Lack of optimism

Yesterday's insipid performance has left me with a real negative feeling about next season long before it's even began. Pardew said he were going to put on a performance and yet it's the same old **** yet again. After the game, he talks about there being a couple of minor things needing to be addressed, and getting 1 or 2 new personnel in. If he can't see that his current team is in need to major improvements then I'm truly scared.

So what can we look forward to over this summer then?

- The probable loss of our best player and **** knows who else
- Probably two, three first team signings which will be offset by the loss of other players
- Pardew staying, same old **** come August
- Undoubtedly we'll retain Ameobi since no other ****er will want him

The problem is, I look at those teams around us, and, Stoke aside (if they retain Pulis), they can all look forward to next season with renewed optimism you feel:

Sunderland - new manager who will shake up the team. **** knows how it will turn out but I fail to see how they can get any worse.
Aston Villa - play good football with an exciting young team and if they keep Benteke and get a couple of others in will surely improve
Norwich - couple of good wins to close the season and the signing of Ricky Van Wolfswinkel, which can only make them better
Southampton - play good football, some exciting players. Only boardroom instability threatens to derail them.

I know on paper we too have some great players, but because of our useless manager either they're not performing to the best of their ability or are being made to play in a way which doesn't suit them whatsoever. So long as he stays we'll just continue to perform as we are you feel.

 

Ok, I think we have to be optimistic. What else is there? Pardew is staying, let's get over it. Ashley isn't selling, let's get over it. Who knows, maybe things will sort themselves out, maybe it would be prudent to stand by the manager for at least half of those 8 years, whether fair weather or foul.

(disclaimer - I just want to repeat that, in an ideal world, he'd already have his P45 and we'd be celebrating the arrival of Rafa Benitez. This is just an attempt to look more positively at our inevitable future.)

I was wondering what we need to do and it's really only 2 things. One is around personnel and one is around identity. For personnel, we need to up the number of leaders we have, improve the fitness coaching and increase the pace within the team. From there, we need to develop our identity as a counter-attacking force to be reckoned with. Under Pardew, we have never played that great - but those times when we have I have thought of us as quite explosive on the counter. I'm thinking of Stoke (a) the season before last when we won a comfortable 1-3. So what I'd like to see is an emphasis on having pace going forward, throughout the front 6 players. Even just going on what we have, I think we need to maybe forget about trying to be a fluid 4-3-3, as our weaker defensive players get over exposed and instead move into a 4-5-1 with a faux no9 as our primary tactic. The added difference is instead of playing traditional wingers we deploy attacking fullbacks in those positions so there is as much tendency to support as there is to attack.

Krul, Debuchy, Coloccini, Taylor, Haidara, MYM, Anita, Cabaye, Sissoko, Santon, HBA.

We may buy a new CB, new LB, new DM, new CF, and so on, but I think we need to stop copying everyone else's tactics and work out what we want to be best at. And, for me, we have all the tools at our disposal to be a counter attacking side. From the bench we have the impact of Marveaux, Gouffran and Cisse, or more steel in Tiote and Perch. We line up with Haidara as LB, Debuchy as RB and Santon/MYM as the left and right sided midfielders. Both are quite direct, MYM likes to go outside so needs to be on his stronger foot, Santon inside so needs to be on the left. A three man midfield without using a specific 'destroyer' is compensated for by having full backs on the wings. HBA instead of Cisse is about having someone very direct up the field and really forcing the club to play it out from the back. Anita and Cabaye are both good passers, Sissoko has the ability to carry the ball forward from deeper positions. I see it being him slightly behind Anita and Cabaye, because Sissoko can defend, but can then go past a man and run into acres of space at pace, a la Viera or Toure.

Just a thought, but something to chew over in these maudlin months.

 

With a couple of signings we'll be comfortably top half next season. Bit of a disastrous season but the team is miles better than the ones in the bottom half of the table. This was just a blip and giving the Jan signings a summer to bed in and get a good pre season will help.

