Quote from Pardew.

I'm far from happy with either Pardew's media image or his brand of football this season.

That said, I think we're all forgetting that he won many accolades for his performance in the season we finished 5th.

If we stay up, then I think he should have another season - there will be no European football to drain the squad so he can be properly judged on that season.

It's clear we're not strong enough to compete in Europe and compete at a decent level domestically, so I say give him another crack at it next season in the PL.

Unless we can get someone like Di Matteo, I can't see how sacking him would improve things.

 

" I can't see how sacking him would improve things "


I can, it would keep Boa off here.

 

This!

 

Nah, he'd find something else to complain about!

 

I agree, though not sure that Di Matteo would answer a lot of the critics of Pardew. Negativity has been a fairly regular criticism aimed at him, and last year Di Matteo re-invented parking the bus. That's not a criticism of him from me - he made the most of what he had. Just not sure its what some people want to see at SJP.

 

A team playing football the way it shoud be played and winning.

 

That's what I was saying AB. I'm not sure Di Matteo would be the answer for this as he has shown a willingness to use very negative tactics to get what he wants.

 

Get Jose on the blower.

 

i dont think Liverpool would sell

 

Was meaning the 'Special One' José Mourinho.

 

We can't all start calling for his head because we've not hit the highs this year. He's not a walking disaster zone, but has persevered with people who look way past their usefulness.

If I could pick a manager I think could do very well, presuming Pardew went on to better things (ha ha) it would be Gus Poyet though.

 

Gus Poyet's name has been mentioned a few times.

 

In all seriousness it is starting to get beyond the joke.

Too many times do we see lacklustre performances. We go a goal down we start to play footie and look half decent, we go a goal up and we're suddenly on the back foot....there's never a happy medium. I agree that we have been ravished by injuries this season to key players, particularly in the first half of the season when we were thread bare squad wise...and I think that has taken its toll on the players in the second half of the season despite the acquisition of the 5 new players. Thankfully they've recognised the mistakes they made and realised that the squad is no where near good enough, and hopefully if we stay up we can hold onto everyone except colo unless he does a u-turn, and strengthen even further for an assault on the top 10 next year.

Priorites for next season though (assuming we stay up) have to be addressing the set play issue, in particular our corners. We don't get nearly enough free kicks which we should do, with the players we have. Marv, HBA, Cabaye, Sissoko should be running at defences and bringing fouls out of them in and around the box. We also need to look at closing games out. If we go one nil up we need to go for a 2nd goal, instead of sitting back and inviting pressure like we have done on many occasions. The last 20-30 mins of the Benfica game (2nd leg) is the level of performance we should be expecting to see week in week out. Players looking for the ball, looking to do something with it, making space for themselves and just generally hassling and making a nuisance of themselves. As much as we hate him, I'd love us to have a striker with the same (footballing) attitude as Suarez. He chases every ball, hassles defenders, puts them under pressure and never ever gives up or stops running....that's the type of striker we need. Take his diving/cheating/racism/biting and generally ratiness out of the equation and he's probably one of the best strikers going at the moment.

As far as replacements for Pards goes, I'd give him another season next season and see how it goes, who do you replace him with though ?

Di Matteo
Poyet
Laudrup
Solkskjaer
Benitez

I couldn't see us attracting a decent high profile manager to the club, as long as we have Ashley in charge (and this is no criticism of Ashley's approach or business model) we'll only ever have managers that have been put on the scrap heap, aka, Kinnear and Pardew, or an up an coming and unproven in the premiership manager, aka Poyet, Laudrup, Solskjaer etc.

 

Excellent post

repped

 

People keep saying lets see how he does with no Europe - but what happens if we were to get back into Europe? He has shown he cannot manage a squad for 4 competitions. We have played well in a handful of games this year and to be honest we only played well in a handful of games last year. Only difference from last year to this is that our defence last year performed exceptionally well and that is with an improved squad from last year.

It has been said, after we got rid of Chrissy, that it was to take us to a new level, well to me this is Pardew's level - lower midtable obscurity playing dire football. Yes he got us to our highest position since Sir Bobby but is that all we want and pretty much an unexpected one off?

He should be given our full support until end of season - even a few chants at our two final games - before being told he is no longer required (not in the same manner as Fat Sham was sacked).

 

I think anyone thinking or hoping for Pards to go should accept that he simply wlll not. At the very, very least he will get until Xmas but I suspect we'll be doing a bit better by then and so won't be looked at until a year from now. We need to accept that and instead put our hopes towards more achievable goals, such as winning on Saturday and Pardew realising that he's picking the wrong players in the wrong positions. It's like that old game where you have to guess the right combination - Pardew has almost all of the right numbers, but too often he's got them in completely the wrong order.

 

Do you not think it might be wise to give this board, manager, players, coaches a chance to learn from their first foray into European competition? Maybe they will handle it better next time? At some point we're going to have to learn to give people time and a chance to develop and learn. You obviously did not watch much of us last year if you think we played well in a handful of games - to be honest you wouldn't get near 5th if you had. You wouldn't get near the top 10.

Afterall if we don't the only way you'll get someone who can manage 4 competitions is if you go and sign a manager with European experience. How likely is that in all honesty? They cost big money which we won't invest on a manager.

 

Another rep worthy comment cronemeister, but alas ...................

You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to cronemeister again.

 

Actually watched a lot of the games and yes alot of them were piss poor - like I said the defence did a staunch job and our strikeforce was reminiscent of this year - Ba first half of season carrying the goals then Cisse last season. I would say if you had watched the whole of last season bar certain outstanding results we were relegation fodder apart from the odd spark of magic in a game. This odd spark of magic has disappeared as our sparks are knackered. Hence our position this season. If you check past posts this week has been the only time I have been anti-Pardew and believe that 2 full seasons of ****ty football is all I personally will allow.

You would think Pardew would learn but certain aspects have been the same for over a year now such as set pieces which cannot be defended. The high defensive line? The hoof ball? The bringing on Shola. all happened last year, all happening this year.

 

I've been a big fan of Jonas over the years, always runs his socks off and would bleed for the team, but he's well off the boil now and just doesn't have it in him anymore yet Pards always plays him no matter what.