Gallowgate Toon

Disgraceful on all fronts. From that cowardly starting line up, to Jonas not bothering to track Johnson (and when Haidara asked where he was, the useless shit shrugged his shoulders), to Tiote and Perch not tracking their men and constantly going after the ball, to the ridiculous over-committing at the start of the second half, to giving up. Something is seriously wrong when a team comes out like that, even if the starting line up was a joke.

Worryingly seems to have no answer to teams that press us and then counter with a lot of speed. Liverpool were like a higher quality Sunderland, knew exactly how to unsettle us and knew which areas to target.

They guy is a moron but even worse, an absolute coward. Played for a point today, that line up screamed of fear. He's a small-time manager at a big club and he seemingly can't even do what he did last year, organise the fucking team. He's a disgrace.

It's just 1 step forward and 2steps back with this man. He finally gets Cabaye getting shifted up, but drops last week's goalscorer, puts Sissoko wide and keeps that useless shit on the wing.

You are a useless arsehole, Pardew.

2 defensive mids aren't enough, needs Jonas to start. Fuck off you actual scumbag.

Tonight's going to be very interesting. We'll see if this apparent staff meeting has made an ounce of difference to the side's mentality. Let's get some intelligence in attack and try to keep the ball a bit, they're really nothing special.

:lol:

You're right, we shouldn't be. We should be following the Spurs/Chelsea/Everton blueprints of building a unit around a star midfielder(s) instead.

I actually do think he's set up to get more possession, that's why he's moved Cabaye deeper. It just doesn't work well in practice for differing reasons and he's unsurprisingly failed to address it. But that's one of the reasons why he's not a good manager.

Our only convincing performances in that 6 game period came when playing 4-3-3, and only one of those could be classed as truly counter attacking, Swansea, as we clearly had the better of the overall play against West Brom and created more chances after the goals. We dominated Stoke and Liverpool, those performances were the antithesis of counter attacking. We even played alright and created quite a few chances at Wigan but were let down by rubbish defending. We've not seen the same formula this year, with Cabaye much deeper (bar Reading and Norwich away) or injured and Jonas playing virtually every game on the wing for starters. As for your Gomez comment. Yes, he's tall and is automatically more of a threat from set pieces, but can he move as well? Feed on through balls? Score the types of different types of goals that Cisse has here? Well done for highlighting that some strikers have strengths compared to others. It seems as if you've been reduced to pathetic criticisms these days, like covering the front post area at corners.

And yet, mystifyingly, we played the best attacking football that I've seen this club play in a long, long time with this man leading the line. Of course, Cisse must be the common denominator here, not the 10 behind him.

Marveaux takes a great corner and I remember Anita being decent too (bar one absolutely atrocious effort). It's amazing that Cabaye's are so poor really.

Whats this about? I'm going to guess he's on about Sissoko and Cabaye's roles in the team. Most want Cabaye pushed forward from his current position and Sissoko moved back from his current position but Pards seems to want to persist with Sissoko behind Cisse and Cabaye practically next to Taylor. Again, that wasn't the case in our last game. First half, it looked like Cabaye had more licence to get forward. He ended up playing a key part in our goal and almost getting a couple himself. Yes, second half it went to s**** and most of our lot were far deeper than they should have been. I'm not here to defend Pardew, I wouldn't want to, but the bollocks being spouted is painful to have to read. That's the first time he's found space further up the pitch in a long while, but they played a 2 man midfield in the first half, it wouldn't be daft to suggest there was more space for him to get in to because of that. It's not bollocks to suggest he's been too deep for us for too long either, and I seriously doubt it's the player's choice considering he's an attack-minded midfielder. Edit: And, it's an utterly pointless compromise too. Would it not be better to simply play Cabaye in the position where he's shown himself to be most effective for us, and Sissoko in the one where he made his name? Cabaye may have been given more license to get forward, which hasn't actually been proven true yet, but we've all seen that he struggles to impose himself in games where he's either overrun or is struggling to find or make space in areas where he can do damage (the 2 usually coincide), it's very likely that's still going to be a problem playing where he is, even if he has been told he can get forward more. Adding to that, Pardew's also recently said he's afraid Cabaye is close to physical and mental burnout, surely then it would be even more stupid to add to his responsibilities?

Doesn't look like he's been asked about Sissoko and Cabaye, again. Shame, it's an issue that seems to be gathering more and more pace on Twitter etc. but he's not quizzed on it.

My only worry is that Pardew might be rushing him back if Marveaux's out.

Journos tweeting from the press conference.

Apparently he's trained well, possibility of starting on the weekend.

He's said criticism was heavy handed post derby again

Yep. It's good to see some pressure applied from journos re: tactics but Edwards is talking rubbish in the main. Considering we played 4-2-3-1 last year, Cisse was pretty much lone striker then and Ben Arfa has barely played as a no. 10 for us.

It was always going to have to be more than 7. They couldn't punish him less than the Dutch federation did, that would have caused a shitstorm, and considering it's a re-offence of a truly weird act, adding one more match onto it would have been seen to be pointless. Taking all the factors into consideration, 10 is about right. If this was just an isolated incident, I doubt he'd have got more than 3. That's why you can't compare a leg breaker and this scenario, in my opinion.

Good. It's right that it's more than his last biting ban. I'm sure those twits will be banging on about how he 'only' got 7 last time though.

Do you think you need to add to your coaching staff, if yes, why hasn't this happened?

Bird's received a load of feedback on Twitter for that crap article, lots of mentions of set pieces, Cabaye/Sissoko, sitting on leads. It's good that these are being highlighted, particularly the latter 2, hopefully some relevant questions will be asked come Thursday.

His passing is pretty sloppy and under pressure on the ball he panics a bit. Nothing to suggest he's a DM at all. Not initially he wasn't, dribbling out of defence and Cruyff turning in the box etc. I think it would ultimately be a waste though, he's too useful at CB.