The glass is half full etc.

 

I can't help thinking Nedders that Pardew, if he's still here, would really want to just build his team around Tiote and crucially Gutierrez ...

 

Do you really think that we were miles better than Wigan? You know, the team that have just beat Man City. IMHO opinion we've not looked miles better than any team we've played in the last 12 months.

 

Yup. I think I read somewhere about it possibly being Jonas' last game and laughed to myself. Like I said, I'm trying to be optimistic, but I have this feeling that - come 1st September and accompanied by the sound of a transfer window slamming shut - I'll be right back in the pits. I don't actually think Pardew has a clue, at all. I think he's picked up results in spite of his ability, rather than because of it. Last year, it was Ba, then Cisse with a bit of help from Cabaye, Colo and Tiote. Then Pardew started to have his influence - Tiote turned to crap, Coloccini wanted to go home and Cabaye was left carrying everything. All fingers of blame were pointed at HBA for being injured. The 1st game of 2013/14 will have the same, crappy line-up as we've seen and I think will carry an identical feeling of insipid players just not that bothered, nor fit enough to do much about it. Players will still be out of position and we will start next year with no identity at all. Steven Taylor again spouted some Pardew rhetoric about changing things so we're on the front foot, but we're not really a front-foot club, we don't have the personnel.

My deep desire is that Pardew sees things in the right light and works tirelessly until mid-August on creating a brand of football that we, as fans, can identify with, understand and - if it's not too much to ask - even enjoy on occasion. To do so he will need to work within his own limitations, invest in leaders who can carry the right message (or at least get their colleagues up and running) and ditch his current thinking, which just seems to be about copying whoever is a la mode...but badly. I hope he instills an ethos into his players to NOT hoof the ball up the field; I'd rather they whacked it out than hoofed it long, as I do not want this club anywhere near the top of any long ball stats next year.

I think you can summarise what needs to change on the back of a *** packet, but how you do it requires infinitely more nous, savvy and guile than Alan Pardew possesses.

 

]Do you really think that we were miles better than Wigan? You know, the team that have just beat Man City. IMHO opinion we've not looked miles better than any team we've played in the last 12 months

Yes I really feel we are better than Wigan. Wigan needed to beat Swansea and Villa home to stay up and they achieved neither.
We have a good team that will show it next season. Player for player we are easy top half and next season will be where we show it collectively.

 

Manager for Manager we are easily bottom 6.

 

I cant help but think theres alot more to things behind the scenes than meets the eye and nothing will be said officialy by the club attaing to those matters, the only indication weve got is the press and they can't be held as gospel as we all know. Hysteria? a ploy against the club? Home Truths?

Specificaly after the drubbings served up by sunderland and Liverpool at home and how we have performed over all in the league this season I have a fear most players are glad to see the back of this season and their confidence in Pardew is near none existant, especialy if they have disagree with the tactics which off the back of that season is a real possibility, team set up and subs and they have a valid point. I think every player will question their efforts and want to improve no doubt, but can they look forward to august? the pre season training and stomach working under someone who they may question doesnt get the best out of them as players or what the team has to offer? I think its made even worse by finishing 5th one season, then ending up in 16th only ensuring safety a week before the seasons finished.

Makes me wonder actualy what realy is the players state of minds and if we are going to lose alot more than just simpson, harper and colo.

 

Which players do you think are the players who really shone for us last season?

For a number of games I think that Haidara, Krul, Coloccini, Taylor and Sissoko performed well. Colo went missing at a crucial time - thanks for that Colo. Our midfield was awol too often. Cabaye's and Tiote's value has plummeted thanks to whatever reasons. Our defence was clearly the worst we've had in the Premiership, even worse than QPR's.
But most of the players simply did not perform for large parts of the season to anywhere near the levels they had done the season before. I blame Pardew for this.

And today you have Pardew actually celebrating that we're not in Europe! That is shocking for a club that should have some basic standards.

