Park Life

HawK on NO (Good post) It does all come down to a matter of opinion, and that's the magic that will either divide or unite fans, sack or back a manager or make or break a player. Anyone is welcome to disagree with comparative squad strength, as it is opinion-based, but not without a sound grounding in the facts though. We've rarely had such international pedigree throughout our team, but I would highlight in particular the use of our 2 defensive midfielders, Cabaye and Tiote. The tactical naivety that I was alluding to was essentially that Pardew was playing for the second ball* for most of the game, assuming our midfield pairing would mop them up time and time again, regardless of how our front 2 coped with it. A sound strategy - if you don't also instruct them both to sit practically 5 yards in front of Williamson and Coloccini - except the Sunderland players were wise to this and the huge gap between our front 2 and our midfield 2 was always filled with red and white shirts every time Krul punted it upfield. It's something remedied by a very quick touchline shout to your nearest player to feed on, 'Cabaye, push up on the long balls to get the second ball'. Every manager has qualities, such as those I highlighted earlier with Pardew, but the key, key area that a good/top manager will have, is the footballing acumen/nous to change and adapt to your opposition each game and to be able to fix things when they are no longer working. Even when we were against 10 men, both our fullbacks refused to get forward and support the attack. It's a key thing in today's 4-4-2, with a strong midfield partnership, in possession you should be aiming to get your fullbacks moving forward in line with the ball while your centrebacks sit deep, and Pardew really hasn't cottoned on to this. But bringing the above to a close, Yohan Cabaye is a player who plays at the centre of a French team that has just beaten Germany 2-1 in Germany, a team that the best of the English can't hope to touch right now. We all know how good Tiote is. I can't see beyond poor tactical setup as to why these 2 are not absolutely dominating games even when against 4-5-1. Coloccini has been rightfully lauded as one of the best centre backs in the league, and already Krul is up there as a good keeper, although there aren't too many good keepers around right now. Demba Ba has been here a year and proven his class, Cisse yet to prove so but the signs are there for all to see that he can be successful. We move on to players like Jonas, who until recently was a regular with Argentina, who's ability to retain the ball and hold up play is one of the reasons we were able to survive the second part of last season after Andy Carroll left. Hatem Ben Arfa has been described by French players as one of the most gifted players of his generation. Santon, although learning, has more experience than people give him credit for. He was able to keep CRonaldo in his pocket when he played for Inter in the Champions League. Every team has their Taylors', their Simpsons and their Williamsons, but the difference between them and us is the ability of the manager to at least get them playing in the right manner and to accentuate the strengths of our best players, not refuse to play them due to a lack of tactical knowledge on how to do so. Because our recent history has been so dire, it's easy to be blinded to the very poor tactics by the league position, I can understand that, and I can understand an attitude of 'Ok, lets finish this up and push on next year'. But what I don't understand is how people can praise Pardew so highly for how 'he' has achieved this, I think it's mostly down to the quality of the players at his disposal and the outstanding work of Graham Carr to ensure our recruits don't even seem to need to gel. I have to agree that we're doing OK now, in terms of results. But with the evidence on display with our performances, it's hard to see how a manager of Alan Pardew's ilk is going to get us any further than we are. I mentioned a false ceiling before, and he's the man holding it up right now. * Just realised some may not get what I meant by second ball - It is what is referred to often as when the ball is hoofed upfield (first ball), the resulting header/layoff/knock down of that hoofball is called the second ball. I think Graham Taylor coined it, he invented the long ball after all lol."

Pardew has him chomping at the bit, if he kicks on from here i will be giving Pardew massive praise as its a new period in Hatem's career. If he makes this work, after the injuries he's had and the clear adaptations to his game required to fit into our current system, then the manager will deserve a lot of praise. We've seen enough to know it might not work out for him, so making it happen will not be a straightforward task. I'm still confident because the player clearly has the desire to make it work, which we all saw yesterday. Fair comment.

he's got a great talent. You should try to accommodate him somehow. I said to my mate yesterday, he should start all games in that right wide position. I don't know if he likes it or prefers to play there, but the position is his if he wants it, if he is on his game then great, if he isn't then sub him. Is he an erratic genius ? He seems to be. But we should be starting him more now. Word is he's happy to start wide right if he can get games that way. I sense that Pards for the first time really wants to play him. Is he an erratic genius? Of course he is, but I wouldn't have it any other way. There is something of the night about him, he has those gifts. He will score a very special and important goal for us. I don't know when this will happen but I sense it.

HTT is in full control of all his faculties. OK? Full-control. And not like in a JOY Division way...NO.

