Before we get all the 'Pardew is clueless' articles, the 'Hello Championship' articles and the 'We are doomed' articles, lets have a little bit of perspective. We knew before the season started that this would be a long season and we knew we would have good and bad times. Right now, our form is honking, yes, but we are still out of the bottom 3, and haven't been in the bottom 3 all season. People will blame Ashley for getting rid of Hughton and Carroll, the reality is, Pardew has had more success than Hughton this season if I am honest and Carroll left because he wanted to, forget about it. Bad things about the game: - We didn't look like scoring often enough - Our defence was shocking (mainly Sol) - Enrique injured - Tiote booked (out for 2 games) - Goal difference has taken a hit - We are out of the top half of the table Good things: - We should have some players back from injury in the next couple of weeks - We are still 4 points clear of the bottom 3 - We are only 2 wins away from safety. - We are 11th and there are plenty teams in worse off positions than us. - Our next two games are against Wolves and Villa, two teams below us who we are more than capable of beating. - We still have to play Birmingham, West Brom and Blackpool and we should win some of these matches. Our aim before the start of this season was to finish 17th or higher. We are still on target to do that and if we do stay up, we have an exciting summer of transfer activity to come and can look to push on with some stability. I don't think 4-0 was a fair assessment of the game today and we controlled the game for long periods. All in all, not a good day at the office but this league just shows you, we were chasing Europe 2 games ago, now we are all of a sudden in freefall, but by no means are we looking like going down, lets have some confidence! HWTL.
Agree with the article but Wolves next and they are getting points and have the morale to beat us whereas our players look stripped of confidence. Massive games coming up and a big thankyou to Arsenal.
I Hope your right. I don't think 40 points will be safe this season though. Our current form is frightening. We need to buck our ideas up and quick
Pardew is worrying me now. I liked him more than Hughton, but some of his tactics and player choices are starting to frustrate me. Selecting Campbell was a terrible decision, and the fact that Lovenkrands keeps being selected is probably the most annoying thing of all.
The Wolves game is a massive game undoubtedly, but if your not up for this game, you shouldn't be in football. I have faith in Pardew, Nolan, Barton and Harper to get the boys up and raring for the game and get 3 points which would bring back some comfort.
Danny, you were the first one to comment in my ''welcome'' article back when I joined the old606(Aug 2010 if I'm correct).. and this has been spot on mate. Main target was always staying up, but some people got a bit too carried away(like me) and started thinking we could achieve a comfortable finish to the season and qualify for Europe, but now reality hits back and hits us right in the head. Without Best we don't look decent enough upfront with Strolla and the non-existent Loverman. Wolves is a must-win game though IMO. Only REAL positive is that Ferguson looks more than capable enough to fill in Enrique's/Guti's boots out left-wing/left-back. We have a very, very good potentially gifted player on our hands and we need to start giving him chances to shine(same with Ranger/Vuckic).
I must admit, I do agree that Lovenkrands constant selection is getting frustrating, he is so ineffective. Although I admit, Sol was abysmal today, it looked to be a good decision on paper, just didn't work out the way we all hoped!
100% agree mate We do not need to be getting on Pards' back right now. I do not want another late-season managerial shake up!! Injuries have ****ed us over is all. We'll bounce back. We'll be safe, don't worry.
One problem with our current situation is that without a good striker we're going to struggle to finish high enough to attract a good striker...
You make a fair point, but in todays world money talks, and we have plenty of that. I think in Best, Nolan and Shola, we will have just enough to take us into next season.
Being honest, I would have taken a point this morning and I'll bet that just about everyone on here would have as well. We didnt expect anything from this game, and the scoreline has more gloss on it than it needs to. First goal, he's headed it perfectly and I dont blame Campbell for it. Second goal is beyond belief, Harper might as well have walked it into the net himself and then Campbell failed to clear it. Third goal took a deflection, the wall should have taken that one, he just booted it. Fourth was a simple flick on, route one football displayed perfectly. The fact is though if you had missed all four goals you wouldnt have thought we played that badly, we had our share of possession and could have scored a couple. I'm not going to slate Pardew but he said he wouldnt play Stoke at their own game and plays 5-3-2 when we have Jonas on the bench and could easily have had a more effective 4-4-2 instead of experimenting when we dont need to. Also we arent going to miss Tiote on this kind of form, he was not himself and could easily have been off. Bottom line, we need a win against Wolves without Tiote but hopefully with Enrique and Ireland. A shame we have 2 weeks with this result on our backs. And Ferguson looks class, I wish he'd scored after that little run where he just went past them with ridiculous ease.
Also how many times do we need to play Campbell before we realise he just isnt up to it? He is not fit enough or fast enough to cope with premier league football anymore.
Spot on Danny. Very good post! And just want to add my appreciation of that little gem that is Ferguson. Lots of games for him please Mr Pardew!
Harper is unlikely to to get anybody raring to go with his inept performance today and gifting them one goal and being half an hour late attempting to save another. We've always known his kicking was suspect but you'd expect any professional to be able to get the ball up the field when he had all the time in the world to do it.
Lets leave the manager out of this. What can he do apart from work within the limited squad he has? He will know Lover is crap, but probably also knows that Ranger is also not up to the job hence his non-selection. We are feeling the pinch like most newly promoted sides do-- its just ours has come a bit later than normal. We will survive, and that is all we wanted when the season began. So, lets do it and then look forward to next season with a new forward line and more success (relatively)
