Gallowgate Toon

He was pretty pissed off about Saturday in his pre-match presser, really didn't look happy. He pretty much said that he wants to keep that amount of offensive players in the side but if they continue to defend like that as a team then things will have to change.

Used to love Djibril Cisse.

Quaresma was a proper 'big fish, small pond' player. He was absolutely brilliant at Porto, put in some cracking performances in the Champions League.

Knowing their responsibilities means naff all if they don't focus and aren't disciplined. Watching Ben Arfa and Sissoko for that third goal, it was unbelievably slack.

For me, we didn't create enough because they blocked off the width of their box and we rarely went down the sides of it. When a team 'parks the bus' you have to go with width. We didn't. I'm actually worried that we can't!!!! If we'd been able to vary it a bit we would have been better going forward. Agreed, it is a problem and when that happens Remy and Hatem have to be prepared to go on the outside they are both very capable so no excuses for me in that regard. Or at least push up higher and allow the fullbacks to get forward more.... sure its a risk but to break down organised outfits some times you have to take these risks. Although all of this would be moot if we actually defended properly. Good point on the full backs. I noticed on Saturday that Debuchy went to overlap HBA a few times, only for Ben Arfa to point at him to go back, which he did. I thought it was odd as Hatem was surrounded a fair bit, surely letting Debuchy overlap would've helped him. It wouldn't have been too much of a worry anyway, Anita always covers the wide spots if they get left open.

I'd normally agree with you about how we struggle to break down organised sides but I think we had enough creativity in there to win on Saturday. We looked very threatening when there was lots of movement up top, which is what was happening when the game first started. That was one of the things that slacked off after 20 minutes or so.

Top post. Especially on how high our wing forwards were, they did track before we scored but were far more lax afterwards, Ben Arfa in particular. That doesn't strike me as a Pardew decision.

There were some positives, we started off brilliantly and in fine fettle. I believe if the players had kept up that intensity for the majority of the first half, we'd have been talking about a comfortable home win and looking forward to the next fixtures. The second half was a complete train wreck on many fronts. I'm another who's worried that the result will want to make Pardew meddle. He seemed pretty sure what went wrong after the game and he didn't imply it was a shape issue, so that's a bit of hope.

It's a decent point, like. I genuinely can't remember Wullie ever being happy. Crazy eh, what with all the ambition we've shown and success we've had in recent times. Seemed to be happy enough to me when Chris Hughton was being left alone to run things. I can't imagine Wullie was too happy at all with a fair proportion of our Premier League games under Hughton. Let's not forget that out of 5 home games against Blackburn, Blackpool, Stoke, Fulham and Wigan, we managed to get 2 points, playing some absolutely dire football in the process. Then there was a 5-1 hammering against Bolton and West Brom played us off the park in the 3-1.

'We started off well, you could sense that we were going to go on and get a good win but the players dropped down a gear' I'm sure this will be deemed as another Pardew lie but it certainly seemed that way to me. He killed it with some poor changes in the second but that's why I'm annoyed at the players as well as him, I thought it was clear as day that they lost focus and seeing that kind of lack of professionalism really irritated me.

"We started really, really well and got the goal, which is not something we do often at home, get an early goal, and everything looked happy. "We weren’t tight enough as a team today. We were really tight at Villa with the same formation but we were loose today, and Hull exploited those spaces. "I thought all three goals were poor from us - as I say, we defended really, really well in these last few weeks. "Today, it’s the inconsistency of performance that this team is searching for. The team that finished fifth, you see similarities with this team, but that team had a consistency about its performance, as a team, not as individuals. "The formation was the same today, the set-up was the same but we looked not the same. We looked too loose, and gifted goals and you can’t do that against any opposition. "I’ll be the first to pay tribute to Hull, they played very well. But for us, it’s a really disappointing day. It’s the commitment and the quality that you need in every game, that we showed at Villa. "Today, it’s not just the looseness of the team but the distance between our units and our selection of passing wasn’t as great as it has been in the last two or three games. "We weren’t as solid as we were at Villa, and you’ve got to do it home and away in this division.” "We had a day at the office that we would like to forget quite quickly, and move on.”

