Interpolic

What are you referring to in particular?

:lol: He's just on a fucking wind-up.

Way to gee up the entire squad.

That's a bad reason, man. IMO.* There's only really Man Utd, Arsenal and Everton who are left to throw stones anyway * - unless you mean from a footballing perspective, which the rest of your post suggests not The press and fans of other clubs would lay into us, with lazy observations about us having finished 5th a year earlier and Pardew being excused for this year due to an unprecedented amount of injuries. All the while, having only seen us on MOTD now and then. I'd get annoyed, we'd appoint a new manager, I'd be happy again.

I'll accept that the players need to stand up and take a percentage of the blame, but then again people do realise that motivating players and getting them to perform is one of the manager's absolute core responsibilities, yeah?

And that's ignoring some disgusting home results, horrible football for the most part, the fact Pardew's actually actively lost us games by trying to be too clever/cautious instead of leaving it the same or chasing a 2nd goal, etc. You really can only have been paying attention to Pardew's press conferences and nowt else if you think nobody could have done better in the circumstances.

Our away record, as posted by Dave the other day: LDDDDLLLLLDWLLLL Aye, that's the absolute pinnacle of what any manager could have achieved.

http://www.memecreator.org/static/images/memes/1189711.jpg

Notting Hill Carnival was a killer like.

Some of us did, because we knew that if it didnt change, this was coming. Exactly, if you go out to dominate the opposition with a fluent attacking gameplan then I'm convinced that it's more geared to long-term success than going out to fluke your way through games, taking advantage of a lucky bounce or flash of brilliance then defending it with your lives.

This is the thing which annoys me more than anything else. The results have been as shit this season as they were good last season, but barring a number of excellent matches that you could count on one hand the actual performances have normally been very similar. That is, scrappy, often overly defensive football and regularly relying on individual brilliance. He's been here well over two years now and still there's little discernible pattern to our play, or idea of the direction we're going in. I know it's a cliché that we like to take the piss out of, but you look at Liverpool and you can already see what they're trying to do. Doesn't always work, but they stick with it. Pardew was fucked over in the summer but by the same token he's had largely the same squad since he came here and yet any style he's trying to implement isn't really emerging. Be nice to see something happen on this front next season. He talks the talk in this respect, but the fact we're yet to see the expansive football he's so insistent that he's working towards 2 and a bit years down the line indicates he's making excuses and it's a bit of a red herring. We're still at the point where he's crowing about getting his best 11 on the field, when the reality is that most managers in the league are never in this position but have to utilise their best available players and not let the squad fillers dictate their style of play too much. When he was implying that having 2 players out of 11 (Simpson and Williamson) who weren't very good footballers meant that he had no choice but to play this way then I knew he was getting a bit desperate and it was another excuse for the football we were playing. You mention Liverpool and it's a fair comparison, man-for-man we're not that far apart but the football we're playing is about 30 years behind. It will stand them in good stead, yet if you believe what Pardew's saying then we're going to have to start at square one on this mythical day when everyone's fit and on-form, as he's insisted on playing tedium-ball for much of his tenure, due to one excuse or another.

http://www.newcastle-online.org/nufcforum/index.php/topic,91466.msg4317797.html#msg4317797

He doesn't, he just wants people to stop giving him grief for it.

Bottom line is that I can't wait to draw a line under this season, hopefully with our Premier League status intact and thinking optimistically we may have progressed further in the Europa or at least not shown ourselves up against Benfica. I don't think there's much chance of next season being anywhere near as bad as this season, whatever happens. I'd imagine if Pardew stays it will just be bang-average, with poor performances and mid-table results. An opportunity lost in other words, but I don't think we'll be in serious relagation trouble 2 years running. If that's what people are happy with then fair enough, because I'd be fairly surprised to see us attacking the top 6 again with this guy in charge - it seems like his luck's ran out and what he did last season was built on sand, in terms of footballing ethos to see you through whatever rub of the green you might be experiencing. The style of football has a big bearing on things, it would be far easier to sympathise with Pardew if he wasn't responsible for making your eyes bleed once or twice a week.

He'll give 110 percent trying to change that. He's on to a loser in both respects from day 1 then, sorry from day minus 400.

There's only 24 hours in a day, Paolo.

Simply says "Paul Ince" now.

:lol:

It really is. It's basically "we didn't expect all this fuss, leave us alone".

It's like one of your things, except a bit more daft.

It's tough for me to call because I've always been quite big on the cups, but the position we're in I'm pretty concerned. Annoying that it's came to this. I'd personally just play our strongest team, there isn't much evidence for resting players doing us much good this year anyway.

No goals conceded in our last 4 European matches and only 2 scored (to get us through in the 2 ties). I'd say if we manage to keep it tight then we've got half a chance, or if they're open games then we're knackered.

It's a real shame that 2 of the only games to really look forward to this season have been soured by our awful league form and comments from the manager indicating we'll not be taking them 100% seriously because of the position we're in. I'll wait until I've seen the matches over the next few weeks, but it doesn't look good.

What the fuck's gannin on in here?