Alan Pardew

[Beren]

Some fantastic overreactions in here.  As usual.  I genuinely don't know what people expected to happen this season, but on any level we have to be ahead of where most people expected us to be.  Yes, we are in danger of throwing away our good work and that is immensely frustrating, but did anyone really think we were going to maintain a top 6 challenge all season?  That would have been a minor miracle.

 

As it stands we are going through a bad patch, but we are still in 7th.  Personally I think we will manage to hold onto 7th and that would have to represent a good season for us at this stage.  Looking at the teams above us and their levels of investment and the years that they have been entrenched in the top 6, I can't believe anyone would think we 'should' be taking them on and beating them.  At least not at the moment.  Expectations have risen ridiculously high on here.  Pardew would almost have been better off not doing so well at the start of the season with the way people are now expecting us to perform.

 

You've misunderstood the majority of posters if that is your interpretation of the criticism on here.  Maintaining such a challenge with our squad was always going to be an uphill struggle, but the manner in which we set about it is something we have control over.

 

Equally, the decisions made - some repeatedly so - are within our control. If everyone in the world can see Raylor regularly gets raped (to use a Pardewism) down our left and opposition teams astutely overload that corner of the pitch, should the decision-maker who stands idly by be immune from criticism? If he leaves out our most creative player while we stutter to a goalless draw with Swansea at home with half-truths about 'sharpness', should we stay quiet still? If he has us playing long balls game after game? Or are we really not allowed to vent exasperation and frustration just because we're currently "over-achieving"?

 

Not having the resources to compete with the top 6 is one thing - which will be accepted by all but a very small minority on here, not using existing resources and having the intention to compete with the top 6 with what we have is quite another.

[ChrisJbarnes]

Some fantastic overreactions in here.  As usual.  I genuinely don't know what people expected to happen this season, but on any level we have to be ahead of where most people expected us to be.  Yes, we are in danger of throwing away our good work and that is immensely frustrating, but did anyone really think we were going to maintain a top 6 challenge all season?  That would have been a minor miracle.

 

As it stands we are going through a bad patch, but we are still in 7th.  Personally I think we will manage to hold onto 7th and that would have to represent a good season for us at this stage.  Looking at the teams above us and their levels of investment and the years that they have been entrenched in the top 6, I can't believe anyone would think we 'should' be taking them on and beating them.  At least not at the moment.  Expectations have risen ridiculously high on here.  Pardew would almost have been better off not doing so well at the start of the season with the way people are now expecting us to perform.

 

Couldn't put it better myself.

[dcmk]

I'm a bit shocked that he believed Downing was 'on fire' therefore needing 2 people to mark him in the second half - this was a post match interview where he was saying the team on the whole should have been more positive and was looking for 'somebody to take somebody on and be a bit more constructive', quite contradictory.

 

[TaylorJ_01]

He's pissing points away with his daft team selection and tactics.

[Hanshithispantz]

The only baffling decision he has made so far that has actually came off is the Ameobi sub against Tottenham. Everything else that has been "Pardew what the fuck are you doing?" has proved to be fucking idiotic after the final whistle.

[Guest BlacknWhiteArmy]

We hear a lot in his prematch interviews about how we must 'contain' and 'neutralise' them, I wish we'd focus a bit more on what we're good at and just use it. Or alternatively what they're not good at.

[Andy]

I'm a bit shocked that he believed Downing was 'on fire' therefore needing 2 people to mark him in the second half - this was a post match interview where he was saying the team on the whole should have been more positive and was looking for 'somebody to take somebody on and be a bit more constructive', quite contradictory.

 

 

Again, he's more concerned about dealing with the opposition than causing them problems. It's been said a lot of times that he works with the defence in training far more than the attack, and that mentality is obviously going to be reflected on the pitch. We set ourselves up to combat the opposing team's strengths instead of playing to our own strengths.

[Jagten]

He said he wishes we had been more positive... Here's a suggestion alan, why didn't you tell them that. Preferably during the game.

