Alan Pardew

[Stu]

The fact that people are still defending him, when we are in a relegation battle, and just scraped past a team that got beat by bradford and millwall, with the squad we have

 

 

Aye your right sorry, because being positive towards your team who have just won and who are fighting like fuck is shit support.

 

And because Villa have been beaten by lower league teams, they were going to show absolutely nothing here and roll over despite getting a foothold with 40 minutes still to play. Aye shit, forgot football was that simple.

 

it's like I have a second account

[Kanji]

I think Ashley and the Board planned for Pardew and his staff to be the removable cog in this. All reports say his 8 year contract can be terminated with a year or 2 of severance. The scouting system is completely handled by Carr with the manager's thumbs up to what is probably a list of players.

 

Me personally, I really really want to like him and have him develop into a man like Moyes who has Everton in and about European places every season now. Not sure he'll get there. The passion and bravado he had last season was one of the reasons, and if I'm to believe what is said about his man management behind the scenes, the players really do seem to like the bloke. But this season has been a right mess and I'm leaning on the side that believes he isn't the man to take us into a top 5-7 side each year. 

 

Safety first though this season, and then I'll welcome talk of the future.

[Shak]

I agree with the above.

The only point that I see difficult is the replacement of Pardew with an upper tier manager that will accept very restricted funding (unless you're aboiut to go down!) and the sale of your best players when the big boys come calling. I really think we will soon be a club that only ever challenges for the 4th to 8th places in the league.

Please prove me wrong Mike!

 

I don't know, I think if you're talking to a potential manager and show him a list of the players we've brought in the last three years and compare it with the players we've let go he'll be pretty fucking excited at working with some of the talent we have.

 

Maybe not a British manager, but then again they're mostly shite so who'd want them anyway? From what I understand the manager does get input on signings in any case, Carr just has to agree with him and the board work separately on the finances of it.

 

It's hardly a horrible situation for potential new managers is it?

[Guest neesy111]

Are fitness issues causing us to defend so deep?

[buzza]

Just can't see us getting a "great" manager rather than an "up and coming" (Martinez') or mid-upper table type (Rednapp/Benitez).

Will give Pardew until end of season, no excuses now for us to start playing decent stuff...

[Hanshithispantz]

Are fitness issues causing us to defend so deep?

Could be, the Arsenal game was expected as they had a massive rest but the contrast in fatigue between our players and Manchester United on Boxing Day was clear as day. There's no excuse for our players being unfitter than theirs either, if that was the case.

 

I remember Keegan saying something about us not really working on tactics pre-season, but were just getting our squad as fit as possible.

[TRon]

His Plan A for when we're both ahead and behind is Shola, it makes no sense at all.

 

 

It's not funny really like but...

[Crumpy Gunt]

Quite simple really. Villa knew at half time they were fucked so changed things at half time and came out with a 'lets get stuck in' attitude.

Unfortunately for us, this is where a manager earns his wages. He couldn't counteract the oppositions change of gameplan and yet again his substitutions where suspect and ultimately left us more exposed not less.

 

Amazing that some folk just think these last 15/20 games have just been a blip in form. It's been RELEGATION form throughout and despite the three points last night it is STILL relegation form. Chelsea at home and Spurs away to come ....lets see.

[Dr Venkman]

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.

 

It's the opposing teams though wullie. I mean really, WHAT are we supposed to do when they get a head of steam up? Hit back at them with better players? (like Man U and Arsenal did to us and we could do to most of the league). Don't be ridiculous, everyone knows that you're completely at the mercy of what the other team will allow you to do. You just go with the flow and react in this football lark, it's easy.

[Dr Venkman]

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

 

You don't, but you'd need to be "in the business" to make that judgement worth anything.

 

If you have seen anyone who you believe can't act, on TV or in a film, (and there are a few I would agree with the sentiment) you (and I) are wrong, they may not act as well as some others, but they can absolutely act, otherwise they wouldn't get "the gig" and even if "poor" they are better than whoever else was available.

 

Early contender for worst post of the year.

