The next 3 PL games will define our season.

Up next are Norwich, Reading and Villa.
If we could somehow manage to get 7 or more points we could pull ourselves out of this mess.
However a couple more losses and we could find ourselves in the bottom 3.
As far as I'm concerned the Reading and Villa games are 6 pointers.

 

At one point we'd have been expecting nine points from those games. Oh how times have changed.

 

No, I disagree. Our season has already been defined in November and December.






WE are genuinely relegation contenders now. I just hope the board wakes the toot up and gets the players needed to keep us up. Ba seems to be leaving, we need a striker and please, a freaking CB ffs. These would be our top priorities. If Shola is going to start another game my TV would be in real danger

 

Absolutely agreed. It felt watching last night like we were following a script - the simple second goal, the substitutions, the deflated jogging around the pitch and back passes with 3 mins to equalise before the final whistle. It's the first time I've turned off the stream while a match was still going on. We need some steel at the back for sure. If a CB is not brought in after everyone knew we needed one in the summer and we have since had this disaster of a first half-season, we are likely to go down.

 

I love how before United, Arsenal and Everton everyone was calm. Did anyone expect to get anything from these games? Maybe a point from Everton? We were unlucky.

I kind of a agree with OP.

 

I think we need 6 from 9 or we really are in the clart.

Luckily the fa cup distraction means our injured players have an extra week to recover.

 

OK, so I'm clearly out of touch, but frankly I'm pretty optimistic. These were three of the hardest fixtures of the season and our squad is down to the nubbins. if we play as well as we have in the last 3 games, we'll get something out of most fixtures. And I expect that we'll be able to put a considerably stronger team on the pitch in 3 weeks than we can now.

10th this season

 

Watched your game last night, the ref stitched you right up!

That penalty claim was stonewall for me, Shola Ameobi got the ball first so for me it doesn't matter what intentions were of the defender he stopped the striker from scoring by bringing him down.

The ref gave a freekick to Everton about 70 or so minutes in, it was a soft one then Newcastle attacked and the same exact challenge but the other way round and the ref waved to play on, I have a sneaky feeling the ref was having a few quid on the outcome.

You didn't help yourselves though, I mean - Alan Pardew, hasn't he shown his true colours this season? He brought on some skinny kid who kept losing the ball all over the park and took off Obertan who looked a decent threat. That skinny kid looked like he had never played the game in his life! When you're 2-1 down at home you don't take off an attacking threat and put on a skinny kid to play a dm role. He then brought on this thing called Sammy Ameobi, and whilst that kid has some silky moves he thinks he can score from anywhere, not once did anyone other than Shola look for a pass or flick on to your only real recognisable striker. Then that gun wielding gangster came on for the last 5 and looked better than them all!

You didn't deserve to lose that game, but you will keep on losing them with that nugget in charge of your side, he is clueless. I'm not normally one for sacking a manager but he is a pathetic chump, he's being outwitted by every other manager in this league when your squad is more than capable of sticking points on the board.

 

That would be the LMA manager of the year 2012 you're talking about ?

The only really decent thing Sven ever said was that you're never as good as they say you are when you're winning and never as bad as they say you are when you're losing.

 

The ref and the linesman running the Milburn line were both pathetic and should be stood down by the FA for their absolutely diabolical performances.

 

Yes, Luiz Scolari is a world cup winning manager too, what's your point?

Pardew shouldn't be praised any more for what he achieved last season. Chelsea and Liverpool massively underachieved last season and you lot happened to be the team that took advantage of that, due to a good team spirit which Pardew arguably inherited from his predecessor. He shipped out Nolan, Barton and several fringe players at your owner's request and with them went a big piece of what you had in the dressing room. The fact is, a few defeats was all it was going to take to rip the soul out of your squad, now you're left with foreigners who don't have the Nolan/Carroll/Barton spirit that got you back in this division. I also have a mate who's a Toon supporter, he tells me Lovenkrands was a massive part of what Newcastle had built behind the scenes and he was shoved out like he was a piece of ****.

