Gallowgate Toon

I have a feeling Gouffran will be better foil for Sissoko than Cisse but I'm fully expecting Shola to start.

You'd think so, depressingly it will probably just mean Shola comes in... Wouldn't mind seeing: Anita Jonas Cabaye Marv Gouf Sissoko

You're right about things not being good enough, but that premise is kind of an assumption. If you only judge him on results, obviously he has been poor at his job for a year. But that's to assume that the link between effort/ability and results in football is a clear one. There are also very many other factors and also random luck involved, as well as the difficulty of arresting a slide once it starts. As you say though, it's hard to point to many specific things he has done to improve the situation. Actually, I think he's tried a lot of different things to rectify the situation but has, by and large, simply ignored the evidence for what's worked for this team in the past.

Massive shame.

Random fan interviewed on the news just said: 'It was just a playful bite, nothing should be done'

Perfect. I reckon he'd actually answer that as well.

Good one, mainly the first part I guess. The local journos all say this is a temporary measure to get us through this season so I guess that is what Pardew has told them. Really? Any respectable ones? I'm dumbfounded at that, he probably doesn't think Sissoko's adapted to the league enough to play a deeper role, or something along those lines.

They only had 2 in the middle first half, more space for him to get in to.

Aye, got to wonder what the hell Pardew is thinking. Seemingly wants to over-complicate things for himself.

Watching the Swansea game from last year, those assists for Cisse were sensational, really need to get this man further up the pitch ASAP.

Think it also had a lot to do with Ba wanting to play centrally. This .

I remember him mentioning a 5 of Cabaye, Sissoko, Gouffran, HBA and Cisse could be 'mouth-watering' for us, or something like that, that's the only thing that's stupidly keeping me hopeful in any way. We won't see it this season mind, by which time I imagine some players could conceivably be gone, whether we're playing in this league or not.

Such a shame really. Amazing watching those games today, I actually felt entertained You'd have thought we were playing under a completely different manager. Cabaye was class, he only ever got major plaudits for that Stoke game IIRC but he was great in the others too. I just have no idea why Pardew's not returned to it properly. The pass Cabaye played for Cisse on Saturday in the build-up to our goal shows what we're lacking with him playing so deep, it was another one of those passes that nobody else bar him and the recipient anticipated. Absolute beauty. My thoughts exactly. I think Sissoko has vision and can execute difficult passes but his decision-making is what ultimately separates him from Cabaye, who makes the right pass a lot of the time. It really makes a big difference when trying to build an attack and keeping pressure off.

I used to think the Wigan match was what changed his mind but that doesn't make sense. We were absolutely hammered by Fulham playing it but he went back to it 8 weeks later. He also switched to it against Spurs at home and had Papiss famously playing out wide at times. He just hasn't even bothered to attempt it since the new lads came in. I don't think that we're suddenly going to turn into a top side because of a formation change but I think simply putting players in positions that bring out their abilities would make a big difference. For all the talk of footballing philosophies and whatnot nowadays, I think it's over-complicated, if you have competent players, complementing each other playing in a balanced side, they'll do damage.

Such a shame really. Amazing watching those games today, I actually felt entertained You'd have thought we were playing under a completely different manager. Cabaye was class, he only ever got major plaudits for that Stoke game IIRC but he was great in the others too. I just have no idea why Pardew's not returned to it properly.

Elliot Debuchy Taylor MYM Haidara Anita Sissoko Cabaye Marveaux Cisse Gouffran Strangely hopeful for this one, no idea why.

My only hope under him is that he stumbles onto a formula that works again. For all the cries that we don't have an attacking game plan, I've been looking over THAT period of games and we were a very threatening side, we can evidently play good football with him as manager. It's interesting going back over those games and seeing so many differences in the team. Despite sending out some absolutely awful defences, we weren't cautious against West Brom, Liverpool or Stoke, which makes me wonder how we've gone from that mentality to this ultra defensive stuff. We sent out Ba, Cisse and HBA at West Brom for example, when we had a back 4 of Simpson, Williamson, Colo and Perch going from that, he obviously doesn't need his best defence to go for it. We looked a lot more balanced as a team then as well. For starters, our wingers were higher up and Cabaye was a little deeper than Sissoko is now. The difference in their styles when in that role is telling. Sissoko encourages individualism (he's not helped by having deeper wide men mind), Cabaye was more like a metronome, keeping possession and picking out intelligent passes etc. he was really making us tick and we moved forward as a team as a result. Jonas was brilliant too, he added something different in that midfield, the ability to create space by picking up the ball and running with it. He still wasn't particularly productive but he was so useful at making space. If you compare that to now, we've had Tiote, Cabaye, Anita and Perch playing in that area but all 4 have the same style, they can't dribble (I'm not sure Jonas can anymore either mind), we're so static and predictable as a consequence. The frustrating thing is, we've got the personnel to still play like that, yet we don't. Gouffran and Ba is a fairly like-for-like switch in that wide forward area, while I thought Jonas was great as a box-to-box midfielder I think Sissoko could do it even better and Debuchy is a massive improvement over Simpson. We've also added some pace at the back in MYM and even though HBA is out, Marveaux is a very good stand-in. Everything's there but he just doesn't seem to know how to get the balance right. I hope his mentality shifts with a clean slate and he stumbles onto the right formula next year, if we're not relegated of course.

Where did 6 minutes come from in the first place? Absolute load of crap that.

Why would you bite someone?

Chelsea have a great structure there, Mikel sits and gets a lot of second balls. Exactly what we should do with Tiote/Perch/Anita.

Reina

Oscar the giant scores from a corner.

What are you judging him on if not this season? He wasn't exactly the standout player at Ajax. You make it sound like we got the new Wesley Sneijder off them and subsequently benched him. He wasn't, isn't and never will be anything more than a fairly solid if unspectacular player. He wasn't what we needed in the summer at all, both in terms of position and required quality, and I said so at the time. I don't think I've ever seen a fan forum as gutted as theirs to lose a player (well a player signing for us). Didn't they say one of the big reasons they went on that title winning streak, was because they moved Anita to defensive midfielder? From what I read, he was no standout footballer but had become a big part of their side.

They always had a direct game plan, it was just far more focused in the second half. They stuck 2 big lads on our full backs and hit early diagonals to create one-on-one situations, picking up the second ball more often than not as they effectively had the extra man advantage in the middle (since Sissoko was pretty much operating as a striker before Shola came on).

Oh look, Sunderland scoring another long range effort.