Alan Pardew

[AlanSkÃrare]

The Chelsea game was horrible in so many ways. They should definately have had David Luiz sent off early on for that foul on Ba, then we create loads of chances, hit the woodwork etc. We really forced them to defend second half until Taylor went off and they scored two when we had no defenders at all.

[Jayson]

pardew's done a great job this season, and i don't think there was ever a time this season where he was doing poorly at all. but every manager has their decisions scrutinised, including alex ferguson and his team is sitting atop the premiership table at the minute. the forum may as well shut down if we ever reach the day where we do not approve of discussing the ins and outs of what a manager is doing.

 

the thing is there's a difference between pointed criticism, tactical suggestions and analysis, and blind dislike or wanting someone sacked.

 

95% of the critical discussion this season - whether it's been about playing obertan, hoofing it up to best, utlising cisse as a targetman vs the mackems, not getting cabaye and tiote to gel etc have fitted the former category. as have the opposite opinions when he does something special that deserves praise, whether it be grinding out results when we're not playing well, shifting to a 4-3-3, making colo captain, or bringing in great players. some excellent debates have been had in this very thread on the above subjects this season.

 

it's a tiny minority in the 5% who went too far and acted like idiots - and i include HTT in that.

 

the past few games have turned our season from a good one where we've formed a great squad and overachieved slightly, to a superb one with a great squad that has overachieved massively. if we maintain this position he deserves to be up there with robson and keegan imo. unlike keegan he might not have a set philosophy in terms of playing style, but he's perhaps a bit more like robson, a pragmatist who takes each game as it comes.

 

Spot on as usual. There have been a lot of valid criticisms and discussion points, it never got daft barring a very few exceptions. In fact I actually think this has been one of the best threads this season because nearly all of the content was well balanced and argued. Despite our results and position, Pardew had questions asked about his selections, tactics and style of play (some of which were prompted by his own comments in the media) and he has answered them emphatically in the run-in. Dunno why some are so preoccupied with point-scoring.

 

I think you're underplaying the level of criticism he was getting at times. You only have to go back to the Norwich game we won & Cisse missed two sitters in:

http://www.newcastle-online.org/nufcforum/index.php/topic,72878.21275.html

 

You can count 4 or 5 different people suggesting he shouldnt even be our manager within the first 3 pages after a game we won to keep us in 6th man. It was ludicrous stuff. Only a few of us were actually backing him up at that point, the majority were not.

The media will take any excuse to raise the idea of discontentment amongst our fans, let alone when we're doing well. If the criticism had gotten stronger & been held by more, you dont think that could have affected our season? I think it could have.

 

 

Woah, 4 or 5 people suggesting stuff. How harsh. We were f***ing awful in that game, that's a fact. At no point were people seriously calling for him to be sacked, and that includes at the ground.

 

There's also a post from you suggesting we can't play football with Williamson in the side btw and that 'Its got nowt to do with Pardew'. I guess it's nowt to do with Pardew that we've played some brilliant stuff in the last few games with the same players on the park then?

 

Be serious. The poll at that time had around a third of people voting that hed been less than "good"  It was many more than 4 or 5, though that should have been obvious. As i say you're downplaying it, probably because you had a similar viewpoint.

 

The first half of that game we werent awful, some people said it was the best attacking football we'd played all season at one point of that half. After wasting chances & the pressure built they came back into it....and we held on to win. Like we nearly always had every other time to get points on the board in a similar manner.

Where do i say we cant play football with williamson? I said he does it through choice, not tactical approach.

 

You didnt answer my question anyway, you dont think that could have affected our season if more people had made those views known as strongly as on here?

[Dave]

But they didn't.

[Flip]

pardew's done a great job this season, and i don't think there was ever a time this season where he was doing poorly at all. but every manager has their decisions scrutinised, including alex ferguson and his team is sitting atop the premiership table at the minute. the forum may as well shut down if we ever reach the day where we do not approve of discussing the ins and outs of what a manager is doing.

