Alan Pardew

[Tiresias]

[Guest Dontooner]

His team is built on being very narrow and tight and all banks of four are very straight and well ordered. We could get away with it if we had steven taylor but we look a shambles defensively with Williamson and Simpson. he's become extremely scared of other teams counterring us since chelsea did in december but in fact since then we hvave done far worse and the hoof ball has increased (norwich, fulham, spurs). The stranget hign is I don't remember us playing quite this ugly last season.

 

it's a strange set up really. he wants everyone pressing and filling back in high up the pitch and quickly reorganising into very rigid lines. he has no idea how to utilise cabaye or ben arfa.

 

--full back--deep centre half--ball playing centre half--full back

 

--defensive wide man--box to box cm--stopper--defensive wide man--

 

------------------------deep forward----poacher--------------------

 

There's no room for flair because it won't allow the rigid side of our game to work. Cabaye's been adjusted to just be a constant runner and tbf he can do it because of his sheer stamina but he's wasted imo.

 

I'm not sure he's that tactically strong, he knows how to be a tough immobile unit that is hard to break through the middle and poor full backs are backed up by strong defensive wingers but in terms of possession play and movement he has no clue. He either just hopes Cabaye, Jonas, Ba (Hatem when he plays) already have a good enough footballing knowledge to do it without instruction or he genuinely believes the best method is to stop them penetrating us and hitting it towards Ba/player capable of magic. I really hope he has some new formation or plan lined up but I doubt it. My best hope is we manage to sneak 6th come the end of the season and he has pre season to attract some better technical players and rethinks his strategy- hopefully moulding a specific role for Ben Arfa.

Good Analysis and read on his formation and tactics. 100% spot on with how he sets his team to play in each role hence flair players just would not work in his formation. If you want to see better footy or winning like we deserved it there must be a comprise in the formation and role of the players. If this cant be change either we continue the same or we need to change a Manager that is proven and better.

[Guest Howaythetoon]

Can't really reply at length to HTT or Wullie's posts as on Blackberry (and on holiday - this hasn't helped my mood), but there is some fantastic revisionist history going on about Hughton's reign. I can remember many a match under Hughton where we were bloody awful, certainly as bad as anything served up by Pardew (blackpool, west brom, bolton???).

 

Some of the examples given are questionable as well. Not sure why any matches in the Championship should even be considered for obvious reasons.

 

Villa - we played a Villa team without a manager and they could have been out of sight in the first few mins we were that bad. Lucky Carew took that penalty.

 

Arsenal - but for Krul's brilliance we would have lost that. Good backs to the wall performance, but not a tactical masterclass in any way. Rose tinted glasses on that performance or you didn't see it.

 

I'd also love to know what this ideology you think we had under hughton...

 

Anyway - genuinely can't be arsed debating Pardew anymore on here. If you spole to any non-NUFC fan and told them that there were a significant proportion of people advocating his sacking they would think you were mental. Unbelievable stuff.

 

We did indeed put in many a poor performance under Hughton but you could still see a gameplan, that we at least went out to play football. At home to Stoke for example, we were probably too attacking. We created many chances in that game.

 

As for matches in the Championship, of course they should be considered. A performance is a performance regardless of who the opposition is or the level. Performances are indicators of potential and what kind of level you are at or could achieve. The performances from that Championship season suggested we could cope in the Premier league and indeed survive. As it was, we did more than that and got ourselves into a very comfortable mid-table position prior to his departure. A position that wasn't really improved on by the way and a position this current side could easily slip back into if we are not careful.

 

As for Villa, they started the season well under their caretaker manager and Brummie will tell you himself, they were playing good stuff. We stuffed them though, they couldn't cope, we were at them from the off and kept going. It could have been even more in the end. The same happened against the mackems.

 

Sacking sounds bad, I don't want him sacked in the sense Hughton was sacked, I want him upgraded basically. We can do better, ought to look for better, just as we look at Simpson and think, yep, we must improve and can.

 

Back to performances, we played better under Hughton than we have done under Pardew, without a doubt. Our football under this fool is Sam Allardyce esque or Souness at times.

 

QPR away this season was on a par with Fulham away under Big Sam. Only we won that game.

