Alan Pardew

[Lotus]

Folks, why do players suddenly panic on the ball in the second half and stop moving and creating options... Do you honestly think the manager says "hoof it out" boys, even a sunday leaguer has more nous than that, we are talking Professionals here...

Pressure, confidence and other team's momentum make that difference to our play. I think if we get a couple more wins we will start to play like everyone wants...

 

We've done it so many times that it's not a coincidense. Pardew is clearly setting us up to defend the lead, with every fucling player, except Shola, behind the ball. Of course, that just invites pressure.

 

Also, what Steve Stone said a while ago...

Pardew is a tactical mess which has it base in him being a f***ing coward.

 

When did Steve Stone say that?

 

After the Swansea game at home.

 

Can you point to the quote? Or was it at a talk in?

[The College Dropout]

Hear*

[Hanshithispantz]

He said something along the lines of "We kicked it longer than them" as a positive of our style in the game iirc, he never directly said "Pardew is a mess"

[The College Dropout]

Furthermore, when we sit in deep, he rarely talks about it post-match as being a problem. Rather not being able to hang on or something.

 

 

Long story short. Pardew has no plan of how to control games with possession.

[Parky]

There really is no doubt we sit back on leads and let teams come onto us. Seen it in exagerrated form about 20 times now. Wether that is ALL Pard or partly human nature and the players themselves getting a bit protective is hard to call, I'd say it's mostly safety first AP. Last night I could excuse it as we were on the verge of winning a historic away game and a 6 pointer at that.

 

IMO the first sub ought to have been Anita for guti to protect Debuchy with Sissoko dropping off to cover the middle and left zone (in front of the CD's). I'd have left Gouffran on as his pace gives some threat on the counter. Don't really think the French lads were tired although clearly Cabaye coming back from a long inj was. Think a calm 541 with ball retention as the cornerstone would have seen us through with much less drama. Really think Guti needs a long break now, at least 4 weeks to re-charge his batteries and mind, his game is clearly shot for now.

 

It will be interesting when Hatem comes back how AP sets out his stall to inc Marveux and Gouffran, I suspect Marv will go back to sub status, someting he doesn't really deserve as he's been the one light in the tunnel for a month or so. I would like to see two holding (Sissoko and Cabaye) and the 3 AM/F all starting (especially at home). He won't do that in a million years.

 

AP's thinking was so basic and obvious there is really no arguing around it. Shola was there as a target man and a few dozen hoofs (that just come back immediately) were aimed in his general direction. It is a solution, but I'd argue not at this level. Should have kept perch on and packed the mf with wide cover and gone to a slower tempo shorter game (most of these internationals do that as second nature in the national sides). I was very irritated Perch came off as he had put in some good 'reducers' on a couple of their players who looked scared when he ran at them again.

 

The type of very high quality player we have now should be allowed to play their natural game and anything else will seem foreign to them and demoralise them. We can do it we did it for 20/30 min at ManU and Arsenal and for 45 last night.

 

For me AP's biggest weakness is that he doesn't understand movement and space and thinks formations are the key. We have weapons now that can be more fluid. Make it so.

[Guest Dontooner]

Tbf, Villa's first 10 minutes or so after the break were frightening. They were really on fire. I think quite a few teams would have struggled with that.

Pardew's subs didn't really help, Shola can't hold a ball up nor chase down defenders. If Obertan would have been on the bench then he may have used him instead, try to hit them on the break. What we really needed to do last night was counter attack and players we didn't have available, HBA, Marveaux and, yes, even Obertan would have been good for that.

No idea why he left Jonas on, he did nothing. Sometimes i think Pardew judges a play more on character than ability.

I really can't see how his changes did not affect the game negatively.

 

We took Perch off for Shola, which indicated , we wanted to play more long balls and hope Shola could use his strength to bully the defenders.

 

We wanted to sit back and counter from defense, we had Gouffran on which had pace to get behind players or to dribble but he was substituted by Anita which play the pressing role up front to my horror. Anita would not be able to score when he is on his own, clearly instructed to press the defenders and hold onto the ball when he has it.

 

Finally his master stroke of cleverness to bring on MYM for Sissoko to battle in he midfield and hold on to the win.

