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Someone made a canny post that Dave picked up on regarding Pardew's motivational skills.

 

He pointed out that against the big teams (apart from Man City) we seem to be up for it but against less glamorous opposition we don't .

 

The theory is that the players can get themselves motivated when playing Man U, Liverpool, Chelsea, Spurs, etc but against teams like Hull, Cardiff, Swansea, WHam, etc it needs the manager to get them gee'd up for it and that doesn't appear to be happening.

 

All i'm doing here is highlighting someone else's idea but i think it's worth commenting on.

 

Southampton is going to be a test of this idea. Coming off a win at Old Trafford the players should be full of confidence but they need to show a focus and an intensity against Southampton. Obviously, we all hope we do but let's see what our attitude is on Saturday.

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The theory is that the players can get themselves motivated when playing Man U, Liverpool, Chelsea, Spurs, etc but against teams like Hull, Cardiff, Swansea, WHam, etc it needs the manager to get them gee'd up for it and that doesn't appear to be happening.

 

Horseplop ! You can't make that statement based on this season's performances alone. NUFC 0 Liverpool 6 plus many more no-shows.

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The theory is that the players can get themselves motivated when playing Man U, Liverpool, Chelsea, Spurs, etc but against teams like Hull, Cardiff, Swansea, WHam, etc it needs the manager to get them gee'd up for it and that doesn't appear to be happening.

 

Horseplop ! You can't make that statement based on this season's performances alone. NUFC 0 Liverpool 6 plus many more no-shows.

 

So, do you think we'll show the same commitment and drive against Soton as we did as against Man U?

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This was my fear, and has been with other s*** managers - and see sunderland. But I felt like after our run the test of that was Norwich and West Brom, and won both those. Don't think it's a fair criticism at the moment.

 

I see what you mean. Haven't been particularly emphatic performances though. I suppose the question is why we can't seem to get up for it enough to steamroller a team.

 

Other teams have certainly steamrolled us. They did it because they were better and also highly motivated.

 

When we're better, are we motivated enough to truly turn another team over?

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This was my fear, and has been with other s*** managers - and see sunderland. But I felt like after our run the test of that was Norwich and West Brom, and won both those. Don't think it's a fair criticism at the moment.

 

I see what you mean. Haven't been particularly emphatic performances though. I suppose the question is why we can't seem to get up for it enough to steamroller a team.

 

Other teams have certainly steamrolled us. They did it because they were better and also highly motivated.

 

When we're better, are we motivated enough to truly turn another team over?

 

Not really. Winning tight is the Pardew way. It has nothing to do with motivation.

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This was my fear, and has been with other s*** managers - and see sunderland. But I felt like after our run the test of that was Norwich and West Brom, and won both those. Don't think it's a fair criticism at the moment.

 

I see what you mean. Haven't been particularly emphatic performances though. I suppose the question is why we can't seem to get up for it enough to steamroller a team.

 

Other teams have certainly steamrolled us. They did it because they were better and also highly motivated.

 

When we're better, are we motivated enough to truly turn another team over?

 

Not really. Winning tight is the Pardew way. It has nothing to do with motivation.

 

So you're of the opinion that he asks us to only win by 1 goal. Seems a bit far fetched...

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Maybe our squad of players is more suited to counter attacking football than it is to possession based football where the onus is on us to break the other team down? just a thought.

 

This as well! I have questioned Pardew for using some of the players against the "lesser" teams, when in fact they're more suited to the counter attack type of games. Having players such as Anita and HBA on the bench instead of playing them when they are better suited for some games.

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I do think it's generally either a player or a group of players that get the team motivated, rather than the manager or coaching staff. This seems to change as well imo, who is the person or the group that leads the way. Funny enough at the moment I think most of it comes from Cabaye and Debuchy. I really don't think Paedew has much influence.

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Motivation is a factor but the biggest factor is we don't have many players which is what i would call "scrub killers" without sounding too disrespectful.  :laugh:

 

Think back to Sir Bobby's team and while we had players who would show up in big games, the entire front 6 was filled to the brim of players who would kill small teams.

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This team lacks the kill-switch and I'm not sure its the players themselves or the managerial ethos of Pardew.  I'm wondering if its a bit of both; the team generally has a chance or 2 to kill the game off and we generally miss those opportunities but they are rare in occurrence. 

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Tbh in the short time that Hughton was in the Premier League, we seemed to be similar.

 

To an extent I've always thought we'd done better against better sides as a team for quite a long time in general. SAF always stuck his best teams out against us as I recall and we'd usually give them a decent game.

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When I saw this title I thought either he'd died and was in the wrong thread, or had been named fitness coach. Disappointing.

 

Either would have been better than what we got!

 

However, I tend to agree with the OP. Saturday will tell. I won't be putting any money on us, that's for sure :(

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SAF always stuck his best teams out against us as I recall

 

That's the top reason I'm glad he's retired. I was so sick of some other sides (normally the mackems) facing a team containing the likes of Gibson, Macheda, Eagles et al and we'd get the best possible eleven every single time, even if they had a massive game merely days later.

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Motivating the squad is one of - if not the biggest - weakness Pardew has, imo. I agree with Soopa Doopa Whatshisface with regards to it being certain players that pipe everybody else up - not the manager. There are so many examples of us looking totally demotivated under Pardew.

 

Us looking motivated is completely synonymous with us having a bit of momentum. Momentum is what got us 5th in 2012. You only have to look at the way we utterly collapsed at Swansea. Four wins on the bounce, then some dodgy luck completely halts the momentum and everyone, to a man, looked a forlorn figure. I could sympathise to an extent - we had a stonewall penalty denied and conceded a poxy killer goal - but the lads completely gave up and the game could have finished 5-0. We're doing well right now but I still think there's a dormant lack of belief amongst the squad that will frequently rear its head when things aren't going well. That's because of Pardew.

 

If anything I think he perpetuates an underdog mentality and that's really annoying. We've absolutely gone to bits about 10 times during his tenure, conceding 4s, 5s, 6s and 7s. Plus there's the Mackem games, where the players look like they're shitting themselves in the tunnel. He and the players really owe us one next time they come to SJP. If we're still going well by then, the crowd will be absolutely raucous and they'll have no excuse not to be up for it.

 

You see groups of players rise to bigger occasions all the time; I doubt the manager has a great deal to do with it. But if he continues to make sensible tactical decisions and sends the team out with the right commands, we've got the quality to continue winning more games than we lose.

 

I'm not denying him all the credit for our recent run - he's obviously contributed and it's great to see us incrementally improving. But - in terms of motivating the squad - personally I think he's next to useless.

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