Jayson

Apparently only Man United have scored more goals than us away from home in the last 6 away games. So might well be a highscoring game.

Interesting that. Our current form this season under Pardew is nearly on track with Keegans best reign then if you work it out. This season so far we've won 59% of available points.

Glad about this. Guthries rise of form & Cisse coming in means he probably wouldnt get much here atm. Deserves to be starting though to prove himself.

Maybe Pardew has gain quite a couple of fans since we are fifth on the table, maybe his exceeding great results have people expectations fulfill and maybe we should start comparing Pardew to Wenger, Fergie, Mourinhno on tactical mistakes. However, this is still not how i see Newcastle being developing in this two years. The quality of our players improved and the financial prudence of Newcastle United improved as well, i have seen it as a change of Policy/Philosophy of the board and owner as a whole. They might have f*** us up , have no respect for us and wretch us from the beginning but credit to them, they are turning us over. It might be due to them having a better understanding of of how to run a football club rather than all the denise wise bullshit. At least for now Newcastle is great in the transfer window and getting real quality players in the team. I cant see how Pardew has many hands in the transfer marker as its not his job to get players over the line. This is quite apparent i hope and hope this continues even with new managers we employ. On this side of the page the club and board has won me over a 100% on how they identity and value players. On the footballing side, Pardew is managing players of improved quality which the board think should improve the team, We should be going from strength to strength given the vast improvement of the players which is showing in the table and results. Now not just HBA , most of the flair players in the team are under performing or are not fitted into our industrialize team now. I have conceded the fact that Pardew is limited and prefers his direct style. The same can't be said for the players and some of us fans which might think Obertan, Ryan talyor , Shola, Perch and some other players dont deserve the credit or the chance ahead of others in certain positions. At least on the international Basis these player are not getting a sniff into their national teams and currently dont look likely to do so any time soon. Now we are at the cross roads of choosing a more industrialize style as we play or changing it into a more creative style that could incorporate the Flair players. I for one have saw a glimmer of hope when Pardew played Jonas as the free role in the 4-3-3 and still hope he persist with it as it probably the only time i have seen the flair players given a chance to express themselves. It became fairly obviously ,Jonas is much more than a hard working nut that has no end result when given a chance to express. however this system leaked goals and we looked vulnerable on the counter therefore his change back to plain 4-4-2 which has better shape and overall a tighter unit. I still think its arguable that with the players we have, we might/should be able to break teams down more often and win because we have a lead over them rather than settling for a safe game or draw. Having said all this, we finally found and bought players to fit an attacking Physiology Newcastle United used to be renowned for. Personally, i am disappointed with how its being translated on the pitch. Imo keegan or Bobby is much more suited to these set of players than Pardew is. Pards had come out and said he was speaking via old contacts at Wham about Ba, before he came to us. Theres been stories out that during his time out, he spent time in Germany watching sides. He himself has said the second he lost Carroll, Papiss was his first choice striker. So im not sure its apparent he has little involvement in transfers. Our scouting system looks to have improved loads, but potentially our best recent signing to date was largely down to him. Outside of that you have to keep in mind that the majority of our midfield, our attack & part of our defense had never played together before this season. Quite a few are new to the premiership, some like Krul/Ba who have played still havent played a full season. I think some people take for granted the fact that they have adjusted so quickly & the team spirit is so good already. We've seen how thats gone the other way previously. Yet we're not playing like tottenham so i keep reading "Pards isnt the guy to take us to the next level". Just seems like wanting more more more. Give the guy time, this season id say defense has been his main priority given that hes found a striker that can score easily & its worked very well for us so far.

Solid post, completely agree with all of this.

You wouldnt trade him against no one even if Ashley wasnt the owner? (rest of the post isnt directed at you ) Lets be frank, Pardew has done well but he lacks what a great manager possesses which is the ability to change a match for the greater good. We have not once won when conceding first. Pardew gets more credit than he deserves, while he is a big reason and not taking anything away from him while we are up there, I believe this season has come down a lot more to individual brilliance and luck at the right time than a brilliant pardew. Pardew has surely settled this team well, but we have by no means played as well as the table suggests. Evidence that supports this is: Krul has been magical in plenty of matches. Examples being Wolves (a), Man U(a), Blackburn (a) penalty save which probably won us the game, Fulham (h), ridiculous saves against Villa. Individual brilliance from Raylor against Everton and Shiteland. Ba goalscoring form Shola magic goal against Spurs Papiss in the weekend. We were lucky against QPR, penalty against Man U and plenty other games Why my criticism against Pardew many will ask. Well its because of his ability to almost screw over games with his tactics. Prime example is letting Villa back into the game in the weekend, letting QPR outplay us for more than they should, for letting Wolves back in the game, for letting Fulham beat us 5-2 as we backed off, for giving Blackburn a chance last wednesday by backing off once again. We almost let Stoke back in the game too. He seems content to defend when up instead of putting more pressure and playing to our strengths. He is too passive in my opinion and reminds me off Sven Göran Eriksson, a manager who can organize but will never be able to change a game with pure tactical brilliance. Put it even clearer, Pardew has done really well, but he isnt the big reason why we are where we are. Just to go over those Krul being our number one now was Pardews choice. Raylor even being in the side (when few on here wanted it) was down to Pardew. Ba is a signing Pardew chose. Shola coming on in that game (when none on here wanted it) was down to Pardew. Papiss is a signing Pardew chose. We have had luck yes, all teams will have it both ways. Man United had 4 pens in their last two games & Chelsea 3 Own goals. We Outplayed Man United the next time we played them, wonder how that happened. So apart from all of those situations you listed being entirely down to Pardew, he isnt a big reason why we are where we are aye

Kuyt/Kelly worked hard to block him as an option. Doubt he touched it more than 4 times in the first half, started drifting afterwards.

