Alan Pardew

[Numbers]

Time this fucker started thinking what damage we can do to teams instead of worrying what they can do to us.

 

Attack is the best form of defence.

[Guest Howaythetoon]

For me it boils down to this - we are sixth playing god awful football. What position could we achieve playing better football? Given the quality of our footballers It would be no stretch of the imagination at all to claim we could do much better.

 

I'd rate Pardew in the same bracket as Roeder, Big Sam and Souness. What Pardew has in his facour over those guys is that he doesn't antagonise players, the media or fans which the others, especially Allardyce and Souness, both did. The football is equally as poor as anything they served up though. Unlike that lot, however, he has a very good side at his disposal especially down the spine.

 

He has also benefitted from lowered expectations (at the start), fewer injuries and a weaker league around us. That and the full backing of the board too and the general support from the stands.

 

Tactically he is as clueless as the others and like Big Sam, sets his team-up to contain and not lose. Like Big Sam he also tries weird set-ups and odd selections. For example Barton on the left away to Stevenage. For me, playing for a draw away to Derby is the same as playing for a draw away to Brighton.

 

Being sixth, enjoying the talents of Ba, Colo, Krul, Tiote et al and that impressive start we had, has allowed Pardew's many failures to be almost hidden away or for my own money, forgiven and masked over, by many fans. But the more we under perform (Wolves and the mackems in two consecutive home games), the heavier the defeats (Fulham and Spurs away) and the more we drop points (all of those games for example) Pardew's tactics, team-selections, set-up, substitutions and our football in general, will come under more scrutiny and criticism.

 

If you were to analyse even a small sample of the overall larger poor performances, even those with "we are sixth", "look where we were 2 seasons ago" rose tinted glasses on, would summise that these poor performances are simply unnacceptable, if even for one because they are so damned avoidable.

 

If we carry on with this innane long ball tactics and continue to pick the likes of Ryan Taylor ahead of Ben Arfa, we will drop more points than we pick up and will keep performing in a way that will see the likes of Ba, Cisse and Cabye especially, struggle to prosper. Meanwhile, because we are not dominating in the middle and keeping possession, that rather decent back-four of ours will come under more pressure and concede even more goals. And we will slide down that table as quick as we climbed it.

 

Pardew needs to change his ways or we need to change our manager. Me, I'd say thank you Alan in the summer and look to upgrade him. Personally, I'd look at Martin Jol at Fulham who is used to working in a structure that scouts and identifies players for the manager. Someone with European and Premier League experience and someone who gets his teams playing football, performing to a good level and generally achieving either within their means or above as he is showing at Fulham and did at Spurs, setting the green light for Harry to GO GO GO.

 

If we continue to play like we do, I can see our better players becoming royally p*ssed off. Ba and Cisse looked forlorn figures at the weekend and Cabaye and Tiote were frustrated figures likewise. Even Colo looked uneasy simply lumping it long. I doubt Krul likes kicking it aimlessley forward too. Players will do what they are told if it brings results but when things stop working and results stop coming, players are no fools and will start questioning the tactics and instructions of their manager and coaches.

 

We play best when we go after sides and play with freedom. Of course we need to balance wanton abandon with some form of direction and plan but not this long ball up and at em game. It does us no favours and only benefits the opposition as id did Wolves and sunderland and others before them. After the break yesterday, we dominated and basically penned them in and could have, on another day with a better final ball and finishing, battered them. We have that in us, but with these negative tactics, containment plans and hoof ball football, we are struggling and will not achieve potentially what we can. We can play better and do better and must. If Pardew cannot manage this, bring in someone who can.

[Dr Venkman]

Hawk most of that post is just you saying you relate Pardew with Roeder, we could obviously be doing better & that Keegan went for more flair with his lineup.

 

You havent actually offered many examples of how we could have improved on this season. Beyond doubting Cabayes form because hes infront of good players for France, when hes there because of his form in France & International football is not the same as someones first season in the Prem.

 

Keegan played a more attacking system yeah & you know doing that currently would result in better results for us how? FWIW Keegan said just yesterday that Pardew was having a great season & was getting the best out of his players.