 

Neither the manager or the board are interested in playing European football... I guess that leaves the 'ambition' of the the current regime as being "Finish between 8th and 17th"

Happy days, eh?

 

Im not saying that a number of players shone this season. Injuries and Europe played a big part on the Saturday and Sunday performances.
Compared to the clubs immediately above us and WBA and Swans, player for player we are better than them. As we proved last season and will do again next season. Its not all doom and gloom. A couple of signings and hopefully there'll be smiles all around

 

And always will be; this way Ashley can maximise profits. This will only stop when people stop buying shirts and other merchandise.

Yes, I know, support the team and all that with the purchases but I find it hard to understand how I can support a set of players who are on £30,000 a week. If that isn't the motivation that any of these clowns require then I don't know what is.

It just galls me that Ashley has picked on Newcastle just because he knows that the one thing that he can count on are the fans turning up week in and week out, all fifty-thousand of them, which makes StJP the biggest milking shed in the country.

Things will only improve when Ashley learns that he can't take the support for granted. The footballing world sees the Newcastle fans as being one of the best sets of fans anywhere, Ashley and his spreadsheets see the same fans as being a target captive audience that he can fleece.

 

What do the following results have in common?

0-6 Liverpool
0-4 Man City
1-2 Reading
0-2 Brighton (FA Cup)
3-7 Arsenal
1-2 Swansea

Answer - they all DIDN'T follow a European match. What do the following matches have in common?

1-0 Fulham
2-1 Stoke
4-2 Southampton
2-1 West Brom
1-0 Norwich

Every one of these victories DID follow a Europa match. Conclusion? Pardew is full of sh1t.

 

On paper maybe, but do you not see the common denominator here? They have good managers who want their team to play good football. It's no fluke that they've finished where they have.

 

Just wish the press would throw stats like these at him in his press conferences every now and then instead of accepting pitiful excuses!

Good post by the way, yet more facts that show he's not up to the job. He can't even analyse our results correctly!

 

Our record, in post-Europe matches, is 5-1-9. 16 points in total. No better or worse than our record in the rest of the league matches. Averages out to 41 points.

If you look at the team who mostly took part in the Europa League (based on attendances), then it would look like this;

Krul, Simpson, Willo, Taylor, Santon, Anita, Cabaye, Bigirimana, Perch, Marveaux, Cisse.

On average, our Prem team looked like this;

Krul, Simpson, Colo, Taylor, Santon, Ben Arfa, Tiote, Cabaye, Anita, Jonas, Cisse

Now, let's also take into account that our STRONGEST XI would feature a bunch of players who hadn't touched the Europe League til February - Sissoko, Gouffran, MYM and Debuchy - and the 1st XI who meandered hopelessly towards relegation only contained three or four who played in Europe. It does not stack up.

Look at Chelsea. NINE of their players managed to play more than 36 games this season, SIX of those more than 40...including grandpa Lampard. So tiredness isn't an excuse, surely? It cannot be, the same XI who usually took to the field in Europe rarely featured more than a handful of Sunday starters, so it doesn't stack up.

One thing that really p's me off (among a sea of issues, granted) is that a line-up will flash up on BBC text, or Sky, and you'll look at it thinking "is that 4-4-2? or 4-3-3? or 4-1-2-2-1?" knowing that whichever 'formation' it is will leave AT LEAST ONE player out of position!! Not only that, but you then get an infographic showing you what the line up is, yet you feel it's a guess and, yup, he really does have Jonas in Central Midfield.

 

I don't think we are. Our squad is completely unbalanced. Fair enough if you throw in a couple of quality strikers, a centre back and a quality winger. Its a big IF with us though.

 

On paper aye. Liverpool and above are better but the rest aren't and we'll be the top of that pile next season. All we need is a couple of signings and we'll be well away.
Its been a **** season but its been the same for a load of teams.
Pardew or no Pardew that team will be top ten next year.

 

Rep!