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To an extent, it was a no win situation for him yesterday. He either went with two banks of four in the hope one of our forwards could muster a goal or two out of the few chances we'd create, which he did. Or he could risk an extra man in the middle in an attempt to stifle Spurs by retaining a bit of possession  which he did last year and got absolutely slated for it.

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Yeah agreed.

 

Go for it, we get bummed. Play only one up top and gets criticised for cowardice. I think yesterday was one of those games, that regardless of tactics or selection we would have been beaten. On that showing, Spurs would have beaten most teams in Europe.

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The bottom line is you really don't play 2 up away to Spurs with your main midfield missing. Everything else is secondary.

 

 

Basically.

 

:thup:

 

To be fair, everyone was happy that the two Demba's were starting.

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I think it came down to a p*ss poor mentality by the team. Missing Steven Taylor, Cabaye and Tiote + having a p*ss weak right hand side. We lack depth and were shown up.

 

I think the fact Spurs have only lost like once this season, and were on fire had some part to play as well like :lol:

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If we hadn't played the two Dembas we would probably have got beat anyway, then Pardew would have been slated for being conservative. At the end of the day we didn't have the personnel to cope with Spurs playing like that, and we got a beasting. Not a big deal, just get Tiote and Cabaye back in the team ASAP.

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I did say in the pre-match thread that i could see a reason for Pards trying his 4-5-1 here, with one of the Dembas on the left, maybe ever switching. I'd have played Ben Arfa on the right because he can play football and he may have given their LB at least something to think about.

 

Thought our high line was strange. They float about a lot (especially Modric) so to keep pressing them in midfield was always going to be very difficult but at having 3 in there might have helped. If we were going to play 4-4-2 we should have sat deeper and gone for the counter attack. It was bizarre tactlically. Obviously Pardew didn't envisage it ending up the way it did but given the personnel of both teams i'm not sure what else he expected from a high line other than them spinning constantly into space between CB and FB.

 

Bad days happen but i'm becoming confused as to why he continues to try this tactic when it's been so flaky in it's implementation.

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Newcastle United squad has limitations, says Pardew

 

THE current Newcastle United squad has limitations, Alan Pardew admitted today, following the 5-0 loss at Tottenham.

 

Pardew had been criticised for fielding a 4-5-1 formation in previous weeks, while some fans can’t understand why Hatem Ben Arfa isn’t given more of a chance.

 

Ben Arfa was an unused sub at Spurs on Saturday night with Pardew operating with a 4-4-2 formation.

 

But the United boss – who accepted responsibility for the defeat on the basis that he’d fielded too many offensive players – said: “We have two good strikers but they didn’t have a chance at Spurs.

 

“Papiss isn’t going to win you the game when you’re 2-0 down after five minutes.

 

“We need to be able to cope with having two strikers.

 

 

“The Press and the fans have criticised us when we have played 4-5-1 at times this year.

 

“Now they understand why.”

 

Pardew saw his side’s winning streak ended on Saturday, and admits that suffering some severe damage to his goal difference column hurt badly.

 

He added: “It was a game for us that we could lose.

 

“The unfortunate thing is the manner of it and the scoreline, because the goals against column isn’t looking so pretty.

 

“That might be crucial in 13 games time. We will have to wait and see.”

 

 

 

Read More http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/newcastle-united/nufc-news/2012/02/13/newcastle-united-squad-has-limitations-says-pardew-72703-30318557/#.TzkJ-o8xtq4.twitter#ixzz1mGbJMXuG

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“The Press and the fans have criticised us when we have played 4-5-1 at times this year.

 

“Now they understand why.”

 

The fans don't pick the side dimwit! And if it's so obvious, why didn't he change to 4-5-1 after ten minutes?

 

We've barely played 4-5-1 at all tbh, don't know where he's coming from there.

 

This too. In fact rather than the fans and press coming out against 4-5-1 if anything there's been far more clamour for it this season, ie when people wanted Ben Arfa in behind Ba.

