Alan Pardew

[AlanSkÃrare]

Have people heard that Pardew made every new signing sing a song in front of their team mates?  Thoughts?

 

Steven Taylor takes credit for it on .co.uk

[Happy Face]

This season to follow....

 

http://i45.tinypic.com/20i89ds.jpg

 

This season we're just outright losing more games....a third of them where we go behind initially and lose.

 

We've gone from taking the lead and winning in half our games to doing it in a quarter of them.

 

We have already lost 4 games from a winning position, just shy of a fifth.  That is already more game than last season when it happened in a tenth of games.

 

Adding in the draws, we've had 3 points in our grasp and come away with 1 or less 6 times.  Compared to a total of 4 times over 38 games last season.

 

If anything, I think last night showed a return to some of the reilience from last season which, if maintained, will see us continue to hold on to more leads.  A return to form for Krul is massive on that score, as is the continued absence of Williamson from the back line.

[Guest icemanblue]

Have people heard that Pardew made every new signing sing a song in front of their team mates?  Thoughts?

 

Steven Taylor takes credit for it on .co.uk

 

They do it at most clubs, I think.

[Taylor Swift]

We won a game away from home.

 

Wow, at the end of January! He's doing a great job!

 

Who would do better??.

 

When we have a fully fit squad starting next season IF results remain poor, he'll be gone. He was manager of the year last year, as voted by his peers, I'll take their judgement over some randoms off the internet.

 

Patience is not a noted virtue for football fans, the sort who would have had SAF out at Man U in his early time. I am prepared to give him time (especially given the lack of depth and injuries we've had to KEY players).

 

You mean his peers many of whom have bankrupted many clubs, buy players on obscene wages and the majority of whom don't have a clue about players outside of Britain? I'll take the collective wisdom of N-O over those fuckwits, thank you very much. We see our players every minute of every match. They see us play for two minutes a game. They have no clue about our players. That's why every new manager comes in and starts the same losers until they figure out what we figured out years ago. That's why it's frustrating when Pardew sends Shola on. It's like he's a new manager who's feeling out the squad. He's not. He should know that Shola is useless and keeping the ball. For fuck's sake, most of us figured this out ten god damned years ago.

[Toonpack]

We've played utterly s*** and won in must win games before and they've gained no confidence from it.

 

How can you get any confidence from being thoroughly outplayed for 45 minutes by a team of kids who've just been beaten over two legs by Bradford City and were recently beaten 4-0 at home by bloody Wigan. You can be pleased at dragging yourself over the line against Man United but not this Villa side.

 

I know a win was the most important thing, but we've heard it all before after West Brom, QPR etc, "now we can kick on" - we never do. Last night gives us nowt to go into Chelsea feeling particularly positive about,  it will just enhance the fear if we take the lead, but beating them 4-0 would have done us the world of good.

 

Utter Utter Utter Garbage

 

We held on after being under the cosh, having gifted them a goal - if Simpson had done what Debuchy did he'd be getting crucified on here, Krul actually made some saves for once. We won away from home, Cabaye and Sissoko were excellent until they tired.

 

We won after a team came back at us, previously a team scores and we fold, this time we didn't.

 

Laugahable !!, when we lose it's Pardew's fault, when we win it's despite Pardew.

 

WE WON A GAME, AWAY FROM HOME, NO LESS !!!

 

If winning 4-0 is your benchmark of acceptability, you may as well pack in and start watching basketball.

 

Confidence is an incremental thing and I'll quite happily take some scraped results whilst it builds.

 

Either you have as much comprehension of tactical changes as Pardew has or you never actually watched the second half.

 

Oh I'm sorry, I didn't realise you were a professional coach, which club do you work for ??

 

BTW - Yes we were poor second half, but we hung on, Debuchy doesn't have a brainfart and they would have fizzled out. Them scoring early combined with our lack of confidence meant we were on the back foot. Agree with the changes or not - we held on, and we won, ergo the substitutions worked.