He clearly says that the team dropped their level after the goal and he comments on complacency. The tight comments are based around us being very poor when we had to defend, which we will have to do.

I don't think they changed too much after we scored, we just dropped our level. I don't often go along with the Premier League experience line but I thought it showed yesterday. A lot of those players haven't been in a winning Premier League team and they just didn't get what was needed to win after we went ahead.

I don't remember other occasions but I had my head in my hands for most of the game He's obviously got a big bit of blame to take for the first but it was just a comedy of errors overall. For a team that works on defending, we were shambolic. I'm thinking that Pardew might have over-complicated things from the off, we just didn't seem at all solid, it was the complete opposite of last week.

If you're talking about the first goal, Mole, then the midfield really needs to be asked what the hell they were doing. It was a completely preventable situation and you could also say Colo could have called it much better as well. Defences that communicate well don't operate like that.

That first goal is a complete horror show. We had 2 extra men in that situation but their man in the middle was left to roam free and then a complete breakdown in communication leads to two onrushing players leaving them with a man over. Really disappointing as we've shown ourselves to be much better than that in recent weeks. What was the deal with Remy and HBA defensively, as well? They both played very well last week while putting in a shift, we should be doing that against every team in the division at the moment (home and away) because we really aren't defensively good enough to be so blase.

He fucked up on the first, although massive questions need to be asked of the midfield as to what they were doing to protect the middle. As for the next 2, I really don't see how he's to blame. For the third, HBA will have to actually do some defensive stuff from time to time, he can't get a free pass. He's not being asked to do an awful lot for that goal but he neglects the most basic of tasks. And whoever is meant to be marking Aluko deserves to be shot with shit.

What did they do differently to what most teams do to Hatem? He usually has about 3 players on him.

I don't think we even had a shot after his team talk. Again, I wasn't at all happy with the second half and Pardew certainly played a huge part in that. I found the first half far more infuriating however, seeing a lack of professionalism. I know we went in at 2-1 but if the complacency hadn't been there, we could/should have been 2 or 3 up.

You were more disappointed with what happened in the first half when the score was 2-1 then you were in the 2nd when the score was 0-2, OK. Considering what I saw was poor attitude, yes. I'm not happy with a lack of ability (Pardew) but i find a lack of application and professionalism worse.

Yes I do realise there can be more than one person to blame. The players were a long way from playing to the best of there ability but pulling our midfield back wasn't the way to go about sorting that out. I've not seen those quotes but what I saw were shoddy tactical changes in the second half, I agree with that. What I saw in the first has me far more disappointed, however.

The players taking their foot off the pedal and Pardew ballsing stuff up in the second half are not excuses, Mick. You do realise there can be more than one person to blame, don't you?

Coincidence that this always happens? It's his instructions man, the players are doing as they're told. Nah, I don't think that happened today, like. There was a casual lethargy to our play, even at 1-1. Too few players thinking that they didn't need to play at their best. We attacked when we had a lead, late on in the game, away at Villa. You don't tell players to just stop caring. Fulham too. Took the lead and then kept on going. When did we score against Fulham? We played 8 minutes after that. Surely that's when your theory should be at its most prominent? If there's a time to keep it tight, it's when you're protecting a late lead.

Coincidence that this always happens? It's his instructions man, the players are doing as they're told. Nah, I don't think that happened today, like. There was a casual lethargy to our play, even at 1-1. Too few players thinking that they didn't need to play at their best. We attacked when we had a lead, late on in the game, away at Villa. You don't tell players to just stop caring. Fulham too. Took the lead and then kept on going.

We were winning 2-1 at half time when Pardew pulled our midfielders back, the gaps between midfield and the forwards were shocking and all down to him because he's admitted it. I've even said in other posts that he screwed us over in the second half. My point is, we should have been more than 1 goal up by half time and while many are happy to assume that's all down to Pardew, I don't think the definition of keeping it tight is to then go and dick about and play with absolutely no tempo, even when you've got the opportunity to break.