Alan Pardew

[littlelunchbox]

He speaks of grinding out results but the two in CM and two strikers doesn't lend itself to that very well. We need to flood the midfield but he seems so reluctant to do that.

 

its baffling that he's so tunnel vision in 4-4-2.

 

the line-up vs southampton on paper was  exactly a 'grinding-out-results' line-up,

 

you got that flat back four and a flat four midfield infront to protect,  two defensive midfielders protecting the two centrebacks,  two industrial widemen in Jonas and Fergie protecting the fullbacks.

 

yet.... we looked anything but solid.  we were opened at will,  thats disturbing considering there arent too many players in that line i would call shrinking violets or big time charlies.

 

That tells you something that there is something fundamentally wrong in communication between the players and the manager/coaching team. 

 

at time the players didnt know what they were doing, or they were simply ignoring the instructions of the manager, thats how it looked to me, i believe the players were ignoring the instructions of the manager.  watch the game and you will see the players disregarded the shape of what pardew likes to cement in his team,  the 4-4-2,  throughout the match you can see it looked like 2-6-2  when the players got faustrated and decided to abandon the rigid shape,  fullbacks pushed forward and the wingers pushed in ,  we saw many times jonas and fergie running into the middle of the park simply because they went looking for the ball.  thats another reason why i think fergie was subbed because he was not keeping the pardew turgid shape of staying outwide. 

 

to sum up what the most disturbing thing about the line-up, the flat two banks of fours,  that was the most defensive line-up we put out for a long long time,  and Pardew put that out against the team in southampton which had the worst defensive record in the whole league sitting in the relegation zone,.

 

yep ,,, you could say at least he swallowed his pride and gave the opposition the respect , and then there's the complete lack of optimism, ambition, foresight to go forward with his own team.  He practically set his team up to go there for a draw and ended up getting battered, the scoreline flattered him really.

[Guest bimpy474]

We need to control the midfield you see, that's paramount.

 

And that is exactly what he reckons wins games, he then proceeds to completely go against that with his formation and long ball tactics.

 

The blokes a fucking idiot.

[steve_69]

We need to control the midfield you see, that's paramount.

 

And that is exactly what he reckons wins games, he then proceeds to completely go against that with his formation and long ball tactics.

 

The blokes a f***ing idiot.

 

He is like

[Dr Venkman]

We need to control the midfield you see, that's paramount.

 

And that is exactly what he reckons wins games, he then proceeds to completely go against that with his formation and long ball tactics.

 

The blokes a fucking idiot.

 

He's certainly contradicting himself in this instance.

[Guest Howaythetoon]

The worrying thing for me is that Pardew has always put a lot of faith in the transitional phase of play and now seems to have built an entire pattern of play based on this. I say worrying because transitional play is just a concept, just one of thousands of elements to a game, one that Mourinho most notably helped bring to fame as a concept a few years back while Chelsea manager. Mourinho being somewhat of a hero to Pardew who has numerous books about him and his methods on his shelves along with books on Fergie, Clough et al.

 

Transitional play is basically what happens or doesn't when the opposition has the ball and when you have the ball (or not). Mourinho believed his team or players could force the opposition into giving up the ball quite easily by pressing play high up and all over the park (basically cutting off all outlets and suffocating the opposition) and when his team won the ball back, they would "recycle" the ball quickly so as to take advantage of the opposition being out of their shape and off the ball. Kind of like a sophisticated modern counter attacking side.

 

He used this to great effect but only because he had someone like Drogba who could hold onto the ball and bring others into it, Lampard who could bomb on from central and in Robben and Duff two very quick wide men capable of also coming infield, players who could turn one pass into a direct move towards goal. That and a sitter in Makalele to protect, to nick the ball and recycle it quickly, i.e. the transitional play player. Basically he had the right players to make that aspect of the game work to his advantage. Anyone whoever watched Chelsea under him though or who took an interest in his tactics would have known that was just one tactic or element to their game.

 

Off the ball we try to press play and high up, while on the ball we try to recycle it quickly and mainly forwards. This is transitional play or supposedly. Only we are f***ing things up and don't really have the players to adopt this element of the game to any great effect. We would be better off pressing and winning the ball back as we do try and then keeping the ball a bit and looking to work the opposition through the middle or wide with Jonas or Ben Arfa, allowing Cabaye for example to hover just outside the box for an option infield to strike on goal or even get into the box. The front two in Cisse and Ba do not work however, in that kind of play. Not as a two anyway.

