Picking over the bones........

Yes quality players score goals that others aren't capable of,but what I'm saying is we scored about 20 of them in one season which is a bit freakish. If it was only about having quality players there'd be no need for managers whatsoever.

My point is in a number of games where me maybe only deserved a draw we actually won because of a flash of brilliance that had nothing to do with Pardew. Surely his game plan wasn't sit tight, play for the 0-0 and hope we pinch it with a sublime 30 yard strike??? Again I'm not denying he made us defensively solid etc, just that he had more than his fair share of luck that season.

Where as this season we haven't had said luck which has meant he's had to do more to earn his corn, something he's not been able to do.

 

As I say we didn't score many worldies in that run at the start of the season. Raylor free kick against the mackems but then again, you would expect him to score a couple in a season like you would with a Baines. A good one against Everton and maybe the equaliser v Spurs were the only real individual strikes in that little run. It was mainly down to hard work, good defending. Best and Ba scored a lot from good moves, crosses and swivelling in the box. Just good team goals basically.

Not luck at all on Pardew's part. He just provided a good structure through thorough planning, players stayed fit to give consistency in selection/coherency, and then the individual quality of players was allowed to shine when needed. I don't think we had a particular big rub of the green at all. There were many decision that went for us, many that went against us.

I don't think we've had a big slice of bad luck this season either. We just have not planned for the season well. Everyone goes on about injuries and its obviously played a part. I don't think its been unlucky though in the main, we have just placed too much strain on the squad and thats when you get injuries. Pardew and more so Ashley have to answer for that.

Pardew has undoubtedly not earnt his corn this season. He has failed to deal with the different challenge he faced. One of which was to persuade the owner that we were short. He has had a poor season. I just think it is categorically wrong to suggest that he was lucky in his first season or we did well because of a freakish number of great goals. We did well because he, the board, his staff and the players did a good job. We did not do well this season because they did not. Its pretty simple to me.

 

Man Utd, Man City, Arsenal, Spurs, Chelsea all had better a better quality of players than us but we scored more world class goals from long shots/individual efforts than any of them.

It was a freakish amount of goals which ever way you choose to look at it for me. I've never seen us score so many good goals in one season, and again I'm not referring to good footballing goals (which we did score plenty of too, especially in the second half of the season away at Swansea, home to Stoke, away at West Brom).

So for me luck did play a part and probably got us an extra 10-12 points. However this season we're probably 10-12 points down due to bad luck such as Cisse's 6 league goals all wrongly ruled off side.

 

http://www.nufc.com/html/2011-12html/fixtures.html

This gives you the match reports. There aren't that many games/points won by what you would call wonder strikes. A few points here and there but nothing unusual over the course of a season with the talent we have in the squad. We were just very good that season, just as we have been very bad this season.

I've seen us score more or as many good goals as this in a season. Like Cisse, Shearer, Robert, Beardo would often have their own goal of the season reels. Robert was good for seven or eight goals a season, half them would be worldies! Nobby was more than capable of producing the Raylor numbers in free kicks. Indeed we had Robert and Shearer at the time too. Ginola/Beardo combined were capable of equalling Benni for solo goals.

The common thread throughout all is just having quality players who produce moments of pure class. All teams need that. Its not luck, its buying the right players. You need workhorses, and then you need natural ability to balance it. Have too much of one or the other and it'll fall to pieces. We've maybe lacked a bit of both. We lack a bit of quality in depth in attacking areas, and a bit of steel in the defensive areas.

I would say we were more like Bobbys team than KK's in that we relied on structure more than just free flowing moves that you would see under KK.