 

the thing is there's a difference between pointed criticism, tactical suggestions and analysis, and blind dislike or wanting someone sacked.

 

95% of the critical discussion this season - whether it's been about playing obertan, hoofing it up to best, utlising cisse as a targetman vs the mackems, not getting cabaye and tiote to gel etc have fitted the former category. as have the opposite opinions when he does something special that deserves praise, whether it be grinding out results when we're not playing well, shifting to a 4-3-3, making colo captain, or bringing in great players. some excellent debates have been had in this very thread on the above subjects this season.

 

it's a tiny minority in the 5% who went too far and acted like idiots - and i include HTT in that.

 

the past few games have turned our season from a good one where we've formed a great squad and overachieved slightly, to a superb one with a great squad that has overachieved massively. if we maintain this position he deserves to be up there with robson and keegan imo. unlike keegan he might not have a set philosophy in terms of playing style, but he's perhaps a bit more like robson, a pragmatist who takes each game as it comes.

 

Spot on as usual. There have been a lot of valid criticisms and discussion points, it never got daft barring a very few exceptions. In fact I actually think this has been one of the best threads this season because nearly all of the content was well balanced and argued. Despite our results and position, Pardew had questions asked about his selections, tactics and style of play (some of which were prompted by his own comments in the media) and he has answered them emphatically in the run-in. Dunno why some are so preoccupied with point-scoring.

 

I think you're underplaying the level of criticism he was getting at times. You only have to go back to the Norwich game we won & Cisse missed two sitters in:

http://www.newcastle-online.org/nufcforum/index.php/topic,72878.21275.html

 

You can count 4 or 5 different people suggesting he shouldnt even be our manager within the first 3 pages after a game we won to keep us in 6th man. It was ludicrous stuff. Only a few of us were actually backing him up at that point, the majority were not.

The media will take any excuse to raise the idea of discontentment amongst our fans, let alone when we're doing well. If the criticism had gotten stronger & been held by more, you dont think that could have affected our season? I think it could have.

 

 

Dont get me wrong, Pardew has done an excellent job this season, but I still dont think he should be free of criticism for his management in many games this season. He has been moronic, and while some stuff has taken time to readress I think he deserves credit for learning from most of his earlier mistakes. He is not a perfect manager, although he has proven to be very good this season.

 

Whole club deserves credit though, even Fat Ashley.

[AyeDubbleYoo]

He's been moronic? What a stupid thing to say.

[Spudil]

Even if some people were over critical of Pardew (in match threads too/during matches ffs, even Ferguson gets criticized for decisions in match threads on RedCafe)

 

Why won't some people just move on and stop pathetically,and in the main; wrongly trying to point-score and even claim they are some sort of saviour of our season?

 

It's in the past. Were in 4th. Were playing exciting football in a system that suits our players. We've qualified for Europe.

 

Move on and let it die.

[BottledDog]

Only a few of us were actually backing him up at that point, the majority were not.

The media will take any excuse to raise the idea of discontentment amongst our fans, let alone when we're doing well. If the criticism had gotten stronger & been held by more, you dont think that could have affected our season? I think it could have.

 

Are you suggesting that you and your merry band held our season together by sticking your heads in the sand ?

 

I've heard it all now.

 

Not sticking the boot in because you genuinely felt that that spell was not an accurate reflection on what Pardew was wanting to do is sticking your head in the sand?

 

I've heard it all now.

 

 

 

/I don't think anyone's saying he didn't deserve some criticism either for what it's worth, just that a lot of the criticism was way too black and white.

[Fenham Mag]

Should we get Sports personality team of the year if we get to the Champions League?

[Dave]

Even if some people were over critical of Pardew (in match threads too/during matches ffs, even Ferguson gets criticized for decisions in match threads on RedCafe)

 

Why won't some people just move on and stop pathetically,and in the main; wrongly trying to point-score and even claim they are some sort of saviour of our season?

