Interpolic

I don't think he'd have set up this way had we had Coloccini/Taylor and Santon fit. I think a lot of his thinking was not having a particularly strong back four, and not having his "door openers" available to play much more than half an hour each. Haven't we set up the same way (defensive and hoping to grind out results) pretty much the whole season? We see weaker squads play better football every week. It's all about psychology and inspiring players to push themselves to play better. Just because we have alot of international class professionals doesn't mean they don't need inspiration to push them from time to time or that arm around them to help. That said the players are clearly united with pardew and have bought into what he feeds them. For me it just looks like it's easier for him to play defensive than try to inspire his players mentally to step up. If Swansea play the way they do against someone like Benfica next season, I think they'd get ripped apart tbh. I think our best chance of winning the tie tonight with the players available, was the way we set out. That, imho, is bollocks. Swansea may well get seen off for a variety of reasons but because they have the ball a lot more than the other team won't be one of them. And if the only chance we had of winning the game tonight was the way it panned out, 10 mins of pressure out of 90, then we just had no chance, simple as. That's bollocks like. No chance? When Cisse scored there wasn't a person in the ground who wasn't fairly confident we would win it. We were incredibly close. Not for me. ON is of the opinion that the way we approached the game was the best tactically that we could have done. Don't agree with that and my point was, if that was the best approach possible then we weren't ever really in it. Tell me how we could have been better tactically? I wouldn't have started Bigi in the first 45 mins. Sissoko out wide and either Marveaux or Shola would have given us far more bite IMO. I think it's clear Marveaux wasn't fit...and this place had Shola started. Marveaux looked plenty fit to me - and Pardew really shouldn't give a toss about what this place would think about Shola starting tbh. Pardew said post-match that Marveaux struggles with a lot of games in a short space of time, which is why he didn't start tonight. Fine. But why replace him with an inexperienced defensive central midfielder? Do you think teams with no threat going forward are going to worry a team with a poor defence? We didn't want to worry them in the first half ffs. Why poke the bear with a stick when you can get to the hour and try and shoot it instead? What a shit analogy. We clearly didn't have enough time to beat them, there was a lot of huff and puff and they looked a bit rattled but don't go on like we were unlucky.

That's not fair. Myself, midds, colinmk and lovejoy have been some of his fiercest critics every week but we all thought he got it right tonight. He's a very negative manager and tonight that was essential. All this "we needed to just go for it" is nonsense. The away goals rule makes a monumental difference to any other game. We couldn't have attacked at all for the first 40 minutes, Wullie? Really? And we could only have pushed on like we did for the last 20? Personally I wanted 0-0 at half time. Imo we needed to keep Benfica at arm's length and almost keep them happy. If we'd led 2-0 then, that's actually a worse scenario than 0-0. No way would we have withstood a barrage from them, and they only need one goal. But we could have scored again ourselves. I don't buy into this at all, mental things happen in the later stages of European competition and you need to buy into it and trust in the ability of your own players. We could've beat Benfica 3-1/4-1/whatever tonight, these things happen in European competition at this stage when you have a few matchwinners in your side - it seems to me we placed all our eggs in one very small basket and are now saying that basket was the only basket.

I don't think he'd have set up this way had we had Coloccini/Taylor and Santon fit. I think a lot of his thinking was not having a particularly strong back four, and not having his "door openers" available to play much more than half an hour each. Haven't we set up the same way (defensive and hoping to grind out results) pretty much the whole season? We see weaker squads play better football every week. It's all about psychology and inspiring players to push themselves to play better. Just because we have alot of international class professionals doesn't mean they don't need inspiration to push them from time to time or that arm around them to help. That said the players are clearly united with pardew and have bought into what he feeds them. For me it just looks like it's easier for him to play defensive than try to inspire his players mentally to step up. If Swansea play the way they do against someone like Benfica next season, I think they'd get ripped apart tbh. I think our best chance of winning the tie tonight with the players available, was the way we set out. That, imho, is bollocks. Swansea may well get seen off for a variety of reasons but because they have the ball a lot more than the other team won't be one of them. And if the only chance we had of winning the game tonight was the way it panned out, 10 mins of pressure out of 90, then we just had no chance, simple as. That's bollocks like. No chance? When Cisse scored there wasn't a person in the ground who wasn't fairly confident we would win it. We were incredibly close. Not for me. ON is of the opinion that the way we approached the game was the best tactically that we could have done. Don't agree with that and my point was, if that was the best approach possible then we weren't ever really in it. What? We were a goal away from doing it and we were very close to getting that. We weren't very close to getting it, Ben Arfa hit the ball over the bar and that was basically it. Who knows what we could have achieved by orchestrating the odd attack over 90 minutes? It's this idea that you need to not attack or attack like madmen that is a product of Pardew's very limited idea of the game. The first 40 minutes were f***ing embarrassing, you could push that to the first 70 minutes really. Cisse was about a foot away from giving us a goal before half-time or is that not close either? It's not close in the sense that you usually need more than one half chance to score a goal, law of averages of most football games as both you and I know. If we'd tried to carve out half chances for 90 minutes without going fucking mental about it, it gives you more chance of scoring the goals you need.

