Alan Pardew

[colinmk]

I'm well and truly on the other side of the fence tonight. I thought tonight really suited him - we absolutely had to kill the game stone dead in the first half and that's what we did.

 

Gameplan was to get to 80 minutes with a 1-0 lead and get another - that was the only way we could win the game tonight (I'm much more confident in us needing a goal than trying to sit on a lead - isn't everyone?), and we very nearly did that. If Ben Arfa keeps that shot down, if Marveaux isn't chopped down, if we show a bit more composure in and around their box in those last few minutes, we win that game.

 

Aye, I'm with you on this one chap. That's exactly how I saw it.

 

Aye. Me too.

[Keefaz]

Thought he did alright, tbh. If Ben Arfa had scored and we'd won 2-0, everyone'd be singing his praises. It's a fine line. Don't agree that we'd have been better off attacking from the off: Benfica would've bummed us.

[Incognito]

At home in front of 52000 passionate supporters, let fucking Benfica worry about us. Never mind lay off them for an hour. It is his cowardly and negative style that makes me want him to get the bullet.

 

 

would you have celebrated if it worked ?  did it come close to working?

 

Of course I would, but to restrict yourself to a third of the game to get in front doesn't make sense. It would if we were away but we were at home. The law of averages say we would have had more chance had we have been positive for 90 rather than 30.

[Dr Venkman]

I could understand some of the logic behind his decisions tonight, but (with the benefit of hindsight) we started playing too late and I would say... on the 'bottle it/go for it' spectrum... that performance was closer to bottling it. We could've won that 2-0.

 

If only we'd had the benefit of foresight.

[Dave]

Tactical options under Pardew:

 

1. Go all-out attack and concede goals.

2. Do not attack until we have no other option.

 

And people wonder why some say he's limited?

[Flip]

I really think some people really have an overinflated opinion on how good some of our players are. We started a game with a back four which included Simpson, Williamson and Hadiera and people expected Pardew to go for broke with only Cabaye as real protection?

 

Thought Anita looked dreadful today unfortunately. He's not penetrative enough with his passing to sit deep, nor is he great running with the ball and he seems to lose nearly every tackle he goes in for. Still have hopes that he'll get better mind. We missed Tiote today, even if he's been all over the place this season, at least when he goes in for a tackle he'll win the ball or take the man out.

 

See this post epitomises the Pardew lovers view. Your post is so contradictory that it makes me want to vomit to be honest. You want to defend him trying to contain Benfica while still playing to our strength which what you posted wasn't defending or containing.

 

Go take a walk and then re-post because that is absolutely dreadful. And as for Anita, he was actually having a decent game. 

[Keefaz]

Tactical options under Pardew:

 

1. Go all-out attack and concede goals.

2. Do not attack until we have no other option.

 

And people wonder why some say he's limited?

 

Well, aye, he is limited. We're talking about Alan Pardew here, not Arsene Wenger.

[Guest bimpy474]

Tactical options under Pardew:

 

1. Go all-out attack and concede goals.

2. Do not attack until we have no other option.

 

And people wonder why some say he's limited?

 

Aye, can't we just play a mix of the two, attacking with intent but sensible. Christ is it that hard to get ones head around.

[Interpolic]

I really think some people really have an overinflated opinion on how good some of our players are. We started a game with a back four which included Simpson, Williamson and Hadiera and people expected Pardew to go for broke with only Cabaye as real protection?

 

There it is again, "go for broke" when we defended for our lives for 40 minutes and didn't put up much of an attacking threat until 60-70.  Happy mediums.

[Smal]

I really think some people really have an overinflated opinion on how good some of our players are. We started a game with a back four which included Simpson, Williamson and Hadiera and people expected Pardew to go for broke with only Cabaye as real protection?

 

I don't think anyone is saying they wanted us to 'go for broke', just more of a persistent effort at winning the game 2-0 rather than waiting until 70 minutes when, ironically, we actually did 'go for broke'.

[oldtype]

Obviously from a fan's perspective, the correct tactic is always "play attacking, positive football for ninety minutes," because that's what we want to see. But sometimes it's not the best way to get a result.

 

There are matches, particularly in two-legged elimination ties, where you have to "craft" the win like Pardew did today. Honestly I'm surprised because I thought this level of sophistication was beyond him.

 

I'm going to bookend this by saying that I still think Pardew is pretty boring and would look to replace him if possible, just to pre-empt the instinctive abuse.

[Beren]

Think I'll give this thread a miss tonight. He's overachieved in Europe with that squad, as shit as he's been for us in the PL this year.

 

We squeezed past Atromitos to qualify.

 

If that Maritimo clogger had scored a fairly presentable chance in the last five minutes, we would have been out in the easiest group the tournament had.

