I really don't understand Pardew! What is he trying to do with our team?!

Pardew and Carver go after players like Bigi, who is a fantastic young prospect. Only 18 and he's quick, a good tackler and will be a fantastic passer of the ball in a couple of years. A technical football player.

We have Ba and Cisse, who are both great finishers and both have fantastic first touches and good skill on the deck. We have HBA who is immense and easily our best player. We have Cabaye who, if given a bit of freedom, is a top class playermaker and could score 5-7 goals a season. We have Tiote who is excellent, but needs a proper defensive midfield role. In a 4-4-2 he seems to commit more fouls as he's required to do a lot of chasing around.

So why then, does Pardew insist on playing 4-4-2?

I personally thought he was a genious he adopted the 4-2-1-3 formation. It was absolutely perfect for our team, and produced the best football, and got us the best run of results!!

Ba------Cisse-------Ben Arfa

----------Cabaye----------

----Jonas----------Tiote------

Santon--Colo----Saylor----Simpson

-------------Krul--------------

In this formation, Tiote is given clear instruction to be that defensive rock. His job is protect the back four, and our front 3 and Cabaye are relied upon for our attacking quality. Everyone knows their role. Tiote seems more relaxed in this formation, and stays back as an extra defender.

In this formation, Jonas is there to aid the left fullback and he can also provide holding midfield quality at the back, and win us a lot of freekicks.

Cabaye is given a bit of freedom from defensive duties, and provides a lot more gorgeous short passes to set up chances, and he pretty much wins us a lot of games when given that freedom.

Ben Arfa is set loose, and is able to cause panic in defenses during attacks.

Ba, Cisse and Ben Arfa in a 4-2-1-3 make opponents **** themselves, and in this formation, it's impossible for the opposition to mark all of them.

So please explain to me why Pardew is making us play this 4-4-2 formation! It is ****ing us over!!! Ben Arfa is held back, Cabaye and Tiote are both uncomfortable, and the two strikers cannot win **** in the air, which means more possession for the opposition!

 

Couldn't have put it better myself to be fair, 4-4-2 is an out dated formation these days and has been for about the last 3-5 years (IMO it's one of the main reasons for England's failings).

 

I personally think it can work, but you need to play a big man up front, otherwise you're just gifting the opposition possession.

 

I can see the plus points to both formations, overall I prefer 4-3-3. But Ba, possibly our best player, left wing? Joke.

 

But the thing about our formation, the one we adopted last season, is that we can rotate plays around. We can switch Ba and Cisse around in that ST role, and Ben Arfa can play on both sides!

We can play that formation and give all 3 players a go in each formation. Watch the WBA game again, and Ben Arfa had effect from each side.

 

It seems as if Pards doesn't know what he's doing himself sometimes. Therefore the players don't know what they're supposed to be doing and we end up like we did on Sunday getting whipped.

 

Anyone else find it weird these days to know that even if Pardew persisted with 4-4-2 and we lost eight games in a row he'd still be in a job? Almost unheard of for us! As much as Pardew frustrates me at times I'm glad he's here long term and it can only be good for the players to know that the manager is going to have a fairly substantial amount of time to mould the team in to his style (like Moyes has done at Everton).

I actually think Pardew could learn a lot from Moyes, as no matter what injuries Everton have the always play 4-4-1-1 and in the same style of play. It means the players coming in know exactly what is expected of them and the team always looks well drilled positionally.

 

This is Newcastle United at the end of the day. If Frustration and "ffs" wasn't in our season, we wouldn't be Newcastle United.

 

Why are you surprised? look at Pardews managerial record before he went to Newcastle, their is a reason he had never worked in a top job, and there was a reason he could only get charlton to 11th in the championship, and managed West Ham to their worst run of defeats in 70 years.

Don't get me wrong, he done fantastic last season, yet George Burley managed to get Ipswich to 5th in the premier league in a full season, doesn't mean he was a great manager.

Pardew simply isn't tactically astute, so now the pressure is on for him to deliver, build on last season and prove it wasn't a fluke, I expect it will be a season of frustrations, odd tactics, loss of form, and soon you will realise your chairman made a huge mistake by handing him a 8 year contract.

 

Or perhaps he knows what he's doing and he actually is better at making these decisions than us.

We lost to Man U with our central defenders out. Admittedly, it took us 20 minutes to start palying football and by then the game was just about over.

Try not to runaround in ever diminishing circles just because it's the international break with no decent football for 2 weeks.

 

Oh just **** off man will you? you think you know better? I ****ing knew arseholes like you would start blaming the manager when we failed to live up to lasts seasons heights!!!!! we speny no money, are playing twice as many games as other teams, Everton, Fulham etc have strenghtened and are not in europe so just use your brain son.

I ****ing told you this when we argued over your deluded predictions regarding top 4

WE ARE 10TH and have had some hard games - we have played 4 of the current top 5!! we slipped up againts Reading and Villa but we didn't lose did we? the way I see it is if we beat Sunderland we are in a fantastic position with West Brom at home after that.

ps

we haven't had our best team on the pitch so he has had to take tactical changes.

