gbandit

Chelsea are so awful and have been all season.I can't believe how few clear goal scoring opps they make per game

Wish he would just think "f*** it" and take the shackles off altogether. He did a great job to get us so high up earlier this season with a pragmatic, hard-working approach, but he's in severe danger of undermining everything if things keep going as they are. We can certainly go back to the more cautious selections/tactics where necessary, or if it backfires spectacularly, but sometimes you just need to stick your best players on the park in their correct positions and say "have a f***ing go at them lads". Don't abandon the basics altogether, of course, but due to the nature of our support - particularly at home - if we were to go this way I think he'd certainly win back/win over a lot of people who are starting to lose faith in him/have never had faith in him. It's not always about simply working harder than the opposition, you need to get your better players on the ball and involved in the game in the right areas. We keep showing glimpses, but there hasn't been a game for a good while now where we can honestly say we've "controlled it" and looked like the "big team". I might be wrong but I can't remember Demba having a chance from open play in the last two games, for instance. Get the ball down from the 'keeper, spread the centre-halves and push the fullbacks on, move it sharply and get some f***ing options for the man in possession. We are well capable of doing it if the leash is slackened a bit more and the lads are allowed to/able to play without as much fear. That's right, players respond to a feeling of freedom on the pitch, look at tottenham. You can teach players all the discipline you like and it can make the team hard to beat but all it does in the long-term is make them afraid to express themselves and break the rules, do the unexpected. We just look clueless on the ball at times because half the time we're looking backwards not forwards. Hatem breaks the rule and he's only just gotten into the team properly; imagine if Sammy hadn't got an injury - see you later Hatem, we need hard workers

What's frustrating is he managed it last season for 60 mins a few times.has he got worse?no,can he offer something to us,of course he can.I honestly think hes a real player from the limited amount I've seen of him.he has an injury right now but he needs some run outs before the end of the season.under no circumstances should simpson have been given this much game time

I certainly haven't. Actually, going on form, i would think about bringing Shola on for Ba in the last 20 and keep Cisse on (if he's actually playing at all). This, Cisse should be starting. Demba always fades in the last twenty, get him off for Shola

We had that own goal and a rare wonder goal from Raylor. They created more throughout the game with Drenthe literally tearing into us at times. We were not comfortable winners

Personally would go guth instead of cabaye.

I agree with some of that Jayson,some players just don't respond to coaching,obertan being one but when we have played this style of football most of the season against all types of opposition,Brighton included,it makes me conclude that Pardew is setting them up that way,with Keegan we'd be playing dominant,possession based football and pushing the other team about not lumping it and hoping Ba would save our asses because that's what happened a lot early season.watch back some of those early performances and we played like this a lot of the time.the difference was,we could say the team was gelling,we're getting points.thugs have changed andog term success is bred on good football,simple as that

The formation was correct yes but if you think having 30% possession second half and basically being attacked again and again,hoping for arsenal to miss one of their twenty chances is spot on then I disagree.spot on would have been instructing the players to move it around,keep it down,work it about and maintain some kind of presence in the game instead of just giving it away,getting into a defensive position then letting them attack again.we had no attacking game plan in the second half,none whatsoever,we were just inviting their goal all half.that's not spot on man,not at all

Would be sick about drenthe if I was a Tonian

Pardew on the PR wank again,only so many times he can say that stuff without backing it up in style of play

It's true but he does have good technical quality and can help us to be more of a possession based attacking team. I look forward to him returning, not only for the team but for the lad himself. He's had a Keiron Dyer

People like to glaze over this now. In fact, even if we'd won our last four games by pure luck but played at exactly the same level we have done in our last four games, people would be saying that we were picking up. That's what is frustrating, so many of those early games in the season were very average and only a small number focused on this at the time. It is growing now though

Beautiful graph, in regards to Batistuta, he was such a rare player

I watched every matches this season, I have to give up sleeping last nite and go to work immediately after the match. It is f***ing obvious that we intentionally change the tactics to protect Perch. On the other hand, it wouldn't make sense if we start the game with a 451 and hoof the ball. Obertan was instructed to assist Ba whenever Ba gets the ball from the midfield, and spray the ball back to the wingers which was very successful for the first 45mins. this only works when we play it on the ground. Obviously this was not the case in the 2nd. Obertan was nth but s*** during the hoof ball era. The injury of Santon forced Pardew to play Perch, and the game plan has to be changed. I have no problem for that. I can't criticize this decision. I really can't. You can have a go for wolves or all other matches but the thought of Walcott v Perch was f***ing terrible - and it proved to be correct at last. santon was a much much better one on one defender than Perch. Nothing was successful about Obertan yesterday. I stopped reading here. We're quite obviously seeing the game in a totally different way. If you think someone getting the ball passed to them and then passing it to someone else is an achievement, you've set yourself up for a happy life. What Obertan did yesterday was run the ball out of play once or twice, ran with it in an incredibly promising position and then misplaced a pass to Ben Arfa, ran around a lot and completed a few passes. This was a 5/10 performance

