Rich Posted September 13, 2011 Share Posted September 13, 2011 We've matched the start made for points under Allardyce after four games. His next game was the Derby debacle when it started to unravel. If we follow this up with a draw at Villa and a home win against Blackburn things are still looking very bright. The next game is very important as a marker though, because as you mention Wullie it's not nice to see us time wasting against a newly-promoted team as if they were Man Utd. Villa are an established team who have been in a bit of flux themselves and will be a good test of where we're at. I can't see it being at all pretty again, unfortunately. However, as Shearer always used to say when we were a good side under Bobby, "you're doing alright if you're winning your home games and drawing your away games". To be doing the equivalent of that is above and beyond my expectations for this season, quite frankly, but the fixture generator has been relatively kind until November. If we can get to that time having taken 4 points from every 2 games (or somewhere close) we'll be fucking set. I would love to see us play a bit of football on the way though. Tonight was tough to watch. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wullie Posted September 13, 2011 Share Posted September 13, 2011 The timewasting was arguably the worst thing. Krul was at it almost as soon as the second half started. Very depressing to see us resort to that under the circumstances. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rich Posted September 13, 2011 Share Posted September 13, 2011 Aye, I was getting very wound-up by it. We did the same against Arsenal when they were down to ten men, which I found even more frustrating. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stottie Posted September 13, 2011 Share Posted September 13, 2011 We're definitely riding our luck at the moment and the pointers are to a long season, not to an improvement on last year. We're creating little and people won't keep missing point blank headers against us. The hopeful side of the coin sees the injured or off the pace lads like Tiote, Ben Arfa, Marveaux, Ba etc making an sustained impact. The terrified side of the coin sees an injury to Colo. Even just a straight red before three of the easier games we would be a big loss. I hope the 4-4-2 and hoofing it long is just a stop-gap from Pardew, because we'll get nowhere with it. That should be fecking obvious from the lack of a knock-down collector for starters. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
TRC Posted September 13, 2011 Share Posted September 13, 2011 The Obertan replacing Barton is the biggest mistake, bigger than Carroll not being replaced IMO. Completely messed our balance up. We have Ba and Best upfront, but we have fuck all on the right. People saying Marveaux can play there is wishful thinking. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrmojorisin75 Posted September 13, 2011 Share Posted September 13, 2011 I said all this shit about Pardew in the mackems game thread, he's starting to look clueless to me. What's the point in re-euro-vamping your squad and then playing the same system as last year without the 3 players that made it work? There's more in this squad of players than we're being allowed to see atm imo Sadly it's starting to look like Pardew may not have any flexibility about him, or maybe he's just overly cautious away from home. Next home game will hopefully answer some questions. I'll keep saying it til it stops happening mind, if he keeps starting Shola we'll end up in trouble and so will he. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
womblemaster Posted September 13, 2011 Share Posted September 13, 2011 I assume if given striker options even pardew would not start ameobi ? I can only guess he played 442 to nick an early goal, when its didnt work, he should have switch out shola and brought in marveaux. HE seems too slow to react to the game, thats happening infront of his eyes. WOuld assume its stupidity rather than a big ego, but its hard to tell. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rebellious Posted September 13, 2011 Share Posted September 13, 2011 Shouldn`t have picked Shola over Loven based on keeping Raylor in the team theology. Something I didn`t see during the match but on a Sky montage at the end, Pardew seemed to be pissed off with most of the team seemingly doing nothing tactically they planned in training all week. Loads of clips of him screaming at players. Credit for sorting the defense out, Simpson`s gone up a level so has Best but whats he done to Tiote ? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest schmuck Posted September 13, 2011 Share Posted September 13, 2011 Tiote had terrible pre season preperation, it's not Pardew's fault he's off the pace. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
thomas Posted September 13, 2011 Share Posted September 13, 2011 The whole team did imo. The America tour was a shambles. Might be mid-October before we start looking like a team out there. As it stands there's just enough quality in the squad to grind out points/results in this shit fashion. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest TheSummerOf69 Posted September 13, 2011 Share Posted September 13, 2011 We've a lot of players who need time to get used to the Premier League: Cabaye, Marveaux, Santon, Abeid, even Ben Arfa (like Cabaye, he looks the business, but he's not proved himself up to the long season rigours of the pace and grind in the PL yet) and Obertan (he didn't get much game time at Man Utd). Remember when Colo was being crucified on MOTD every week? Or how long it took Enrique to hit regular form? The problem is that we haven't built on a team so much as demolished it and built it up again. I'm happy with the resilience shown so far this Season, though I would - like everyone - hope to see some attacking flair. There might be a golden month to come inbetween the players gelling and the inevitable reliance on kids when the injuries kick in... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
