Gallowgate Toon

I thought he looked useful.

Woeful match followed up with some even worse post-match quotes. We were once again done in the middle of the park and for long stretches of the first half appeared to be playing 4-1-3-2? Why on earth Anita is playing pretty much as an attacking mid is beyond me and having Sammy as a striker I bet the rationale for that was because he's simply tall. It's becoming comically bad and Pardew seems remarkably defiant, borderline rebellious in his persistence with a simply failing system. We don't have the players, yet they're just shoehorned into something. He's trying to simply just do what we did for large periods last year but we just don't have the same balance and to some extent, luck. This time we have better players and he seemingly does not know how to get them working together and seems petrified of going away from his beliefs. He just doesn't appear to be the right manager for our strategy as he can't adapt to the players, they have to adapt to him which is a recipe for disaster.

I think he's starting to lose it. His post-match comments are just cowardly nonsense and his insistence on always having 2 strikers on the pitch is a detriment to the team, once again today we had very little presence in the centre of the pitch. The formation was just weird in the first half and using Sammy as a striker was just stupid. We don't have the players to make a 2 man midfield work Pards.

I thought he was OK, especially considering he was played as an attacking midfielder for the majority of the game. He'll be a very good player for us, as long as he's primarily played as a DM but I can't see that happening in the foreseeable future, unfortunately.

Demba's been dropping deep!? He's never back, neither of our strikers are, hence why we're always hoofing it. There's nobody in the middle to help link things because the midfield pairing are always overworked and deep, Alan!

FHM's sexiest lady you say...

I imagine Ba is quite a handful to manage and potentially the most divisive member of the squad if he's not getting his own way. The end of last season showed a side to him that I didn't like at all and I've never really felt the same about him, as a personality, since then. Cracking striker though and that's what really matters.

really? Do you? Or are you going to continue to highlight a very vague Cabaye incident? The movement around the lad is horrendous. To clarify I'm not on the HBA is s***/not a team player side of the argument, but how about when we broke and he had Demba Ba to his right (movement around him) for a relatively easy set up and he overhit it towards the corner flag? But he did actually try to pass in this incident which surely supports the "he passes when he has options" argument? I didn't say he doesn't pass. The counter argument was there was no movement around him, which there evidently was in this case. He did pass to his credit, but the move broke down as the pass was so bad. As I said, even on a bad day like yesterday he's still one of our better players, but with his quality you would expect him to be able to play in the striker in an instance like that, just like last week with Cisse, and he failed to do it. Those are match defining moments where he should do better, especially with his quality. There might be the occasional moment but on the whole we are unbelievably static, our movement is shocking, surely you must see that? It's just even more infuriating when Ben Arfa's on the ball because he actually regularly creates space for others but we never capitalise or even gamble on it.

Good on him for questionning things, you need to get the players believing in the philosophy, not expect them to blindly follow everything. I get the impression that a lot of our players and coaching staff are yes men, although for the former it is usually masqueraded as 'having a great attitude' to behave that way. He isn't given much license to roam at the minute, which is strange considering he was seemingly given more freedom in the early part of the season and a shame because he's at his most dangerous on the edge of the box. There was one time yesterday in the second half where he left the wing and received the ball in the middle of the pitch and looked threatening but he didn't do it at all after that.

The Williamson free kick is a joke, yesterday was the first time I heard discontent from the masses about it. It doesn't give me a lot of hope for Pardew to adapt and change any time soon, when he can't even recognise that our only free kick routine doesn't work and is absolutely rubbish in theory too. It's such a waste of a ball in the box, just get it in the danger zone with pace where something could happen.

Everton have a legitimate outball in Fellaini though, he can actually win a header and/or hold the ball up well. Ba and Cisse are absolutely useless at it and while Shola is somewhat effective, we have far better options in the squad.