[Guest Dontooner]

It doesnt really matter to me so much as to where we finish any seasons, its just the brand  of football we play. I still prefer watching this current team before the dreadful Smiths,butts,Kevin Nolan, Bartons where we were more limited but had a fiery spirit. We have more flair now but its kinda limited too as the players either could not showcase it or are benched. Even if we finished 15 but played good football i would glady pay to watch and stick behind the team. Its frustrating to watch us weekin weekout playing with good flair players but with a toothless performance.

 

I always cant help to feel we degrade players... HBA , Cabaye and many other past players we had , could easy perform at a higher standards but we always hold them back with mediocre managers.

We are kinda stucked anyway, since i cant see Pardew going anywhere as he is  indeed a good middle man for the club atm. 

 

Its is so difficult to ask for a Manager to play to the strengths of the Flair players? Apparently it is when you have a less talented manager that doesnt know how talented players could influence the team. Hence his bizarre selections and failed compliance to bed in the flair players. I have not seen HBA or Cabaye play a game where they reproduce 60% of the form they had at their previous clubs but maybe the english league just has no place for flair players...

[Yorkie]

I'll have to admit that i was caught up in the frenzy of the first quarter of the season, and thought we were in for a great year where we'd concern some of the big guns. Think i even said at one point, not so long ago, that we'd maintain our position and finish fifth.

 

That's probably unlikely now but we've got every chance of staying in the Top 8 until May. As has been said, Pardew's positives and negatives as a tactician aside, January will act as the pivot. We'll either maintain our current position of Europa League contenders, or slide into bottom-half mediocrity. I count the transfer window and our ability to cope without Demba in all that. That's what will shape the second half of our season.

[JH]

We're gannin' doon then

[Tiresias]

I think most managers want a mix of the pragmatic, have to do the best with what you've got, and the idealistic, having a style of play, working towards it and trying to impart an ideology to the squad.

 

The trouble is Pardew seems to sometimes have the worst of both worlds, he isn't forcing the team to play good football, and considering some our players, seemingly doing the opposite, he's not pragmatically sticking Ben Arfa out wide but not taking the gamble and starting him behind the striker. It's like he's ideologically stuck to a team set up that was only ever pragmatically forced upon him anyway by Ben Arfa being unavailable to begin with.

 

When I saw Vuckic in the starting lineup, I was actually quite impressed, disappointed not Ben Arfa, but thought that's more like it, short passing around a midfield keeping ball on the ground good footy. To some extent Vuckic didn't perform, nerves or whatever, I can forgive him that, but it was hoofing it over the midfield that made no sense. Why bolster the midfield only to take them out of the equation with hoofing it? I'm starting to think Pardew is a 4-4-2 merchant who panics about not having 2 men up front, and he thinks Ben Arfa is a luxury that shouldn't be a regular player.

[Wullie]

I don't think it's hindsight to say that results were better than performances at the start of the season. A few games we were dominant in and played some good stuff - Blackburn, Villa and particularly Stoke, which was a magnificent showing - but there was a lot of games where we:

 

a) looked totally unable to create anything

 

b) got away with a lot of last ditch defending and magnificent goalkeeping, which isn't usually something you can stretch out over a season, if you're conceding chances, at some point teams are going to start taking them

 

and c) got lucky with some very questionable refereeing.

 

A bad run of form like this has been coming, which is why when we were in the ascendancy we should have been trying to bed players like Ben Arfa and Santon in and giving the young players a few minutes here and there, as plenty of people were saying at the time. Instead we clung to a particular XI for as long as possible before things started to go tits up, at which point it's a lot more difficult for the likes of HBA, Santon, Vuckic, Sammy to come in.

[Mick]

I don't think it's hindsight to say that results were better than performances at the start of the season. A few games we were dominant in and played some good stuff - Blackburn, Villa and particularly Stoke, which was a magnificent showing - but there was a lot of games where we:

 

a) looked totally unable to create anything

 

b) got away with a lot of last ditch defending and magnificent goalkeeping, which isn't usually something you can stretch out over a season, if you're conceding chances, at some points teams are going to start taking them

 

and c) got lucky with some very questionable refereeing.