 

That's one of the key points.  People keep assuming that by playing a more defensive system Pardew has somehow cost us points.  How do we not know that Pardew's caution has not won points during this season?

 

You make a good point, however I'd add that good management is about knowing when to adopt certain strategies, not deciding on one and sticking to it stubbornly whether it works or not. We've had our fair share of managers who've done that here recently so a lot of people are wise to the pit falls, good league position or not.

 

At home to Wolves, Swansea, QPR for example, you play your best attacking players and have a go. So whilst I'd say Pardew's defensive approach has certainly won us points this season, the points away at QPR, Man U and Blackburn particularly, where the defensively minded drilled capabilities of our team helped us grind out results, i think he's cost us just as many points if not more by being too cautious.

[Ronaldo]

For me it boils down to this - we are sixth playing god awful football. What position could we achieve playing better football? Given the quality of our footballers It would be no stretch of the imagination at all to claim we could do much better.

 

Which footballers? We have a keeper who doesn't distribute the ball well, a CB who can barely be idenitfied as a footballer, a full back who falls into the same category, a winger who seldom creates, and a CM that sit deep and don't penetrate - even when we do keep the ball down.

 

These are all players (6 in total) who are absolutely guaranteed a start, btw, and through no fault of Pardew. Stop implying we have this wonderful footballing side who've been restricted to 3rd - 7th all season by negative tactics.

[Hughesy]

Hawk most of that post is just you saying you relate Pardew with Roeder, we could obviously be doing better & that Keegan went for more flair with his lineup.

 

You havent actually offered many examples of how we could have improved on this season. Beyond doubting Cabayes form because hes infront of good players for France, when hes there because of his form in France & International football is not the same as someones first season in the Prem.

 

Keegan played a more attacking system yeah & you know doing that currently would result in better results for us how? FWIW Keegan said just yesterday that Pardew was having a great season & was getting the best out of his players.

 

That's one of the key points.  People keep assuming that by playing a more defensive system Pardew has somehow cost us points.  How do we not know that Pardew's caution has not won points during this season?

 

You make a good point, however I'd add that good management is about knowing when to adopt certain strategies, not deciding on one and sticking to it stubbornly whether it works or not. We've had our fair share of managers who've done that here recently so a lot of people are wise to the pit falls, good league position or not.

 

At home to Wolves, Swansea, QPR for example, you play your best attacking players and have a go. So whilst I'd say Pardew's defensive approach has certainly won us points this season, the points away at QPR, Man U and Blackburn particularly, where the defensively minded drilled capabilities of our team helped us grind out results, i think he's cost us just as many points if not more by being too cautious.

 

Totally agree with you.  Was just trying present the other side of the coin.

[Guest Howaythetoon]

For me it boils down to this - we are sixth playing god awful football. What position could we achieve playing better football? Given the quality of our footballers It would be no stretch of the imagination at all to claim we could do much better.

 

Which footballers? We have a keeper who doesn't distribute the ball well, a CB who can barely be idenitfied as a footballer, a full back who falls into the same category, a winger who seldom creates, and a CM that sit deep and don't penetrate - even when we do keep the ball down.

 

These are all player who are absolutely guaranteed a start, btw, and through no fault of Pardew. Stop implying we have this wonderful footballing side who've been restricted to 3rd - 7th all season by negative tactics.

 

Krul's distribution will be poor when he is instructed to simply punt it forwards. That's down to Pardew as is the fact our CM's sit too deep. This was in evidence yesterday. When Shola came on he went straight to Tiote and then Cabaye with instructions. The result... Tiote dropped deeper by 10-20 yards and Cabaye was shunted wider towards Jonas which left a huge gap in between our defence and attack and thus allowed ssunderland to come out with the ball into space when they won it back. If Tiote and Cabaye had of been further forward and not so deep or so wide, when sunderland came away with the ball, they would have ran into those two and for us, on the ball we would have had something in the middle. Such clueless tactics from the manager.

 

Sinton isn't the best full-back in the world but he's the least of our problems and even then, playing Ryan Taylor in front of him or Obertan instead of Ben Arfa, one of our best players, is stupid and has shown to be a negative move.