[Theregulars]

I'm not a football manager, and having watched 10 minutes of the second half, my thoughts were: bring no somebody with pace, scare them shitless so they don't keep a high line and thereby don't allow them automatic pressure against us. By just bringing on more defensive midfielders, we sit deeper and deeper and deeper, but the token nod to a need to attack is Shola, who just isn't suitable for that situation. If you see them suddenly have three up front, drop in a secnod defensive midfielder to help out at the back by all means, but ensure that the team is still able to exert enough offensive force and craft to keep the other side guessing. All he did was see their good start to the second half (for 5 minutes or so, arguably out of his control, at best) and react by making substitutions which entrenched us in a defensive position and mindset. That was the perfect time for Obertan in my opinion; have someone who, when it goes forward, scares their children at the back nito realising that they don't have licence to camp in our half. Same with Reading, we haven't scored, it's 1-0, 20 minutes to go, better shut it down. But the foundation of our lead, being the ball-keeping ability of Marveaux and Cabaye, are suddenly gone, depriving us of the reason for our impetus and thus handing them the game on a platter.

 

Those are just two examples, there are countless others this year of his tactical naivety. I'm not saying sack him, but I am saying there are clearly times he has been bailed out by having really good players. However, there are also clearly times when he has us playing good football. The furstration is his inability to see what is in front of him, learn from what it is that makes us play well and poorly, and then build the team around the playing well element. It's obstinance, stupidity or just plain ineptitude, none of which are good.

[KaKa]

The hoofing second half was diabolical, and everyone was doing it, as a clear instruction from the manager. No doubt about it.

 

However, the particular enthusiasm with which Steven Taylor carried out this command really wound me up.

 

He wasn't even attempting to aim for Shola. He was just ballooning that thing into the stratosphere.

 

It was down right offensive. Honestly.

[Hughesy]

The hoofing second half was diabolical, and everyone was doing it, as a clear instruction from the manager. No doubt about it.

 

However, the particular enthusiasm with which Steven Taylor carried out this command really wound me up.

 

He wasn't even attempting to aim for Shola. He was just ballooning that thing into the stratosphere.

 

It was down right offensive. Honestly.

 

Despite clear footage to the contrary.  Ok then...

[KaKa]

I agree with the above.

The only point that I see difficult is the replacement of Pardew with an upper tier manager that will accept very restricted funding (unless you're aboiut to go down!) and the sale of your best players when the big boys come calling. I really think we will soon be a club that only ever challenges for the 4th to 8th places in the league.

Please prove me wrong Mike!

 

I don't know, I think if you're talking to a potential manager and show him a list of the players we've brought in the last three years and compare it with the players we've let go he'll be pretty f***ing excited at working with some of the talent we have.

 

Maybe not a British manager, but then again they're mostly s**** so who'd want them anyway? From what I understand the manager does get input on signings in any case, Carr just has to agree with him and the board work separately on the finances of it.

 

It's hardly a horrible situation for potential new managers is it?

 

Of course it isn't. Look at the talent coming into the club as you've said. Any sensible manager would be begging for the opportunity to work with such players.

 

The manager says what position he wants a player in, Carr gascouts and gathers a list of prospective players to pick from, and the manager discusses these options with him, and they decide on the targets. It's a great setup.

[KaKa]

The hoofing second half was diabolical, and everyone was doing it, as a clear instruction from the manager. No doubt about it.

 

However, the particular enthusiasm with which Steven Taylor carried out this command really wound me up.

 

He wasn't even attempting to aim for Shola. He was just ballooning that thing into the stratosphere.

 

It was down right offensive. Honestly.

 

Despite clear footage to the contrary.  Ok then...

 

I saw insatnces of Pardew asking the players to stay back in that second half. No doubt. Why would he do that?

 

Purely a coincidence that as soon as Shola stepped on the pitch, the ball started flying over our entire midfield with embarassing regularity?

 

It was a calculated a plan. One Pardew thought was a genius idea to counter the pressure they were applying.

 

He didn't have the confidence to allow us to settle back into a period of posession, by just freshening things up with Anita coming on for Jonas, and Mbiwa for Taylor.

 

The man has no courage whatsoever.

 

To leave Jonas on and take off Sissoko and Gouffran in particular, who still looked fresh, was crazy.

 

 

[Hughesy]

The hoofing second half was diabolical, and everyone was doing it, as a clear instruction from the manager. No doubt about it.

 

However, the particular enthusiasm with which Steven Taylor carried out this command really wound me up.

