Interpolic

I really don't see why a manager down-playing his team's chances in a press conference means anything. That's the smart thing to do. You're supposed to publicly take the pressure off the players. It's one of the reasons why Mourinho is so good. What kind of fucking mentalist goes to a press conference and says "aye, we'll win nee bother." Even when Premier League teams are playing against League One sides in the cups, the manager will generally do the usual, "anything can happen on the night," bit. It's just good sense. Yet when Pardew does it he's "demoralizing the team." It's ludicrous, for fuck's sake. What are you on about man? I'm not saying he needs to say, "aye, we'll win nee bother." He just doesn't need to say stuff like, "get spurs game out the way" and "8th is top of the league for us" Those were from just this week. I don't know what he says in private to the players your right, but based on their recent performances, every single one of them have given up now and are on holiday. He doesn't have to say we'll win, that's stupid. He could show some sort of confidence or positivity though that might filter through to the fans and his players. Recent performances have been shit. He needs to stop the rot pretty quickly here. But approximately 0% of it has anything to do with anything he's ever said in a press conference. Pardew sees the players every day. Unless something said in a press conference relates to one of them personally then I'm certain it does fuck all to affect them. I think the only solution is to analyse his pre-match comments more closely than currently, and Ian W frowns on that. Bit of a catch-22. As previously stated, I frequently watch our games and am reminded of his pre-match comments, it seems to seep through to the players - whether that's because they take notice of the media or it generally resembles what he's saying in training/on match days, we'll never know. So yes, it has an effect if that's the case and my mind's not playing tricks. The only real example I can remember recently of that not being the case was when he said it was a terrible time to play Man Utd as they'd just been beaten by Everton. Fair do's we won that game and played well, so the theory didn't really ring true in that instance. As I say, I'll start keeping a record of it if you like - pre-match comments vs the subsequent performance. You'll have to ask Ian W though. Not worth the bother. Even if there is a correlation it doesn't mean hedging = loss. We're on a losing streak. When your side is struggling for confidence it makes even more sense than usual to downplay their chances and take the pressure off. It can just as easily mean losses = hedging. A correlation between the two doesn't doesn't mean anything he's saying publicly affects their morale. There's not necessarily any causation there. Fair enough, you don't want me to do it - you can stick with your hunch and I'll stick with mine.

I really don't see why a manager down-playing his team's chances in a press conference means anything. That's the smart thing to do. You're supposed to publicly take the pressure off the players. It's one of the reasons why Mourinho is so good. What kind of fucking mentalist goes to a press conference and says "aye, we'll win nee bother." Even when Premier League teams are playing against League One sides in the cups, the manager will generally do the usual, "anything can happen on the night," bit. It's just good sense. Yet when Pardew does it he's "demoralizing the team." It's ludicrous, for fuck's sake. What are you on about man? I'm not saying he needs to say, "aye, we'll win nee bother." He just doesn't need to say stuff like, "get spurs game out the way" and "8th is top of the league for us" Those were from just this week. I don't know what he says in private to the players your right, but based on their recent performances, every single one of them have given up now and are on holiday. He doesn't have to say we'll win, that's stupid. He could show some sort of confidence or positivity though that might filter through to the fans and his players. Recent performances have been shit. He needs to stop the rot pretty quickly here. But approximately 0% of it has anything to do with anything he's ever said in a press conference. Pardew sees the players every day. Unless something said in a press conference relates to one of them personally then I'm certain it does fuck all to affect them. I think the only solution is to analyse his pre-match comments more closely than currently, and Ian W frowns on that. Bit of a catch-22. As previously stated, I frequently watch our games and am reminded of his pre-match comments, it seems to seep through to the players - whether that's because they take notice of the media or it generally resembles what he's saying in training/on match days, we'll never know. So yes, it has an effect if that's the case and my mind's not playing tricks. The only real example I can remember recently of that not being the case was when he said it was a terrible time to play Man Utd as they'd just been beaten by Everton. Fair do's we won that game and played well, so the theory didn't really ring true in that instance. As I say, I'll start keeping a record of it if you like - pre-match comments vs the subsequent performance. You'll have to ask Ian W though.

:lol:

Pards: “All the players that have come here have improved, I can’t think of one who hasn’t."

You definitely won't need 40 points to stay up this year - that would involve 1 or 2 teams being marooned at the bottom of the league, which hasn't happened this year.

If you read between the lines of what he's said this week he'd written this game off, annoys me when people suggest those sort of quotes don't affect performances. All too often you can sense a fear-filled performance based on his comments in the build-up.

He survived this last season, btw, even though we were in a relegation battle unlike now - where we're safe. Wey, not only did he survive it, he was given about £85m to spend in January cos he'd earnt it: L 0-1 L 1-2 D 1-1 L 0-2 L 1-2 W 3-0 L 0-2 L 1-2 L 1-3 W 1-0 L 3-4 L 3-7 L 1-2 L 0-2 D 0-0 L 1-2 GS: 17 GC: 32 (i.a.c) Sacked? Yeah, right. Bulletproof man. He'll be bolshier than ever in his interviews after this.

0-10 since Cabaye left. New playing style.

Cool, not 3-0.

Unlucky Alan, class always tells in the end though and you'll have us hitting the heights again soon.

Ooh, it's our favourite scoreline.

If there was a zombie-fuelled apocalypse, would it technically mean this chap wasn't our manager anymore?

Highs!

Whoever does it will get the usual "It must be so difficult playing devil's advocate, I don't know how you do it in the face of such opposition" treatment.

Gets every call right, this chap.

"We've done a fantastic job".

Ben Arfa will come on soon, this is a perfect opportunity to throw him on in a hopeless situation and use it as an excuse to give him next to zero minutes for a month.

Always shite against Spurs, Krul. I couldn't care less about this game tbh. Starting to laugh every time we concede, not good.

My perception is that training's generally pretty outstanding but unfortunately the players agree amongst themselves to play like shite, on the sly.

Our Plan B is usually really good tbf, gives me optimism.

Oh good.

Stats overdose.

Some magic on the bench man, some people are never happy.

3 fat ladies, 888.