A fans opinion of Pardew and our football philosophy...

"I'm not massively displeased with anything Pardew did today (ie. today in isolation). Thought his team selection was fine and it was one of the occasions were we started out of the blocks pretty quickly (a phenomena I can count on my hands this season) for which he deserves credit. His pre-match comments about revenge for last season impressed me also.

The injury to Debuchy really threw us, and encouraged them. They also got a goal off some horrible "defending" from Santon.

I can certainly understand the viewpoint that it was enough to derail us/encourage them, and to an extent I'd agree, but I do think that in a moment like that (and the subsequent injury to Haidara), it really exposes a team's true level - insofar as they revert to what they know/are comfortable with - their default setting, if you will.

Under Pardew, their default setting hasn't been very good if we're honest. It's been a scatter-shot, supremely optimistic "strategy" of playing in Ba, then Cisse early. It's an attack which is comprised of straight lines which at all times point forwards, and at all times are easily telegraphed by opposing defences - if not always dealt with.

Sometimes, the quality of the balls played is enough to let these passes come off - but the balance of probabilities is generally stacked against us when we try to break down a team like this. The additions of Gouffran and Sissoko have added new attacking qualities which have been very encouraging - attacking midfielders/wing-forwards who can run at defences with pace and power. The past few games these runs have begun to operate in straight lines too, sadly. I hope it isn't too indicative of things to come.

I think some fans are happy to see us run/graft and that's fine for them - what will be, will be. Some days you will get the rub of the green, others you won't. There is only so much can that be done, basically. Other fans, I think, are frustrated with the misuse/unfulfilled potential of our resources, and that's where all this aggro/hostility towards between the two sides emanates from.

I fall into the latter category. I want us to win/be successful/play good football. Others are IMO overly-concerned with other fans thinking they are deluded for believing there is more we can achieve than squeezing a top 10 finish here and there. I'm convinced our squad can do more, I'm convinced better football can be eked from the squad and I believe better results will follow if/when this is done. I won't be happy until it does, and I'm sure that will wind a lot of other posters up This is not my intention. I don't think Pardew can get us playing good football, that's all.

I don't understand the rationale/evidence behind any assertion to the contrary, based on what we have seen in his managerial career so far (here or elsewhere)."

Absolutely spot on in my honest opinion, I like Pardew but all in all he is not the man to take us forward, we may do OK have a good cup run here and there finish in the top half occasionally but we will never amount to anything serious with him at the helm.

This isn't just a knee jerk reaction to today but I saw this post elsewhere and couldn't help but nod to every word.

 

Recently, the team have improved in certain aspects and in certain games, and that goes for the tactics as well. Today was definitely not one of those games. We were set-up to counter-attack with our defenders and midfielders constantly too deep, as Wigan themselves were set-up to defend their own half and nothing more until they won possession.

Wigan were very well organised and clearly instructed to be robust in the challenge, with a number of instances of strong "tackles" on our better players (eg Scharner on Sissoko). We had very little idea beyond working it wide and hitting a long-ball, which didn't work (and never will with Cisse upfront) and put us under pressure, even more so when players made mistakes. More mistakes were forced if we passed it into Wigan's half (as above, they essentially forfeited our half and defended theirs as default) because they'd rush out and put pressure on the ball.

Really we should have pushed our defenders on. Kone and Maloney probably aren't as fast as Mbiwa and Santon (certainly not with the ball), so if we'd have pushed up we could have put Wigan under pressure in their own half, instead of keeping it in ours pointlessly before instantly giving it away in theirs.

Pardew certainly might have expected more from the midfield trio, but as with most of the team they were very leggy from Europe, but that merely compounded the main issue we've had for a while now, the isolated striker. Marv on the right is a bit of a waste and he was a different player in the middle, and Santon certainly seemed to enjoy it down the flank a lot more than any other player this season. That's worth exploring for me.

Obviously the early subs restricted his chance of changing the game, but I think he was set-up to beat last year's Wigan and it put us under pressure, and that a-long with collective individual failure (possibly down to fatigue) were major contributors to the defeat. But on the latter point, he has a squad, why not use it?

I'm not convinced with Pardew at all, and would prefer a man who doesn't mold his team into a solid shape and then hope to god one of the players breaks that mold and scores a brilliant goal, for us to win a game. I think with the squad we have, we could and should be playing better football.

 

For to long today Cisse was isolated, he made runs to pull the defenders out, but no one was running into the space he'd created. If Gouffran or Marveaux had been the deep attacker/advanced midfielder they would have had the instinct to use the space. Sissoko looked jaded and was ineffective in our attack today, not faulting his effort he just didn't look as sharp as usual.

The early injuries forced the subs and restricted the changes we could make later in the game. I just wished we'd gone for a bit of a gamble in attack earlier than we did as Wigan were begining to look vulnerable.

My concerns now lie with the length of time players are missing and seeing out the season with sufficient quality across the pitch, as we will need a bit of rotation.

 

still have lots of new players so need to give them another 4-5 games to get settled into the system then it would be easier to comment. long balls to cisse are annoying as **** tho

 

It's all very well criticising Alan Pardew this season, but isn't it amazing how quickly people forget the awards he won last season?

We qualified for the Europa League and have had truly awful injuries this season - that's compounded by the extra fixtures of course.

I would agree that he's very limited tactically, and that there are far better managers in the game...

Who should/could we attract who is better?

Why would anyone want to work with Mike Ashley?

Pardew has a long-term contract and unless we get relegated, we're going to be stuck with him for a fair while yet.