 

Again I'll highlight just how tactically inept your man is. He selects Ryan Taylor wide right to help protect Simposn ahead of Ben Arfa, Fair enough, but Pardew is also worried about the centre so he instructs Taylor to play more narrow, more closer to Cabaye and Tiote than closer to the flank. The result? Simposn had no-one to play the ball to wide right or had any chances to overlap. defensively, because taylor was often in the centre or closer to there, sunderland could get at Simpson.

 

So defensively and attacking wise, this was a poor move. Ben Arfa's introduction pinned back the sunderland flank and allowed Simposn to actually move up the pitch himself. As a result the mackems attacke our flank less and we attacked theirs more, Simposn actually linking up well with Ben Arfa and even putting in two decent crosses.

 

Best form of defence is always attack.

 

As for Jonas, I assume that's who you are refering to. He may not be high on the goals scored or goals created chart but he is our only real outlet and as such, is a key player for us. He drove and drove at the mackems and caused them all kinds of problems. he creates a lot for us in terms of not so much direct goalscoring opportunities or goals scored but with his running which pins players back, opens up space and generally drags our sorry arses massively up the pitch. Again, if you're in the opposition half they are not in yours meaning they cannot score.

 

We have excellent players. We have arguably the best performing 'keeper in the league, certainly the one with the most promise. In Colo we have one of the best centre-backs who would walk into all but perhaps Man City's defence. Santon is a very good attacking full-back with huge potential. Cabaye and Tiote are really good players, easily a top 6 pairing where as Ben Arfa has all the ability in the world. Jonas is a very good outlet and Ba and Cisse are both goalscorers and in Ba's case, a top all-round centre-forward.

 

Further into the squad we have good youngsters in Ferguson, Sammy Ameobi, Abied etc. and in Guthrie, Williamson, Best and Shola, adequate back-up.

 

In short we have a very good first-time and a decent enough squad. Much better than say Villa, Spurs, Everton, Stoke, Fulham, Swansea, Norwich et al.

 

This is the best side we've had since Sir Bobby and indeed the best squad.

 

The fact a player of Ben Arfa's ability cannot get in ahead of the likes of Ryan Taylor is criminal and akin to starting Shola ahead of Ba or Williamson ahead of Colo.

 

The fact our midfield is constantly being bypassed by the long ball is also criminal as is the how deep we sit and how far the gap is between midfield and attack.

 

That's Pardew's tactics for you though, an area where he's as clueless as Roeder, Big Sam or Souness ever were.

[AyeDubbleYoo]

Nothing Pardew has served up is remotely comparable to Allardyce, I wanted to kill myself when he was in charge.

[Ronaldo]

I wasn't talking about Santon. I think he's a very good footballer.

[AyeDubbleYoo]

"The best form of defence is attack" is basically a meaningless cliche that doesn't have any weight in this argument. Our biggest strength this season has been our compactness, work rate and willingness to battle for points. I would personally love to see a better style of football, but surely everyone can see why Pardew is reluctant to suddenly chuck what has worked for him so far.

[Guest Howaythetoon]

Nothing Pardew has served up is remotely comparable to Allardyce, I wanted to kill myself when he was in charge.

 

For 30 or so minutes yesterday where it went like this I'd beg to disagree:

 

Krul - hoof - mackem header wins ball, they attack we clear our lines - hoof. Repeat repeat repeat.

 

We were fucking awful yesterday and its more depressing given the quality of our players, players with the attributes to play really good football.

[AyeDubbleYoo]

I agree our football hasn't been great at times, but Allardyce was on a whole other level of institutional shiteness. He wasn't just conservative, he actively hated the sport of football.

[Hughesy]

Nothing Pardew has served up is remotely comparable to Allardyce, I wanted to kill myself when he was in charge.

 

For 30 or so minutes yesterday where it went like this I'd beg to disagree:

 

Krul - hoof - mackem header wins ball, they attack we clear our lines - hoof. Repeat repeat repeat.

 

We were f***ing awful yesterday and its more depressing given the quality of our players, players with the attributes to play really good football.

 

We played well in the second half.  The first half and the last few games have not been representative of the way we have played this season.