 

It's in the past. Were in 4th. Were playing exciting football in a system that suits our players. We've qualified for Europe.

 

Move on and let it die.

 

[thedudeabides]

I for one never called for him to be sacked, on the contrary, I said I'm happy for him to continue. At the time when as a team we were playing poorly, and quite a few of us thought it was the end of the honeymoon where we were seemingly getting by on the quality of players alone rather than Pardew's management, I simply said that at, quite literally, he was a very limited manager without any nuance at all, who was very lucky given his past to have any job in the premier league, let alone Newcastle.

 

We discussed a change of system, how we thought a change of lineup and formation could be beneficial, whether it was 4-3-3 or or 8-1-1, but I wanted to see him trying, like Keegan did. Ronaldo explicitly shot me down on this.  I said his management style was a square pegs in round holes methodology, and until he adapted his tactics to the players we had then he would continue to be a limited manage who would limit our development as a club. I heavily criticized him for leaving Ben Arfa on the bench for as long as he did.  I always left it open in all my posts that if he did change, then that would be a marked improvement and I would be happy.

 

He has changed as a manager in my honest opinion and I even said that I think he or some advisors of his read this forum, because a lot of what we were saying seemed to take effect a few weeks later I am happy with him and happy for him to continue. Maybe the posts on anti-Pardew rants were not aimed at me, but it felt like many are criticizing posters for pointing out obvious mistakes in tactics during a period where it was make or break time for him and the players.

 

I am not looking for someone to quote me and go 'Oh look at Hawk he was right', and in saying this I am not tarring you all with a different brush when I say I am not a knee-jerker, but I do expect to be given the respect to air my views and opinions and not be retrospectively pigeon-holed as part of a group of people who wanted him sacked when I never said anything remotely close to that - and then treat in such a manner on my future posts as if I have no right to be happy about what Pardew is doing now.

 

Posted from my phone so please bear with the weird autocorrects if there are any.

 

Jesus wept.

[Hughesy]

Even if some people were over critical of Pardew (in match threads too/during matches ffs, even Ferguson gets criticized for decisions in match threads on RedCafe)

 

Why won't some people just move on and stop pathetically,and in the main; wrongly trying to point-score and even claim they are some sort of saviour of our season?

 

It's in the past. Were in 4th. Were playing exciting football in a system that suits our players. We've qualified for Europe.

 

Move on and let it die.

 

I've decided it's best to keep quiet on this as I do agree that point-scoring in the main is futile.  But, and it is a pretty big 'but', I have no doubt whatsoever that if the anti-Pardew people had been proved right, there would have been a lot of pretty smug people on here (even though it would have ultimately meant NUFC had failed). 

 

So I think the people who actually backed Pardew in the face of some pretty unwarranted and harsh criticism might be somewhat keen to point this out.

[Dave]

Yeah, everyone unhappy with the style of play etc would have felt really smug had it continued.

[madras]

I for one never called for him to be sacked, on the contrary, I said I'm happy for him to continue. At the time when as a team we were playing poorly, and quite a few of us thought it was the end of the honeymoon where we were seemingly getting by on the quality of players alone rather than Pardew's management, I simply said that at, quite literally, he was a very limited manager without any nuance at all, who was very lucky given his past to have any job in the premier league, let alone Newcastle.

 

We discussed a change of system, how we thought a change of lineup and formation could be beneficial, whether it was 4-3-3 or or 8-1-1, but I wanted to see him trying, like Keegan did. Ronaldo explicitly shot me down on this.  I said his management style was a square pegs in round holes methodology, and until he adapted his tactics to the players we had then he would continue to be a limited manage who would limit our development as a club. I heavily criticized him for leaving Ben Arfa on the bench for as long as he did.  I always left it open in all my posts that if he did change, then that would be a marked improvement and I would be happy.

