undone. Fuck this.

All they have to do is fart in the general direction of the goal. It goes in. Fuck football.

Fuck this game. Fuck life.

Typical. I persevere through all the bullshit and we score the second my feed goes down.

FA were originally going to go with a foreign coach but only Sven, Brucie, and Arie Haan applied. Basically decided "fuck this shit" and just appointed a Korean guy.

Not getting the job

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/south-korea/8966961/Steve-Bruce-likely-to-become-new-coach-of-South-Korea.html http://alltheragefaces.com/img/faces/svg/fuck-that-bitch-scared-yao.svg

You can't expect that from players though. They're not fans. The club is just a job to them. How excited are you about your job? Would you be hanging out around work seeing how the other guys are doing after taking a sick day? Yes, they're paid a lot but that's the only kind of paycheck they've ever known. I doubt most of them think of themselves as especially privileged. It's naive to believe that players "love the club" and it's certainly unrealistic to demand that they do so.

I think it's pretty normal that most corners don't come to anything to be fair. Barton had plenty of shit corners for every one of his good ones last year.

Don't see why this is a problem at all. I guess it would be a nice gesture if he was in the stands watching the match, but it's hardly mandatory.

Didn't realise you sacked that other guy. Don't you need a result in the next game or you're out? Aye, we need to win or draw against Kuwait at home, which should by all rights be trivial but then again we're more than capable of self-destructing. Come in, lose one match, get sacked, walk away with payoff. Sounds like Sven's kind of job.

When you get on a bad run it really does feel like you'll never, ever win again.

Probably been whooshed but I'm going to stick my neck out and say Arfster could play there, he has a little bit of history in that role. Love how comfortable Santon has shown himself to be on the ball and how looks to go forward as soon as he gets it. Very refreshing. I mean, obviously Ben Arfa would be fine but the point that was being made was that we were disadvantaged by having two opposite-footed wide players on the left side. He unfortunately doesn't solve that problem. (Unless I'm stupid and Ben Arfa is actually left-footed.)

If Obertan was gash yesterday then Jonas was abysmal Agreed. Just Obertan is an easy scapegoat for many people. The difference is that Jonas has had games where he's our best player on the pitch. Some bad performances are excusable. Obertan has ranged somewhere between abysmal and mildly useful and yet starts every match.

Could very easily shift Jonas over to the right now that he doesn't have to babysit his "fullback" anymore. Then again, we don't have an actual left-footed winger to come in anyway so fuck that