Pardew is constantly bleating on about getting players back fit, which says it all for me, he has no belief in his fringe players he might as well say "Here Obertan, you're only in the team because I have no choice, you're absolutely **** but I have no other option than to play you". His man management skills are pathetic and he's been exposed this year. He should stand up and take responsibility for HIS mess, Hughton would, but I doubt he'd even have you in this mess anyway.

 

My point is that either the people who actually manage football clubs were wrong in thinking Pardew was a particularly good manager, or you are wrong in thinking he's a nugget, or he was a very good manager last season but has become a bad one since then. I'll let you decide.

With respect ot your comments, I don't think they really hold water. While Pardew did inherit a good squad mentality, that was in November 2010. If it still there in May 2012,he can take credit for that. The mentality was not adversely affected by the loss of the players you mention - - if anything the reverse.

He is singing the blues about injuries because he was let down by the owner in the transfer window.

Which is bnot to say that he shouldn' be criticised. He wasn't god last season, and he has made some errors this one. To call him pathetic, etc, is in my view silly

 

He is pathetic though.

Why bring off Obertan for that skinny kid? Obertan is hardly unfit is he, he hardly ever gets a game. He was running at (and past) the Everton full back all night, getting into decent positions, yeah he shot instead of looking for a killer pass but what did that defensive midfielder kid do that he brought on? Absolutely nothing. Pardew didn't think "Oh I'll put Bigrinandmamabanana on he'll cut open the defenders and create chances", he thought "Oh I'm desperate, the fans will say I didn't try to change it so I'll just do anything now to make a change....I'll take off an attacking winger, and replace him with a defensive midfielder because we have only got two of them on the pitch already and we're losing".

Later on he sent Anita to RB where he was obviously going to be ineffective to facilitate a striker coming on for Perch. Anita was the best player in your side, even though he was tasked with controlling Fellaini who's about 3 foot taller than him! He moved your striker from the right wing to up front and put Sammy Ameobi on the right, you had no left winger at this point and your DM's were now either on the bench, in the RB position or running around like a headless chicken losing the ball. Make no mistake about it, you had more shape and threat before Pardew made any substitutions and you'd have stood a far better chance at winning that game if that nugget had stayed at home.

 

If you want to say that the substitution of Obertan was a poor decision, I'm happy to agree with you. As for whether to sub Anita or Perch, I think we have more of an attacking threat with Anita at RB than with Perch at RB, and putting on a striker to replace a midfielder was also sensible. On the other hand, an argument that we shouldn't have brought on a striker (or he should have been brought on for someone else) is a perfectly respectable one.

The conclusion that these errors (assuming they were errors, and I think one of them was) means he is pathetic, etc, is OTT in my view.

Incidentally, I always read your comments with interest - - it is good to get the views of an interested outsider.

 

Might be stating the obvious here, but with Ba in the team last night the mags would have got at least a point.

I don't rate Pardew very highly as a manager (although last season was brilliant for him) an find his tactics and substitutions baffling at times.

However once you find a replacement for Ba and a cb to play next to Collicinni you will shoot up the table. Debuchy is a class signing as well.

 

Says who?

We're not a one man team. Just because one man is on the score sheet, doesn't mean he won the game by himself.

With Ba out of the picture, Cisse looked a lot more threatening, and we came close quite a few times.

You could say that Ba would have put that chance away that Shola missed, but without Shola's presence for the first goal, we'd have never scored.

People go on about Ba being strong and powerful, but Shola is definitely stronger and better if you're gonna play a long ball.

 

I'm not worried at present but get nowt out of the next 3 and we're in trouble. We need a minimum of 5-6 points.

 

I must say that Cisse's header/ninja kick one-two was the most impressive example of football reactions that I can remember seeing

 

Cisse could have had a hat trick. His header hit a player who didn't even know he was there, and his immense reaction kick forced a great save. He could have had another goal when Santon was through, but Santon shot instead .

A simple ball to the right would have got us back to 2-2.

 

It all comes down to if buts and maybes, but the fact is Ba is a better player than Ameobi and would most probably have got on the scoresheet last night.

Not suggesting you are a one man team just a better team with Ba in it and that was clear for me to see last night.