Alan Pardew

[Happy Face]

Europa League has no prestige unlike the UEFA Cup had, they need to do away with allowing those that finish 3rd in their Champions league groups dropping down into it for starters.

Make both competitions the same, groups of four teams top two proceed bottom two go out.

 

The Europa should be a straight knockout competition over 2 legs.  No groups at all.

 

 

[Tooj]

We won the second half.

[Guest firetotheworks]

I agree with his point like. Personally I'd scrap the europa and increase the number of teams in the CL, though.

[mrmojorisin75]

the entire european footballing world is crying out for a euro knockout tournament again, how can't UEFA see it?  you'd imagine it'd generate much more interest in the tournament and thus more money for the pricks as well

 

no seeds and bollocks, luck of the draw, er, draw and they're onto a total winner

 

pardew on the money about time between games actually, the moaning cunt

[merlin]

But if we won the league, why would it matter if he played negative football? (which we're not at the moment)

 

We WON'T win the league - either by playing negative football or like Brazil 70...we haven't got enough quality or, especially, strength in depth to do it and we won't ever have under this regime/manager.

 

The original point made was that they wouldn't care if we won every game for the rest of the season - doing that would mean Champions League and probably winning the league. O.N was replying to that scenario because obviously if we won the league who the f*** would care how we won it?

 

As Brian Clough once said - 'If your Aunt had b---s, she'd be your uncle'...she hasn't, won't have, and therefore its not worth talking about.

[joeyt]

Could they not just play UEFA Cup games on a Wendesday with the Champions League?

[Happy Face]

Could they not just play UEFA Cup games on a Wendesday with the Champions League?

 

The money in football comes from TV stations that want football on every night of the week and 3 times a day at weekends, not concentrated on one day with one kick off time.

 

 

[BrettNUFC]

Finish top 6 and I'd settle for that but we could really go places as a team, with the players we have.

 

Just 'settle' for top 6. Absolute loon. Our team is nowhere near the likes of any in the top 6. I'd snap their hands off for a swap with any of them.

 

You also said Pardew only knows 4-4-2 yet for the second half of the season we finished fifth we were excellent in the 4-3-3. We were excellent in that formation against Villa earlier this year too. He's went back to 4-4-2 simply because players underperformed for him and switched things around and it's since been working. We are very adaptable and have players to play in different formations. Right now 4-4-2 is our best working formation and yes it's Pardew's most favourable but that's not to say he can't do any other.

 

He deserves credit for his judgement on Sissoko. A lot thought he was trying to fit triangles in square holes by playing him out wide but he’s proved very effective and has grown in the position. I never thought he had it to play consistently well in that position but I was wrong and I credit Pardew for that, along with Sissoko for knuckling down in that position and giving it his all.

 

[mrmojorisin75]

Our team is nowhere near the likes of any in the top 6. I'd snap their hands off for a swap with any of them.

 

what?  by this i assume you mean the "established" top 6 and not everton, southampton and so on...

 

our first team plus 2-3 others is fucking excellent man

[BrettNUFC]

Our team is nowhere near the likes of any in the top 6. I'd snap their hands off for a swap with any of them.

 

what?  by this i assume you mean the "established" top 6 and not everton, southampton and so on...

 

our first team plus 2-3 others is f***ing excellent man

 

I'd happily swap Man City/Utd, Chelsea, Arsenal, Spurs, Liverpool squads for ours. Wouldn't even think twice. Simple. Yet HTT would only 'settle' for us bumping one of them out the top 6 this season. Staggering

 

Yes we've got a good squad, i've massively built up this squad more than the majority on here all along. I said even with Pardew in charge this should be top 8 but a good manager would make the process more comfortable passage but still not get top 6, similar to Everton. We will have more of rocky ride getting there with Pardew but still capable of it and I think we will.

 

The way things have been going is more like ourselves, we'll hit a poor run of form sooner or later, maybe get a shock defeat somewhere but i'd be confident this group can bounce back. Yet even as positive as I am, we aren't in a position squad wise to think we should be better than any of the established top 6.

[mrmojorisin75]

we aren't in a position squad wise to think we should be better than any of the established top 6.