That's the thing, though. The long ball crap we've been playing actually highlights, not negates, the need for a box-to-box player. exactly, how often did we have a midfielder pushing on yesterday looking to either win the second ball or get onto a knockdown that should be bread and butter if you're playing long ball? aimless, directionless floatball man Our midfield yesterday was completely anonymous, literally didn't even perform any of their roles well. They're always so deep, Cabaye and Anita were often together and when one did occasionally push up, it was Anita?! There was such a massive gap there and neither of our strikers filled that space at all, meaning we had no central presence and could only either hoof it after some passing around the back or just predictably go to the wing. It was depressingly bad yesterday and Pardew simply isn't adapting to what he has available.

When the man makes the same mistakes, every single week, and simply doesn't play his players to their strengths, what are you expecting? Out of all the playing squad and coaching staff, Pardew is performing the worst. His tactics, apparent favouritism, mentality and persistent lack of creativity is pathetic. Take the Cabaye issue for example. The lad is an accomplished attacking central midfielder who's been used for the best part of his career in a midfield 3. Here, he's being asked to be some kind of box-to-box, dynamo type and run a central midfield of 2 which is often outnumbered, when he's never been that player. It's not his fault he doesn't make a mark on games while being used this way, we can see he gives his all for the cause but he just simply doesn't have it in him to be a midfield general in this league, he doesn't have the presence to do so much dirty work and still produce the goods at the other end consistently. He's a fantastic midfielder, just not in the way we use him but that doesn't mean he's not a top player, all-rounders are a dying breed these days as the game now encourages specialised midfield players, which is where he's one of the best in the division IMO.

It's a kop out excuse and one that managers lean far too heavily on, a good manager brings his own fresh ideas and doesn't rely on much investment to keep things ticking over. Whatever happened to simply being a little creative? Producing good football isn't difficult and we have the personnel to pull it off, this is a young and hungry squad, there's no issue with their motivation/desire.

We can start calling him s*** when he plays poorly in his actual position.

really? Do you? Or are you going to continue to highlight a very vague Cabaye incident? The movement around the lad is horrendous. To clarify I'm not on the HBA is s***/not a team player side of the argument, but how about when we broke and he had Demba Ba to his right (movement around him) for a relatively easy set up and he overhit it towards the corner flag? So he passed the ball then? That's not an example of not being a team player, that was just a poor piece of play.

really? Do you? Or are you going to continue to highlight a very vague Cabaye incident? The movement around the lad is horrendous.

He's the smallest part of the problem lunchbox, he's created a lot of opportunities for others this year and did so last year too. I don't recall him having many passing options at all today and with the way we've been playing he should be encouraged to do something different because the 'simple game' for us has been tragically bad so far and created nothing. I thought he had a good first half but a poorer second one.

Krul Santon Taylor Williamson Ferguson Tiote Anita Cabaye Ben Arfa Ba Cisse

We use this excuse to,protect our favourites so often. A top player will show his class whether he's in a 2 or a 3 I'm the middle. Cabaye has been cack most of the season. He's a French international and to repeatedly excuse his lame performances on others doesn't hold much water as far as I'm concerned. This kind of comment baffles me. He is not an all-round central midfielder and is often chasing shadows for us due to being in an outnumbered 2, this will have a massive effect on a player, especially when he's expected to create on top of that and from deep areas. The players can't really be entirely blamed when they're not being used correctly, I'd be slating Cabaye if he'd been putting these types of performances in if he was playing in his preferred position but he's not, so can in some ways get the benefit of the doubt. It's the manager's responsibility to manage, I doubt Cabaye had played league football in a midfield 2 for years and for good reason, it's dated.

Spot on.

We're a top 7 team IMO but think we'll finish around 9th with the way things are going.

The least of our worries and anyone trying to make him a scapegoat needs seeing to.

It's not really that simple though, how the hell were Cabaye and Anita going to compete with Diame today? You actually need really well rounded players and some organisation in attack, not 2 specialist midfielders chasing the ball and not knowing when to make a move forward. We just don't have the personnel for it, even with Tiote.

No and it's fucking laughable that he insists on playing it. Our 2 central midfielders don't even have designated positions, Anita was further forward more than Cabaye today, why? One's clearly a defensive player while the other is offensively minded. Disorganised shambles.