[Taylor Swift]

The collective wisdom of N-O would have dropped Jonas fifteen games ago. You watch when he does it soon and we will play better. Should we applaud this move? Should we congratulate him on doing something most of us figured out ages ago? He's the one seeing them every day. He should know better than we do but evidently not because most of the things that he's done well were things that most of us said he should do way before he ever did it.

[Toonpack]

We won a game away from home.

 

Wow, at the end of January! He's doing a great job!

 

Who would do better??.

 

When we have a fully fit squad starting next season IF results remain poor, he'll be gone. He was manager of the year last year, as voted by his peers, I'll take their judgement over some randoms off the internet.

 

Patience is not a noted virtue for football fans, the sort who would have had SAF out at Man U in his early time. I am prepared to give him time (especially given the lack of depth and injuries we've had to KEY players).

 

You mean his peers many of whom have bankrupted many clubs, buy players on obscene wages and the majority of whom don't have a clue about players outside of Britain? I'll take the collective wisdom of N-O over those fuckwits, thank you very much. We see our players every minute of every match. They see us play for two minutes a game. They have no clue about our players. That's why every new manager comes in and starts the same losers until they figure out what we figured out years ago. That's why it's frustrating when Pardew sends Shola on. It's like he's a new manager who's feeling out the squad. He's not. He should know that Shola is useless and keeping the ball. For f***'s sake, most of us figured this out ten god damned years ago.

 

So the combined view of some fans on the internet is of more value than the views of people who work (and get well paid) within the profession, aye OK. 

 

It's fine to have an opinion but to even think that opinion holds any water against professional opinion (in any walk of life) is beyond crass.

 

BTW our management/coaching team see them for every minute they kick a ball or run about, every week, know if they're 100% or not etc etc.

 

This supposedly garbage team of ours (or manager) gave Man U the best game I can recall down there for 90 minutes, we were excellent against Arsenal for 70 minutes until we ran out of gas.

 

The answer is not one extreme or the other, it's somewhere in the middle.

 

[TRon]

We've played utterly s*** and won in must win games before and they've gained no confidence from it.

 

How can you get any confidence from being thoroughly outplayed for 45 minutes by a team of kids who've just been beaten over two legs by Bradford City and were recently beaten 4-0 at home by bloody Wigan. You can be pleased at dragging yourself over the line against Man United but not this Villa side.

 

I know a win was the most important thing, but we've heard it all before after West Brom, QPR etc, "now we can kick on" - we never do. Last night gives us nowt to go into Chelsea feeling particularly positive about,  it will just enhance the fear if we take the lead, but beating them 4-0 would have done us the world of good.

 

Utter Utter Utter Garbage

 

We held on after being under the cosh, having gifted them a goal - if Simpson had done what Debuchy did he'd be getting crucified on here, Krul actually made some saves for once. We won away from home, Cabaye and Sissoko were excellent until they tired.

 

We won after a team came back at us, previously a team scores and we fold, this time we didn't.

 

Laugahable !!, when we lose it's Pardew's fault, when we win it's despite Pardew.

 

WE WON A GAME, AWAY FROM HOME, NO LESS !!!

 

If winning 4-0 is your benchmark of acceptability, you may as well pack in and start watching basketball.

 

Confidence is an incremental thing and I'll quite happily take some scraped results whilst it builds.

 

Either you have as much comprehension of tactical changes as Pardew has or you never actually watched the second half.

 

Oh I'm sorry, I didn't realise you were a professional coach, which club do you work for ??

 

BTW - Yes we were poor second half, but we hung on, Debuchy doesn't have a brainfart and they would have fizzled out. Them scoring early combined with our lack of confidence meant we were on the back foot. Agree with the changes or not - we held on, and we won, ergo the substitutions worked.

 

We held on because the keeper saved our bacon on quite a few occasions, not because the substitutions worked.

