I think our 4-4-2 long ball strategy is only temporary.

There's no way Pardew would continue to buy technical players like Anita, Bigi, and plan to go after the likes of Debuchy, if we're just gonna play long balls from now on.

Pardew has said that a lot of his players haven't hit form yet, so maybe he's waiting before changing to 4-3-3 passing football until he thinks we're ready to play it and make it a success?

During our good run where we played 4-3-3, Cabaye and Tiote were both playing and on form, so maybe Pards thinks it's a bit too risky with Tiote being totally off it and our newer players still settling in?

I think it's going to take time, and Pardew is a smart man, I have full faith that he will get us playing good football in the future, but we've been hurt by injuries and suspensions so much already, that maybe he thinks a more direct approach will get better results for the short term, while we get settled down?

For a team that has supposed to have had a bad start we're still only 2 pts behind Arsenal and Spurs, and a couple of wins would take us in the top 5/6, so It's too early to get worried, and we've done alright despite not hitting form.

 

I reckon it'll be 4-4-2 all the way from now on, personally. If he's studied our game, as he seems to make allusion to, he knows we've historically done best with 4-4-2, and a pretty direct 4-4-2 at that...

I don't really care what formation he plays, though, as long as we keep possession better, create more chances for our strikers, and put in better deliveries full stop. Defensively we're alright, so if he can provide this, I'll be a happy man

 

The football that wins games is what matters, but we play better and are more efficient in a 4-3-3.

 

Perhaps, but I don't want to see us completely bypass flair players to win games. Why buy a Ferrari and drive it like a Prius?

Long ball cannot possibly be used tomorrow. We tried it last year and were comfortably dealt with. Swansea practice putting men around the danger so they come away with the ball most of the time, and we know how good they are with possession. If we do it again this year, I'll be pissed.

 

There's far more to our game than long balls. People seem to class us as a long ball team, but some of our goals have come from great play and skill.

Spurs played a lot of long balls when they had Crouch, but that doesn't mean they were a long ball team, if you catch my drift.

We just don't have the resources to play long balls, and that's what annoys me. If we had Andy Carroll, then fine, I understand why we'd play that as we could make it work, but Cisse cannot win anything in the air, Ba isn't great at winning headers against CB's, and Shola isn't amazing at doing it either. We don't have the players to do it!

We have a lot of technical players, and I'm sick of us knocking it long, not because most people think it's an un-attractive style of play, but because we don't have the players to make it work. Knocking it long 85% of the time, in our case, just gives possession back to the opposition, as we cannot win many headers.

Cisse was at his best in a more technical style of play, because he had the support and he was in a good style for him. 4-4-2 and direct football makes him totally useless. He was anonymous in some games he played in a 4-4-2 last year. I remember when he played vs Sunderland at home in a 4-4-2. He was a passenger. As soon as we played 4-3-3, he looked far better. He was more than just a goal scorer, he made good passes, showed good skill on the ball, and assisted attacks.

 

I don't think we set out in matches to play long ball all the time, but that we go to it as default as the game progresses either because a) the opposition have scored and we've given up on build-up play (which happens far too quickly for my liking), or b) we've brought on Shola.

The game against West Ham was ridiculous. Anita, Ben Arfa, Cabaye and Ferguson are not going to get anywhere near Diame in the long ball game, and as a tactic I described it as mind bogglingly stupid, and it proved to be so

 

I said to my mate a few weeks ago that I think this long ball 4-4-2 **** that Pardew is doing is setting us up for an AC return next year... just so the team get used to it, he's mentioned him a few times and the story keeps cropping up in not just local but national newspapers. At the start I thought it was something to do with him trying to keep Ba happy but as the season went on my feelings changed...

 

I'll wait until we get our first team on the pitch and then judge how he wants to play. We're not Man U, Man C or Chelsea whereby a first team player drops out and one of similar quality just slots in and nothing changes. I think there are some small tweaks that Pardew can make to help us as I noted in ACS's thread. Bigi being one when we lose Cheik. People seem to have forgotten we played 442 a lot last year too. As I've said formations only take you so far. At some point it comes down to the personnel you can put on the pitch, their quality, their time playing together to develop cohesion and of course form.