 

Anyway it's a fucking idiotic thing to come out with - like he's trying ever so hard to be in the right by telling everyone else they were to blame. It's never a positive move once managers get into that mindset so hope he snaps out of it sharpish.

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Seems a little disingenuous, to me, to apologise and then tacitly imply his decisions were influenced by external pressure. Playing 4-4-2 wasn't why we lost so comprehensively.

 

Key players missing played a part, no doubt, but ultimately basic defending was why we were blown out the water. Not to become a broken record player, but these errors were on show against Blackburn and others, and went unaddressed. Having another extra man in midfield, or Demba deeper, would not have negated the damage having a high line had, nor having a defensive unit pulled out of shape so unnecessarily etc

 

I hope his quotes are just his regular PR stuff, and he has identified real work needs to be done coaching Santon positionally, telling Colo not to try and cover for everyone (no matter how strong the temptation!) and tell them all not to leave so much space in behind. Otherwise we're just waiting to get exploited again.

 

Cabaye and Tiote returning will be excellent for our passing, options and retention on the ball though. Their cover will be better too, obviously, but they aren't a cure-all panacea for the shambolic defensive mess we witnessed on Saturday.[/iMO]

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Those quotes are a bit random like, they don't even say what question he was asked. The one about 451 in particular doesn't make sense unless we know what he's responding too.

 

If he's saying he didn't play 451 because of external criticism, he's showing terrible weakness. If he's saying he didn't play it because he didn't have the personnel available, then that's fine and we can debate the rights and wrongs.

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“The Press and the fans have criticised us when we have played 4-5-1 at times this year.

 

“Now they understand why.”

 

The fans don't pick the side dimwit! And if it's so obvious, why didn't he change to 4-5-1 after ten minutes?

 

We've barely played 4-5-1 at all tbh, don't know where he's coming from there.

 

This too. In fact rather than the fans and press coming out against 4-5-1 if anything there's been far more clamour for it this season, ie when people wanted Ben Arfa in behind Ba.

 

Anyway it's a f***ing idiotic thing to come out with - like he's trying ever so hard to be in the right by telling everyone else they were to blame. It's never a positive move once managers get into that mindset so hope he snaps out of it sharpish.

 

 

Yep after 10 minutes he needed to change it defensively. Wave and wave of Spurs attack.

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Seems a little disingenuous, to me, to apologise and then tacitly imply his decisions were influenced by external pressure. Playing 4-4-2 wasn't why we lost so comprehensively.

 

 

It was like. Any team we fielded in a 4-4-2 was going to get there arses handed to them. We went man for man and initially played pretty high up. We would've lost with a more defensive team but not at that extreme score.

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“The Press and the fans have criticised us when we have played 4-5-1 at times this year.

 

“Now they understand why.”

 

Alan, it would have made more sense to play 4-5-1 this time round - Guthrie/Perch vs Modric/Parker was always going to go one way really. So having an extra man in midfield could have somewhat "contained the threat" imho. Mind you, he could have tried to change it after we went 2-0 down (when changes were really needed!), for example, I would have had Ba dropping into midfield when we were defending (and have him push up when we had the ball).

 

On the other hand, Spurs were on a completely different level to us so I guess we still would have lost even if Pardew did decide to employ the 4-5-1.

 

Hopefully, when the likes of Cabaye and Tiote (who we have massively missed imo) are back, we won't lose in that manner ever again this season. We'll finally have a chance to see Yohan and Cheik link up with Cissé too so already there seem to be positive signs around the corner. (Just wish we didn't have to wait two weeks for the next game though!).

 

Also, Pardew's comments of late have been weird too but it's not the first time it's happened so I'll leave at that for the time being.

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Don't think there's anything too wrong with what he's said tbh - openly took full responsibility for the defeat in all the post match interviews.

 

Just one of those freak results, been a few this season - Man Utd lost 6-1 at home, Arsenal were dicked 8-2 and Spurs got turned over 5-1 by Man City, need to forget it and move on.

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