 

He has changed as a manager in my honest opinion and I even said that I think he or some advisors of his read this forum, because a lot of what we were saying seemed to take effect a few weeks later I am happy with him and happy for him to continue. Maybe the posts on anti-Pardew rants were not aimed at me, but it felt like many are criticizing posters for pointing out obvious mistakes in tactics during a period where it was make or break time for him and the players.

 

I am not looking for someone to quote me and go 'Oh look at Hawk he was right', and in saying this I am not tarring you all with a different brush when I say I am not a knee-jerker, but I do expect to be given the respect to air my views and opinions and not be retrospectively pigeon-holed as part of a group of people who wanted him sacked when I never said anything remotely close to that - and then treat in such a manner on my future posts as if I have no right to be happy about what Pardew is doing now.

 

Posted from my phone so please bear with the weird autocorrects if there are any.

i've possibly been amongst the longest in calling for something different from 4-4-2/4-4-1-1 but i wouldn't claim that 'i was right'. we've built a platform of hard work and being hard to beat, that has permeated through the team to give us the ability to play a more expansive game. i can understand what pardew has done and it's worked. only a fool would say we'd have been better off if we'd tried to go the way we have recently, earlier, we just don't know and there are certainly good arguments why it could possibly have backfired.

[Spudil]

Even if some people were over critical of Pardew (in match threads too/during matches ffs, even Ferguson gets criticized for decisions in match threads on RedCafe)

 

Why won't some people just move on and stop pathetically,and in the main; wrongly trying to point-score and even claim they are some sort of saviour of our season?

 

It's in the past. Were in 4th. Were playing exciting football in a system that suits our players. We've qualified for Europe.

 

Move on and let it die.

 

I've decided it's best to keep quiet on this as I do agree that point-scoring in the main is futile.  But, and it is a pretty big 'but', I have no doubt whatsoever that if the anti-Pardew people had been proved right, there would have been a lot of pretty smug people on here (even though it would have ultimately meant NUFC had failed). 

 

So I think the people who actually backed Pardew in the face of some pretty unwarranted and harsh criticism might be somewhat keen to point this out.

 

I always felt my position was quite hard to take actually. If I was 'proved right' that Pardew could not change his mentality/approach that means that we as a club would not have improved(performance and results-wise) as we have.

I can only speak for myself,but, being a Newcastle fan, I certainly would not point score about Newcastle doing badly.

[gbandit]

I hope Sturridge doesn't play at the bridge.

 

Santon will do a job on him. that Raylor performance made me feel ill

[Jayson]

Even if some people were over critical of Pardew (in match threads too/during matches ffs, even Ferguson gets criticized for decisions in match threads on RedCafe)

 

Why won't some people just move on and stop pathetically,and in the main; wrongly trying to point-score and even claim they are some sort of saviour of our season?

 

It's in the past. Were in 4th. Were playing exciting football in a system that suits our players. We've qualified for Europe.

 

Move on and let it die.

 

Its not pointscoring or anyone trying to claim to be saviour of the season though. Point is the criticism was massively OTT & that it can be learnt from. Luckily this season it went well & Pards changed to the more attacking style of play everyone wanted after the Norwich game.

 

Many wouldnt have wanted to give him the chance to do it next season though if he'd not managed to do it now & i dont see the level of criticism he was getting as being beneficial to us if it was to be spread around by sections of our support or grown moreso before the next season had started. This season should have been a lesson in patience & holding back on strong judgements for all of us in general.

[Hughesy]

Yes, everyone unhappy with the style of play etc would have felt really smug had it continued.

 

What a ridiculous thing to say.

 

Come on - you know what I mean.  Smug may not be the correct word, but some of patronising posts on here over the last few months in relation to tactics and our style of play...

[madras]

Yes, everyone unhappy with the style of play etc would have felt really smug had it continued.