[Happy Face]

The collective wisdom of N-O would have dropped Jonas fifteen games ago. You watch when he does it soon and we will play better. Should we applaud this move? Should we congratulate him on doing something most of us figured out ages ago? He's the one seeing them every day. He should know better than we do but evidently not because most of the things that he's done well were things that most of us said he should do way before he ever did it.

 

Pardew has been forced to do without Gutierrez a few times in the last 15 games. 

 

The record is....

 

With

P11 W3 D2 L6*

 

Without

P4 W0 D0 L4

 

I don't think the improved performance without Gutierrez argument holds any water whatsoever....unlike the man himself who sloshes about buckets of the stuff.

 

Pardew does know better than most on here.  He knows Gutierrez does a lot of the teams leg work, which few fans give him credit for.

 

*He only played 25 minutes of the loss to West Ham, a game we were not losing when he went off.

[Toonpack]

The collective wisdom of N-O would have dropped Jonas fifteen games ago. You watch when he does it soon and we will play better. Should we applaud this move? Should we congratulate him on doing something most of us figured out ages ago? He's the one seeing them every day. He should know better than we do but evidently not because most of the things that he's done well were things that most of us said he should do way before he ever did it.

 

Jonas wouldn't have played last night if Marveaux was fit.

 

A return to "form" here on in with the dropping of Jonas now, as the better players return to the team, will have a hell of a lot more to do with the latter than the former.

 

 

[sugoinufc]

the last to games after completely dominating first half we have hardly had a shot on/off target in the second half.

 

This is against reading and villa.

 

Lost for words...

[Stuy_O]

We've played utterly s*** and won in must win games before and they've gained no confidence from it.

 

How can you get any confidence from being thoroughly outplayed for 45 minutes by a team of kids who've just been beaten over two legs by Bradford City and were recently beaten 4-0 at home by bloody Wigan. You can be pleased at dragging yourself over the line against Man United but not this Villa side.

 

I know a win was the most important thing, but we've heard it all before after West Brom, QPR etc, "now we can kick on" - we never do. Last night gives us nowt to go into Chelsea feeling particularly positive about, it will just enhance the fear if we take the lead, but beating them 4-0 would have done us the world of good.

 

Howay man, do you honestly think Pardew will have told his players to retreat back into their half for the entire 2nd half, or do you think he would have asked for more of the same? The balance in football matches can swing very easily given the situation.

 

Villa made a couple of changes, and we're gifted a way back in the game after a matter of minutes, absolutely nothing to do with our managers half time team talk or tactics. Villa we're going to show a reaction, it's wether they could score early enough.

 

Their's two choices here. You can sit there and moan that we didn't win 0-4 and twist on about our manager as he apparently instructed Debuchy to concede a penalty and therefore give Villa real hope, or you can take a lot of pride that we fought like mad for the points, the fans AND the manager, and dare I say it, signs we will climb the league.

 

We all would have loved to have racked up a load of goals, but after 49 minutes i'm afraid that went out the window. When a side that has won 3 out of 16 concedes so early in the 2nd period, it became an entirely different test for us, which they passed.

 

 

[TRon]

The collective wisdom of N-O would have dropped Jonas fifteen games ago. You watch when he does it soon and we will play better. Should we applaud this move? Should we congratulate him on doing something most of us figured out ages ago? He's the one seeing them every day. He should know better than we do but evidently not because most of the things that he's done well were things that most of us said he should do way before he ever did it.

 

Pardew has been forced to do without Gutierrez a few times in the last 15 games. 

 

The record is....

 

With

P11 W3 D2 L6*

 

Without

P4 W0 D0 L4

 

I don't think the improved performance without Gutierrez argument holds any water whatsoever....unlike the man himself who sloshes about buckets of the stuff.

 

Pardew does know better than most on here.  He knows Gutierrez does a lot of the teams leg work, which few fans give him credit for.