 

madness to think otherwise, saw fucking rodgers was bemoaning the size of his squad after getting beat

 

cheeky blobfish

[nufc4eva]

When you look at our bench on Sat, our squad is not all that bad anymore. We are just quite unbalanced in terms of players we have in certain areas. A total lack of good wingers being one area and up front being another.

 

We had Anita, MYM, Ben Arfa, Cisse, Sammy all on bench and I think that's quite strong. Nowhere near what Chelsea etc have but a lot better than any outside of top 6

[Guest firetotheworks]

But if we won the league, why would it matter if he played negative football? (which we're not at the moment)

 

We WON'T win the league - either by playing negative football or like Brazil 70...we haven't got enough quality or, especially, strength in depth to do it and we won't ever have under this regime/manager.

 

The original point made was that they wouldn't care if we won every game for the rest of the season - doing that would mean Champions League and probably winning the league. O.N was replying to that scenario because obviously if we won the league who the f*** would care how we won it?

 

As Brian Clough once said - 'If your Aunt had b---s, she'd be your uncle'...she hasn't, won't have, and therefore its not worth talking about.

 

So what the fuck you talking about it for then? I wouldn't have had to bring it up if you hadn't have talked about it and misunderstood what was going on in the first place.

[Tooj]

Finish top 6 and I'd settle for that but we could really go places as a team, with the players we have.

 

Just 'settle' for top 6. Absolute loon. Our team is nowhere near the likes of any in the top 6. I'd snap their hands off for a swap with any of them.

 

You also said Pardew only knows 4-4-2 yet for the second half of the season we finished fifth we were excellent in the 4-3-3. We were excellent in that formation against Villa earlier this year too. He's went back to 4-4-2 simply because players underperformed for him and switched things around and it's since been working. We are very adaptable and have players to play in different formations. Right now 4-4-2 is our best working formation and yes it's Pardew's most favourable but that's not to say he can't do any other.

 

He deserves credit for his judgement on Sissoko. A lot thought he was trying to fit triangles in square holes by playing him out wide but he’s proved very effective and has grown in the position. I never thought he had it to play consistently well in that position but I was wrong and I credit Pardew for that, along with Sissoko for knuckling down in that position and giving it his all.

 

 

It was 5 games or something man.

[BrettNUFC]

It's not the point, he has the variation to play and win matches with it (4-3-3) if he deems that's our best chance of winning. Right now, it's not. 4-4-2 is rightly being accomodated and this should look to be a strength that we are versaitile and not one dimentional.

[BrettNUFC]

we aren't in a position squad wise to think we should be better than any of the established top 6.

 

madness to think otherwise, saw f***ing rodgers was bemoaning the size of his squad after getting beat

 

cheeky blobfish

 

Yes, and it was a disgrace and quite frankly laughable. Sturridge gets injured so he brings in Moses, hardly the worst scenario in the world. Then he's got Coutinho sitting on his bench when needed, albeit he may have been carrying a knock (i think). He signed Aspas, hardly been given a chance, he's got his 20 million pound Allen on the bench. Got for me one of the best CB's in the league in Agger also bench warming along with Sakho. He has no right to bemoan his squad.

 

He wasn't complaing when Suarez was banned earlier in the season but they were winning matches. Suddenly he gets a sour result and they haven’t won in a couple of games and he’s blaming the size of the squad.

[arnonel]

Hypothetical question.

 

If a new manager "Fred" came in at the start of the season. Did what Pardew did. Said what Pardew said. Setup the team to play like Pardew has, etc

 

Wonder how he would be judged.

(Still dislike Pardew, but just wondering)

[Tooj]

It's not the point, he has the variation to play and win matches with it (4-3-3) if he deems that's our best chance of winning. Right now, it's not. 4-4-2 is rightly being accomodated and this should look to be a strength that we are versaitile and not one dimentional.

 

It is the point if you're using something that's completely inaccurate to prove a point.

[AyeDubbleYoo]

It's kind of irrelevant whether he prefers 442 or 433, is one fundamentally better than the other? I wouldn't say so, it depends how they're working. You could argue that what we're doing now is more 'back to basics', but then again we use the attacking fullbacks very well and the interchange of the midfielders is very good as well. None of the midfield 4 are fixed in position, except maybe Tiote.