 

He replaced all the outlets that could have a impact on the counter attack Sissoko which could dribble past players under pressure (He and HBA are probably the two players that can do that for us in this team) , taking off Gouffran with pace to run at defenders.

 

Tactically i can't see how we were not affected by his tactics to sit back and defend the lead. Never going to score from the set of players he put out at the end, it was always to hold on to the lead.

IF we lost the lead, we would have lost the game like reading, clearly because our key attacking players were taken off.

[Dr Venkman]

Pardew really is an awful manager, the only thing worse than his tactical ineptness which we saw in the second half today, is his cowardice. We might not get relegated, with this squad we certainly shouldn't, though it will probably be close. However there is really nothing to look forward to with this clown in charge, no specific style of football, no going after a game and trying to thrash the opposition, just more of what we saw in the second half today. A bunch of fairly talented football players, hoofing the ball absolutely anywhere with no confidence gained (none installed by the manager anyhow) that they were so much better than Villa in the first half that all they had to do was continue to play the way they had been.

 

Pardew blamed for the second half but not praised for the first half.

 

The inconsistency of an agenda laid bare right there.

 

He doesn't deal in breaking down the opposition, he deals in stopping them. When the opposition have little to offer in attack you get first halves like that, then Pardew gets to them and you get second halves like that.

[Hughesy]

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.

 

Out of interest, do you think he tells them to retreat and hold onto the lead and play possession football or does he tell them to retreat and hold onto the lead by panicking and hoofing the ball to the opposition?

Both, when stress is slightly applied and we are in the lead or holding out for a drawn, we will sit deep and the players will drop dribbling forward. Just watch the last 20 games again. in the second half our players stop dribbling up the field and choose to hold positions. Its exactly why we start hoofing it. GO watch the Game stop being muppets of Pardew when you guys dont actually watch it properly.

 

Sitting deep and not dribbling in itself is not a tactical flaw.  Plenty of teams can effectively close a game out by retaining possession and not taking risks.

 

 

Nothing wrong with sitting deep in itself, I agree. It's a great opportunity to hit teams on the break if you set your team out right to take avdantage of the opposition throwing everyone forward. But you need to pass the ball out when you get possession, not thump it 70 yds down the pitch in the direction of 6'5 substitute striker.

 

Well - I agree entirely with that.  Lumping the ball upfield is brainless and self-defeating - especially when Shola had no-one within 20 yards of him to even play the ball to.  What I am trying to gauge is whether people think that Pardew actually tells them to do this or it is the reaction of a team that is low on confidence, desperate to get a win and was under severe pressure.

 

I just don't believe that Pardew actually instructs them to hoof it upfield whenever they have the ball.

 

What else are they going to do when you bring on Shola then ask your centre forwards to drop onto the right wing? I don't want to labour this point because I'm sick of making it. I just don't see any evidence that we've ever planned how to bring the ball out of defence in Pardew's time here. Let's hope now he's got his quality players he'll be able to develop it.

 

We still had another 10 players on the pitch other than Shola...!  It's not like you suddenly have to abandon all rational thought just because we've got a tall striker on the pitch.  They had plenty of options every time they had the ball.

 

Like pass to Cisse on the wing? Come off it man, like Wullie said, if it was one game you might have a point.

 

I do find putting Cisse on the wing a bit baffling, but why can't the ball be passed to Cisse on the wing?  Are you genuinely trying to say that a professional footballer can't fill in effectively on the right wing and have the ball passed to him?  It wasn't like we were playing him as a centre half.

[Hughesy]

There really is no doubt we sit back on leads and let teams come onto us. Seen it in exagerrated form about 20 times now. Wether that is ALL Pard or partly human nature and the players themselves getting a bit protective is hard to call, I'd say it's mostly safety first AP. Last night I could excuse it as we were on the verge of winning a historic away game and a 6 pointer at that.

 

IMO the first sub ought to have been Anita for guti to protect Debuchy with Sissoko dropping off to cover the middle and left zone (in front of the CD's). I'd have left Gouffran on as his pace gives some threat on the counter. Don't really think the French lads were tired although clearly Cabaye coming back from a long inj was. Think a calm 541 with ball retention as the cornerstone would have seen us through with much less drama. Really think Guti needs a long break now, at least 4 weeks to re-charge his batteries and mind, his game is clearly shot for now.

