Match Day Thread Newcastle United v Manchester City (Cap 1 Cup) - Official Build Up / Match Day Thread

To be fair, the Telegraph didn't comment on fitness...I did, so it shows a complete lack of knowledge on my part...

I just think you're 3 matches from a final, the natives are restless and you've got a b team in your backyard. Pards' "solution" is to haul off the effective Shola, because he looks better than your other striker and you'd rather have that guy fitter for Sunday than try and let him win the match on the night. It's pretty basic, poor management and it's not an anomaly.

We looked less aware of our formation when we moved away from 4-4-2 (for whatever reason, I can only speculate) and more disjointed. We're ALWAYS looking for the cute pass, the 30 yard onto a dime pass. Always. We never "tiki taka" the ball. Even when we're in a tight spot, or trying to pass it quickly, its two touch, not one. I don't really get it, why we can't ping it about a bit better. The movement of Cisse amounts to hanging around on the defensive line waiting to sprint. There's no running channels or pulling players about. It's a lot easier to have banks of defenders against NUFC. That's why players like HBA and Remy are much more vital to the cause, and is why Remy has scored so many, because that's how he plays. What I've noticed is that his natural instincts when he arrived got him good positions and goals...it may be cynical, but as he's played in more games and in more variaties of formations, he's become less and less effective.

All loops round, really, to a desperate need for fresh impetus.

 

Sorry about the frankness then but I do think it is a bit of a myth.

No doubt though, we got it wrong last night. How much of that is down to pressure from above is unclear, we know the board don't want us risking the league in favour of the cup. No financial gain to be had. The manager though should have just said "**** it". I suppose that's easy for us to say as fans because he'd probably lose his job as P45 says.

 

Not a nice sight seeing Dzeko clutching his behind either.

Wonder if he'd been told to plug the gap and thought of the wrong one.

 

Struggle to buy that. Win a cup match, lose your job?? Nope, lost me there!

It was pretty much a fck up from Pardew. Should we beat Chelsea we'll be proven wrong, as a fresh and feisty Hatem Ben Arfa scores the winner. Well, a bit wrong, anyway - I'd rather we beat Man City than Chelsea. Problem I have is that if the league ambition tops out at 8th, then we might as well finish 17th. So it follows that 17th + a cup is a far better season than anything from 16th-8th and no trophy. In fact, as we've seen from our hopeless attempt in the Europa League, only finishing 4th is worth anything. And even then we'd moan.

No, it was completely wrong and the more I think about it the angrier I get towards Pardew. Genuinely I think he's lost the plot. Play NEARLY your strongest side? Play some good, some bad, with a few out of position? Take off your best, leave the hapless and hopeless Cisse on the field? Nah, it was an atrocious managerial performance which detracted from a not-bad team performance. Similar to Sunday, really. Three weeks had been spent on this false number 9 effort. 15 minutes in, we copied Sunderland's formation and hoped for the best. Rubbish, utter rubbish. Anita didn't play, saved for the City game...that we weren't too fussed about winning?

Nah, it's just a complete baffler to me, end to end.

 

Undoubtedly got it wrong. I just think when you have a board sitting above you saying "we are not interested in the cup", essentially you know a cup run isn't going to save your job. I think it is a poor thing to put in a managers head. Why not just let him go?

You have to look at it from fat Mikes perception. Forget prestige and ambition, think cold hard cash. The difference between 17th and 8th is big. I think it was something like 6.5m last year. So in Mikes world 17th and a cup run is a god awful season.

The end result of putting it in his head is a confused middle of the road selection. You can't change them all because you'd get murdered due to a lack of depth, you can't pick a full strength because you are writing off a league game in favour of the cup (which they are telling you is a no no), or mix and match to **** up both! Its a warped policy which shows exactly what the club thinks of the fans and where the focus is.

Leaving Cisse on wouldn't have been our choice but for the first time this season we had a striker (Shola no less) so he withdraws him to keep him for the more "important" league games.

Lets face it, we played quite well against a far stronger side. We then send on our supposed top boys to go and get a final push. It doesn't come off and you're a twat. It does, you're a hero.