 

A bad run of form like this has been coming, which is why when we were in the ascendancy we should have been trying to bed players like Ben Arfa and Santon in and giving the young players a few minutes here and there, as plenty of people were saying at the time. Instead we clung to a particular XI for as long as possible before things started to go tits up, at which point it's a lot more difficult for the likes of HBA, Santon, Vuckic, Sammy to come in.

 

I've been saying that throughout the season and got stick for it, we're going to struggle to change in now after so many games and when the confidence is shot.

[TRon]

When do we ever get anything from Liverpool away anyway? It's annoying to lose but if we have to lose I'd rather it was to the teams from the top 6. At the moment, with our budget, 7th is the best we can realistically finish.

 

I'm pretty sure that was Pardew's team talk before the game tbh.

[Wullie]

When do we ever get anything from Liverpool away anyway? It's annoying to lose but if we have to lose I'd rather it was to the teams from the top 6. At the moment, with our budget, 7th is the best we can realistically finish.

 

I'm pretty sure that was Pardew's team talk before the game tbh.

 

[Skeletor]

I'd be interested to see if he had two fullbacks he trusted whether he would still be this negative. I think he probably would. We'll never find out with Ashley holding the transfer funds any way.

[Skirge]

Alan Pardew says NUFC should have been more positive

by Lee Ryder, Evening ChronicleDec 31 2011Comments (17) Recommend

 

ALAN PARDEW feels that Newcastle United weren't positive enough at Anfield last night after watching his side bow out of 2011 with a disappointing defeat.

 

The Magpies also lost ground with Liverpool after the Kop side rose to fifth in the table with a four-point cushion between the two teams.

 

Newcastle failed to hold on to their lead at Anfield and while Daniel Agger’s own goal was the first Toon strike at Liverpool since 2004, Pardew emerged afterwards to say: “I’m a little bit disappointed we weren’t more positive.

 

“We got in good situations, and I wanted somebody to take somebody on and be a bit more constructive, like Yohan was when we nearly got the equaliser (after Demba Ba had an effort hooked off the line).

 

“Those two incidents, the free-kick and clearance off the line, determined the result.”

 

And although Pardew tried to remain upbeat after the 3-1 loss, he also admitted: “We’re disappointed. We got ourselves in a good position in the game, and at 1-1, in the second half, it started to look like we were starting to impose ourselves even more on the game.”

 

 

United fell behind when Cheick Tiote was harshly penalised for a foul on Agger which resulted in Bellamy scoring his second of the game with a free-kick, during which Danny Simpson and Tim Krul got in a mix-up.

 

Former Charlton Athletic manager Pardew said: “The free-kick was a turning point.

 

“It shouldn’t have been given in the first place. We made an error in terms of Danny and Tim getting in each other’s way.

 

“I think Tim would have saved it quite comfortably.

 

“It’s a tactic we use to defend that post if we think they’re going to bend it over. We’ll perhaps have to review that.”

 

 

 

Read More http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/newcastle-united/nufc-news/2011/12/31/alan-pardew-says-nufc-should-have-been-more-positive-72703-30037656/#ixzz1i82JhHD0

 

 

 

 

Alan Pardew: NUFC are one of the big clubs

by Steve Brown, Evening ChronicleDec 30 2011

 

ALAN PARDEW is relishing the opportunity to pit his wits against managerial legends Kenny Dalglish and Sir Alex Ferguson over the next six days.

 

But rather than foster an inferiority complex in competition with the Liverpools and Manchester Uniteds of this world, the Newcastle boss is keen to remind fans that Newcastle United remain a “big club” as well.

 

NUFC travel to Anfield tonight to face Liverpool before hosting Premier League champions Manchester United on Wednesday.

 

 

 

They have not won on the red half of Merseyside since a League Cup victory in November 1995, and failed to claim a league triumph there since a 2-0 win in April 1994.

 

However, Alan Pardew insists such statistics have never troubled him, either as a player or manager.

 

 

And asked if he relishes taking on the likes of Liverpool and Manchester United, the NUFC boss said: “Yeah, of course, they are huge clubs.

 

“But so are we, we’re a big club, we must never forget the traditions and the history of this football club.

