mrmojorisin75

very interesting to see what happens if there's a bloodbath against chelsea tomorrow

Injuries and squad management are part of the game. I would argue that Pardew has been hamstrung somewhat by the latter due to the severity of the former; nevertheless, some of his rotation decisions have been puzzling (to say the least), although I've formerly attributed that to his previous desire to try and keep his 'best striker' at the club. hm, i agree with you to an extent but there's no doubt in my mind he's failed to do his job in a lot of circumstances...credit for last season seems to be de rigeur atm so credit to him for managing williamson/simpson last season and getting some of the results he did but there's no excuse for this season imo

so that's it then Stu, he just gets a pass when the good players are injured? i see your point but you're steadfastly ignoring the fact that it's his job to work around these things

you certainly could

so as i said, not a lot then really in PL terms....if memory serves they weren't doing too great when he took over either and he didn't have the greatest squad to start with later spending has seen them further up the league challenging for europe every season no?

in pardew's defence i'll admit that HBA not returning must have been a massive blow, i think him and sissoko could seriously tear it up and it might have changed our fortunes had he returned when expected but then it's his job to work around that and he hasn't succeeded

What can Pardew do about that? I mean he does them in training but what can he do if the players simply don't score from them/defend them properly in a match? What can he do? How about his job I was being sarcastic Just using the ridiculous line of reasoning that Pardews lovers use to excuse a whole manner of his failings to show how absurd it is. pardew gets an insane amount of leeway from some people like, 3 points off relegation 7 games to go At the same time, people have quickly written off the fact he took us to the last game of the season away from a Champions League spot. One great season, one s*** season. I'm in the camp where I think he has earned the chance to put it right. If we're still struggling come October or November next season, he deserves to be sacked. If we're back challenging the top 6, we were right to stand by him. Spot on. I think the thread should be closed on that post. What concerns me is even last season how many games were fans saying that the tactics were not right within a lot of games - I can think of a number of games when wonder strikes won games after being second best within the actual game. I just see the same basic mistakes and poor tactical line ups and plans being used game after game. His overall record at a management level is not very good either and we look like conceding against any opposition no mater what formation or players we have played. If I had been able to see any sign of errors being addressed or problem areas being worked on I would agree but it's just not happening and that has to be down to the coaching standards as the same things have been ongoing all season long. this is me down to a tee, i was saying this exact thing last season when things were going well along with Tron and a few others and haven't changed my stance i'd can him if it was my call but i'm not rabid about it, i agree that if we stay up and he gets some more quality players we'll have a better season next year (could hardly be worse), so let's keep him by all means...but i hope everyone is prepared for the same gameplan again i reiterate that what makes a good/great manager is success in the face of adversity, to pull results out when everything is against you, and if this season has proven anything it's that pardew can not do this, not even close

So why didn't Kenwright sack Moyes in the season they finished 17th? moyes has more or less been forced to operate on scraps since he went there, in his first 2-3 years he had nothing like the backing and quality players pardew has had in his time here imo...even young rooney was sold before he had much chance of an impact also, touching on what mick has said, prior to everton moyes progess was all upward unless i'm mistaken...preston manager right? so they've backed him on their belief in him and his short upward track record, pardew has a decade behind him which some people are writing off as irrelevant...well if his managerial record is irrelevant then using moyes as an example to back him is surely even more irrelevant?

What can Pardew do about that? I mean he does them in training but what can he do if the players simply don't score from them/defend them properly in a match? What can he do? How about his job I was being sarcastic Just using the ridiculous line of reasoning that Pardews lovers use to excuse a whole manner of his failings to show how absurd it is. pardew gets an insane amount of leeway from some people like, 3 points off relegation 7 games to go

oof that's not bad at all

The away results and performances have been a joke though. Of the 160 teams that make up the top 7 divisions in English football 156 have picked up more points away from home than us. The only teams who've picked up fewer points than us (8) are Droylsden (3), Hinckley (4) and Reading (5). Whatever his gameplans have been away from SJP it's gone horribly, horribly wrong more often than not. It's happened too often to be written off as a coincidence or a fluke. It's an atrocious stat. We set up too defensively away from home, which is baffling as we can't defend very well, with us having the worst defence away from home in the Premiership would that point out. What i don't get is why we seem more attacking in Europe, i just hope Pardew lets the players play the same way in the league now, without the errors of course. style of football the oppo play more than likely, slower game and less pressure from the home team will lead to it being easier for us to play a more expansive game I was thinking that myself but it can't just be so simple surely. Maybe when you play domestic games you are more guarded as you know those teams inside out. This all goes back to Pardew though, if his mindset is to be cautious and defensive then his team will reflect it. After watching us play hoofball, set penises that are so poor it's become a joke, ridiculous comments in the media, a defence that is one of the worst in the league. And as Midds has pointed out, one of the worst away records in the country, even one of the four teams worse than us actually beat us at home. I'm not sure how anyone can still want him here, i'm just unsure how far and how bad we have to be for the reality of his limitations to set in. And for some to realise that he is just a poor manager and coach. good point