 

What a ridiculous thing to say.

 

Come on - you know what I mean.  Smug may not be the correct word, but some of patronising posts on here over the last few months in relation to tactics and our style of play...

don't know about patronising but the extent we were supposed to have played hoofball was massivly over exaggerated.

[Dave]

Yes, everyone unhappy with the style of play etc would have felt really smug had it continued.

 

What a ridiculous thing to say.

 

Come on - you know what I mean.  Smug may not be the correct word, but some of patronising posts on here over the last few months in relation to tactics and our style of play...

 

'We're sixth so pipe down' was pretty patronising.

 

Just for reference:

5 wins in the last 17.

 

Add shite football into the mix and there will be criticism.

 

As I keep saying, from what I can remember barring HTT nobody on here was calling for him to be sacked. There was even less of this at the match from what I experienced. Some questioned whether he was the right man to take this set of players forward.

[gbandit]

Not to exacerbate anything but the majority of criticism of Pardew was of his tactics/substitutions (player choices). These tactics and player choices were changed to pretty much what most people were complaining about. We are now seeing NUFC play great football and dominate games. So in essence, most people who were complaining were correct and most people who weren't complaining are correct in a different way (apart from those who kept suggesting our players weren't capable of playing really good football because Simpson/Williamson were in the team).

 

Anyway, it's absolutely meaningless. We're playing great and everyone's happy at the moment, everyone believes Pardew is doing a good job and now if things go wrong again, most who had previous criticisms, will be able to look at it and say, it's just a rough patch. We know what the players and manager are capable of.

[Spudil]

 

 

[Hughesy]

Yes, everyone unhappy with the style of play etc would have felt really smug had it continued.

 

What a ridiculous thing to say.

 

Come on - you know what I mean.  Smug may not be the correct word, but some of patronising posts on here over the last few months in relation to tactics and our style of play...

don't know about patronising but the extent we were supposed to have played hoofball was massivly over exaggerated.

I think the general theme that somehow only the anti-Pardew brigade were enlightened enough to see what was really happening was a fairly common, patronising and, as it turned out, incorrect theme.  But anyway - going to leave it there.  We're 4th so I don't care who is right or wrong.

[Spudil]

Yes, everyone unhappy with the style of play etc would have felt really smug had it continued.

 

What a ridiculous thing to say.

 

Come on - you know what I mean.  Smug may not be the correct word, but some of patronising posts on here over the last few months in relation to tactics and our style of play...

don't know about patronising but the extent we were supposed to have played hoofball was massivly over exaggerated.

I think the general theme that somehow only the anti-Pardew brigade were enlightened enough to see what was really happening was a fairly common, patronising and, as it turned out, incorrect theme.  But anyway - going to leave it there.  We're 4th so I don't care who is right or wrong.

 

You could try and leave it without saying "I won". I'm happy to do so.

[Hughesy]

Yes, everyone unhappy with the style of play etc would have felt really smug had it continued.

 

What a ridiculous thing to say.

 

Come on - you know what I mean.  Smug may not be the correct word, but some of patronising posts on here over the last few months in relation to tactics and our style of play...

don't know about patronising but the extent we were supposed to have played hoofball was massivly over exaggerated.

I think the general theme that somehow only the anti-Pardew brigade were enlightened enough to see what was really happening was a fairly common, patronising and, as it turned out, incorrect theme.  But anyway - going to leave it there.  We're 4th so I don't care who is right or wrong.

 

You could try and leave it without saying "I won". I'm happy to do so.

 

It was thinly veiled..

 

But in all seriousness - it's done now.  Hopefully we will get 4th and won't need to look back on it anymore.

[Pilko]

Why are people arguing about this? The bloke has delivered 62 points with 4 games to play and a guarantee of European football.. It's been a fucking magnificent season no matter how you look at it. I couldn't give a shit how we've got there now that we've managed that.

 

It's Pardy Time.