That's not fair. Myself, midds, colinmk and lovejoy have been some of his fiercest critics every week but we all thought he got it right tonight. He's a very negative manager and tonight that was essential. All this "we needed to just go for it" is nonsense. The away goals rule makes a monumental difference to any other game. We couldn't have attacked at all for the first 40 minutes, Wullie? Really? And we could only have pushed on like we did for the last 20?

I don't think he'd have set up this way had we had Coloccini/Taylor and Santon fit. I think a lot of his thinking was not having a particularly strong back four, and not having his "door openers" available to play much more than half an hour each. Haven't we set up the same way (defensive and hoping to grind out results) pretty much the whole season? We see weaker squads play better football every week. It's all about psychology and inspiring players to push themselves to play better. Just because we have alot of international class professionals doesn't mean they don't need inspiration to push them from time to time or that arm around them to help. That said the players are clearly united with pardew and have bought into what he feeds them. For me it just looks like it's easier for him to play defensive than try to inspire his players mentally to step up. If Swansea play the way they do against someone like Benfica next season, I think they'd get ripped apart tbh. I think our best chance of winning the tie tonight with the players available, was the way we set out. That, imho, is bollocks. Swansea may well get seen off for a variety of reasons but because they have the ball a lot more than the other team won't be one of them. And if the only chance we had of winning the game tonight was the way it panned out, 10 mins of pressure out of 90, then we just had no chance, simple as. That's bollocks like. No chance? When Cisse scored there wasn't a person in the ground who wasn't fairly confident we would win it. We were incredibly close. Not for me. ON is of the opinion that the way we approached the game was the best tactically that we could have done. Don't agree with that and my point was, if that was the best approach possible then we weren't ever really in it. What? We were a goal away from doing it and we were very close to getting that. We weren't very close to getting it, Ben Arfa hit the ball over the bar and that was basically it. Who knows what we could have achieved by orchestrating the odd attack over 90 minutes? It's this idea that you need to not attack or attack like madmen that is a product of Pardew's very limited idea of the game. The first 40 minutes were fucking embarrassing, you could push that to the first 70 minutes really.

ok aye it is a bit of an overplayed card like. might use it less often..... right, basically want to see what this team is capable of with a manager I think they believe in, and no european football. Top 8 and doing something in domestic cup is what I expect- by doing something I mean trying to get as far as possible- if we go out fair enough, but go down fighting. OK then, so top 8 with a good cup run. I could probably live with that too. I think (especially with a few additions) we could aim higher though. Now, style of football. You reckon there are any aspirations to play better stuff than this? I'm not sure how much longer I can watch it. I hate watching us. You reckon it'll get better next year and if so, why? yes im hoping, pardew has said himself this season he has felt unable to let the team fully express itself due the the lack of numbers/ players available. Playing in one less competition should free this up- but yeah I do need to see this happen, i expect it,football not hoofball,or im crossing over to the hat........ It sort of sounds like you're buying the Europa League as the main excuse to me. I've looked at so many of our teamsheets this season and not understood us playing such primitive football when the situation didn't really demand it and the results didn't warrant it. I'm a bit fearful that Pardew's brought out every imaginable excuse this year and hope that good supporters haven't bought into it too much, only to see that he'll have new excuses next year and we'll always play like shit and underachieve.

People in different frames of mind on a football forum vs in the ground SHOCKER. FFS man, this is another one on here - when I'm at the ground I'll not sit there and moan, I'll generally just get to the optimal amount of drunk so I can sing and support the team as much as possible. It's a bit different on here, I'm not going to be sat in the match thread typing out football chants and saying HOWAY and nowt else.

ok aye it is a bit of an overplayed card like. might use it less often..... right, basically want to see what this team is capable of with a manager I think they believe in, and no european football. Top 8 and doing something in domestic cup is what I expect- by doing something I mean trying to get as far as possible- if we go out fair enough, but go down fighting. OK then, so top 8 with a good cup run. I could probably live with that too. I think (especially with a few additions) we could aim higher though. Now, style of football. You reckon there are any aspirations to play better stuff than this? I'm not sure how much longer I can watch it. I hate watching us. You reckon it'll get better next year and if so, why?