I watched every matches this season, I have to give up sleeping last nite and go to work immediately after the match. It is f***ing obvious that we intentionally change the tactics to protect Perch. On the other hand, it wouldn't make sense if we start the game with a 451 and hoof the ball. Obertan was instructed to assist Ba whenever Ba gets the ball from the midfield, and spray the ball back to the wingers which was very successful for the first 45mins. this only works when we play it on the ground. Obviously this was not the case in the 2nd. Obertan was nth but s*** during the hoof ball era. The injury of Santon forced Pardew to play Perch, and the game plan has to be changed. I have no problem for that. I can't criticize this decision. I really can't. You can have a go for wolves or all other matches but the thought of Walcott v Perch was f***ing terrible - and it proved to be correct at last. santon was a much much better one on one defender than Perch. Nothing was successful about Obertan yesterday. He either didn't make a mistake or did, he did absolutely nothing of any note and please don't say 'the build up to HBA's goal'. In regards to Perch against Walcott, he had exactly the same problems as Santon, only he put in a couple of more impressive challenges. Santon while he was on the pitch offered us movement up front but if you think that taking him off means we can only play by kicking the ball 60 yards to Koscielny/Vermaelen so that they can build from the back and pass it around us for fun then you're wrong. Cabaye/Tiote/Jonas/Colo/HBA/ even Shola yesterday can pass the ball about on the ground well, they don't need to just feed Arsenal so that our defence can once again be opened up

A lot of people were saying things like "pardew has his reasons", "I'll trust pardew on this one" in regards to obertan over HBA at times and even Raylor likewise.the same applied when Raylor was at left back over Santon and it will continue to next season when players like Marveaux,ferguson and vuckic struggle to get a look in over Raylor

That's the point though isn't it Mojo,so many fans have called for him to be in the side all season and he wasn't because of 'workrate' or 'not showing enough'.the reality is pardew has spent the season judging everyone on how much they run around,not what they can offer the team.this is not going to change,his selections this season have been wrong far too often for me

Zero "build up plays on floor" Are you seriously suggesting our game plan was to build along the ground?it happened by default when tiote or HBA were on the ball.cannot beleive how people just swallow stuff up,like when people say "pardew knows best" when a good player is left out for a poor one.are all these people watching all our matches or just reading match reports?

Pretty much a perfect post from Beren.our problem is possession and movement,creating goalcoring opportunities.I think we'll see a lot more from cabaye next season,just look at how long it took modric to flourish,I'm not saying cabaye is in the same league but he will be sharper on the ball next season and much quicker. I think Jonas is pretty burnt out and I'm sick of him just running it up the line and then miscrossing it.I would genuinely love to get Ferguson on but the one thing holding me back is how much defensive work Jonas does.Pardew should switch the weekly training to 4 days working on attacking shape/movement and ball control/possession rather than 4 days on defence.the main problem with our defence is just individual poorness

"might not be a bad thing if we lose or draw" - pathetic man,sort yourself out.pardew is on the rocks there with quotes like that

You take a look at the whole season and it's criminal how little he's given us.in terms of wingers I'd play HBA,Jonas,ferguson,marveaux,raylor ahead of him.sick of his complete inability to control a football then do nothing with it.the biggest waste of a shirt this season

That hideous goblin is such a wanker. Can't wait for his legacy to be crushed in Liverpool. He also needs to lay off the booze

Quite often Krul does have to go long as the full backs don't pull out wide to receive the ball. Then that's surely the clearest indication that its tactical

Yeah, I knew you'd always backed HBA to start but even if he ends the season with a string of top performances my opinion will always remain that he should have had an extra seven-eight starts

Just a point I want to make to Ian W. I always respect the fact you give people a good crack at the whip and look at it in a positive fashion but I do think you give Pardew too much credit. You mentioned in a post earlier that potentially the way Pardew has treated HBA could be seen as good management. I'm sorry but that's just wrong in my eyes, he was always going to perform to this level, he just needed games. Secondly, in regards to the hoof ball inability of our players, Krul doesn't have to go long on his goal kicks all the time. This is the clearest indication that Pardew is telling the team to lob it up the pitch. Krul has all the time in the world and yet chooses to do that when he could easily pick out a full back or other option. I'd say 8/9 times out of ten he goes long, this has to be under instruction. As for Simpson and Williamson, well yes, they are awful ball players but even so, they are quite obviously told to default long ball if under any pressure