Before our last game he had just 1 goal & nowt else in 6 games. Since then he has 9 goals & 8 assists in 16 games & hasnt gone more than one game without doing one of either. So different levels of form. We should try to learn from the way pool kept him largely out of the game tonight.

Glad Enriques out. Cmon Spurs, bash down their GD a bit.

yeah i think we're a bit lucky Best got injured. And Raylor to an extent, as though Obertan was mostly crap he did inject a bit of pace into our game. Similar thing happened with Ben Arfa vs QPR. Would like Pardew to be a bit braver in his decisions from now on rather than letting circumstance or luck (good and bad) dictate the difficult decisions. He's certainly not as ballsy as he once was but I think he's simply stumbled onto a formula that's gotten results and has stuck with it. We could definitely still have gotten the results we have, playing some more expansive football and that is frustrating but ultimately hard to argue against. I'd like him to play Ben Arfa in a 4-4-2 to supply the 2 lads up top, I think it would work a treat, especially at home but I doubt we'll ever see that. Dont see how thats definate atall. For all any of us know Pardew has been getting the best out of what he currently has available. Ben Arfa is a class player, but he is up and down at the moment & his replacement today helped us score a goal in a game we won by a single goal. Its all wishful thinking when people argue with Pardews decisions and style of play. Utilised the best they can? We have numerous players in our squad that have been brought up with a specific footballing philosophy, a lot of them have played in teams that were based around pass and move and performed very well indeed (some of them championship winning sides or ones in European competition). You're telling me out of the likes of: Coloccini, Santon, Jonas, Tiote, Cabaye, Guthrie, Ben Arfa and Ba, we couldn't have got some efficient pass and move going? Some proper movement and fluidity between the front 5/6? Successful play built through midfield? It's a bit s*** watching these guys who've played in far more technical leagues, for far more technical teams, hoofing the ball around, when they could be so much more. Who's to say that if we'd gone for a more attacking line up today, we might have won by 3 goals, instead of scrapping with just 1? I agree thats possible for our future. Atm out of those players Santon is only now looking like that position is his, Jonas's form has been up and down, Cabaye is also newer to the league & struggled to find space earlier in the season, Guthrie is only recently improving & Barfa is up and down/coming back still from his year out. I dont think theyve had time or the experience so far to become that side yet. In the 2nd half today when they dropped off id say we did have some nice pass & move going which Guthrie largely dictated. Long ball is just another tactic we are able to deploy with two big lads. We might have won by more with Barfa yeah, we might have lost also. There are reasonable arguments for both but i dont think ppl should argue with a successful decision in the pure hope that it couldve been better.

Agree with the first part. The rest is pointlessly negatively biased against Pardew. We lack the tactics? 5 CS from 8 games before today? We lack the right selection? Pardew replaced Ben Arfa with a guy who helped us win the game, which you then complain about afterwards. He is the single reason we have bought both of the lads who scored goals for us today & much of the rest of the side has improved. Yet i still sense little but "this could be done better" from all of your posts.

yeah i think we're a bit lucky Best got injured. And Raylor to an extent, as though Obertan was mostly crap he did inject a bit of pace into our game. Similar thing happened with Ben Arfa vs QPR. Would like Pardew to be a bit braver in his decisions from now on rather than letting circumstance or luck (good and bad) dictate the difficult decisions. He's certainly not as ballsy as he once was but I think he's simply stumbled onto a formula that's gotten results and has stuck with it. We could definitely still have gotten the results we have, playing some more expansive football and that is frustrating but ultimately hard to argue against. I'd like him to play Ben Arfa in a 4-4-2 to supply the 2 lads up top, I think it would work a treat, especially at home but I doubt we'll ever see that. Dont see how thats definate atall. For all any of us know Pardew has been getting the best out of what he currently has available. Ben Arfa is a class player, but he is up and down at the moment & his replacement today helped us score a goal in a game we won by a single goal. Its all wishful thinking when people argue with Pardews decisions and style of play.

5 wins from our last 7 & we're the joint 2nd most inform side in the league. But we'll only make the top 4 if Pardew changes his entire philosophy thats got us to this point? Aye ok. Perch in the middle due to Cabaye/Tiote out, Ba/Cisse have barely played together, Guti individually poor first half and if we dont play fluid football its all Pardew fault for not playing Barfa Laughable.

I hope we dont have the chance to go 4 pts from 3rd, we want them beating pool tomorrow.

4 pens in a week vs 3 OG's in a week

Looked like an OG again. Would be their 3rd in a week. Still dont think they have enough goalscorers.

His 4th assist in more or less his last 6 games. We've won each game. You gotta give it to him, he knows how to be involved & get into the right areas.

Actually played pretty well there, kept it simple, broke up their play. Good decision to play him.

Very well done again. Perch played well, Raylor another assist, Obertan made us a lot more lively. People keep disagreeing & he just keeps getting us points with his choices.

Brilliant today, really really great performance. Dictated so much of our play.

Talk about a way to score the winner on your debut. Couldnt ask for more, amazing.

Fucking dreamworld atm

Absolutely bloody amazing

Linesman gave foul for nowt there