 

*He only played 25 minutes of the loss to West Ham, a game we were not losing when he went off.

 

On the contrary, that's one of the attributes Jonas gets loads of credit for on here, not sure how often you read these boards. Dave alluded to this earlier when he was wondering why when Agbonlahor came on, why Jonas wasn't instructed to switch wings to stifle his threat. Or at least someone should have been given that job, rather than bringing on a big target man and shunting the centre forward onto the right wing.

[Toonpack]

We've played utterly s*** and won in must win games before and they've gained no confidence from it.

 

How can you get any confidence from being thoroughly outplayed for 45 minutes by a team of kids who've just been beaten over two legs by Bradford City and were recently beaten 4-0 at home by bloody Wigan. You can be pleased at dragging yourself over the line against Man United but not this Villa side.

 

I know a win was the most important thing, but we've heard it all before after West Brom, QPR etc, "now we can kick on" - we never do. Last night gives us nowt to go into Chelsea feeling particularly positive about,  it will just enhance the fear if we take the lead, but beating them 4-0 would have done us the world of good.

 

Utter Utter Utter Garbage

 

We held on after being under the cosh, having gifted them a goal - if Simpson had done what Debuchy did he'd be getting crucified on here, Krul actually made some saves for once. We won away from home, Cabaye and Sissoko were excellent until they tired.

 

We won after a team came back at us, previously a team scores and we fold, this time we didn't.

 

Laugahable !!, when we lose it's Pardew's fault, when we win it's despite Pardew.

 

WE WON A GAME, AWAY FROM HOME, NO LESS !!!

 

If winning 4-0 is your benchmark of acceptability, you may as well pack in and start watching basketball.

 

Confidence is an incremental thing and I'll quite happily take some scraped results whilst it builds.

 

Either you have as much comprehension of tactical changes as Pardew has or you never actually watched the second half.

 

Oh I'm sorry, I didn't realise you were a professional coach, which club do you work for ??

 

BTW - Yes we were poor second half, but we hung on, Debuchy doesn't have a brainfart and they would have fizzled out. Them scoring early combined with our lack of confidence meant we were on the back foot. Agree with the changes or not - we held on, and we won, ergo the substitutions worked.

 

We held on because the keeper saved our bacon on quite a few occasions, not because the substitutions worked.

 

A goalkeeper making saves (i.e. doing his job), helps team win, whatever next.

 

It's about time he did tbh.

 

(of course the Reading keeper keeping it even close first half is not why we lost that game, it's Pardew).

 

 

[Toonpack]

We've played utterly s*** and won in must win games before and they've gained no confidence from it.

 

How can you get any confidence from being thoroughly outplayed for 45 minutes by a team of kids who've just been beaten over two legs by Bradford City and were recently beaten 4-0 at home by bloody Wigan. You can be pleased at dragging yourself over the line against Man United but not this Villa side.

 

I know a win was the most important thing, but we've heard it all before after West Brom, QPR etc, "now we can kick on" - we never do. Last night gives us nowt to go into Chelsea feeling particularly positive about, it will just enhance the fear if we take the lead, but beating them 4-0 would have done us the world of good.

 

Howay man, do you honestly think Pardew will have told his players to retreat back into their half for the entire 2nd half, or do you think he would have asked for more of the same? The balance in football matches can swing very easily given the situation.

 

Villa made a couple of changes, and we're gifted a way back in the game after a manner of minutes, absolutely nothing to do with our managers half time team talk or tactics. Villa we're going to show a reaction, it's wether they could score early enough.

 

Their's two choices here. You can sit there and moan that we didn't win 0-4 and twist on about our manager as he apparently instructed Debuchy to concede a penalty and therefore give Villa real hope, or you can take a lot of pride that we fought like mad for the points, the fans AND the manager, and dare I say it, signs we will climb the league.