 

“We’ll take that to Anfield and we’ll get the respect that we deserve and hopefully get a win.

 

“It’s a great stadium, and the atmosphere’s going to be absolutely brilliant.

 

“That’s what you set the games up for. That win at Bolton has set it up, so hopefully we can produce our best. You’d like to think we can.”

 

Reflecting on Newcastle’s miserable Anfield form, Pardew added: “Those stats don’t bother me, they’re more media-related than anything else.

 

“I have to say, just as a past player, not as a manager, it never really bothered me.

 

“It’s something to lean on as a manager after, and say ‘Well we ain’t won here for so long, so we weren’t expected to win’.

 

“But it’s not something I look to. We want to go there and try and win.”

 

Doing so will mean nullifying the threat of former United favourites Andy Carroll and Jose Enrique.

 

Despite struggling since his £35m move to Liverpool, Carroll is, Pardew maintains, a “great player who will deliver”.

 

And while delighted by Ryan Taylor’s “astonishing performances” having replaced Enrique at left-back, the Toon boss admits his side do miss the Spaniard. “Andy is a great player,” Pardew said. “I think that when he gets a run in the Liverpool team it’ll be better for him and better for them too.

 

“(Luis) Suarez’s suspension suggests he’ll probably get one now and I’m sure he’ll deliver.”

 

On Enrique, Pardew added: “You’re going to miss a great player and he has been Liverpool’s best player in my view.

 

“So, of course, yes, we do miss him.

 

“But we have done incredibly well without him and that’s mainly due to Ryan Taylor.

 

“He’s somebody who’s really gone in there as an emergency left-back and managed to keep producing.

 

“He made the goal for Hatem just the other day. Astonishing performances from him.

 

“But we still miss Enrique, we loved him dearly.”

 

 

 

Read More http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/newcastle-united/nufc-news/2011/12/30/alan-pardew-nufc-are-one-of-the-big-clubs-72703-30032151/#ixzz1i82XIm5c

[Guest sicko2ndbest]

That big club article really pisses me off

 

Structurally yes

 

Financially no. Everything about us is small time. He cant keep talking about us not being able to compete and then come out with this shit.

 

I know damned if he does damned if he dosnt, but he cant have it both ways

[oldtype]

Everything he says is going to sound like pure gold when we're winning. When we're not it's all going to be a bit like a pile of poo.

 

It's human nature.

[Guest Shaun]

Bunch of cunts are the Chronicle.

 

I click on that link and see this in the corner

 

Cheick Tiote: Manchester United is my last game

 

Read More http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/newcastle-united/nufc-news/2011/12/31/cheick-tiote-manchester-united-is-my-last-game-72703-30037657/#ixzz1iBU64XOz

 

My heart sank. Bastards. 

[ohmelads]

I think it took balls to throw Vuckic into this game. Unfortunately it was a gamble which didn't pay off.  He doesn't seem the hardest worker to me and if you want a flair player to link with midfield, why not start Ben Arfa? Again I'm left wondering if there is something that has happened behind the scenes because Ben Arfa came off the bench a few days earlier and helped us beat Bolton with a vital goal. If he wanted a harder worker against Liverpool why pick Vuckic? It makes no sense.

 

I think the better team won over the 90 mins but the scoreline flatters Liverpool who were poor. At 1-1 we were a bit negative and the free-kick did change things, he's right. I don't see a lot wrong with his comments to be honest but I think starting Vuckic over Ben Arfa was a strange decision.

 

We need to find a replacement for Ba from within the club and we have very little time in which to do it. Pardew himself said he wants Ben Arfa to step up when Ba leaves. So in the bigger picture it makes even less sense that the guy can't get games. Obertan's injury will perhaps force Pardew to pick both. We'll be in trouble when Ba is gone unless someone hits a streak of form and the only man I see capable of doing that is Ben Arfa, IF he gets a run in the team which he has actually never had.

[Skirge]

Alan Pardew targets European football

Jan 1 2012 by Mark Douglas, Sunday Sun

 

ALAN Pardew has admitted for the first time that European football is a realistic aim for Newcastle THIS season.