 

We did not overachieve, you're just so used to us being shit that you think this is the best we can do.

[JH]

We simply left it too late.

 

We were relying upon an injury time goal winning it for us. That's insane tactics.

[Spudil]

Thought he did alright, tbh. If Ben Arfa had scored and we'd won 2-0, everyone'd be singing his praises. It's a fine line. Don't agree that we'd have been better off attacking from the off: Benfica would've bummed us.

 

I don't think it's fair to say so.

[Cajun]

I didn't 'EXPECT' us to beat them. I would have preferred us to try a bit harder to beat them.

 

If we went all out I think we would have been caught like we did at the end. Just based on how they play.

 

None of us like the ugly stuff but I think we played it pretty well tonight, we couldn't afford to spend 90 minutes throwing the kitchen sink at them, we kept them out (just) and put them under sustained pressure that saw us score one and go close on a few occasions.

 

I was dismissive of the comments pre-match, couldn't believe Shola came on so early but given how close we were to pulling off a very difficult result I really can't complain.

[Mole_Toonfan]

Think I'll give this thread a miss tonight. He's overachieved in Europe with that squad, as s*** as he's been for us in the PL this year.

 

We squeezed past Atromitos to qualify.

 

If that Maritimo clogger had scored a fairly presentable chance in the last five minutes, we would have been out in the easiest group the tournament had.

 

We did not overachieve, you're just so used to us being s*** that you think this is the best we can do.

 

We did tbf, majority of the footballing watching world had Anzhi as favourites against us.

[Dave]

We simply left it too late.

 

We were relying upon an injury time goal winning it for us. That's insane tactics.

 

 

Them looking rocky when we attacked them = we did the right thing not attacking them until much later in the match. Sorry, not for me.

[Interpolic]

Tactical options under Pardew:

 

1. Go all-out attack and concede goals.

2. Do not attack until we have no other option.

 

And people wonder why some say he's limited?

 

This, fucking hell! 

 

It's so black and white isn't it, people not on board with this plan that gave us a small window of opportunity to win the tie want us to play like ultra-attacking lunatics.

[Kanj]

Fuck it- Had he had a fully fit squad or even the likes of a fit Ben Arfa for 90 minutes we'd have won this. And perhaps a different result in Lisbon.

 

Let's get Sunday right AP.

[Flip]

Thought he did alright, tbh. If Ben Arfa had scored and we'd won 2-0, everyone'd be singing his praises. It's a fine line. Don't agree that we'd have been better off attacking from the off: Benfica would've bummed us.

 

What absolute bullshit. (second sentence)

[Skeletor]

Funny how 'try harder to win the game' translates as 'go all out gung ho' some how. We went 40 minutes without a shot when we needed to score 2 goals.

[Dr Venkman]

So unlucky tonight I thought - was handicapped by the 2 disastrous errors from the first leg and a long list of key injuries but almost masterminded the perfect game.

 

 

yep he did and still gets stick, haters crawling out the woodwork- disappeared when we got the goal the sad sacks.

 

Heeeeeeeere we goooooooooo LAST TWENTY MINUTES!!!!!

[Beren]

Think I'll give this thread a miss tonight. He's overachieved in Europe with that squad, as s*** as he's been for us in the PL this year.

 

We squeezed past Atromitos to qualify.

 

If that Maritimo clogger had scored a fairly presentable chance in the last five minutes, we would have been out in the easiest group the tournament had.

 

We did not overachieve, you're just so used to us being s*** that you think this is the best we can do.

 

We did tbf, majority of the footballing watching world had Anzhi as favourites against us.

 

Yes, because we're in a relegation scrap and we can't play attacking football.

[Flip]

f*** it- Had he had a fully fit squad or even the likes of a fit Ben Arfa for 90 minutes we'd have won this. And perhaps a different result in Lisbon.

 

Let's get Sunday right AP.

 

Love your optimism. But you know very well we would've gone out anyways

[Wullie]

At home in front of 52000 passionate supporters, let fucking Benfica worry about us. Never mind lay off them for an hour. It is his cowardly and negative style that makes me want him to get the bullet.

 

 

would you have celebrated if it worked ?  did it come close to working?

 

Of course I would, but to restrict yourself to a third of the game to get in front doesn't make sense. It would if we were away but we were at home. The law of averages say we would have had more chance had we have been positive for 90 rather than 30.

 

We needed Benfica to be winning the tie for as long as possible because if they'd gone through the gears and got a goal at any point, we're either dead in the water or into a very unwanted period of extra time - at best.

 

1-0 up after 80 minutes was a miles better scoreline than 2-0 up after 30 minutes imo. The worst possible scenario tonight was them scoring in the first half.