The away results and performances have been a joke though. Of the 160 teams that make up the top 7 divisions in English football 156 have picked up more points away from home than us. The only teams who've picked up fewer points than us (8) are Droylsden (3), Hinckley (4) and Reading (5). Whatever his gameplans have been away from SJP it's gone horribly, horribly wrong more often than not. It's happened too often to be written off as a coincidence or a fluke. It's an atrocious stat. We set up too defensively away from home, which is baffling as we can't defend very well, with us having the worst defence away from home in the Premiership would that point out. What i don't get is why we seem more attacking in Europe, i just hope Pardew lets the players play the same way in the league now, without the errors of course. style of football the oppo play more than likely, slower game and less pressure when i possession from the home team will lead to it being easier for us to play a more expansive game

Hope they both take last nights 'form' into the Fulham game. Assuming Marv starts like. http://www.sports.fr/football/images/photosjoueurs/obertan-gabriel-19308.jpg

i'm as worried about home performances, we've looked best this season against teams who like to play themselves...when teams come to shut up shop pardew is totally snookered like, he doesn't have a scooby

Not convinced that Shola was the best sub for Sylvain. Don't agree that Campbell is some sort of wondersub either (especially as he'd be replacing his partner in crime, Marveaux) - maybe Obertan in hindsight as Benfica surprisingly kept a high-line when 3-1 up. Not sure that was great management by their boss, as it allowed us to scrape a couple of half-chances together (Cisse's attempt to square it to Sissoko springs to mind). fair enough, in general he worries me when you can sense a change in the game coming...he just doesn't seem to sense it himself, to anticipate it and make adjustments to counter the opposition too often he just seems passive in that respect to me i sincerely hope you're right about the remaining games this season

I must have missed the 20minute-mark team talk that Pards gave when he deliberately changed tactics and invited Benfica to come back into the game. What did he say? more importantly Stu, what did he do to stop them doing whatever they liked and come back from a goal down to go in front? away team plays well goes a goal up, home team reacts (maybe changes tactics) and fights back...pretty common in football really and pardew's job to adjust the team tactically whenever required and something he consistently fails at Funnily enough, that bit in bold isn't what happened. We went a goal up, everyone assumed it would spark Benfica into life (they'd not done much up until that point and seemed pretty rocked by our positive play) but we continued to enjoy lengthy spells of possession (relative to what we're used to, not Barca). It wasn't until the Cisse effort that got deflected onto the post, then heart-breakingly stayed out, rather than trickle over the line, that Benfica jumped into action. In all likelihood this was probably a combination of a) their players realising the first wasn't a fluke and we weren't there to make up numbers and b) some (if not all) of our players being a little disheartened by the 'miss'. They knew Benfica were a formidable prospect at home, so to come within an inch of going 2 goals ahead is pretty galling (see the match thread for evidence). For Benfica to then equalise almost straight away is just another kick in the teeth. I thought the players did well to see it out until half-time level, as Benfica really didn't want the half to end. There's not a lot Pards can really do from the sidelines, his best bet is to tell them to forget about 'lady luck' not going our way with that effort and to go out and start the second half the way we started the first...amazingly enough, we do that and we come inches away from taking the lead again. In the professional game, where mentality and psychology are often the difference in high-stakes games, there's a lot for a plucky team to 'forget about' and keep playing. Maybe Santon was half-thinking 'maybe tonight's not going to be our night' when he took that second ball down on his in-step and hadn't picked up Lima's run...who knows, but the team still kept on even after that howler. They were individual mistakes that led to the 3 Benfica goals; from Krul's 'rusty' parry and no-one picking up the runner, to Santon's backpass and STaylor's handballs. We had two (or three) moments of misfortune at the other end, coupled with some poor decision making by our attackers at key points, which could have been two or three goals of our own on another night. For me and several others, Pards did a good job last night but was 'let down' by the individual errors...if he sticks with game-planning as accurate as that, he'll have a good end of season run in regardless of next Thursday night. The defensive players won't be making mistakes of those magnitude (and in the same match) again. do you think pardew made any mistakes last night?

can't wait to see this strong finish to the season...Pards in-depth preparation should be a sight to behold again once we're back in the PL

I must have missed the 20minute-mark team talk that Pards gave when he deliberately changed tactics and invited Benfica to come back into the game. What did he say? more importantly Stu, what did he do to stop them doing whatever they liked and come back from a goal down to go in front? away team plays well goes a goal up, home team reacts (maybe changes tactics) and fights back...pretty common in football really and pardew's job to adjust the team tactically whenever required and something he consistently fails at

what did he say?

true

as regards this i've heard it before and don't buy it, you don't make international teams like france if you can't play 4 yard passes what's more likely is they're having the confidence and understanding between players coached out of them, they're not sure what anyone is going to do off the ball and it shows in their play...i put the 4 yard passes shit down to sheer lack of concentration/laziness that comes from not being on top of your game I get accused of making excuses for Pardew. sorry?

never factored in the world cup year like only thing there is they'll need to be playing regularly so that works in our favour as both are certain starters when fit

as regards this i've heard it before and don't buy it, you don't make international teams like france if you can't play 4 yard passes what's more likely is they're having the confidence and understanding between players coached out of them, they're not sure what anyone is going to do off the ball and it shows in their play...i put the 4 yard passes shit down to sheer lack of concentration/laziness that comes from not being on top of your game

you think we're going down? More likely than not at the moment IMO. left to ourselves i think you might be right, but there's probably just enough other shite about us to save us from ourselves...then again we said similar when we went down last time lose to fulham we really might be in the shit like, but i have a feeling we're going to steal another lucky victory after playing shit for 90 minutes