Pardew's Long Balls?

This makes quite damning reading.....

Deffo worth two minutes of your time....

http://www.nufcblog.org/2012/11/par...ews-long-balls-an-in-depth-probe#.UKYcUIeF7oM

 

Finally, some proof! Some of our play this season can barely even be classed as a 'long pass', more like shut our eyes, hit it up long and hope for the best!

Wouldnt bother me so much if AP hadnt promised going back to the sir bobby and keegan days when he first came, he didnt shut up about it!

 

Can anyone copy and paste the article to the thread. Im at work and it wont let me read

 

This hurts my eyes.

 

As it starts to dawn on more fans that Alan Pardew is not bringing a more attractive, “fluid” style of play to Newcastle United after all, the Magpies continue to extend their lead as the biggest long ball team of the Premiership.
Using OPTA statistics for the Premiership season so far, which define “long balls” as passes which are over 25 yards, these long passes account for over 17.7% of Newcastle’s total passes on average, which is a hell of alot (see table below). To put this into some kind of perspective, Newcastle United are even beating Pardew’s own “Alma Mater”, Reading, currently managed by Pardew protege, Brian “long balls” McDermott into second place (16.3%). Meanwhile, the established high priests of “Route One” football, Tony Pulis and Sam Allardyce, currently occupy the third and fourth places respectively with 16.2% of Stoke’s passes, and 15.1% of West Ham’s being over 25 yards. At the other extreme we also find the usual suspects, with Arsenal occuping the bottom place in the table with only 7.7% of their total passes being long balls. Behind them we then have Manchester City (8.1%), Manchester United (9.7%) and Swansea City (9.9%).
So let’s take a look at the figures in the form of a Premiership “long ball” table, ordered in terms of the percentage of passes which are over 25 yards rather mere looking at the amount. Incdentally though, Newcastle would also top that table too with a huge figure of 724 in their first eleven games, an average of 66 long balls per game. Whilst neither are totally perfect, the reason why the latter would be more deceptive is because some teams simply pass the ball around more than other, whether it is long or short balls. The percentage method gives us a far better idea of who uses the long ball as a strategy. So here goes!

As I suggested in the first paragraph of this piece, this is somewhat ironic as the usual perception amongst many fans used to be, and still is to a large degree, that we used to be something of a “long ball” team under Pardew’s predecessor, Chris Hughton, and that Pardew has brought a more “flowing” style of football to St James’ Park, when actually the opposite has been the case overall. I do recall that the BBC’s “Match of the Day” once did a feature on long ball teams after Hughton was sacked and during Pardew’s first few months in charge (probably using the same OPTA stats). This showed that Stoke and Wolves were the biggest “long ball” teams in the premiership back then, with Newcastle nestling somewhere in mid table. This misperception was perhaps caused by the fact that our biggest scoring striker of the time, Andy Carroll, is a very big unit who is known for his aerial abilty and heading of the ball, with other Newcastle United strikers of the time such as Shola Ameobi and Leon Best also being big lumps, and English. This was also, and still is backed up by poorly educated journalists who once again don’t really understand the game such as Luke “who’s talking” Edwards, who is one example alongside other misinformed football “journalists” such as Lee Ryder in local journal, the Chronicle. Most football fans in the N.E. will know that Edwards used to write for the other local Tyneside journal, “the Journal,” but is now writing on N.E. football matters for national newspaper, the Telegraph. In a perfect example of this misperception, Edwards wrote in this story about the possibilty of Andy Carroll coming back to Newcastle back in June:
“Alan Pardew’s side play a more attractive, quicker style of football now than they used to with Carroll as the focal point of the team and he would not be guaranteed a starting place with those two (Cisse and Ba) as rivals.”
Whilst the second part might be true, the first part is cobblers for the most part sadly. However, it is an error has been repeated so many times by Edwards and other writers that it has come to be believed by much of Newcastle United’s fanbase. I write “for the most part” because there WERE patches in some games towards the end of last season when the Magpies did indeed play a very attractive and effective style of football, with the team set up in something like a Terry Venables style “Christmas tree” formation (4-3-2-1) cum 4-3-3 with Cisse as the spearhead, with Ba and Ben Arfa just behind on the left and right side respectively. It was a revelation which brought out the qualities of our best attacking players in a flowing style which was both entertaining to watch, and highly effective. However, after dominating games using this approach and scoring two or three goals, our Silver Supremo would invariably revert to type in the latter part of games. One aspect of this approach is that we were playing very “skinny,” with wide players cutting in and full backs pressing forward, potentially leaving us open down our flanks. However, we were so dominant in attack that this was never an issue. The way we are playing at the moment, we may have more width, however we are still prone to attacks down our flanks anyway. Using the same OPTA data as above, stats site “whoscored.com” characterise our play this season as follows:

In my final thoughts, I don’t intend this to be some kind of damning indictment so much as a call to honesty, and an end to the self deception that Pardew is some kind of “Pardiola” type figure who is bringing Barcelona style football to St James’ Park. As far as a “critique” goes, whilst we have certainly brought bringing in the kinds of players who can bring about a more expansive style, the style imposed by our current manager is actually going the other way. We usually play very deep, looking to dispossess opposition attackers and strike out on the break, too often by lumping big balls over the top of a huge chasm between the defence and the attack.
It is as if Pardew is trying to turn cows into ham and it certainly isn’t working too well for us at the moment.

 

theres busy charts and tables there too but they won't paste...

 

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Not just down to Pardew this though although it is his job to try and coach them away from it. The players have to take some responsibility too. Some of the key factors for me are as follows:

Tim Krul - had this problem for a while now. I've said for a while his kicking wreaks of a lack of confidence. Work needed.
Colo absence - Fairly obvious one as our best footballing defender. Missing too many games.
Tiote absence - Despite his erratic passing he is the one who links defence and midfield. Always willing to go and get it from defenders and also allows Cabaye to operate further forward which also helps our football.
Willo - Panics when the ball is near him. Lack of confidence means he wants rid quicklu and lack of touch means he is always under the cosh.
Anita - when he plays at present he is struggling with the pace resulting in panic passes. He needs time.

The guys coming in do not have the same confidence in possession. Solutions?

Bigi to play Tiote role when he is not fit. Yes he is young but the lad has confidence and understands the need to go and get the ball. I can't offer one for the backline outside of working hard with Willo. The only real solution lies in a cheque book unfortunately. It needs to be a good footballing centre half. Anita needs time and needs Tiote alongside in the short term. We need to pick his games carefully. Krul is just down to hard work, I keep saying but it is obvious to me - get on the blower to Van der Saar. Its his idol and he'd be happy to help as it will will help his country. The guy had the best feet in the history of football and revolutionised goalkeeping. Tiote's absences are already receiving attention in the form of improving his discipline.

Pardew of course must take some flack but the disjointed nature of us this season also plays a part. We are clearly struggling for rhythm and this results in more misplaced and long passes. Anyone who thinks this is what Pardew wants is crazy! He doesn't he wants to play on the deck. He'll use direct play when it is effective (Man U home last year) but overall its not his style. We'll get there but work is needed in several areas.

Just my take on things.

 

Doesn't take a genius to work out we've been playing too many long balls, but this analysis is definitely surprising - more than reading/stoke/west ham?!?

The main problem with the long balls is it misses out our key strengths - Cisse is not good at holding up the ball, or good in the air - and doesn't work well with his back to goal (in my opinion the main reason for his poor form is he is getting the ball with his back to goal).

Also, it means we're missing out ball playing midfielders - Cabaye's poor form being a key indicator of this.

It's an absolute must we rectify this, there are moments when you just need to give the ball a hoof, but most of the time, they need to think "can I play the simple pass". How hard is it for Pardew to drill that into them?!

 

Well Krul has never changed so I'm not sure how you get through to him. I'm not sure there is much you can do with Willo, he's playing at a level above his comfort zone. They are the main culprits for me.

 

I find it amusing that we even need articles like that posted. Anyone who needed stats to work this out is a ******.

 

Maybe he just doesn't trust the four in front of him as much as he should?