TRon Posted September 13, 2011 Share Posted September 13, 2011 Looking on the brighter side, the team must improve just through the personnel we have brought in. Marveaux, Ba and David Santon should add some guile and improve the football by default even if the manager has no idea how to coach passing football - which he clearly hasn't. I am just relieved that the players we have bought over the summer were probably brought in over Pardew's head, otherwise I'm sure we'd have been watching Jay Bothroyd and Nicky Shorey rather than David Santon in a couple of weeks time. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest ykmkmdd Posted September 13, 2011 Share Posted September 13, 2011 He's in a results business and getting results, hopefully the playing style will evolve as new players settle in, Ben Arfa comes back and we find out who has kidnapped Tiote. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldtype Posted September 13, 2011 Share Posted September 13, 2011 We're still very much in a phase where the team needs to gel + adapt to the Premier League so it's not surprising that we look disjointed at times. I'm willing to give him some time to settle things down and figure out an overarching game-plan that works for us. We were in a very similar position this time last year under Hughton where we had some good players but hadn't figured out how to play to their strengths yet. Eventually things started to gel and we were doing quite nicely, but we sold that whole team so we're going to have to start again. Thank God we're somehow still getting results in the meantime. Once things start coming together, the upside of this team is significantly larger than last year's and we have the potential to be watching some very good football by the end of the season. I'm willing to trust that Pardew's not a complete fucking idiot and will figure out a plan for now. Just don't start Ryan Taylor or Ameobi (the shit one) ever again. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
morpeth mag Posted September 13, 2011 Share Posted September 13, 2011 Just think the 442 formation is looking very dated - especially the way we play it on tramlines. I think it has to be ONE of Ba / Best / Shola together with HBA. In the interim take your pick from Obertan / Marveaux or Sammi. Last season tramlines worked on the left (but never the right) due to the interplay between Jonas and Enrique. Hopefully Santon can fill that gap in time but if we are going to play two holding players in Tiote and Cabaye then the full backs need to get forward and one of the strikers has to come short to link play. My only explanation for the team last night is that QPR struggled against the size of Bolton and maybe AP thought two big strikers would work. Agree with all the posts that things should have been changed at HT but we were more compact in the second half and looked after Taarabt better. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christmas Tree Posted September 13, 2011 Share Posted September 13, 2011 We're still very much in a phase where the team needs to gel + adapt to the Premier League so it's not surprising that we look disjointed at times. I'm willing to give him some time to settle things down and figure out an overarching game-plan that works for us. We were in a very similar position this time last year under Hughton where we had some good players but hadn't figured out how to play to their strengths yet. Eventually things started to gel and we were doing quite nicely, but we sold that whole team so we're going to have to start again. Thank God we're somehow still getting results in the meantime. Once things start coming together, the upside of this team is significantly larger than last year's and we have the potential to be watching some very good football by the end of the season. I'm willing to trust that Pardew's not a complete f***ing idiot and will figure out a plan for now. Just don't start Ryan Taylor or Ameobi (the s*** one) ever again. I agree with most of that, however a blind man on a galloping horse could see we were overrun last night and yet he didnt change it at half time. Obviously wasnt helped as well by some very poor displays from quite a few individuals. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
TRon Posted September 13, 2011 Share Posted September 13, 2011 We're still very much in a phase where the team needs to gel + adapt to the Premier League so it's not surprising that we look disjointed at times. I'm willing to give him some time to settle things down and figure out an overarching game-plan that works for us. We were in a very similar position this time last year under Hughton where we had some good players but hadn't figured out how to play to their strengths yet. Eventually things started to gel and we were doing quite nicely, but we sold that whole team so we're going to have to start again. Thank God we're somehow still getting results in the meantime. Once things start coming together, the upside of this team is significantly larger than last year's and we have the potential to be watching some very good football by the end of the season. I'm willing to trust that Pardew's not a complete f***ing idiot and will figure out a plan for now. Just don't start Ryan Taylor or Ameobi (the s*** one) ever again. I agree with most of that, however a blind man on a galloping horse could see we were overrun last night and yet he didnt change it at half time. Obviously wasnt helped as well by some very poor displays from quite a few individuals. Results have papered over the cracks as well. The way Pardew has set the team out has seen us dominated in midfield in every single game so far this season, even by Scunthorpe. Only poor finishing from the opposition has seen us avoid defeat on more than one occasion. I don't think I would complain about the tactics if it looked like they were being implemented to a plan, but it really looks like no one has any idea what is going on out there in the first 45 mins of every game so far. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