 

We all would have loved to have racked up a load of goals, but after 49 minutes i'm afraid that went out the window. When a side that has won 3 out of 16 concedes so early in the 2nd period, it became an entirely different test for us, which they passed.

 

 

 

Amen

[Toonpack]

The collective wisdom of N-O would have dropped Jonas fifteen games ago. You watch when he does it soon and we will play better. Should we applaud this move? Should we congratulate him on doing something most of us figured out ages ago? He's the one seeing them every day. He should know better than we do but evidently not because most of the things that he's done well were things that most of us said he should do way before he ever did it.

 

Pardew has been forced to do without Gutierrez a few times in the last 15 games. 

 

The record is....

 

With

P11 W3 D2 L6*

 

Without

P4 W0 D0 L4

 

I don't think the improved performance without Gutierrez argument holds any water whatsoever....unlike the man himself who sloshes about buckets of the stuff.

 

Pardew does know better than most on here.  He knows Gutierrez does a lot of the teams leg work, which few fans give him credit for.

 

*He only played 25 minutes of the loss to West Ham, a game we were not losing when he went off.

 

On the contrary, that's one of the attributes Jonas gets loads of credit for on here, not sure how often you read these boards. Dave alluded to this earlier when he was wondering why when Agbonlahor came on, why Jonas wasn't instructed to switch wings to stifle his threat. Or at least someone should have been given that job, rather than bringing on a big target man and shunting the centre forward onto the right wing.

 

Maybe because Santon's a liability without help

[Wullie]

I don't need an Oscar to know that some cunt can't act.

[TRon]

We've played utterly s*** and won in must win games before and they've gained no confidence from it.

 

How can you get any confidence from being thoroughly outplayed for 45 minutes by a team of kids who've just been beaten over two legs by Bradford City and were recently beaten 4-0 at home by bloody Wigan. You can be pleased at dragging yourself over the line against Man United but not this Villa side.

 

I know a win was the most important thing, but we've heard it all before after West Brom, QPR etc, "now we can kick on" - we never do. Last night gives us nowt to go into Chelsea feeling particularly positive about,  it will just enhance the fear if we take the lead, but beating them 4-0 would have done us the world of good.

 

Utter Utter Utter Garbage

 

We held on after being under the cosh, having gifted them a goal - if Simpson had done what Debuchy did he'd be getting crucified on here, Krul actually made some saves for once. We won away from home, Cabaye and Sissoko were excellent until they tired.

 

We won after a team came back at us, previously a team scores and we fold, this time we didn't.

 

Laugahable !!, when we lose it's Pardew's fault, when we win it's despite Pardew.

 

WE WON A GAME, AWAY FROM HOME, NO LESS !!!

 

If winning 4-0 is your benchmark of acceptability, you may as well pack in and start watching basketball.

 

Confidence is an incremental thing and I'll quite happily take some scraped results whilst it builds.

 

Either you have as much comprehension of tactical changes as Pardew has or you never actually watched the second half.

 

Oh I'm sorry, I didn't realise you were a professional coach, which club do you work for ??

 

BTW - Yes we were poor second half, but we hung on, Debuchy doesn't have a brainfart and they would have fizzled out. Them scoring early combined with our lack of confidence meant we were on the back foot. Agree with the changes or not - we held on, and we won, ergo the substitutions worked.

 

We held on because the keeper saved our bacon on quite a few occasions, not because the substitutions worked.

 

A goalkeeper making saves (i.e. doing his job), helps team win, whatever next.

 

It's about time he did tbh.

 

(of course the Reading keeper keeping it even close first half is not why we lost that game, it's Pardew).

 

 

 

All three sentences are not worth a response tbh.

[Stuy_O]

I'm totally aware btw that his changes remain baffling, and I was highly critical of him after other games.

 

Just feel last night he got the maximum out of his players which in turn has us 3 points. Not angry with him as we didn't notch up a drubbing.