But the Toon boss knows that United need to emerge from a treacherous six weeks still in “seventh or eighth” to be in with a realistic shout of qualifying for the Europa League.

Pardew and his players have been at pains to play down United’s top seven hopes this season, and the Newcastle manager continued to talk of surpassing the 40-point safety mark right up until the Bolton game.

They reached 30 points at the Reebok and with results going for them over Christmas they will be sat in seventh – usually enough for European football – at the turn of the year. However, in an indication of the club’s growing confidence Pardew (pictured) has now admitted to the Sunday Sun that he believes European football should be on the agenda moving into the second half of the season.

“I think we’ve got ourselves in a position where its possible that we could have European football,” he said. “I think that’s something we’re going to have to look to try to chase if we can. If we can come out the other side of the African Nations Cup seventh or eighth I think we could have a good chance.” That is a big ‘if’ though - especially as United lose both Demba Ba and Cheik Tiote to the African Nations Cup in January.

The Toon boss looks to have lost his fight to keep the pair at St James’ Park until January 15 and he knows that life will be tough without either in the New Year.

That situation is complicated even more with top four vultures looking at Newcastle’s best players – with Tiote and Tim Krul already linked with big-money moves away from St James’ Park.

 

“We’ll have to wait and see what happens in that two months (around Janaury) – it’s a very difficult period for us in terms of 2012. To lose two of your best players is tough,” he admitted. Pardew will be keeping his fingers crossed that the January transfer window doesn’t bring further upheaval for United. They want one defender but have ruled out bringing in a striker.

There will hopefully be no outgoings but Pardew cannot conclusively rule anything out at the moment.

Newcastle are not advanced in their moves for any defenders yet.

”You never know – you just don’t know. You can’t predict it,” he said. “We certainly haven’t done a deal yet. We’ve approached a couple of clubs for prices and that’s it.

“Every manager does (hate January). It unsettles the group, the media have to sell papers so they speculate and players take it as read if they’re not wanted, they’re off or somebody else exciting wants them.

“The grass isn’t always greener, though.”

http://www.sundaysun.co.uk/sport/newcastle-united/2012/01/01/alan-pardew-targets-european-football-79310-30040983/

[ikri]

It's the apparent lack of a Plan B that worries me.

 

Against Swansea it was pretty obvious that the starting tactics, get the ball to the wingers & have them swing in crosses from the by-line, wasn't working.  They were playing pretty deep and our crosses were generally poor (as ever).  He could have brought HBA on (even Vuckic too, not sure if he was on the bench that day) and pushed Cabaye further up with instructions for them to start hitting shots from range.  Sooner or later you're going to get a deflection or lucky ricochet.  Alternatively, Jonas, HBA and even Obertan are decent dribblers, why not have the wingers start cutting inside and running at the defence?  Swansea were well organised but Jonas and HBA are experienced international players, they'd have won free-kicks and created more chances than just hitting poor crosses in all the time.

 

Pardew's Plan B against Swansea was to do exactly the same thing that wasn't working but this time with players he didn't think were good enough to start the game.

 

Against West Brom it was clear that we were getting screwed by pace at the back and by playing so far up the pitch we were creating our own problems.  Why didn't he instruct the defenders to sit further back so their quick players had no space to run into?  Again, Pardew's Plan B was to do exactly what we were already doing but with different personnel.

 

Liverpool was the same, the tactics weren't working.  Plan B was to swap personnel like-for-like and continue doing the same thing that wasn't working.

 

Whilst he's been willing to change the starting tactics in a few games, he seems incapable of changing tactics once the game has kicked off if it has become clear that the initial tactics aren't working.  Most of our problems have been of our own making which gives me hope that with work on the training ground we can improve but Pardew needs to start learning from mistakes and not simply try the same thing over and over when it's clear it isn't working.

[Doug]

I'd be interested to see if he had two fullbacks he trusted whether he would still be this negative. I think he probably would. We'll never find out with Ashley holding the transfer funds any way.

Time for Ferguson & Santon if both fit. We can give the ball to defenders other than Colo then. Would transform our build up and support play.