 

It will be interesting when Hatem comes back how AP sets out his stall to inc Marveux and Gouffran, I suspect Marv will go back to sub status, someting he doesn't really deserve as he's been the one light in the tunnel for a month or so. I would like to see two holding (Sissoko and Cabaye) and the 3 AM/F all starting (especially at home). He won't do that in a million years.

 

AP's thinking was so basic and obvious there is really no arguing around it. Shola was there as a target man and a few dozen hoofs (that just come back immediately) were aimed in his general direction. It is a solution, but I'd argue not at this level. Should have kept perch on and packed the mf with wide cover and gone to a slower tempo shorter game (most of these internationals do that as second nature in the national sides). I was very irritated Perch came off as he had put in some good 'reducers' on a couple of their players who looked scared when he ran at them again.

 

The type of very high quality player we have now should be allowed to play their natural game and anything else will seem foreign to them and demoralise them. We can do it we did it for 20/30 min at ManU and Arsenal and for 45 last night.

 

For me AP's biggest weakness is that he doesn't understand movement and space and thinks formations are the key. We have weapons now that can be more fluid. Make it so.

 

I think it would be a waste to have Sissoko and Cabaye as our holding midfielders.  Plus I would like to have the industry of one of them further up the field - you definitely need someone of those AM to close people down and put themselves about a bit.

[Parky]

Tbf, Villa's first 10 minutes or so after the break were frightening. They were really on fire. I think quite a few teams would have struggled with that.

Pardew's subs didn't really help, Shola can't hold a ball up nor chase down defenders. If Obertan would have been on the bench then he may have used him instead, try to hit them on the break. What we really needed to do last night was counter attack and players we didn't have available, HBA, Marveaux and, yes, even Obertan would have been good for that.

No idea why he left Jonas on, he did nothing. Sometimes i think Pardew judges a play more on character than ability.

I really can't see how his changes did not affect the game negatively.

 

We took Perch off for Shola, which indicated , we wanted to play more long balls and hope Shola could use his strength to bully the defenders.

 

We wanted to sit back and counter from defense, we had Gouffran on which had pace to get behind players or to dribble but he was substituted by Anita which play the pressing role up front to my horror. Anita would not be able to score when he is on his own, clearly instructed to press the defenders and hold onto the ball when he has it.

 

Finally his master stroke of cleverness to bring on MYM for Sissoko to battle in he midfield and hold on to the win.

 

He replaced all the outlets that could have a impact on the counter attack Sissoko which could dribble past players under pressure (He and HBA are probably the two players that can do that for us in this team) , taking off Gouffran with pace to run at defenders.

 

Tactically i can't see how we were not affected by his tactics to sit back and defend the lead. Never going to score from the set of players he put out at the end, it was always to hold on to the lead.

IF we lost the lead, we would have lost the game like reading, clearly because our key attacking players were taken off.

 

Think it's generally accepted the subs were from the Disney school of fooball.

[TRon]

There really is no doubt we sit back on leads and let teams come onto us. Seen it in exagerrated form about 20 times now. Wether that is ALL Pard or partly human nature and the players themselves getting a bit protective is hard to call, I'd say it's mostly safety first AP. Last night I could excuse it as we were on the verge of winning a historic away game and a 6 pointer at that.

 

IMO the first sub ought to have been Anita for guti to protect Debuchy with Sissoko dropping off to cover the middle and left zone (in front of the CD's). I'd have left Gouffran on as his pace gives some threat on the counter. Don't really think the French lads were tired although clearly Cabaye coming back from a long inj was. Think a calm 541 with ball retention as the cornerstone would have seen us through with much less drama. Really think Guti needs a long break now, at least 4 weeks to re-charge his batteries and mind, his game is clearly shot for now.

 

It will be interesting when Hatem comes back how AP sets out his stall to inc Marveux and Gouffran, I suspect Marv will go back to sub status, someting he doesn't really deserve as he's been the one light in the tunnel for a month or so. I would like to see two holding (Sissoko and Cabaye) and the 3 AM/F all starting (especially at home). He won't do that in a million years.