Opinions are like arseholes, everyone's got one and most of them stink.

Get comfortable... Alan Pardew is here for a while yet.

 

our style of player is terrible!!!!!!!!!!!! we never control a game in any way shape or form and get drawn inot a physical battle!!!!!! this is why we get injuries so often and why we should be mving towards a less direct and more controlled passing game.

 

Exclamation marks don't add to the value of an opinion.

This season, we were sabotaged by a lack of summer investment and hampered by bad injuries. As a result, we played far too many games with players who were not up to it. It is difficult to develop style with a constantly changing group of underskilled players.We have played a much more passing game recently, and expect that this will continue to become more and more the case, as the players bed in and the ability to make use of their talent is more fully exploited.

Yesterday, we were leggy and flat. Wigan were rested and up for it. We had some bad luck.

I fully agree that we should expect a decent standard of football and to be challenging for Europe each season. I don't think you can conclude that Pardew is incapable of producing that on the basis of this season.

 

For me we did try to control the game with Wigan just hitting on the break. We just lacked penetration as our flair players were stuck out wide.

 

I posted something similar regarding Gouffran and Sissoko on the Chronicle match report. In under 2 months, Pardew has somehow managed to turn Gouffran from a forward making intelligent runs and opening space to a midfielder of little impact. Similarly, he is playing Sissoko far too high up the pitch, which completely neutralises his strengths of running from deep and getting beyond the strikers.

As a result, we look completely static and are opening up no space to exploit. We're hoping for a goal rather than creating anything.

It's a genuine worry.

 

we are going down and the refs are making damn sure of it!!! Man City next No Ben Arfa, Cabaye, Debuchy, Krul, Colo and now Haidara we are as they say totally ****ed.

 

Yes, yes, yes but we do have Gosling back so..............OMG we are totally ****ed!

 

Exactly and this foul play is overshadowing a the major injury concerns we have going into a relegation battle now!!! couple that with the fact we get no support from refs and teams below us our getting away with criminal activities I'd say we're ****ed.

 

Doubtful. We've spent over half a season with injury troubles, with the most severe crisis-situations being on the approach to tough fixtures. Man Utd, Arsenal etc.

In these games we tend to actually show quite a lot of courage because nobody expects a performance. In line with that, I think we'll see a battling display against Man City, though we of course won't get any points.

If we end up being relegated, which is a distinct possibility the way our luck is going, I think it'd be better for our collective sanity if we just crashed and burned, than went down by the 3 points we could have had at Wigan!

 

keep your rose tinted glasses on mate if it helps but the fact it we were ****e yesterday regardless of the tackle and that is down to the fact we are missing too many key players. Man City next so thats a loss and the teams behind us are getting better just like the season we went down refs are also ensuring it occurs.

plus we lost all those games

 

Never mind the rose-tinted, you should perhaps calm down! We actually went up a place in the league, we're only a point off Stoke and our form - 4 wins out of the last 7 - is ok. City are arguably the one team in the league with absolutely fck all to play for!! We'll comfortably survive - we got minced by Wigan last year and played far worse, but I don't remember that being a crisis. We got a massive slice of bad luck....3 days after Anji had a man sent off, then hit the bar in the 88th minute before we won with the absolute last kick. SO it's swings and roundabouts. 3 years ago, if someone said - "your team will have the likes of Papiss Cisse, Yohan Cabaye, Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa and Sissoko in it, you'll be in the last 8 of the Europa League" you'd have laughed.

 

Happy wth Pardew and although he has not had a great season personally, overall his rein has been a resounding success. He did panic a bit when the going got tough and I think this was passed on to the players. Hopefully he'll learn from it, the players will, the fans will and we can take that lesson forward. That is what others managers have done when they've had a tough spell early on at a club and went to make a success of it.

I think we've played some really nice football since the boost of new players, certainly could not be described as long ball in my eyes. I see the long ball thing a bit differently to many. People think that's his style of play and he was sending them out to play like that. I disagree and have seen it loads of times before. Its a matter of confidence and players wanting to play. When the chips are down and you get on a bad trot, they stop wanting the ball and take the safe easy way out. More often than not, that is pumping it. Krul, Willo, Saylor, Simpson, Santon were all guilty of it. Cabaye, Tiote etc were guilty of not showing for it. Its a fear thing. A manager and his staff is responsible for getting them to stay calm and stick to the plan, I think that is where the panic came and he came up short a little. Hopefully he'll learn from it. Of course it is a lot easier when your resources are deeper and you have better players too!

Our performances in Europe and the tactical awareness Pardew has shown have been first class. The players seem really well drilled.

I see no reason why Pards can't take us forward.

 

Nope we have stubbled over the line for a few games mate and that is all and we also have new injury nightmares.

I'm tired of being right but we'll all see what I'm on about in the coming weeks

 

Not sure I agree we have been pretty poor against far from brilliant sides.

Anzi are ok but when we play Benfica it's bye bye dreams

 

Anzhi are a good side. Metalist are a good side. Bordeaux are good side (look at Benfica's troubles with them). We have been very good in Europe. We have looked very solid and given some tactically versatile performances. Particularly away from home, our resolve has been excellent. We have had a poor season in the league but for a club like us, we've exceeded expectations in Europe. We probably will go out to Benfica and there will be no shame in that.

Not everyone can be Barcelona, relative to our resources and development we have done outstandingly well.

 

We have too many key players missing and I think we will get relegated if we lose the next 3 games