 

He wasn't even attempting to aim for Shola. He was just ballooning that thing into the stratosphere.

 

It was down right offensive. Honestly.

 

Despite clear footage to the contrary.  Ok then...

 

I saw insatnces of Pardew asking the players to stay back in that second half. No doubt. Why would he do that?

 

Purely a coincidence that as soon as Shola stepped on the pitch, the ball started flying over our entire midfield with embarassing regularity?

 

It was a calculated a plan. One Pardew thought was a genius idea to counter the pressure they were applying.

 

He didn't have the confidence to allow us to settle back into a period of posession, by just freshening things up with Anita coming on for Jonas, and Mbiwa for Taylor.

 

The man has no courage whatsoever.

 

To leave Jonas on and take off Sissoko and Gouffran in particular, who still looked fresh, was crazy.

 

 

 

Myself and others have seen footage, during the particularly dark times of last night, where it is clear that Pardew is telling his players to keep the ball.  That seems to me to go directly against your 'guess' that Pardew instructed the players to hit the ball long.

[The College Dropout]

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.

 

I'm not anti-Pardew but I watched the majority of those games and we where not on the front foot, controlling the game with the ball in the majority of those matches.

 

Man U 3-0 : Great battling performance. Great strikes from Ba & Cabs. good defending. Tiote/Cabs owned Giggs/Carrick.

WBA - great counter attacking which was great to see. Contained them easily and destroyed them on the counter.

Swansea - 2 great goals from Cisse against the run of play. Contained them pretty easily, scored on the counter twice.

Bolton - The Ben Arfa wonder goal? 0-0 for ages around 70 mins before the wonder goal. Didn't create buckets.

Chelsea - 2 more wonder goals, contained them well.

 

 

That's the theme imo. We contain well, score some great individual goals and we won. We were great defensively last year, plenty of clean sheets. We did a good job of containing teams and that was largely the plan imo. Demba carried us goals wise until January, then Cisse & HBA took over. We didn't smash any teams nor comeback from behind. Very reliant on scoring the first goal us.

 

 

We are still good for a goal but we invite too much pressure on the team this term and if we have to chase a game? Forget about it. A draw is the best you can hope for.

[Dr Venkman]

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

 

You don't, but you'd need to be "in the business" to make that judgement worth anything.

 

If you have seen anyone who you believe can't act, on TV or in a film, (and there are a few I would agree with the sentiment) you (and I) are wrong, they may not act as well as some others, but they can absolutely act, otherwise they wouldn't get "the gig" and even if "poor" they are better than whoever else was available.

 

I'm assuming you are in the business as you are very dismissive of other opinions here so fair enough, I'll respect your professional opinion. Can you explain to me the value of centre forwards being pushed to the right wing when the main threat is coming from the opposition winger down that flank?

 

I'm not dismissive of opinion, I am dismissive of hysteria.

 

I understand my "opinion" holds little water and that in the scheme of things I know ferk all. Won't stop me having said opinion, but certainly stops me getting upset about stuff, because as fans we REALLY don't know what we are talking about.

 

You dismissed my comments about Krul above (or on a  page or so ago), was simply stating a fact, a goalkeeper making saves is what he's paid to do, the fact he does that should not be classed any different, or as exceptional, to players making tackles or acurate passes in terms of contribution to a result. IF the keeper is left with "no chance" by the team/defence that's different.

 

The team won, be happy.

 

this guy's great 

[Hughesy]

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.

 

I'm not anti-Pardew but I watched the majority of those games and we where not on the front foot, controlling the game with the ball in the majority of those matches.

 

Man U 3-0 : Great battling performance. Great strikes from Ba & Cabs. good defending. Tiote/Cabs owned Giggs/Carrick.

WBA - great counter attacking which was great to see. Contained them easily and destroyed them on the counter.

Swansea - 2 great goals from Cisse against the run of play. Contained them pretty easily, scored on the counter twice.

Bolton - The Ben Arfa wonder goal? 0-0 for ages around 70 mins before the wonder goal. Didn't create buckets.

Chelsea - 2 more wonder goals, contained them well.