[Wullie]

Logic, I was agreeing with you re: the corner. Four players in the box for a corner is ridiculous, we were outnumbered more than 2 to 1.

[The College Dropout]

have we thrashed anyone under pardew yet?

 

Wham.

[Guest bimpy474]

"But for us I'm not overly disappointed. It could be a lot worse. After Spurs we needed to just get ourselves back to something like our normal selves, which we were today. But we still should have won."

 

Staggering quote.

 

Thats actually quite worrying, if he sees it like that then he is blinder than Captain Blind on the shortsighted sailing ship The HMS Blind.

[Guest Howaythetoon]

He's also pleased for Wolves' manager. Staggering.

[Beren]

have we thrashed anyone under pardew yet?

 

Wham.

 

They caught hell for disobeying his order to sit on a goal two lead. Spelled the end for Lovenkrands.

[Guest bimpy474]

He's also pleased for Wolves' manager. Staggering.

 

Be fecking flatout if i heard that, the knacker

 

P.S i'm a weed so it was for joking effect like

[Jagten]

Pardew has been made to look good by our brilliant recruitment process and the degeneration of the league. We don't have a style, we dont have a definitive game plan, even when we win our performances tend to be drab and aimless. This all in tandem with his inability to properly utilize and get the best out of our best players, like cabaye and santon.

Irrespective of our league position, i would look for someone more tactically astute to fulfil the role.

 

I understand what i have just insinuated, which when our league position is taken into consideration seems fucking mental, but i genuinely believe him to be of a hindrance regarding us moving forwards.

[JH]

He's also pleased for Wolves' manager. Staggering.

 

Agreed. Should have spat on him and kicked him in the balls.

[johnnypd]

His team is built on being very narrow and tight and all banks of four are very straight and well ordered. We could get away with it if we had steven taylor but we look a shambles defensively with Williamson and Simpson. he's become extremely scared of other teams counterring us since chelsea did in december but in fact since then we hvave done far worse and the hoof ball has increased (norwich, fulham, spurs). The stranget hign is I don't remember us playing quite this ugly last season.

 

it's a strange set up really. he wants everyone pressing and filling back in high up the pitch and quickly reorganising into very rigid lines. he has no idea how to utilise cabaye or ben arfa.

 

--full back--deep centre half--ball playing centre half--full back

 

--defensive wide man--box to box cm--stopper--defensive wide man--

 

------------------------deep forward----poacher--------------------

 

There's no room for flair because it won't allow the rigid side of our game to work. Cabaye's been adjusted to just be a constant runner and tbf he can do it because of his sheer stamina but he's wasted imo.

 

I'm not sure he's that tactically strong, he knows how to be a tough immobile unit that is hard to break through the middle and poor full backs are backed up by strong defensive wingers but in terms of possession play and movement he has no clue. He either just hopes Cabaye, Jonas, Ba (Hatem when he plays) already have a good enough footballing knowledge to do it without instruction or he genuinely believes the best method is to stop them penetrating us and hitting it towards Ba/player capable of magic. I really hope he has some new formation or plan lined up but I doubt it. My best hope is we manage to sneak 6th come the end of the season and he has pre season to attract some better technical players and rethinks his strategy- hopefully moulding a specific role for Ben Arfa.

 

Pretty much spot on.

[Guest bimpy474]

He's also pleased for Wolves' manager. Staggering.

 

Agreed. Should have spat on him and kicked him in the balls.

 

Oooh you bitch

[Mick]

 

Agreed. Should have spat on him and kicked him in the balls.

 

That would have been a bit OTT.

[Guest Howaythetoon]

His team is built on being very narrow and tight and all banks of four are very straight and well ordered. We could get away with it if we had steven taylor but we look a shambles defensively with Williamson and Simpson. he's become extremely scared of other teams counterring us since chelsea did in december but in fact since then we hvave done far worse and the hoof ball has increased (norwich, fulham, spurs). The stranget hign is I don't remember us playing quite this ugly last season.

 

it's a strange set up really. he wants everyone pressing and filling back in high up the pitch and quickly reorganising into very rigid lines. he has no idea how to utilise cabaye or ben arfa.

