MYM - I got bullied by big boys

http://www1.skysports.com/football/...ans-the-physical-nature-of-the-premier-league

Seriously at least he is honest enough to admit some of his struggles. I do think he is deluding himself somewhat regarding possession, his passing is pretty poor and he is not the best generally on the ball. Maybe the pace of the game here made him look worse than he was. Anyway it sounds like he is glad to see the back of England! I suppose with that being the case it made sense to move him on and replace him with someone better suited. Oh hang on.............

 

Who is stretching reality to suit his personal view now then? He never said "I was bullied by big boys". He said that things didn't work out "Perhaps because in England they see things in a different away, everything there is based on physicality." 'They' obviously implies Pardew, who we know didn't fancy Mapou because of his lack of heading ability and overall lack of physicality, instead preferring Willo and Saylor. Nowhere does he suggest that he could not handle the physicality of the English game - this comes in time. He is merely talking about what his manager looked for in a defender.

 

He has certainly benefitted! The reality is should have shipped him out with Mbiwa for permanent moves with fees. It really does piss all over the "Pardewed" argument though that he basically confesses it just wasn't for him. We all know Saylor isn't good enough, but just refuse to take our medicine like a normal club, sell both for reduced fees then get the two quality centre backs patently required. We just love corner cutting. That should have been done at the start of the summer. We should have forced Stokes hand for Shawcross or someone of that ilk.

 

Settle down thats really upset you hasn't it. You'll notice I started the paragraph "Seriously..." acknowledging that he said nothing of the sort. It does not imply Pardew preferring anything to me. Otherwise he'd just say "the coach........." He is talking about the game in general in England which we all saw he coped badly with, and he is admitting.

 

Admittedly I overlooked the 'seriously' part of your post, but I still think he's talking about his general experiences here and how he was looked upon by the manager rather than admitting to struggling with the English game. "Things didn't work out in England for me" - he's leaving because the manager doesn't fancy him, so evidently things didn't work out. But it's possible he may come back for whatever reason, so perhaps he's astute enough not to burn all his bridges by criticizing Pardew.

 

"Things didn't work out in England for me.

"Perhaps because in England they see things in a different away, everything there is based on physicality."


I would read the "they" as being "the English" rather than any specific individual. On that reading it is a fairly commonly expressed view.

 

Nothing wrong with not enjoying the game here either, it isn't for everyone. Some take to it, some adapt to it, but there have been others who have just not enjoyed it, particularly the physicality. We have a habit of believing everything we are fed about the PL being much better than leagues everywhere else in the world. I prefer our game from a watching point of view. However some players much prefer the game in Spain, Germany or Italy for example. People always assume its the climate (which plays a part for some), but it can also be that the football just suits their game more.

Some of our players would find that if they stepped foot of these isles to try a different culture or style of football.

 

I don't think players worry too much about that. They burn bridges all the time and then have to deal with them again. It might be that he likes Pardew and it just wasn't for him. Certainly Cabella seemed to dispel the myth the french players don't like Pardew when he was talking about how happy he was with his move. He commented that Remy, Cabaye, Debuchy, Sissoko only had good things to say about the club. He spoke well of Pardew. I know it is popular to work everything back to Pardew but there isn't a lot of support for some of these theories.

There is only confirmed criticism of Pards - HBA

 

I'm fairly sure Debuchy criticised Pardew while he was here?

 

Can't find any quotes

 

It was when he went to the World Cup, criticised Pardew for reigning in his attacking instincts, or summat. Doesn't matter now.

 

Some would say that your response is 'stretching reality to suit his personal view' .......

 

He was never up to the job really was he.
We only ended up with him when Arsenal and Man U pulled the plug on deals - makes you wonder why..
In the best interests of himself and the club that he's gone.
Maybe it will give one of the youngsters a chance to come through instead of being stuck behind the deadwood like him and Taylor.

 

Sound principal. However, once we lose a couple on the spin, Pardew will resort to "protecting" the young ones and we'll end up with Saylor as captain.

 

Pardews a dinosaur tactically

 

I do seem to remember something about this, but not sure it was a criticism, more about having to adapt. Make no mistake we needed him too at the time because we were conceding goals for fun and he was getting caught out. He found a perfect balance eventually. Were we not missing Tiote too? He'll be much better off at a club like Arsenal who have the players to allow that. That's the truth of it, we aren't that good.

 

Further comments reported which confirm MYM was talking about the league not the manager. And finally putting to bed the notion that right back was a foreign position to him, horses mouth and all that.

“My spell in England wasn’t a success. They don’t see things in the same way, it’s a lot more physical over there.

“Things are different here in Italy. They play more football. The Italian league is very similar to Ligue 1. I will try to show that my time in England was simply a mistake.

“I’ll do whatever the team and coach need me to. We definitely have a great squad and we’ll do everything we can to achieve success.

“I can also play on the right and am happy to do so, but my preferred position is centre back.”

 

He can play right back but as he said his preferred position is centre back and he defintely looked more comfortable in the latter.

I think the guy suffered a hammer blow to his morale after the Everton game. Granted, he didn't play very well but the team, particularly defensively in the first half were all over the place. The sending off against Liverpool was unfortunate but a good portion of the blame for it must go on Tiote and most defenders would have committed the foul so I don't really blame him for it. When he had a decent run in the team next to Williamson he looked good imo and we looked pretty good overall with a three match winning streak.

Now, as much as I love Colo, he should never been allowed to waltz back into the team so easily. Now for Mbiwa, who seemed to be gaining some confidence, it must have took another serious blow to his morale and surely Pardew must take blame for that as it is poor man management. You surely must stick with the team that is getting results at that moment? After that it was various cameo appearances. I mean the latter half of that season was mostly terrible and Mbiwa did start in the Southampton game, losing 1-0 at half time he was subbed and then we proceed to concede three more goals so I think that was a reflection on just how generally low on confidence and **** we were during that time. Most would agree that nothing has changed much on that front.

 

No doubt he was unfortunate in some ways. Everton was an unmitigated disaster home and away for him. He was awful. Others had bad games too. Ben Arfa was diabolical in the away game. Colo terrible in the home game. I could run through a number of bad games he had. The bottom line is he had more bad ones than good ones at both centre back and right back.

It would be very rare though for a captain not regain his position in the team when coming back from absence. He did justify it too with a good performance. I don't level all our problems at MYM. Far from it. He is just one of a set of defenders who are either not that good or ill suited to our league. Personally I don't rate Mbiwa or Saylor. I think they are poor. Willo I think is ok as a 4th choice centre back at this level. Colo is good enough but very injury prone. Haidara looks poor defensively. Dummett offers nothing going forward. Santon has been terrible defensively. So out of a number of players across the various positions we basically have Janmaat and Colo who are good enough for a top 10 PL side! One is injury prone and the other doesn't know the league yet. Its absolutely comical on the part of the club.

The lad himself is admitting it wasn't for him. They have surely known that as we did in May. To not do something about it is criminal. We've left with the limited Willo, the equally hapless Saylor and Colo, who may or may not stay fit.

Then we have strikers..................

As I said after we made the signings, the quality is not good. The depth is no better. We still won't learn our lesson with regard to signing too many foreign lads ill suited to the league (particularly in the spine of the team) I kept hearing "no excuses for Pardew now". First off in what way? Does it really matter who the manager is? Whoever it is I want them to be equipped with enough quality and enough depth to at least look at the top half. The problem has and always will be much higher up the food chain than Pardew or Mbiwa.