CP40, without us mentioning the words "hate" or "hater" which is becoming incredibly tiresome when people are generally trying to be vaguely constructive... What makes you so sure Pardew will get it right next year and what does him getting it right next year constitute for you?

I think we'd have had a better chance. We had them on the ropes for 10 minutes, that's it - because we thought that was the pinnacle of what we were capable of. Went out with a whimper IMO.

Cool, when are the semi's? Sorry, you said you weren't happy about it before the game so presumably you think we'd have done worse than that if we had some semblance of an attacking plan for the first 70 minutes? It seemingly nearly worked but it didn't, we gave ourselves 20 minutes to win it when we could have played it over 90. Shit scared of the opposition.

What absolute bullshit. (second sentence) Whatever. A manager who secured us a memorable 2-0 victory to get us in the semis of a major European league? People would be saying he got it spot on, man. Been saying it all night - there's more than one way to skin a cat and the way Pardew chose was the way that most closely resembled his view on how to play the game and probably the only thing he was willing to do within his own very negative parameters, but also in my view the way that requires the most luck and more things to go your way. We could've tried it another way and had a better chance IMO.

This, fucking hell! It's so black and white isn't it, people not on board with this plan that gave us a small window of opportunity to win the tie want us to play like ultra-attacking lunatics.

There it is again, "go for broke" when we defended for our lives for 40 minutes and didn't put up much of an attacking threat until 60-70. Happy mediums.

:lol: For someone who was at pains to point out how much of a tosser I was towards people who didn't have the same view as me, you're becoming awfully proficient at playing that role. Oh brill, it's Stu again. I'm laughing at it because it's basically going to become the epitaph of this game, and indeed this season. Manager did nowt wrong, just had awful luck.

:lol:

This is exactly how I feel about tonight. Shit scared of the opposition and played like plucky underdogs.

There are other ways to play FFS! For 70 minutes we simply did f*** all. You don't have to open up and be all gung ho to win 2-0. But our idiot of a manager didnt know this. I know that but you must realise by now Pardew isn't capable of that? you are asking him to do things he isn't capable of. The plan was fine, sadly we couldn't take the chances we did have. Well that's fucking ridiculous.

Not one shot in the first 40 minutes and that's down to us just not being able to get near their goal, no matter how hard we tried.

We had a 10 minute spell and then ran out of steam when Benfica had re organised themselves. 10 minutes out of 90 is fucking terrible. Exactly, I'd imagine I'm classed as a "hater" and was horrified to see the lineup, the pre-match comments, and the first 70 minutes as I'm proud of our club and would always like to see us go out to get teams. Most weeks we don't even try to, yet I'm a "hater" for criticising the man responsible. cp40 - you've been watching us for years. I hate watching this shite in general. How do you feel about watching it? I dont like aspects of our game, but I understand the bigger picture and accept, as I anticipate better things next season. edit, and I love being in euro quater finals and feel proud What aspects do you like? And wouldn't you have felt prouder if we'd had a proper go at getting to the semi's? He's indocrinating a small club, plucky underdog mentality with some people and it's sad to see.

We had a 10 minute spell and then ran out of steam when Benfica had re organised themselves. 10 minutes out of 90 is fucking terrible. Exactly, I'd imagine I'm classed as a "hater" and was horrified to see the lineup, the pre-match comments, and the first 70 minutes as I'm proud of our club and would always like to see us go out to get teams. Most weeks we don't even try to, yet I'm a "hater" for criticising the man responsible. cp40 - you've been watching us for years. I hate watching this shite in general. How do you feel about watching it?

I don't see how they were the only tactics we could have employed and we just got unlucky. We could have tried to attack them without going fucking apeshit and putting Rob Elliott up front but we didn't, we held on like fuck for nearly the whole first half without trying to score a goal ourselves. There are other ways to overturn a first leg deficit, in fact nearly every time you see a first leg deficit overturned in Europe it's as a result of a team getting after the other from the first whistle, taking advantage of complacence and scoring goals to get them shellshocked. We undersold ourselves by waiting so long to even try.

I really don't think there was any excuse not to have one attack of note in the first 40 minutes of a game we needed to win 2-0 like. There is a balance to be struck.

I think Benfica would have something to say about that like, since they did more than enough to win both games. You don't think we could have won both games? Cisse hitting the post twice first game, two offside goals this game, Ben Arfa putting over from about 16 yards out, the two massive individual fuck ups costing us two goals... Fuck it, not going to bother. Pardew's fault, his tactics didn't give us a chance etc.. Sentence I've bolded, will you piss off with that rubbish - I'm sick of trying to have sensible conversations about this and having that kind of shite thrown around. First bit - I'm saying on the balance of play they deserved to go through, no bother. Also, if I was a neutral I'd say I was glad to see the far more positive side go through.

This is getting staggering now.