 

it's good sometimes to have facts to back things up. I for one wouldn't have thought in a million years that we played more long balls than Stoke.

 

Thats some quality contribution there Tash....

 

Cheers ACS this does make for some scary reading.

Pardew needes to start coming good on his word as far as this matter is concerened. Saying we are going to produce "sexy football" yet we are top of the table for hoofball!?!?!

Wing backs are key to having a good pasing game especially in the formation we are playing, Santon is coming good and I would like to see Anita given a bit of time to play out there as well although i dont think he would cut it against the creme-de-la-creme in the league, Simmo probably not good enough in this department. We need another fullback but it needs to be a quality addition.

Another point i bring up time and again when this subject comes up is players like Cabaye were told when signing on the vision to bring fast, slick, sexy football back to SJP. How fustrating must it be to watch a ball flying over your head constantly when you know you have the quality and ability to change a game?

 

I agree with Tash, in so much as the outcome seems blatantly obvious, yet it's still an interesting report. Direct play into our forwards has been Pardew's mantra since he took over from Hughton, so he's hardly been revolutionary tactically or aesthetically. It's not surprising when you look at his history at other clubs (especially Charlton), either. What is surprising is he insists upon long-ball when we have a midfield of Anita, Cabaye, Ferguson and Ben Arfa... Possibly the smallest ever to grace the premier league... Exactly how many headers do you calculate they'll win against 6ft 5 Diame you bloody moron?!?!?!?!?!?!

I think Chris can feel hard done by in many ways, but Pardew's experience and man management skills do make him the slightly better candidate. Nevertheless, the problem of not being able to put out our best first 11 with full fitness persists, and this has a massive bearing on our style. As WP has described, some of the players (largely fringe players who've now played significant games through injuries and suspension problems) are not technically gifted or confident enough with ball at feet to play a more expansive game, and probably never will be. Tiote, as already discussed, is an important cog in our play, so I anticipate the stat to decline as the season progresses. Essentially, I believe you have to pick your battles long-ball wise, and thus far Pardew has done that very poorly this season indeed, and the players have fallen into line with guff performance after guff performance.

Also... However much I'm about to be jumped on for this (and I will most definitely be jumped on for this), I still think we made a mistake picking between our young goalies... Not in having to pick, which was inevitable, just think we made the wrong choice.

 

was i the only one who was disappointed when they opened this?...

 

On a slightly different note there was an interview I saw from Pardew today, stating that we're not dominating games because we quite often have 2 centre mid's compared to the 3 that the opposition normally operate with. He goes on to say that 2 against 3 is fine when the two are world class (Tiote & Cabaye), but given that those two have barely featured together this season why has he continued to persist with 4-4-2? He's identified the problem but done nothing to rectify it.

Some may call this fickle, but this, along with the long ball and awful set pieces this season is enough to cast slight doubt about Pardew for me. I want to stress I'm not saying sack the bloke (he certainly doesn't deserve anything like that) but he doesn't have my complete faith like he did for the whole of the second half of last season.

Link below:

http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/newc...s-eager-to-get-more-control-72703-32243688/2/

 

I was actually quite surprised to see Reading at second, but more disgusted to find us right at the top.

 

Possibly but he looks uncomfortable with the ball at his feet. He rarely passes a goal kick out to the full back. I previously though it was a Pardew tactic but noticed him a few times recently thrown his arms up and looking a bit exasperated with Krul. Sometimes we think "ah this fecking manager" but some players don't take responsibility/the right option.

Don't get me wrong he is a fantastic goalkeeper overall and we are lucky to have such a talent. He has very few weaknesses for a lad of his age. However that does not mean he hasn't got things to improve and certainly his feet are and passing would be the area I'd look at. It seems a simple thing to put right thankfully and I find it strange they haven't looked for help. I suppose they may see it as a slight on Woodman?

Like you say though having Willo in front doesn't help, I'd be reluctant to give him the ball! Colo goes and demands it, and Tiote likewise from him. This is how we function. The full backs are fine, both Santon and Simpson look for short options. Previously Simpson would go long a bit but he has improved hand over fist in every department to be honest.