 

--full back--deep centre half--ball playing centre half--full back

 

--defensive wide man--box to box cm--stopper--defensive wide man--

 

------------------------deep forward----poacher--------------------

 

There's no room for flair because it won't allow the rigid side of our game to work. Cabaye's been adjusted to just be a constant runner and tbf he can do it because of his sheer stamina but he's wasted imo.

 

I'm not sure he's that tactically strong, he knows how to be a tough immobile unit that is hard to break through the middle and poor full backs are backed up by strong defensive wingers but in terms of possession play and movement he has no clue. He either just hopes Cabaye, Jonas, Ba (Hatem when he plays) already have a good enough footballing knowledge to do it without instruction or he genuinely believes the best method is to stop them penetrating us and hitting it towards Ba/player capable of magic. I really hope he has some new formation or plan lined up but I doubt it. My best hope is we manage to sneak 6th come the end of the season and he has pre season to attract some better technical players and rethinks his strategy- hopefully moulding a specific role for Ben Arfa.

 

This post needs more love. Good tactical insight.

 

Yep, a very very good analysis of things. I agree with pretty much all of that.

[JH]

 

Agreed. Should have spat on him and kicked him in the balls.

 

That would have been a bit OTT.

 

So is the thought that it's 'staggering' for a manager to be pleased for a fellow professional.

 

You'd think he'd come out and said "I'm glad we didn't win that you know!"

[littlelunchbox]

His team is built on being very narrow and tight and all banks of four are very straight and well ordered. We could get away with it if we had steven taylor but we look a shambles defensively with Williamson and Simpson. he's become extremely scared of other teams counterring us since chelsea did in december but in fact since then we hvave done far worse and the hoof ball has increased (norwich, fulham, spurs). The stranget hign is I don't remember us playing quite this ugly last season.

 

it's a strange set up really. he wants everyone pressing and filling back in high up the pitch and quickly reorganising into very rigid lines. he has no idea how to utilise cabaye or ben arfa.

 

--full back--deep centre half--ball playing centre half--full back

 

--defensive wide man--box to box cm--stopper--defensive wide man--

 

------------------------deep forward----poacher--------------------

 

There's no room for flair because it won't allow the rigid side of our game to work. Cabaye's been adjusted to just be a constant runner and tbf he can do it because of his sheer stamina but he's wasted imo.

 

I'm not sure he's that tactically strong, he knows how to be a tough immobile unit that is hard to break through the middle and poor full backs are backed up by strong defensive wingers but in terms of possession play and movement he has no clue. He either just hopes Cabaye, Jonas, Ba (Hatem when he plays) already have a good enough footballing knowledge to do it without instruction or he genuinely believes the best method is to stop them penetrating us and hitting it towards Ba/player capable of magic. I really hope he has some new formation or plan lined up but I doubt it. My best hope is we manage to sneak 6th come the end of the season and he has pre season to attract some better technical players and rethinks his strategy- hopefully moulding a specific role for Ben Arfa.

 

Pretty much spot on.

 

i don't see Ba as a forward that can play deep,  infact im not sure if Cisse and Ba compliment each other at all.

 

then again you spend 8-10 million on a striker which is alot considering our budget,  what choice you got?  have to play both right?

[The College Dropout]

His team is built on being very narrow and tight and all banks of four are very straight and well ordered. We could get away with it if we had steven taylor but we look a shambles defensively with Williamson and Simpson. he's become extremely scared of other teams counterring us since chelsea did in december but in fact since then we hvave done far worse and the hoof ball has increased (norwich, fulham, spurs). The stranget hign is I don't remember us playing quite this ugly last season.

 

it's a strange set up really. he wants everyone pressing and filling back in high up the pitch and quickly reorganising into very rigid lines. he has no idea how to utilise cabaye or ben arfa.

 

--full back--deep centre half--ball playing centre half--full back

 

--defensive wide man--box to box cm--stopper--defensive wide man--

 

------------------------deep forward----poacher--------------------

 

There's no room for flair because it won't allow the rigid side of our game to work. Cabaye's been adjusted to just be a constant runner and tbf he can do it because of his sheer stamina but he's wasted imo.