 

AP's thinking was so basic and obvious there is really no arguing around it. Shola was there as a target man and a few dozen hoofs (that just come back immediately) were aimed in his general direction. It is a solution, but I'd argue not at this level. Should have kept perch on and packed the mf with wide cover and gone to a slower tempo shorter game (most of these internationals do that as second nature in the national sides). I was very irritated Perch came off as he had put in some good 'reducers' on a couple of their players who looked scared when he ran at them again.

 

The type of very high quality player we have now should be allowed to play their natural game and anything else will seem foreign to them and demoralise them. We can do it we did it for 20/30 min at ManU and Arsenal and for 45 last night.

 

For me AP's biggest weakness is that he doesn't understand movement and space and thinks formations are the key. We have weapons now that can be more fluid. Make it so.

 

Good post.

[STM]

I don't see things as bad as others. We've had a really poor season, some the owners fault for not strengthening in the summer, some the managers poor tactics. 

 

However, so long as we are signing quality players, we always have a chance of being a very strong team. With or without Pardew.

 

We managed to sign benny after getting promoted and sissoko whilst in a relegation fight, the mind boggles.

 

See out the season and see what happens next.

[TRon]

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.

 

Out of interest, do you think he tells them to retreat and hold onto the lead and play possession football or does he tell them to retreat and hold onto the lead by panicking and hoofing the ball to the opposition?

Both, when stress is slightly applied and we are in the lead or holding out for a drawn, we will sit deep and the players will drop dribbling forward. Just watch the last 20 games again. in the second half our players stop dribbling up the field and choose to hold positions. Its exactly why we start hoofing it. GO watch the Game stop being muppets of Pardew when you guys dont actually watch it properly.

 

Sitting deep and not dribbling in itself is not a tactical flaw.  Plenty of teams can effectively close a game out by retaining possession and not taking risks.

 

 

Nothing wrong with sitting deep in itself, I agree. It's a great opportunity to hit teams on the break if you set your team out right to take avdantage of the opposition throwing everyone forward. But you need to pass the ball out when you get possession, not thump it 70 yds down the pitch in the direction of 6'5 substitute striker.

 

Well - I agree entirely with that.  Lumping the ball upfield is brainless and self-defeating - especially when Shola had no-one within 20 yards of him to even play the ball to.  What I am trying to gauge is whether people think that Pardew actually tells them to do this or it is the reaction of a team that is low on confidence, desperate to get a win and was under severe pressure.

 

I just don't believe that Pardew actually instructs them to hoof it upfield whenever they have the ball.

 

What else are they going to do when you bring on Shola then ask your centre forwards to drop onto the right wing? I don't want to labour this point because I'm sick of making it. I just don't see any evidence that we've ever planned how to bring the ball out of defence in Pardew's time here. Let's hope now he's got his quality players he'll be able to develop it.

 

We still had another 10 players on the pitch other than Shola...!  It's not like you suddenly have to abandon all rational thought just because we've got a tall striker on the pitch.  They had plenty of options every time they had the ball.

 

Like pass to Cisse on the wing? Come off it man, like Wullie said, if it was one game you might have a point.

 

I do find putting Cisse on the wing a bit baffling, but why can't the ball be passed to Cisse on the wing?  Are you genuinely trying to say that a professional footballer can't fill in effectively on the right wing and have the ball passed to him?  It wasn't like we were playing him as a centre half.

 

You can put professional footballers wherever you like, but it's generally a good idea to play them in their natural position.

[Hughesy]

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.

 

Out of interest, do you think he tells them to retreat and hold onto the lead and play possession football or does he tell them to retreat and hold onto the lead by panicking and hoofing the ball to the opposition?

Both, when stress is slightly applied and we are in the lead or holding out for a drawn, we will sit deep and the players will drop dribbling forward. Just watch the last 20 games again. in the second half our players stop dribbling up the field and choose to hold positions. Its exactly why we start hoofing it. GO watch the Game stop being muppets of Pardew when you guys dont actually watch it properly.

 

Sitting deep and not dribbling in itself is not a tactical flaw.  Plenty of teams can effectively close a game out by retaining possession and not taking risks.