[Guest icemanblue]

We've played utterly s*** and won in must win games before and they've gained no confidence from it.

 

How can you get any confidence from being thoroughly outplayed for 45 minutes by a team of kids who've just been beaten over two legs by Bradford City and were recently beaten 4-0 at home by bloody Wigan. You can be pleased at dragging yourself over the line against Man United but not this Villa side.

 

I know a win was the most important thing, but we've heard it all before after West Brom, QPR etc, "now we can kick on" - we never do. Last night gives us nowt to go into Chelsea feeling particularly positive about, it will just enhance the fear if we take the lead, but beating them 4-0 would have done us the world of good.

 

Howay man, do you honestly think Pardew will have told his players to retreat back into their half for the entire 2nd half, or do you think he would have asked for more of the same? The balance in football matches can swing very easily given the situation.

 

Villa made a couple of changes, and we're gifted a way back in the game after a manner of minutes, absolutely nothing to do with our managers half time team talk or tactics. Villa we're going to show a reaction, it's wether they could score early enough.

 

Their's two choices here. You can sit there and moan that we didn't win 0-4 and twist on about our manager as he apparently instructed Debuchy to concede a penalty and therefore give Villa real hope, or you can take a lot of pride that we fought like mad for the points, the fans AND the manager, and dare I say it, signs we will climb the league.

 

We all would have loved to have racked up a load of goals, but after 49 minutes i'm afraid that went out the window. When a side that has won 3 out of 16 concedes so early in the 2nd period, it became an entirely different test for us, which they passed.

 

 

 

Well said.

[TRon]

The collective wisdom of N-O would have dropped Jonas fifteen games ago. You watch when he does it soon and we will play better. Should we applaud this move? Should we congratulate him on doing something most of us figured out ages ago? He's the one seeing them every day. He should know better than we do but evidently not because most of the things that he's done well were things that most of us said he should do way before he ever did it.

 

Pardew has been forced to do without Gutierrez a few times in the last 15 games. 

 

The record is....

 

With

P11 W3 D2 L6*

 

Without

P4 W0 D0 L4

 

I don't think the improved performance without Gutierrez argument holds any water whatsoever....unlike the man himself who sloshes about buckets of the stuff.

 

Pardew does know better than most on here.  He knows Gutierrez does a lot of the teams leg work, which few fans give him credit for.

 

*He only played 25 minutes of the loss to West Ham, a game we were not losing when he went off.

 

On the contrary, that's one of the attributes Jonas gets loads of credit for on here, not sure how often you read these boards. Dave alluded to this earlier when he was wondering why when Agbonlahor came on, why Jonas wasn't instructed to switch wings to stifle his threat. Or at least someone should have been given that job, rather than bringing on a big target man and shunting the centre forward onto the right wing.

 

Maybe because Santon's a liability without help

 

Fine, but how was bringing on Shola going to stop Agbonlahor running at Debuchy on the left wing?

[Wullie]

Pardew absolutely does tell the players to retreat and defend the lead. That is obvious from watching his team for two years. This idea that it keeps happening out of his control is laughable.

[stozo]

It's difficult to try and retain a balanced view when we have looked dreadful at some points this season. But we also looked dreadful at certain points last season, at least as bad as this season. However when you're in the top 6 and scraping wins, with the odd excellent performance (Man Utd, Liverpool etc.) then people tend to worry about it less.

 

So far this season we have had the Euro games to contend with, the terrible summer transfer window, injuries to key players (Cabaye, Ben Arfa, Taylor), the Ba situation to deal with (and by that I mean accommodating his wishes at the expense of Cisse in the hope he would re-sign in the summer), the recent Colocinni situation (which I think has affected his form a little over the season), and a serious drop in form by some squad players who managed to do a competent job last year even though they are not fan favourites (Williamson, Shola, Jonas).

