Mole_Toonfan

a former proven recipe? lol oh please, demba played out wide in a handful, two handfuls of games at most, and those limited games got us to 5th? have a longer memory. we played the majority of our games last season in 4-4-2 dont forget. i personally am a big fan of 4-5-1/4-3-3 but you put your most effective most potent scorer out wide. As i said before that was a very different team than this one is and had different strengths and weaknesses. Krul Simpson Saylor Colo Raylor Obertan Cabaye Tiote Jonas Ba Best We didn't have Cisse, Ben Arfa, Santon and Jonas wasn't the player he is now who seems a spent force as a winger. Not to mention Cabaye's obviously at his best as the most advanced of the 3 instead of deep alongside Tiote. This is a totally different team which has different strengths and weaknesses and suits a more 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1 type of style. Also that 6 winning streak was just as important as any run that season, without it we probably wouldn't have have even finished above Everton. It became obvious at that time that teams where starting to find us out in 4-4-2 and the change to 4-3-3 made us unpredictable and give us the final push so we could qualify for Europe. Honestly i think this first eleven is far from sorted yet like some assumed at the start of the season ( Danny Simpson last weak link etc etc) On Review we need a RB, CB, CM and LW before we can start talking like that but i do think playing 3 in midfield and actually passing through the midfield instead of completely by-passing it would sort out a lot of the problems. I would love to be able to say drop Cisse he isn't coming up with the goods ( all style of play and system excuses aside) but who do we have to come in? Sammy? i like Sammy and all but is he ready to start every week ? nope not for me. We just don't have the options to freshen the squad up like that, this is going to be probably not well received but if we receive good offers for Tiote and Ba's release clause is met i wouldn't mind that at all if it allows us to go again. As someone said before the summer will be very interesting indeed as we are probably going to lose a few and quite frankly if that happens i hope we turn it into a positive like we did with the whole Carroll, Barton and Nolan fiasco either that or we go backwards again. I do get the feeling that one of Ba or Cisse might have to go though in the long term as i really can't see them flourishing as a partnership and it's too expensive for a club like this to have one of them on the bench every week.

first of all there's no evidence that Ba has given the manager a ultimatum. Not sure why people are so keen on seeing him play outwide considering he is the only striker upfront thats actually scoring goals with limited chances. Your right there isn't but it would be too much of a coincidence for it not to be..... Ba complains about playing outwide and starts throwing his toys out the pram when he was subbed at stages at end of last season, Pardew promises him he will play central this season and his entourage have also complained. It's too much of a coincidence for nothing to have gone on.

Honestly while he would fit Pardew's vision better we shouldn't be looking to play like that..... How many top teams play like Stoke and successful? We have plenty of technically gifted footballers who would bring success and we should be looking to build a team around them and add to them. Not going backwards to mid table standards of football, i'm afraid if this is Pardew's vision for the club then we will never improve on last season.

Source, dude? Well he scored 2 in 3 from that position this season and scored about 3 in 5 from that position last season. Which honestly over a 38 game reason should mean that he would score close to 10 if not more. I'm talking about him playing as the most advanced midfielder when we play 4-3-3 as more often than not he either creates a goal or scores a goal he's very effective in that role. Of course deep in 4-4-2 he usually allows the game to pass him by but when allowed to get forward he usually is very effective. Not a problem i think we have tbh, the problem we have is well established but it isn't not having someone like Nolan.

Play Cabaye in that forward position consistently and he would that is quite clear, his goal return when he plays there is great. We have much bigger issues than that.

Because of said style of play and ultra negative tactics, there's no point buying players like this if this is how we want to play.

Cisse isn't the problem, the style of play and ultra negative tactics is. Honestly there's a massive problem if you are Pardew and you prefer Shola to a £10m striker with a fantastic goalscoring record.

Do you think Hatem putting a bit of pressure on him is what eventually made him go to 4-3-3 and a more passing game for that short period of time? i don't really have an opinion on it either way but i'd like to know what people think. Because it was quite a drastic change and quite frankly i never saw it coming.

I wish we had a wide forward with a genuine goal threat as then we could actually entertain the idea of dropping Cisse. Having someone like Ince would be great for this squad tbh but until we get someone like that we will never see it. While Cisse has been shat who is there to come in that will do any better as far as goal threats go? Sammy has shown bits and pieces, Marveaux has shown f*ck all and Ferguson is never a forward. I know we need defenders but quite honestly i'd like to see us to get someone like Ince before all that as quite frankly our forward line is screaming out for someone like that not to mention Ben Arfa is screaming out for some creative help.

Cabaye has to be a lot further up the pitch than that and I'm not convinced Anita and Tioté will be able to play in the same team. From what Unbelievable! says and from what I've seen, Anita has to be the deepest midfielder who picks the ball up off the centre halves. That would mean Tioté playing higher up the pitch, where I don't think he'd be very effective. I feel that way as well think Tiote and Anita would be stepping on each other's toes or Tiote higher up the pitch where he wouldn't be very effective. Which might explain why we have been linked with the likes of Benat and Sissoko, we have DM's and we have Cabaye but where is the link between the two? It just doesn't exist, of course there are bigger issues than that but it is a problem.

I refuse to blame lack of investment for our poor showings we have the players to do much better than this lack of investment or not we should be beating teams like West Ham, Reading, Villa, Sunderland etc etc. I refuse to blame the squad size and extra games as well as majority of these players are only playing once a week. What i blame is poor tactics, playing a way that clearly doesn't suit the crop of players Pardew has at his disposal and seemingly having no attacking plan at all and to top it all off extreme negativity.

4-5-1,4-2-3-1 or 4-3-3, he's been deployed as a lone striker practically all his career.

The real one was last season he has proved at International level and in the Bundesliga the problem he is player that thrives on service via through balls and in general passing football to get him chances in the box. We are playing like Stoke at the moment and it's f*cking painfully obvious that he's shite in that environment. Seriously buy a 10m striker and prefer Shola so we can stick to the hoofing gameplan

Of course it did but that's not really the point is it.... we shouldn't be playing like we have Best and Ba we don't have the players to play this way. Pardew is setting us up like we still had R.Taylor and Simpson at fullback, Jonas and Obertan on the wings and Best and Ba upfront. We don't have the players to play this way he needs to adapt to the players he has and not restricting by making us play a way that clearly doesn't suit us.

Until we actually start passing the f*cking ball he's always going to useless tbh.

we got most of our points last season from 4-4-2. With a totally different team to what we have now, it's painfully obvious this team doesn't suit this stoke style of shit he's getting us to play at the moment. Sort it out or we won't even get top 10 matter about top 6 or any of that crap.

We are shit.... end of im too pissed off to rant about it.

He was shit but i can't blame him when we play like Stoke ffs

Not really we play like Stoke so it's quite obvious Shola would like that more than Cisse.

Wasn't just his crossing either, his all round game and passing in general was f*cking class. In todays game where it's more about midfield than anything else he would be a class CM IMO Him and Robert on either side man

In all rights Taylor should if he can stay injury free. 1. He won't stay injury free 2. When was the last time a England manager watched a Newcastle game?

This season's Tiote we probably won't miss too much as he's been more of a liability than an importance but Tiote in general has been fantastic for this football club. He has annoyed the f*ck outta me this season though.

Fellaini man what a player.

Excellent news can't think of many more deserving Considering he plays on both sides you would have Abate or Maggio on the right or Criscito and Balzaretti on the left.