 

I would love to see more adventurous systems etc ideally, but if we're going to use this 442 then the way Pardew is doing it is fairly praise-worthy IMO.

[Nobody]

Could they not just play UEFA Cup games on a Wendesday with the Champions League?

 

The money in football comes from TV stations that want football on every night of the week and 3 times a day at weekends, not concentrated on one day with one kick off time.

 

 

Europa League games should be played on Tuesday and Wednesday the weeks when there's no Champions League. Would make a lot more people interested in them, as they'd be the main attraction of the football on weekdays that week, instead of the hangover scraps from the Champions League that they are now.

[Skirge]

Play Thursday them Prem game on the Monday night

[TRon]

It's kind of irrelevant whether he prefers 442 or 433, is one fundamentally better than the other? I wouldn't say so, it depends how they're working. You could argue that what we're doing now is more 'back to basics', but then again we use the attacking fullbacks very well and the interchange of the midfielders is very good as well. None of the midfield 4 are fixed in position, except maybe Tiote.

 

I would love to see more adventurous systems etc ideally, but if we're going to use this 442 then the way Pardew is doing it is fairly praise-worthy IMO.

 

If you had a goal scoring CF in there instead of  Shola, say Gomis for example, I think the 4-4-2 could look a lot better in any case. For all Shola's done well, he rarely looks a threat in the penalty box other than nuisance value.

[Disco]

"The Europa League needs to change for clubs in the Premier League," he said. "League games need to go to Monday night. If they are going to insist we play Thursday, then we have to play the subsequent Premier League game on a Monday. That would be fair. If teams play in the Champions League on a Wednesday, they play on a Sunday. That's fair and gives you just enough time but Thursday to Sunday is not fair."

 

Thoughts?

 

Fair enough if it's an away fixture, disagree RE: home fixtures.

 

Teams play Sun - Tues in CL on occasion or in the domestic cups without whinging.

 

Could they not just play UEFA Cup games on a Wendesday with the Champions League?

 

The money in football comes from TV stations that want football on every night of the week and 3 times a day at weekends, not concentrated on one day with one kick off time.

 

 

Europa League games should be played on Tuesday and Wednesday the weeks when there's no Champions League. Would make a lot more people interested in them, as they'd be the main attraction of the football on weekdays that week, instead of the hangover scraps from the Champions League that they are now.

 

Also to this.

[AyeDubbleYoo]

It's kind of irrelevant whether he prefers 442 or 433, is one fundamentally better than the other? I wouldn't say so, it depends how they're working. You could argue that what we're doing now is more 'back to basics', but then again we use the attacking fullbacks very well and the interchange of the midfielders is very good as well. None of the midfield 4 are fixed in position, except maybe Tiote.

 

I would love to see more adventurous systems etc ideally, but if we're going to use this 442 then the way Pardew is doing it is fairly praise-worthy IMO.

 

If you had a goal scoring CF in there instead of  Shola, say Gomis for example, I think the 4-4-2 could look a lot better in any case. For all Shola's done well, he rarely looks a threat in the penalty box other than nuisance value.

 

True, Shola's just not sharp enough to get many goals any more. He's probably just about the best option anyway at the moment, with Cisse's form. I'd still like to think that Cisse can come back into the team, but it's looking less likely all the time.

[Dinho lad]

It's kind of irrelevant whether he prefers 442 or 433, is one fundamentally better than the other? I wouldn't say so, it depends how they're working. You could argue that what we're doing now is more 'back to basics', but then again we use the attacking fullbacks very well and the interchange of the midfielders is very good as well. None of the midfield 4 are fixed in position, except maybe Tiote.

 

I would love to see more adventurous systems etc ideally, but if we're going to use this 442 then the way Pardew is doing it is fairly praise-worthy IMO.

 

If you had a goal scoring CF in there instead of  Shola, say Gomis for example, I think the 4-4-2 could look a lot better in any case. For all Shola's done well, he rarely looks a threat in the penalty box other than nuisance value.

 

True, Shola's just not sharp enough to get many goals any more. He's probably just about the best option anyway at the moment, with Cisse's form. I'd still like to think that Cisse can come back into the team, but it's looking less likely all the time.