 

I'm not sure he's that tactically strong, he knows how to be a tough immobile unit that is hard to break through the middle and poor full backs are backed up by strong defensive wingers but in terms of possession play and movement he has no clue. He either just hopes Cabaye, Jonas, Ba (Hatem when he plays) already have a good enough footballing knowledge to do it without instruction or he genuinely believes the best method is to stop them penetrating us and hitting it towards Ba/player capable of magic. I really hope he has some new formation or plan lined up but I doubt it. My best hope is we manage to sneak 6th come the end of the season and he has pre season to attract some better technical players and rethinks his strategy- hopefully moulding a specific role for Ben Arfa.

 

This post needs more love. Good tactical insight.

 

 

Cabaye isn't really box to box though. He does a lot of running but is rarely close to any of the strikers.

 

Obertan's never a defensive winger either. I don't really think he has a game plan other than "be solid as f***" but it's too rigid. I'm not sure what he tells the lads tbh. Guthrie plays further forward than Cabaye but he has no issue with Yohan playing so deep.

 

Saylor is an aggressive defender and it's Colo who does the sweeping up when they play. There's not really a covering type system atm.

 

 

I'm pretty certain that's not Pardew's long term game plan. Earlier on i the season it seemed he wanted creativity to come out wide all the time. If he wanted creativity come from a central he would encourage Cabaye forward more.

 

The main problem problem Pardew has with regards to performances is that it's the worst we've seen from one of our "good" sides when in ascendancy in the last 15 years.

[Mick]

 

 

So is the thought that it's 'staggering' for a manager to be pleased for a fellow professional.

 

You'd think he'd come out and said "I'm glad we didn't win that you know!"

 

He might be better off concentrating on the performance of his own team rather than his feelings for other managers.

[Unbelievable]

"Not too disappointed" and "a marked improvement from Spurs".. Seriously Alan?

[JH]

 

 

So is the thought that it's 'staggering' for a manager to be pleased for a fellow professional.

 

You'd think he'd come out and said "I'm glad we didn't win that you know!"

 

He might be better off concentrating on the performance of his own team rather than his feelings for other managers.

 

Was he stood infront of the players saying "Hey, how about that Terry Connor ey?" like?

[Jordan]

Really pissed me off today. His stubbornness when the opposition change formation or mentality is unreal and his treatment of Ben Arfa has been dreadful.

[Mick]

 

Was he stood infront of the players saying "Hey, how about that Terry Connor ey?" like?

 

Yes, that's exactly what I was getting at.  To me it was just more of his usual bollocks in an attempt to take some of the heat away from his own inept performance.

[NG32]

Dont see much wrong with what he said in the post match interview. 

[Lotus]

As always after a disappointing result, emotions are running a bit high.

 

A few things stood out for me today that some of alluded to here as well.

 

The purpose of our midfield is as a shield to the back four. That is their overwhelming primary role.

 

Our forward play consists of giving it to Guti to run up the pitch a bit or one of the defenders to try a long ball.

 

 

The problem with our long ball game (and there is quite a lot of it to analyse tbf) is that it's nearly always pretty straight. Our forwards don't run the channels, we pump it  up there for them and if they win it they've pretty much got to deal with it on their own because our midfield is instructed to not venture too far forward and certainly never go beyond the forwards. I guess doing so leaves a gap in case we lose the ball.

 

It's quite easy tactics to read and i think we've seen as the season's gone on more and more even 'lesser' clubs can come up with a fairly effective game plan to stifle it.

 

I do think we are good if the ball goes loose in the box, Ba is an excellent opportunist and Cisse looks he may have that about him too.

 

Strange thing is, with the players we have in Colo, Cabaye, Ben Arfa, Ba and Cisse it's quite easy to imagine how we could pass the ball around with zip and purpose, pulling the oppo lines about and looking for gaps (Guti and Santon would also contribute well i think). Cabaye, further forward, Ba, dropping deep, Cisse looking for runs behind the CBs with Ben Arfa and Cabaye feeding him, Ba making a late run into the box if the ball goes wide. It would seem the natural way to play with team we have.

 

We seem to be trying to play a type of kick and rush football instead.

 

Our performances haven't had much to be excited about for a while and though we have picked some very lucky results, in the end, if you don't play well enough the points start getting away from you.

 

I actually think we'll play the same 11 (injuries permitting) against the Mackems but i've a feeling we won't be so lucky as we were today. MON sets his teams up in a similar mould to Pards but tbh, he's better at it.