mozy

I don't agree with anyone saying Swansea were positive or attacking like. They created nothing in the first half until the (fortunate) goal and were happy just to cycle the ball around the back line without ever trying any kind of interesting pass. Second half was just classic counter attacking, although again with a massive kimbo slice of luck.

Alan does live by his cliche's doesn't he. 'Never change a winning team' anyone?

If we're honest, who doesn't enjoy talking shite anyway. Nothing like a good windup.

Sounds like he's eliminating all his potential excuses. Is the the week we're told the grass is too green?

Someone better who he can babysit to cover his deficiencies. Not a criticism that though.

Nailed

Terrible tackle from a terrible human being.

This is so true. We have a habit of commenting on players as if we have Zlatan sitting on the bench waiting to come on in Shola's place.. Or we just expect Premier League players to be able to control a ball and make the simplest of passes. If anything Cisse is better off the ball than Shola so should've been starting, since Shola can't even hold up play. Lol. Cisse is far worse than Shola at contributing to team play.

This is so true. We have a habit of commenting on players as if we have Zlatan sitting on the bench waiting to come on in Shola's place..

Anyone calling for Shola off/calling his performance shit genuinely doesn't understand how football works.

Good to see Shola being offside because of decent movement, rather than being too slow/lazy to get back onside

As much as I think Pardew is woefully poor, I'm beginning to think he actually understands how to play 4-4-2 and little else. Like we are pressing well which we don't ever do in another formation, the shape is better and we gnerally look more cohesive. Shame our target man is Shola!

Aye, he's nowhere near as good as Sissoko, who has about six, every game, for ten minutes each. Sissoko is pretty clearly a box to box midfielder, only Pard's 'genius' fails to spot this. On the other hand with Marveaux can you really say?

He's dump. Doesn't have a position.

Chill, chill, this is no Nile Ranger mk II. Still pretty stupid like, but not the first nor last footballer to have driving issues.

Marveaux's ability gets inflated every week he doesn't play on here like.

Did a lot more than Gouffran...

Hopefully he can get a Championship loan, or possibly St Mirren to get a bit more experience at CB. Decent start though.

Thought Gosling had quite a tidy game, especially in the second half.

At least we aren't playing fucking Stevenage

Its either that near every single player at the club is absolutely useless or were missing something else thats key. Simple things such as a 5 yard pass, first touch and tackle attempt all noticeably absent. However rubbish Pardew is you can't blame him for that.

Got to be looking at the players here, fucking abysmal. Vuckic has been particularly shite.

I'm personally judging us on what I've watched over the last 12 months... I'm judging us on an array of increasingly more concerning performances as last season progressed, where we not only looked tactically inept, but also lacking in raw ability, discipline and effort in several areas of the pitch. I'm judging us on a manager who is unable to motivate the players, unable to pick a tactically coherent side, unable to make substitutions or effective changes to fix his shit-storm of increasingly-concerning initial mistakes... A manager who is unable to show a single ounce of positivity in his general outlook towards approaching a game, and, more pressingly, is unable to actually learn from any of the aforementioned issues and repeats them week-in, week-out. And, tonight, I'm judging us on our complete lack of progression over the summer; every single problem that was there when the final ball was kicked last season, remains. Yes, we were playing Man City, but no that doesn't excuse ill-discipline, a lack of effort, poor organisation and an all-round gutless and spectacularly uninspiring performance from pretty much every player on the pitch. This was the first game of a new season and they should have went into the game looking to send a message to the fans; "we're as pissed off as you about last season, we're going to fight to improve it this year". Instead, they turned up, put in the same 90 minute "shift" that they put in consistently last season, and went down with a whimper. If you're not at least semi-concerned about that you need to open your eyes. As much as I can, I'm trying to ignore last season and make judgements based on this season alone. Perhaps it's just my expectations of this game were for us to get trounced so I am not in the least bit surprised. Maybe i've just lowered my expectations in general. Anyway if we serve up the same type of performance next week I will be very concerned, yes. I just don't think it's fair to go over the top when it was a half with 10 men against a top side.

He did well mostly, a couple of times he was caught in possession with absolutely no passing options, but his tackling and general short passing was better.

The way I see it, the first half performance wasn't that bad, and I don't think it is fair to judge a team playing with 10 men versus arguably the best squad in the division. Individually you could say Taylor had a stinker, Debuchy defensively much the same, other than that everyone did alright.