[Guest bimpy474]

We need to control the midfield you see, that's paramount.

 

And that is exactly what he reckons wins games, he then proceeds to completely go against that with his formation and long ball tactics.

 

The blokes a fucking idiot.

 

He's certainly contradicting himself in this instance.

 

Aye, on lots of things. Which is why i'm worried, if he believes what he says and thinks it is being applied on the pitch, he is mental in the head.

[NG32]

Fuck loard im not looking forward to stoke.

[Ronaldo]

To be fair, even when we keep the ball down I've never seen us 'control' a game under Pardew.

[Beren]

To be fair, even when we keep the ball down I've never seen us 'control' a game under Pardew.

 

Aston Villa away, last season?

[ScottishMagpie]

you think with the little crisis we are falling in, Pardew is still going to persist in starting Ba and Cisse up top???

 

because it will take a crisis for him to realize. 

 

before the game at southampton , every f***ing one of us knew that, if Cisse is fit he's going to be upfront with Ba and it won't work. 

 

 

 

I think the ba/cisse thing is crucial if we're going to get even a point on Weds.  Since both are two of his 'big' players and they are fit then they'll both start up top for us.  GRRRR!!!!

 

(warning! rant ahead:) When the fuck have we even seen once, just one time!, that the pair of them compliment each other or just basically work together.  Heck, we don't even see them talking to each other on the pitch.  What the hell does he do with them in training, surely the whole point of training would be getting them working together as a partnership.  Does he just stand their and admire their individual brilliance at 'banging them in' but does hee-haw else?!!

 

Anyhow, both will start on Weds, probably until we're 2-0 down and it's around the 60 minute mark and Pards will have ? ready to come on place of Cisse just as they score their third then we'll see a change and a defensive substitution made so we can really 'batten down the hatches'.

 

 

[Lotus]

Rooney, who is a far better player, gets put on the left of a front 3 . Ba can't be told to though or he gets upset. Something wrong here.

[AyeDubbleYoo]

Rooney, who is a far better player, gets put on the left of a front 3 . Ba can't be told to though or he gets upset. Something wrong here.

 

I can't believe that the reason is to keep Ba happy, I've never believed that. I just think Pardew prefers a more rigid system.

[Guest neesy111]

Rooney, who is a far better player, gets put on the left of a front 3 . Ba can't be told to though or he gets upset. Something wrong here.

 

I can't believe that the reason is to keep Ba happy, I've never believed that. I just think Pardew prefers a more rigid system.

 

Bit of both imo, I don't trust the form of cisse to play the 433 with Ba on the left and Cisse upfront.  What I do want is the 433 though so that we can play 3 CM's as we are getting killed in midfield time and again, so that would need to have Ba upfront with HBA on one wing and it between Marveaux/Ferguson/Obertan for the other wing.

[AyeDubbleYoo]

Rooney, who is a far better player, gets put on the left of a front 3 . Ba can't be told to though or he gets upset. Something wrong here.

 

I can't believe that the reason is to keep Ba happy, I've never believed that. I just think Pardew prefers a more rigid system.

 

Bit of both imo, I don't trust the form of cisse to play the 433 with Ba on the left and Cisse upfront.  What I do want is the 433 though so that we can play 3 CM's as we are getting killed in midfield time and again.

 

Probably. I don't think Ba is 'ideal' for the wide position, but all things considered it's definitely the best option for the team.

[Lotus]

Rooney, who is a far better player, gets put on the left of a front 3 . Ba can't be told to though or he gets upset. Something wrong here.

 

I can't believe that the reason is to keep Ba happy, I've never believed that. I just think Pardew prefers a more rigid system.

 

Bit of both imo, I don't trust the form of cisse to play the 433 with Ba on the left and Cisse upfront.  What I do want is the 433 though so that we can play 3 CM's as we are getting killed in midfield time and again.

 

Probably. I don't think Ba is 'ideal' for the wide position, but all things considered it's definitely the best option for the team.

 

Why isn't he being played there then?

[AyeDubbleYoo]

Rooney, who is a far better player, gets put on the left of a front 3 . Ba can't be told to though or he gets upset. Something wrong here.

 

I can't believe that the reason is to keep Ba happy, I've never believed that. I just think Pardew prefers a more rigid system.

 

Bit of both imo, I don't trust the form of cisse to play the 433 with Ba on the left and Cisse upfront.  What I do want is the 433 though so that we can play 3 CM's as we are getting killed in midfield time and again.