[Guest Howaythetoon]

"The best form of defence is attack" is basically a meaningless cliche that doesn't have any weight in this argument. Our biggest strength this season has been our compactness, work rate and willingness to battle for points. I would personally love to see a better style of football, but surely everyone can see why Pardew is reluctant to suddenly chuck what has worked for him so far.

 

There is zero compactness to our game whatsoever, its rigid turgid shit, long balls from all over the park, even Ba was resorting to it whenever he dropped deep.

 

The old saying of "the best form of defence is attack" is an old cliche but its true. If you attack the opposition you will create chances, chances to score goals which win you games. You also keep the opposition away from your own goal which limits their goalscoring chances. It really is that simple. Of course its not as simple to put into practice but its not fucking rocket scienec either.

 

I cant tell you how much it boils my piss to see a player hoof the ball aimlessley. Pardew should be tearing his hair out on the touchiline and fining players for some of the hit and hop stuff we punt but its obviously a tactic of his and something he not only encourages but believes in massively.

[Guest Howaythetoon]

I agree our football hasn't been great at times, but Allardyce was on a whole other level of institutional shiteness. He wasn't just conservative, he actively hated the sport of football.

 

It wasn't ALL shite, just like it hasn't all been shite under Pardew but my we play uglly football and between this and Big Sam and even Souenss I'd say its a much of a muchness. Shit ugly football is shit ugly football whatever the umbrella.

[Guest BooBoo]

Nothing Pardew has served up is remotely comparable to Allardyce, I wanted to kill myself when he was in charge.

 

For 30 or so minutes yesterday where it went like this I'd beg to disagree:

 

Krul - hoof - mackem header wins ball, they attack we clear our lines - hoof. Repeat repeat repeat.

 

We were fucking awful yesterday and its more depressing given the quality of our players, players with the attributes to play really good football.

 

Your ludicrous OTT criticism, really undermines a lot of your points, many of which are valid. We were poor first half and constantly threatening in the second.

[Guest Howaythetoon]

Nothing Pardew has served up is remotely comparable to Allardyce, I wanted to kill myself when he was in charge.

 

For 30 or so minutes yesterday where it went like this I'd beg to disagree:

 

Krul - hoof - mackem header wins ball, they attack we clear our lines - hoof. Repeat repeat repeat.

 

We were f***ing awful yesterday and its more depressing given the quality of our players, players with the attributes to play really good football.

 

We played well in the second half.  The first half and the last few games have not been representative of the way we have played this season.

 

Oh it has. The second half is the kind of football we have seldomly played this season where as the first IS.

[SEMTEX]

Nothing Pardew has served up is remotely comparable to Allardyce, I wanted to kill myself when he was in charge.

 

For 30 or so minutes yesterday where it went like this I'd beg to disagree:

 

Krul - hoof - mackem header wins ball, they attack we clear our lines - hoof. Repeat repeat repeat.

 

We were fucking awful yesterday and its more depressing given the quality of our players, players with the attributes to play really good football.

 

Your ludicrous OTT criticism, really undermines a lot of your points, many of which are valid. We were poor first half and constantly threatening in the second.

 

 

Though he's definitely not the only one to do this. And this trait is most certainly not restricted to football alone.

[Guest Howaythetoon]

Nothing Pardew has served up is remotely comparable to Allardyce, I wanted to kill myself when he was in charge.

 

For 30 or so minutes yesterday where it went like this I'd beg to disagree:

 

Krul - hoof - mackem header wins ball, they attack we clear our lines - hoof. Repeat repeat repeat.

 

We were f***ing awful yesterday and its more depressing given the quality of our players, players with the attributes to play really good football.

 

Your ludicrous OTT criticism, really undermines a lot of your points, many of which are valid. We were poor first half and constantly threatening in the second.

 

Give over man, given the occassion and the quality we have, to - for 30 minutes or so -  kick it long whenever we got on the ball be it from Krul, the defence, the wide players and even Ba - is as bad as it gets and was some of the worst stuff I've seen us play. Hundreds around me were all saying similar."Big Sam would be proud of this" was a common comment example and whenever Krul launched it long which he did all game, there was massive groans.