4-3-3 with 3 of our best defence out and he may feel won't work and to be fair it didn't last time.

 

Nothing to do with formations for me. We have proven many times in the past that we can play both formations. Also when we play 442 its not as if its a rigid 442 of years gone by, it clearly is not. It becomes 4411 at times, 433 at other times, 424 at times, and probably 451 aswell. We just need to get some of our spine back in the team, get some form into the likes of Tiote and Cabaye (showing his first signs of life), and the team will take care of itself whichever formation we play.

We actually did alright overall on Sunday considering the oppo, but the performance goes down as sub standard because of the way we conceded the first two goals. That is purely down to personnel. Of course you have to credit Man U aswell for starting like a train. It wouldn't have mattered one little bit on Sunday if we had started 433. We'd still have been standing admiring them for the first 15mins, and that is where our problem lies. We aren't in form and we are not applying ourselves from minute 1. This is what took us so far last season.

I understand Pardew fully and think he is doing a fine job.

 

People obviously over reacted to this post. I'm not saying Pardew is a bad manager and is doing a bad job, some people need to clam the **** down.

I love Pardew, but I just don't understand the reason for staying 4-4-2, when 4-3-3 clearly suits our team better.

And Warm Pouch, I kind of agree with you, I've noticed our formation changing during the game, however, why is it that we often have Ba and Cisse up front in a 4-4-2, the goal keeper hoofing it long and we rely on Ba and Cisse to win us headers against CB's? It's not really a good idea, as neither can really challenge a good CB for that kind of ball.

We should try and keep it on the deck, as we're not really a physical side, and we have a lot of technical ability. We should aim to play it across the ground.

 

No real need for the face palm.

If you re-read your OP you will notice it's tone verges on the hysterical. There are some decent observations in it, but it reads like the work of someone with far too little sleep and far too much caffeine who has let his anxieties run amok. Hence the "calm down dear" tone of many of the responses.

 

You'll never here me disagree with keeping it on the deck! I do however think we are quite a physical side, but a footballing physical side. I'm not sure why we have found ourselves going long but again I suspect it is down to personnel. Williamson has so little time on the ball, and so little confidence in his ability with the ball that he often ends up pumping it. We lack a bit of belief at present. Throw in our central midfield duo have either not been there or just not playing well, they have less confidence in feeding it htorugh the midfield area.

One thing I noted on Sunday early doors is that we had this logic to go deep and try to stop them first and foremost. You'll always end up going long playing like that. They got on our first touch (which should have likewise for us but wasn't) and we were pressured to go long. Ba and Cisse are strong lads but hopeful balls above head height are not their game. I assume this is down to the players and Pards is not instructing them to go long. If he is then its foolish because our best player is Ben Arfa, and you need it on the deck to get him in the game. Most PL teams have a decent centre back pairing that will lap up long balls.

I do think some of them playing up top may be to keep Ba happy but who knows on that front. I hope not because the team is the more important issue. What I do know is we are capable of playing both 433 and 442 succesfully if we play the right kind of football and apply ourselves. People often said we over achieved last year. I don't think we did. The difference to this year if I was giving a harsh assessment is that last year every point meant more and we got the maximum from ourselves as a team. I'm not sure we're quite doing that yet. Pards can set us anyway he wants, if the players themselves don't believe and apply, then it'll be meaningless whichever way we set up.

 

Not really. I had a drink last night, so I may have used 1 or 2 more exclamation marks and "****s" than I normally would, but I re-read it this morning, and none of it is over the top or hysterical. It is all just observations and well made points and arguments.

I've got people telling me that I'm blaming the manager for these things, I'm not. Pardew is a smart man, so there must be a reason and a new strategy he is trying to develop, but I personally do not understand it. I'm trying to understand Pardew's logic.

 

I know what you mean. At the end of the day our performances in the 4-4-2 formation have been mostly poor, but to be fair, we've gotten a decent amount of points for a team playing badly.

Pardew must believe that we are capable of playing well in a 4-4-2, and it will eventually work out. I personally think it would be better to play 4-4-1-1, with Ba up top and Cisse just behind him, ready to control chest downs, then Ben Arfa rushing to aid a quick attack or something.

 

Well, the tone struck some of us as over excited.

As for Pardew's thinking, I expect it may be the result of a relatively simple problem that has trouble a number of good manager's over the years: what do you do when you have 2 excellent players who both want to play the same position. There is a natural urge to try to accomodate them if possible. As a result, he has been playing Ba and Cisse both down the middle. Much of the rest flows from that decision.

Or maybe something completely different. That's just my best guess.

 

Tash.. you've summed up my frustration perfectly.... well said.

 

With Colo, Simpson Ryan Taylor and S Tylor out we can do what ever formation you like and still not be as good as last season.

Needless to say we have been without Tiote and Cabaye for too mant games of the 7.