 

Probably. I don't think Ba is 'ideal' for the wide position, but all things considered it's definitely the best option for the team.

 

Why isn't he being played there then?

 

Pardew doesn't agree?

[Lotus]

Rooney, who is a far better player, gets put on the left of a front 3 . Ba can't be told to though or he gets upset. Something wrong here.

 

I can't believe that the reason is to keep Ba happy, I've never believed that. I just think Pardew prefers a more rigid system.

 

Bit of both imo, I don't trust the form of cisse to play the 433 with Ba on the left and Cisse upfront.  What I do want is the 433 though so that we can play 3 CM's as we are getting killed in midfield time and again.

 

Probably. I don't think Ba is 'ideal' for the wide position, but all things considered it's definitely the best option for the team.

 

Why isn't he being played there then?

 

Pardew doesn't agree?

 

Clearly, he has his reasons.

[littlelunchbox]

what really confuses me about Pardew's brand of football, direct long ball style is

 

You would think with all the long balls they practice in training that would at least some of it might shine through during set pieces?

 

Why does it not?  It;'s weird . 

 

Then i think about it???  We can't actually play any decent long balls most of the time can we?  it mostly ends straight back to the opposition and rinse repeat.  That explains it then.

 

Just awful.

[themanupstairs]

what really confuses me about Pardew's brand of football, direct long ball style is

 

You would think with all the long balls they practice in training that would at least some of it might shine through during set pieces?

 

Why does it not?  It;'s weird . 

 

Then i think about it???  We can't actually play any decent long balls most of the time can we?  it mostly ends straight back to the opposition and rinse repeat.  That explains it then.

 

Just awful.

 

I find it quite an unbelievable thought that the first team practices "long ball" in training. If they did, we would see an actual pattern of play, and in amongst all the shitness, one or two plays will eventually create chances for us. But even that doesn't happen.

 

I'm pretty sure we don't practice long ball, and that we actually aim to play it along the ground in training. We simply freeze when we're out on the pitch, and resort to the good old hoof. You can see Ba, Cisse et al during the game asking for the ball to be played to their feet. All the time.

[steve_69]

what really confuses me about Pardew's brand of football, direct long ball style is

 

You would think with all the long balls they practice in training that would at least some of it might shine through during set pieces?

 

Why does it not?  It;'s weird . 

 

Then i think about it???  We can't actually play any decent long balls most of the time can we?  it mostly ends straight back to the opposition and rinse repeat.  That explains it then.

 

Just awful.

 

I find it quite an unbelievable thought that the first team practices "long ball" in training. If they did, we would see an actual pattern of play, and in amongst all the shitness, one or two plays will eventually create chances for us. But even that doesn't happen.

 

I'm pretty sure we don't practice long ball, and that we actually aim to play it along the ground in training. We simply freeze when we're out on the pitch, and resort to the good old hoof. You can see Ba, Cisse et al during the game asking for the ball to be played to their feet. All the time.

 

If that is the case then Pardew needs to address the route cause of the problem - lack of movement.  We are totally static a lot of the time.  Telling them to move isn't enough - it's his fucking system so he needs to show them where and how to move within it, in order to find space.

 

 

[littlelunchbox]

what really confuses me about Pardew's brand of football, direct long ball style is

 

You would think with all the long balls they practice in training that would at least some of it might shine through during set pieces?

 

Why does it not?  It;'s weird . 

 

Then i think about it???  We can't actually play any decent long balls most of the time can we?  it mostly ends straight back to the opposition and rinse repeat.  That explains it then.

 

Just awful.

 

I find it quite an unbelievable thought that the first team practices "long ball" in training. If they did, we would see an actual pattern of play, and in amongst all the shitness, one or two plays will eventually create chances for us. But even that doesn't happen.

 

I'm pretty sure we don't practice long ball, and that we actually aim to play it along the ground in training. We simply freeze when we're out on the pitch, and resort to the good old hoof. You can see Ba, Cisse et al during the game asking for the ball to be played to their feet. All the time.

 

 

what? really? hahaha what in the hell gave you that idea, you must be as mad as Pardew.

 

thats probably what Pardew sees in his imaginary world.

[themanupstairs]

what really confuses me about Pardew's brand of football, direct long ball style is

 

You would think with all the long balls they practice in training that would at least some of it might shine through during set pieces?

 

Why does it not?  It;'s weird . 

 

Then i think about it???  We can't actually play any decent long balls most of the time can we?  it mostly ends straight back to the opposition and rinse repeat.  That explains it then.

 

Just awful.