 

 

Nothing wrong with sitting deep in itself, I agree. It's a great opportunity to hit teams on the break if you set your team out right to take avdantage of the opposition throwing everyone forward. But you need to pass the ball out when you get possession, not thump it 70 yds down the pitch in the direction of 6'5 substitute striker.

 

Well - I agree entirely with that.  Lumping the ball upfield is brainless and self-defeating - especially when Shola had no-one within 20 yards of him to even play the ball to.  What I am trying to gauge is whether people think that Pardew actually tells them to do this or it is the reaction of a team that is low on confidence, desperate to get a win and was under severe pressure.

 

I just don't believe that Pardew actually instructs them to hoof it upfield whenever they have the ball.

 

What else are they going to do when you bring on Shola then ask your centre forwards to drop onto the right wing? I don't want to labour this point because I'm sick of making it. I just don't see any evidence that we've ever planned how to bring the ball out of defence in Pardew's time here. Let's hope now he's got his quality players he'll be able to develop it.

 

We still had another 10 players on the pitch other than Shola...!  It's not like you suddenly have to abandon all rational thought just because we've got a tall striker on the pitch.  They had plenty of options every time they had the ball.

 

Like pass to Cisse on the wing? Come off it man, like Wullie said, if it was one game you might have a point.

 

I do find putting Cisse on the wing a bit baffling, but why can't the ball be passed to Cisse on the wing?  Are you genuinely trying to say that a professional footballer can't fill in effectively on the right wing and have the ball passed to him?  It wasn't like we were playing him as a centre half.

 

You can put professional footballers wherever you like, but it's generally a good idea to play them in their natural position.

 

Putting Cisse on the wing is not a justifiable excuse as to why we can't keep possession of the ball.

[Wullie]

Cisse was playing as a second right back in the last half hour, Shola was on the horizon. The way we set up in the second half was identical to the last away game at Norwich - everyone running around the edge of our own box trying to kick it away towards a striker standing nearly an entire pitch length away.

[STM]

Shola held the ball up once. He was trying to flick it on ffs.

 

Very poor.

[Hanshithispantz]

We had a centre back in middle of the pitch man, what more do you need to know? Most managers see the gaping hole behind a defence sitting on the half way line and make an attacking change to counter it, Pardew just packs our box with random defensive players and tells them all to sky it towards the battering ram on his tod.

 

Predictably we lose the ball and this whole process is repeated.

[huss9]

this is where the shitty local press lets us down. weak as piss.

they need to be questioning pardew about his tactics and asking whether it is on his orders that we sit back and try to hit shola up to defend leads or whether its just the players themselves. they need to question his substitutions and ask why certain players were taken off rather than others who were having ineffectual games (such as perch instead of jonas at villa).

 

[STM]

One of perch/jonas was enough yesterday.

[AyeDubbleYoo]

One of perch/jonas was enough yesterday.

 

I agree, ironically it would have been useful to have one of them to bring on in the second half.

 

Saying that, allowing Sissoko to push forward was a good move.

[Stu]

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.

 

some salient points there; are you being contrary for the sake of it though?

[Lotus]

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.

 

Out of interest, do you think he tells them to retreat and hold onto the lead and play possession football or does he tell them to retreat and hold onto the lead by panicking and hoofing the ball to the opposition?

Both, when stress is slightly applied and we are in the lead or holding out for a drawn, we will sit deep and the players will drop dribbling forward. Just watch the last 20 games again. in the second half our players stop dribbling up the field and choose to hold positions. Its exactly why we start hoofing it. GO watch the Game stop being muppets of Pardew when you guys dont actually watch it properly.

 

Sitting deep and not dribbling in itself is not a tactical flaw.  Plenty of teams can effectively close a game out by retaining possession and not taking risks.

 

 

Nothing wrong with sitting deep in itself, I agree. It's a great opportunity to hit teams on the break if you set your team out right to take avdantage of the opposition throwing everyone forward. But you need to pass the ball out when you get possession, not thump it 70 yds down the pitch in the direction of 6'5 substitute striker.

 

Well - I agree entirely with that.  Lumping the ball upfield is brainless and self-defeating - especially when Shola had no-one within 20 yards of him to even play the ball to.  What I am trying to gauge is whether people think that Pardew actually tells them to do this or it is the reaction of a team that is low on confidence, desperate to get a win and was under severe pressure.