 

It used to be nothing was as bad as Souness but now its nothing is as bad as Big Sam. I say bull shit. Watch 30 minutes in the first half of yesterday and that's as bad as anything he served up, especially given the players we have.

[madras]

Get used to HTT man, he hates pardew and will only give him credit to prove he doesn't slag him off all the time but the overriding theme is obvious.

[Wullie]

Nothing Pardew has served up is remotely comparable to Allardyce, I wanted to kill myself when he was in charge.

 

For 30 or so minutes yesterday where it went like this I'd beg to disagree:

 

Krul - hoof - mackem header wins ball, they attack we clear our lines - hoof. Repeat repeat repeat.

 

We were f***ing awful yesterday and its more depressing given the quality of our players, players with the attributes to play really good football.

 

We played well in the second half.  The first half and the last few games have not been representative of the way we have played this season.

 

It's getting there though. We've been hitting the long ball and setting up more and more negatively every week since around the middle of December. With Man Utd the obvious and glaring exception, our performances since the Chelsea game have been dismal. It's to our credit that we've still managed to pick up points in that period but some of the winning performances have been incredibly poor. The excuse a few weeks ago was the absence of the central midfield but nothing has changed, in fact I'd say it's gotten worse.

 

We seldom try to pass the ball through midfield or have the wide players make any forward runs into space. It's become all about protecting the back four and we've got big problems if they really need protecting when 2-0 up at home to Wolves.

[Guest Howaythetoon]

Get used to HTT man, he hates pardew and will only give him credit to prove he doesn't slag him off all the time but the overriding theme is obvious.

 

I don't hate him as much as I hate his bull s*** and his football.

 

I called him first and I'll be proved right. This isn't me trying to be some kind of sage shamen or something and I wont be happy when I'm proved right but f*** me its staring everyone in the face but our position seems to be blinding many. No side or manager will ever be successful playing the way we do and top players will never shine with such tactics. Pardew from day one has not changed the way we play and its actually getting progressively worse despite our players getting better.

[Parky]

Nothing Pardew has served up is remotely comparable to Allardyce, I wanted to kill myself when he was in charge.

 

For 30 or so minutes yesterday where it went like this I'd beg to disagree:

 

Krul - hoof - mackem header wins ball, they attack we clear our lines - hoof. Repeat repeat repeat.

 

We were f***ing awful yesterday and its more depressing given the quality of our players, players with the attributes to play really good football.

 

Your ludicrous OTT criticism, really undermines a lot of your points, many of which are valid. We were poor first half and constantly threatening in the second.

 

Give over man, given the occassion and the quality we have, to - for 30 minutes or so -  kick it long whenever we got on the ball be it from Krul, the defence, the wide players and even Ba - is as bad as it gets and was some of the worst stuff I've seen us play. Hundreds around me were all saying similar."Big Sam would be proud of this" was a common comment example and whenever Krul launched it long which he did all game, there was massive groans.

 

It used to be nothing was as bad as Souness but now its nothing is as bad as Big Sam. I say bull shit. Watch 30 minutes in the first half of yesterday and that's as bad as anything he served up, especially given the players we have.

 

What is it? Is it prozone or prozac?

[colinmk]

For me it boils down to this - we are sixth playing god awful football. What position could we achieve playing better football? Given the quality of our footballers It would be no stretch of the imagination at all to claim we could do much better.

 

Which footballers? We have a keeper who doesn't distribute the ball well, a CB who can barely be idenitfied as a footballer, a full back who falls into the same category, a winger who seldom creates, and a CM that sit deep and don't penetrate - even when we do keep the ball down.

 

These are all player who are absolutely guaranteed a start, btw, and through no fault of Pardew. Stop implying we have this wonderful footballing side who've been restricted to 3rd - 7th all season by negative tactics.

 

Krul's distribution will be poor when he is instructed to simply punt it forwards. That's down to Pardew as is the fact our CM's sit too deep. This was in evidence yesterday. When Shola came on he went straight to Tiote and then Cabaye with instructions. The result... Tiote dropped deeper by 10-20 yards and Cabaye was shunted wider towards Jonas which left a huge gap in between our defence and attack and thus allowed ssunderland to come out with the ball into space when they won it back. If Tiote and Cabaye had of been further forward and not so deep or so wide, when sunderland came away with the ball, they would have ran into those two and for us, on the ball we would have had something in the middle. Such clueless tactics from the manager.