 

Is that bad management, or is that something outside of Pardew's control? We can't just ignore it and say it has no affect, it must do.

 

Has Pardew become a bad manager over the summer? Has he been "found out"? I doubt it, and to suggest that he has also suggests that last season he had an element of tactical genius which other managers couldn't work out, but now they have. Hardly likely is it?

 

You might say he was lucky last year, that the team performed well in spite of Pardew. Seems a bit unfair, to suggest that if we do well then its the players dragging  us along despite Pardew, and if we do badly its due to Pardew and not the players.

 

The most likely answer is probably the lease interesting - Pardew is not a terrible manager and he is not the best manager in the league. We overperformed last year, and the joy of finishing 5th tends to erase the memory of some dreadful performances, and some lucky scraped wins. How many points did Ryan Taylor win us? Move forward a season, throw in a load of Euro games, and squad depth becomes a hell of a lot more important. Add to that a drop in form of the sorts of players who make up the squad depth, then you can see how it can start to affect performances. It would take a top top manager to take that scenario and turn it into a season the fans would be pleased with, and Pardew is not one of those managers. However, very few of those managers exist, and those that do are not coming to Newcastle in the near future.

 

Michael Laudrup is the current hot name in management. How do you think he will do if he is still at Swansea next year, they are likely to be in Europe, and lets just assume they have the same lack of strengthening we had this year, and the same issues to deal with. I've seen nothing to suggest that he would cope any better than Pardew, and I would say the same about most managers in this league, perhaps Moyes and Ferguson aside.

 

When you're pissed off with the manager it is always easy to point to specific perceived tactical errors that do not work out. Sending Shola on last night and taking Perch off looked like a bad decision in hindsight. However with Shola on a good day (as was the case at some points last season) it sometimes worked well, and he defends corners well and if he holds the ball up properly it takes pressure off the midfield and defence. However, he didn't do that job well last night, so it will go down as a bad decision.

 

Trying to give a balanced view probably comes across as relatively Pro-Pardew, which I'm not. I just think that unless you bag a really top drawer manager then the best you can hope for is a manager who is reasonably competent and that the players want to play for, and Pardew would fit that bill.

This post should be made into its own thread and stuck at the top of the forum.

 

[Guest neesy111]

I don't need an Oscar to know that some cunt can't act.

 

[merlin]

Pardew's talk about control the midfield and you control the game. Well you don't do that by handing the opposition the midfield on a plate as soon as see you are under pressure.

 

He talks a fantastic game, which is why i suspect the player like him, but f*** me on the pitch it's a different matter. As soon as a change is needed, his limited ability comes to the fore. His changes are clueless and more to the point our supporters are seeing it too. The bloke worries the f*** out of me, we have a great squad but General Custard in charge of them.

 

Basically this - we were lucky to win this match, Krul saving our bacon in the second half with at least 3 great saves....all caused by handing the initiative to Villa, who, thanks to Lambert's HT reorganization, really put us under the screw.

They went for it with 3, sometimes 4 up front and with Gutierrez having a nightmare second half, our m/f couldn't cope at times. Naturally, we reverted to hoofing the ball forward once Shola came on, and needless to say, he lost it more times than not.This is Pardew's favoured tactic.

 

Pardew had millions of pounds worth of talent in the side and still managed to make us look worse than Villa in the second half...their side cost a fraction of ours.

 

We have some great players but we are never going to see the best of them under this man...some may disagree, but that's my opinion.

do you not think sissoko and cabaye had crap second halves ?

Yes - but to try to use that as an excuse for Pardew is ridiculous.

Sissoko will take a few games to get up to the speed of the PL game and Cabaye is still a bit short of proper fitness - do you not think that they both did enough to win us the game in the 1st half and then the manager did his best to muck it up with the usual subs and hoofing balls up to Ameobi ?

 

And what about Jonas' hopeless contribution in the second half ? No wonder Cabaye and Sissoko were finding it tough.....