 

 

That's the theme imo. We contain well, score some great individual goals and we won. We were great defensively last year, plenty of clean sheets. We did a good job of containing teams and that was largely the plan imo. Demba carried us goals wise until January, then Cisse & HBA took over. We didn't smash any teams nor comeback from behind. Very reliant on scoring the first goal us.

 

 

We are still good for a goal but we invite too much pressure on the team this term and if we have to chase a game? Forget about it. A draw is the best you can hope for.

 

I think it is safe to say that in each of those games highlighted we were the better team and had more chances.  I am sure someone can find stats to prove me wrong, but that is my recollection.

[TherealnorthernTOON]

Feels like we are defending so much deeper now than last year.

[The College Dropout]

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.

 

I'm not anti-Pardew but I watched the majority of those games and we where not on the front foot, controlling the game with the ball in the majority of those matches.

 

Man U 3-0 : Great battling performance. Great strikes from Ba & Cabs. good defending. Tiote/Cabs owned Giggs/Carrick.

WBA - great counter attacking which was great to see. Contained them easily and destroyed them on the counter.

Swansea - 2 great goals from Cisse against the run of play. Contained them pretty easily, scored on the counter twice.

Bolton - The Ben Arfa wonder goal? 0-0 for ages around 70 mins before the wonder goal. Didn't create buckets.

Chelsea - 2 more wonder goals, contained them well.

 

 

That's the theme imo. We contain well, score some great individual goals and we won. We were great defensively last year, plenty of clean sheets. We did a good job of containing teams and that was largely the plan imo. Demba carried us goals wise until January, then Cisse & HBA took over. We didn't smash any teams nor comeback from behind. Very reliant on scoring the first goal us.

 

 

We are still good for a goal but we invite too much pressure on the team this term and if we have to chase a game? Forget about it. A draw is the best you can hope for.

 

I think it is safe to say that in each of those games highlighted we were the better team and had more chances.  I am sure someone can find stats to prove me wrong, but that is my recollection.

 

Aye we defended superbly in all those games and played well. But when we beat Man Utd & Chelsea we had no gilt-edged chances. Half chances dispensed well. We certainly didn't create mopre chances than Man Utd. when we beat them.

[Parky]

You can describe it in a simple phrase: Contain and put away the few chances half/clear cut that we make.

That was the beauty of Cisse and Ba last year, they would just score off almost anything.

Infact the domination we displayed yesterday in the first half probably caught everyone by surprise. We can do it in spells in games and in the PL what happens in those spells is the key.

[Parky]

The hoofing second half was diabolical, and everyone was doing it, as a clear instruction from the manager. No doubt about it.

 

However, the particular enthusiasm with which Steven Taylor carried out this command really wound me up.

 

He wasn't even attempting to aim for Shola. He was just ballooning that thing into the stratosphere.

 

It was down right offensive. Honestly.

 

Despite clear footage to the contrary.  Ok then...

 

I saw insatnces of Pardew asking the players to stay back in that second half. No doubt. Why would he do that?

 

Purely a coincidence that as soon as Shola stepped on the pitch, the ball started flying over our entire midfield with embarassing regularity?

 

It was a calculated a plan. One Pardew thought was a genius idea to counter the pressure they were applying.

 

He didn't have the confidence to allow us to settle back into a period of posession, by just freshening things up with Anita coming on for Jonas, and Mbiwa for Taylor.

 

The man has no courage whatsoever.

 

To leave Jonas on and take off Sissoko and Gouffran in particular, who still looked fresh, was crazy.

 

 

 

There is method in the madness, but the method is mad.

[Guest icemanblue]

The hoofing second half was diabolical, and everyone was doing it, as a clear instruction from the manager. No doubt about it.

 

However, the particular enthusiasm with which Steven Taylor carried out this command really wound me up.

 

He wasn't even attempting to aim for Shola. He was just ballooning that thing into the stratosphere.

 

It was down right offensive. Honestly.

 

Despite clear footage to the contrary.  Ok then...

 

Aye you could see Pardew going nuts on the sidelines in the last 15 or 20 minutes because of the hoofing. It clearly wasn't a gameplan at all, and just the sign of a nervous team desperate for a win.

 

The first half performance was entirely down to luck too.

[Stuy_O]

Aye the utilisation of Sissoko playing more advanced and dominating the first half, nothing to do with Pardew either. Or the fact that one of his sub's prevented a certain goal near the end.