 

I just don't believe that Pardew actually instructs them to hoof it upfield whenever they have the ball.

 

What else are they going to do when you bring on Shola then ask your centre forwards to drop onto the right wing? I don't want to labour this point because I'm sick of making it. I just don't see any evidence that we've ever planned how to bring the ball out of defence in Pardew's time here. Let's hope now he's got his quality players he'll be able to develop it.

 

We still had another 10 players on the pitch other than Shola...!  It's not like you suddenly have to abandon all rational thought just because we've got a tall striker on the pitch.  They had plenty of options every time they had the ball.

 

Like pass to Cisse on the wing? Come off it man, like Wullie said, if it was one game you might have a point.

 

I do find putting Cisse on the wing a bit baffling, but why can't the ball be passed to Cisse on the wing?  Are you genuinely trying to say that a professional footballer can't fill in effectively on the right wing and have the ball passed to him?  It wasn't like we were playing him as a centre half.

 

You can put professional footballers wherever you like, but it's generally a good idea to play them in their natural position.

 

Putting Cisse on the wing is not a justifiable excuse as to why we can't keep possession of the ball.

 

The focus of our coaching and game preparation is not to do with having the ball. We practice mostly what we do without it.

 

Given that pass, control, move, receive, etc is not an ethos of the club currently, trying it on matchday when we're under pressure is inviting trouble.

Hence, we treat a bit more like rugby, get it out of our territory or in to touch so we can regroup.

[dcmk]

I wouldn't say i'm pro Pardew, but personally I want to see him finish this season before making any sweeping judgement.  He deserves that after last season and personally I am sick to death of the managerial carousel at our club. 

 

The team has gone through one really bad patch of form and suddenly there should be drastic change? It's clear he has all the support and respect of the whole dressing room.  How many of our previous managers have had that?

 

If he went who would we appoint?  Be Terry Venables or someone of that ilk. 

 

A common line I have seen in this thread has been 'Pardew is a coward', 'shits himself when his team is in front, loses his bottle and tries sit on a lead.' - It's a complete myth.  Just take a look at last season:

 

Chelsea (A) 2-0

Stoke (H) 3-0

Bolton (H) 2-0

Swansea (A) 2-0

Liverpool (H) 2-0

WBA  (A)  3-1

Blackburn (H) 2-0

Manchester United (H) 3-0

 

Those fixtures were just from January 2012 until May 2012, they're the only ones that i could be bothered to dig out.  All those wins suggests that he didn't sit on the lead back then and didn't stop playing after being ahead.  So why accuse him of that if it's not true?  Something has changed yes, but the blame is better pointed at the players.

 

From the above it's obvious that a part of the problem this season is with their confidence, it has been massively hit by the bad run of form.  It led them to collapse against Reading and nearly again yesterday - but all the criticism from this is on 100% on Pardew - it's almost unthinkable to blame the players in anyway.  His subs have been somewhat of a problem in these games but that completely absolve the players for collapsing.

 

Yesterday, when the opposition asserted some pressure the team dropped noticeably deeper and deeper and no-one looked like they wanted the ball.  Especially after a few hefty Villa challenges, their aerial prowess and their constant closing down it's all something that really unsettled us.  So i can even understand Shola's introduction, I hate the guy, but can sort of see the logic, as at least he would stay further up front and not look to drop deep like Cisse was doing the entire second half.  Before Shola's introduction, when we weren't in possession i couldn't believe that Cisse was almost back in the right back position on a few occasions.  When we are playing with one striker that falls right into the opponents hands.

 

The positives that i can see for Pardew are that he wants the team to play good football - we haven't been playing 'hoofball' for over two months now.  He does seem to recognise the weak areas of the squad (Simpson, Williamson, Jonas - publicly) and has replaced them this month with genuine quality.  Undoubtedly has the support of the dressing room and the top of the hierarchy and also has on his CV that he led a weaker squad within a few points of a Champions League position.

 

 

[TRon]

One of perch/jonas was enough yesterday.

 

I thought that before the game, but we were 2-0 by half time so fair enough I suppose.

[Lotus]

Yeah, but Shola ended up around the edge of our box, Anita was further forward.