 

Sinton isn't the best full-back in the world but he's the least of our problems and even then, playing Ryan Taylor in front of him or Obertan instead of Ben Arfa, one of our best players, is stupid and has shown to be a negative move.

 

Again I'll highlight just how tactically inept your man is. He selects Ryan Taylor wide right to help protect Simposn ahead of Ben Arfa, Fair enough, but Pardew is also worried about the centre so he instructs Taylor to play more narrow, more closer to Cabaye and Tiote than closer to the flank. The result? Simposn had no-one to play the ball to wide right or had any chances to overlap. defensively, because taylor was often in the centre or closer to there, sunderland could get at Simpson.

 

So defensively and attacking wise, this was a poor move. Ben Arfa's introduction pinned back the sunderland flank and allowed Simposn to actually move up the pitch himself. As a result the mackems attacke our flank less and we attacked theirs more, Simposn actually linking up well with Ben Arfa and even putting in two decent crosses.

 

Best form of defence is always attack.

 

As for Jonas, I assume that's who you are refering to. He may not be high on the goals scored or goals created chart but he is our only real outlet and as such, is a key player for us. He drove and drove at the mackems and caused them all kinds of problems. he creates a lot for us in terms of not so much direct goalscoring opportunities or goals scored but with his running which pins players back, opens up space and generally drags our sorry arses massively up the pitch. Again, if you're in the opposition half they are not in yours meaning they cannot score.

 

We have excellent players. We have arguably the best performing 'keeper in the league, certainly the one with the most promise. In Colo we have one of the best centre-backs who would walk into all but perhaps Man City's defence. Santon is a very good attacking full-back with huge potential. Cabaye and Tiote are really good players, easily a top 6 pairing where as Ben Arfa has all the ability in the world. Jonas is a very good outlet and Ba and Cisse are both goalscorers and in Ba's case, a top all-round centre-forward.

 

Further into the squad we have good youngsters in Ferguson, Sammy Ameobi, Abied etc. and in Guthrie, Williamson, Best and Shola, adequate back-up.

 

In short we have a very good first-time and a decent enough squad. Much better than say Villa, Spurs, Everton, Stoke, Fulham, Swansea, Norwich et al.

 

This is the best side we've had since Sir Bobby and indeed the best squad.

 

The fact a player of Ben Arfa's ability cannot get in ahead of the likes of Ryan Taylor is criminal and akin to starting Shola ahead of Ba or Williamson ahead of Colo.

 

The fact our midfield is constantly being bypassed by the long ball is also criminal as is the how deep we sit and how far the gap is between midfield and attack.

 

That's Pardew's tactics for you though, an area where he's as clueless as Roeder, Big Sam or Souness ever were.

 

Great post. The fact that he hasn't even attempted to change it in how many games says it all too.

[SEMTEX]

Get used to HTT man, he hates pardew and will only give him credit to prove he doesn't slag him off all the time but the overriding theme is obvious.

 

I don't hate him as much as I hate his bull s*** and his football.

 

I called him first and I'll be proved right. This isn't me trying to be some kind of sage shamen or something and I wont be happy when I'm proved right but f*** me its staring everyone in the face but our position seems to be blinding many. No side or manager will ever be successful playing the way we do and top players will never shine with such tactics. Pardew from day one has not changed the way we play and its actually getting progressively worse despite our players getting better.

 

I'm looking forward to the day you're proved right, and Pards is fired. I just want to see our world class XI reaching their Champions League potential. It'll warm my heart to see Danny Simpson roving down the right wing in the San Siro. The Rossoneri will be having flashbacks to the glory days of Cafu.

[gbandit]

HTT is talking a lot of sense.don't know what your wpm is HTT but it must be pretty high.pardew has gone from a very convincing start for me to an unconvincing last three months.the signs were there even when we did amazingly well at the start of the season but now the results are matching performances.let's see him change his ways in the last 11 games and we can evaluate at the end of te season but if nothing changes I will not expect much next season