 

I find it quite an unbelievable thought that the first team practices "long ball" in training. If they did, we would see an actual pattern of play, and in amongst all the shitness, one or two plays will eventually create chances for us. But even that doesn't happen.

 

I'm pretty sure we don't practice long ball, and that we actually aim to play it along the ground in training. We simply freeze when we're out on the pitch, and resort to the good old hoof. You can see Ba, Cisse et al during the game asking for the ball to be played to their feet. All the time.

 

If that is the case then Pardew needs to address the route cause of the problem - lack of movement.  We are totally static a lot of the time.  Telling them to move isn't enough - it's his f***ing system so he needs to show them where and how to move within it, in order to find space.

 

Yes and this is why I wonder how much training we actually do. We really look unprepared when we take to the pitch. Fitness has also been an issue. When you consider the players have to work on fitness, tactics, set pieces, patterns of play, study the opposition, bonding sessions, as well as get their rest, you wonder how well organized our backroom is. Throw in all the travel, and you could have a right mess if you're not on top of things. I was under the impression last season that we are now a professionally run club, and that none of these were issues. The results and player performances suggest otherwise though.

[wormy]

what really confuses me about Pardew's brand of football, direct long ball style is

 

You would think with all the long balls they practice in training that would at least some of it might shine through during set pieces?

 

Why does it not?  It;'s weird . 

 

Then i think about it???  We can't actually play any decent long balls most of the time can we?  it mostly ends straight back to the opposition and rinse repeat.  That explains it then.

 

Just awful.

 

I find it quite an unbelievable thought that the first team practices "long ball" in training. If they did, we would see an actual pattern of play, and in amongst all the shitness, one or two plays will eventually create chances for us. But even that doesn't happen.

 

I'm pretty sure we don't practice long ball, and that we actually aim to play it along the ground in training. We simply freeze when we're out on the pitch, and resort to the good old hoof. You can see Ba, Cisse et al during the game asking for the ball to be played to their feet. All the time.

 

Remember lads. Those long balls are our 'attacking' play, which only gets practiced one day a week. Dogshite and lower-rung tactic it may be, they're not going to master it by being told to lump the ball up field one day a week.

[themanupstairs]

what really confuses me about Pardew's brand of football, direct long ball style is

 

You would think with all the long balls they practice in training that would at least some of it might shine through during set pieces?

 

Why does it not?  It;'s weird . 

 

Then i think about it???  We can't actually play any decent long balls most of the time can we?  it mostly ends straight back to the opposition and rinse repeat.  That explains it then.

 

Just awful.

 

I find it quite an unbelievable thought that the first team practices "long ball" in training. If they did, we would see an actual pattern of play, and in amongst all the shitness, one or two plays will eventually create chances for us. But even that doesn't happen.

 

I'm pretty sure we don't practice long ball, and that we actually aim to play it along the ground in training. We simply freeze when we're out on the pitch, and resort to the good old hoof. You can see Ba, Cisse et al during the game asking for the ball to be played to their feet. All the time.

 

 

what? really? hahaha what in the hell gave you that idea, you must be as mad as Pardew.

 

thats probably what Pardew sees in his imaginary world.

 

Well aren't you a most condescending little prick.

 

You'd think there would be a fucking ruckus at the club if we practiced "long ball" as our primary mode of attack! Maybe we do, but I refuse to believe it as I just don't see anyone being that stupid at NUFC including Pardew.

 

Our current plight reminds me of Souness and his mantra about having a group of good players and just telling them to go out there and play.

[AyeDubbleYoo]

what really confuses me about Pardew's brand of football, direct long ball style is

 

You would think with all the long balls they practice in training that would at least some of it might shine through during set pieces?

 

Why does it not?  It;'s weird . 

 

Then i think about it???  We can't actually play any decent long balls most of the time can we?  it mostly ends straight back to the opposition and rinse repeat.  That explains it then.

 

Just awful.

 

I find it quite an unbelievable thought that the first team practices "long ball" in training. If they did, we would see an actual pattern of play, and in amongst all the shitness, one or two plays will eventually create chances for us. But even that doesn't happen.

 

I'm pretty sure we don't practice long ball, and that we actually aim to play it along the ground in training. We simply freeze when we're out on the pitch, and resort to the good old hoof. You can see Ba, Cisse et al during the game asking for the ball to be played to their feet. All the time.

 

I've always thought this, and when we're low on confidence it shows a lot more as well. Both the defenders are more nervous and the midfield are able to provide less options.