Gallowgate Toon

He drives like a maniac. Speeding about the pedestrian streets of Ponteland at 50 mph.

What's worrying me is where we go from here. I literally don't have the foggiest as to how he's going to set us up next. He's made a lot of noise this season about looking more offensive and finding a balance, from his sound bites, it seems he thinks that defensive mistakes are simply individual ones and having a more conservative set of attackers and midfielders is what will remedy the issue. There have been individual mistakes, don't get me wrong, but the situation has often been because of a series of errors by a number of players. He needs to change the style of the side a bit but keep the personnel that we saw against Villa, perhaps stick Taylor in for one of the centre halves. That front trio should never be messed with again (bar Gouffran for Cisse) but I'm not sure whether we'll see it for a while, I think the Hull game might have made him re-think their suitability.

As if Kinnear blocked Douglas, man

Confused. We're just not pulling in the same direction, at any level.

It might not be a coincidence that he's been bad since Debuchy came in. It may very well be that Pardew has tried to make us more expansive and failed miserably at it. Santon's never been the best positionally but he seems to get caught high up the pitch with some regularity.

Ben Arfa? A few games ago, I'd have agreed with you but I think Hatem's been off since then, I thought his attitude stunk against Hull. It's all well and good directing attacking play but I think he's been very poor at doing some basic defensive tasks of late. I'm worried he's been given so much responsibility that he's lost the teamwork ethic he seemed to learn in 2011/2012, he was really working in every game then.

Yeah. It was alarming to see it put like that, fantastic analysis though. The confusing thing is, I'm sure we weren't organised that way against Villa, we looked far more compact, disciplined and focused. Perhaps they were just crap, Pardew's tried to change it a bit or the players are tactically poor. The gap between our holding midfielders and defenders was crap as well, so much so that they couldn't compensate for us playing so far apart. Space galore for Everton's attackers.

I thought he looked alright but I think he's tailor-made for that left hand spot. It gives him that extra freedom to come in from out wide and he has more space to work with. He didn't look at all comfortable having to compete with 2 bigger lads for scrappy balls.

Remy's chance that he put over the bar was quite well worked IIRC. Point still remains, we only seem to have one way of looking threatening: Remy/Cisse/Ben Arfa. I really rate Gouffran, he should be playing through the middle but that's not going to happen under Pardew as he just doesn't consider him enough of a threat.

Neville's analysis off our defence last night was worrying. No leadership, no power and too far apart. I feel for the lad in some ways but you just can't do what he did last night. It was so strange after his recent performances, especially the shift he put in against Benteke. If we had another captain, I'd be dropping Colo, personally.

Me neither. It looked absolutely awful. I think the plan was to contain and counter but he tried to make tweaks and it ended up looking like a disjointed mess. He usually tries to compensate for our CBs' lack of height and strength by making Tiote or Sissoko stand in front of them when the opposition 'keeper kicks it long. That didn't happen yesterday, there seemed to be no protection for our centre halves and, to make it worse, they put in the most awful performances. What happened to the tactics and personnel from Villa? I know Cabaye was injured but he tinkered too much because of that.

Swap Cabaye and Sissoko around and that's what I'd go with.

most thought the same thing vs Hull. None of us thought the defense that had conceded 1 goal in 4 games would fall apart as much as it did tbf. Plus, we're more suited to away games, in my opinion. I'd happily take a repeat of the West Brom game after watching the last two disasters. Uncomplicated back 4, balanced midfield 3 and a forward trio that are fluid and look to break with speed.

Not sure on this one. If Pardew actually starts the front 3 in their actual positions then I think we'll get something.

This post is utter lunacy like. Every time I see him attempt to "keep it tight" from the start of a game, that's when we get f***ed up the arse, like tonight. Shifting Ben Arfa because he's scared of their full back, that's what he thinks "keeping it tight" is, completely f***ing up your own game because of fear. Staggering that you think he has "shown how to construct a back four" - taking one over from another manager that has been playing together for years does not count as "constructing". He has shown only that he's totally incompetent at putting together a new unit. Utter lunacy? You're so sanctimonious It was highlighted tonight that our defence didn't keep tight, at all. The full backs were too far forward and there were massive gaps in our back line because of that. If we defend like that against teams like Everton, we'll get done. Agreed on Ben Arfa, I wasn't happy about that. As if he can't get credit for getting 15 clean sheets either. Have a word. I never said they kept it tight did I? He tried though, in the same way he tried when he left HBA and Gouffran out against Liverpool last season. His idea of "keeping it tight" is "don't attack, in case you lose your position, and hit the ball far away from our goal" I never said anything either about not getting "credit for 15 clean sheets" - what I've said for a long time is that he is totally incapable of coaching a new defense into a cohesive unit. Citing statistics of a back four that had been mainly "constructed" by somebody else - your word, not mine, you give credit for constructing a house to the guy who built it, not the bloke who moved in afterwards and changed the lightbulbs. Did he even try to keep it tight though? Or was he trying to be clever? Because the players seemed to play the exact opposite of a side looking to be compact. They either flat out ignored him or his definition of 'tight' defending has dramatically shifted in the last two years. Fair enough, he'd pretty much inherited them but he seemed to understand their limitations and moulded our play around that. It's not a case of he doesn't know how to structure a new defence, in my opinion, he just has no clue how to do it with players that have more to their game than simply being able to defend. Unfortunately, the club's structure means we'll probably never see someone come in that can make a successful system with the personnel we've got. I suspect the idea you and I have of keeping it tight is very different to Alan Pardew's. The first thing I would be wanting the players to do if I wanted to keep it tight is press high up the pitch whereas when we play any decent side, Everton, Liverpool, Man City (about four times in a row now, exactly the same against that lot), the players always go out and start exactly the same way - stand off, stand off, stand off. Then he seems shocked when they destroy us given the total freedom of the park. It serves little purpose trying to decipher what he's thinking game to game, I don't think he has the slightest f***ing idea himself tbh. Certainly agree with pressing, tonight reminded me of Swansea away last season. We sat off and weren't getting a kick until we actually tried to stop them playing. I just think there's only one way that Pardew knows how to defend and that's by having a narrow back 4 who pretty much play in a straight line. He's seemingly tried to adjust that since Debuchy arrived and we've often looked porous, with massive gaps all over the pitch. I don't think it's a coincidence that our best form under him came while we had a completely unadventurous back four and I wouldn't be averse to him going back to that on Saturday as I think that's our best shot at getting a result.