thomas Posted September 13, 2011 Share Posted September 13, 2011 We're actually doing much better defensively and much more poorly offensively as compared to last year but, as ykmkmdd points out ... results. 13 September last year: 4P - 1W1D2L, 7GF 6GA, 4 pts 13 September this year: 4P - 2W2D0L, 3GF 1GA, 8 pts Others early comparisons to an Allardycian Bolton are a bit off - we're actually just much better defensively and the same offensively. The popular notion seemed to be that because Bolton (under Allardyce) didn't score a lot they must be a defensive unit hard to break down. His personality also helped to shape this notion. Under Allardyce Bolton weren't actually that tough a side to break down, ranking in the bottom half almost every year when it came to defensive records (e.g. clean sheets, average goals against). 04-05 and 05-06 had them ranked in the top half - 8th and 6th overall respectively - but they've since reverted to form. I don't think anyone, Pardew included, wants to keep riding our luck with Krul/Colo/Saylor forming some kind of impenetrable shield. He has to get that front six clicking. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stu Posted September 13, 2011 Share Posted September 13, 2011 4 league defeats in the calendar year. 1 defeat in last 11. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
madras Posted September 13, 2011 Share Posted September 13, 2011 We're actually doing much better defensively and much more poorly offensively as compared to last year but, as ykmkmdd points out ... results. 13 September last year: 4P - 1W1D2L, 7GF 6GA, 4 pts 13 September this year: 4P - 2W2D0L, 3GF 1GA, 8 pts Others early comparisons to an Allardycian Bolton are a bit off - we're actually just much better defensively and the same offensively. The popular notion seemed to be that because Bolton (under Allardyce) didn't score a lot they must be a defensive unit hard to break down. His personality also helped to shape this notion. Under Allardyce Bolton weren't actually that tough a side to break down, ranking in the bottom half almost every year when it came to defensive records (e.g. clean sheets, average goals against). 04-05 and 05-06 had them ranked in the top half - 8th and 6th overall respectively - but they've since reverted to form. I don't think anyone, Pardew included, wants to keep riding our luck with Krul/Colo/Saylor forming some kind of impenetrable shield. He has to get that front six clicking. stat tastic. we couldn't have argued we were hard done by had arsenal scored, fulham got a couple and QPR had got 3 or 4. defensivly (and by that i mean as ateam and not just the back 4) so far this season have been poor and worse, imo, than the back end of last season. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skirge Posted September 13, 2011 Share Posted September 13, 2011 Bad team selection and showing a lack of faith in Santon is a worry. With everyone fit I tinnk most fans know our best starting 11, but does Pardew? --------------------Krul Simo------Tayls-----------Colo---------Santon Jonas------Cab------------Tiote----------HBA -------------Best-----------Ba Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wullie Posted September 13, 2011 Share Posted September 13, 2011 Skirge, there's nowhere near enough mobility among any of our striking options to play 4-4-2. It's my preferred formation but with the players available to us right now, it's a complete non-starter imo. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tooj Posted September 13, 2011 Share Posted September 13, 2011 Bad team selection and showing a lack of faith in Santon is a worry. May I ask how he's showing a lack of faith in Santon? Seemed quite a sensible decision not to play him, as he'll have barely trained with the squad and as we saw last night SWP was on fire, so if he'd have had a bad game, then the knives would have been out for him already. He must start on Saturday though. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frazzle Posted September 13, 2011 Share Posted September 13, 2011 Bad team selection and showing a lack of faith in Santon is a worry. With everyone fit I tinnk most fans know our best starting 11, but does Pardew? --------------------Krul Simo------Tayls-----------Colo---------Santon Jonas------Cab------------Tiote----------HBA -------------Best-----------Ba With everyone fit I wouldn't want us playing that tbh and I hope Pardew doesn't. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lenny Posted September 13, 2011 Share Posted September 13, 2011 Gotta be more down to showing faith in Simpson and Taylor rather than lack of faith in Santon. Despite not particularly playing well we've got results so far this season and been decent defensively, so it's understandable. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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