This post is utter lunacy like. Every time I see him attempt to "keep it tight" from the start of a game, that's when we get f***ed up the arse, like tonight. Shifting Ben Arfa because he's scared of their full back, that's what he thinks "keeping it tight" is, completely f***ing up your own game because of fear. Staggering that you think he has "shown how to construct a back four" - taking one over from another manager that has been playing together for years does not count as "constructing". He has shown only that he's totally incompetent at putting together a new unit. Utter lunacy? You're so sanctimonious It was highlighted tonight that our defence didn't keep tight, at all. The full backs were too far forward and there were massive gaps in our back line because of that. If we defend like that against teams like Everton, we'll get done. Agreed on Ben Arfa, I wasn't happy about that. As if he can't get credit for getting 15 clean sheets either. Have a word. I never said they kept it tight did I? He tried though, in the same way he tried when he left HBA and Gouffran out against Liverpool last season. His idea of "keeping it tight" is "don't attack, in case you lose your position, and hit the ball far away from our goal" I never said anything either about not getting "credit for 15 clean sheets" - what I've said for a long time is that he is totally incapable of coaching a new defense into a cohesive unit. Citing statistics of a back four that had been mainly "constructed" by somebody else - your word, not mine, you give credit for constructing a house to the guy who built it, not the bloke who moved in afterwards and changed the lightbulbs. Did he even try to keep it tight though? Or was he trying to be clever? Because the players seemed to play the exact opposite of a side looking to be compact. They either flat out ignored him or his definition of 'tight' defending has dramatically shifted in the last two years. You're right to cite Liverpool, he's got previous for completely reducing our attacking threat but he often adds extra DMs into the mix and has certainly had a penchant for getting the midfield and defence to play extremely close together. Fair enough, he'd pretty much inherited them but he seemed to understand their limitations and moulded our play around that. It's not a case of he doesn't know how to structure a new defence, in my opinion, he just has no clue how to do it with players that have more to their game than simply being able to defend. Unfortunately, the club's structure means we'll probably never see someone come in that can make a successful system with the personnel we've got.

Why do you think we played like that? We played like that because our manager tried to play with attacking full backs but he's not good enough to make it work. That, or the players just did the opposite of what he said.

This post is utter lunacy like. Every time I see him attempt to "keep it tight" from the start of a game, that's when we get f***ed up the arse, like tonight. Shifting Ben Arfa because he's scared of their full back, that's what he thinks "keeping it tight" is, completely f***ing up your own game because of fear. Staggering that you think he has "shown how to construct a back four" - taking one over from another manager that has been playing together for years does not count as "constructing". He has shown only that he's totally incompetent at putting together a new unit. Utter lunacy? You're so sanctimonious It was highlighted tonight that our defence didn't keep tight, at all. The full backs were too far forward and there were massive gaps in our back line because of that. If we defend like that against teams like Everton, we'll get done. Agreed on Ben Arfa, I wasn't happy about that. As if he can't get credit for getting 15 clean sheets either. Have a word.

He's an ex CH though, that's the thing. If he can't organise his back 4 then he simply shouldn't be in the profession. He has shown he can organise a back four, just not when we have 2 wing backs. He's just not a good enough coach - nor are our players good enough, in my opinion - to successfully construct an attacking team. Neville may have had a point tonight, mind. He said Pardew had talked about sitting deeper, like we were against Villa, yet the players seemed to play in the opposite fashion. May well be a sign that he has no control.

Sounds like he'll be going back to basics for the next game. Fine by me, he can't coach us into an attacking style of football. Look to keep it tight against Cardiff and pick them out on the break with our pace. Remy and Ben Arfa either side of Cisse/Gouffran, please.

Colo didn't even go to the near post, he just moved into a daft space. Bad as each other for that one and the 3rd.

What makes Neville's analysis of our defensive organisation and mentality bizarre is that Pardew stated we came to counter them.

We've tried to become more expansive and it's not worked. Probably because Pardew doesn't have the ability to understand how and the players just aren't good enough for it.

Really interesting comments from Neville on how we defend as a unit. Could it be that Pardew actually tries to be too positive with our full backs?

HBA was really poor. I wouldn't be surprised if he was taken off because of a lack of effort, AP was having a go at him at times in the first half for not getting back. He really wasn't helped by being played on the left.