Yeah but what's 0x0...Yeah right...Yeah. Yeah you didn't see that coming did yah.

Hatem is that rare thing, only ocassionally caught in the the big collider in Swissland, he is the quantum moment. He is very close to stopping time. He is infact outside of time. Let him exist. Let him breathe. Let us understand this thing....Wherever it might lead us.

Wow! I'm astounded at your honesty (the first 2 sentences). Thought you would have have been the prime one to dig you heels in. Good stuff CT.

Chez is a pragmatist and a foxy fox fucker, he looks at charts and weaves his magic from the ether, he makes slashes in the curtains of reality and moves down dark alleys as the light fades. He has learned perhaps from one such as me that true magic is not recognised till long after the magician has departed. But I understand him, deep down he is mining an oft mythical seam one that he hopes will make our club great again. He is the Chinese rabbit that stares at the moon. He waits. He strains to hear the rustling and whispering of the wild wood. He was promised greateness as a child, this is something that drives him which is in direct contrast to his logical daylight-self, when he understands this he will be free and at one.

i'm pretty sure i know the bit you're talking about. i'd like to see it too if anyone's got a link to a vid... He bends the quantum time loops of the matrix (reality as you muppets call it) to his will.

From HTT on N.O. (one of his longer ones). "For me it boils down to this - we are sixth playing god awful football. What position could we achieve playing better football? Given the quality of our footballers It would be no stretch of the imagination at all to claim we could do much better. I'd rate Pardew in the same bracket as Roeder, Big Sam and Souness. What Pardew has in his facour over those guys is that he doesn't antagonise players, the media or fans which the others, especially Allardyce and Souness, both did. The football is equally as poor as anything they served up though. Unlike that lot, however, he has a very good side at his disposal especially down the spine. He has also benefitted from lowered expectations (at the start), fewer injuries and a weaker league around us. That and the full backing of the board too and the general support from the stands. Tactically he is as clueless as the others and like Big Sam, sets his team-up to contain and not lose. Like Big Sam he also tries weird set-ups and odd selections. For example Barton on the left away to Stevenage. For me, playing for a draw away to Derby is the same as playing for a draw away to Brighton. Being sixth, enjoying the talents of Ba, Colo, Krul, Tiote et al and that impressive start we had, has allowed Pardew's many failures to be almost hidden away or for my own money, forgiven and masked over, by many fans. But the more we under perform (Wolves and the mackems in two consecutive home games), the heavier the defeats (Fulham and Spurs away) and the more we drop points (all of those games for example) Pardew's tactics, team-selections, set-up, substitutions and our football in general, will come under more scrutiny and criticism. If you were to analyse even a small sample of the overall larger poor performances, even those with "we are sixth", "look where we were 2 seasons ago" rose tinted glasses on, would summise that these poor performances are simply unnacceptable, if even for one because they are so damned avoidable. If we carry on with this innane long ball tactics and continue to pick the likes of Ryan Taylor ahead of Ben Arfa, we will drop more points than we pick up and will keep performing in a way that will see the likes of Ba, Cisse and Cabye especially, struggle to prosper. Meanwhile, because we are not dominating in the middle and keeping possession, that rather decent back-four of ours will come under more pressure and concede even more goals. And we will slide down that table as quick as we climbed it. Pardew needs to change his ways or we need to change our manager. Me, I'd say thank you Alan in the summer and look to upgrade him. Personally, I'd look at Martin Jol at Fulham who is used to working in a structure that scouts and identifies players for the manager. Someone with European and Premier League experience and someone who gets his teams playing football, performing to a good level and generally achieving either within their means or above as he is showing at Fulham and did at Spurs, setting the green light for Harry to GO GO GO. If we continue to play like we do, I can see our better players becoming royally pissed off. Ba and Cisse looked forlorn figures at the weekend and Cabaye and Tiote were frustrated figures likewise. Even Colo looked uneasy simply lumping it long. I doubt Krul likes kicking it aimlessley forward too. Players will do what they are told if it brings results but when things stop working and results stop coming, players are no fools and will start questioning the tactics and instructions of their manager and coaches. We play best when we go after sides and play with freedom. Of course we need to balance wanton abandon with some form of direction and plan but not this long ball up and at em game. It does us no favours and only benefits the opposition as id did Wolves and sunderland and others before them. After the break yesterday, we dominated and basically penned them in and could have, on another day with a better final ball and finishing, battered them. We have that in us, but with these negative tactics, containment plans and hood ball football, we are struggling and will not achieve potentially what we can. We can play better and do better and must."

Perhaps Coo coo ca chew is more in order.

That's evil dead material right there.

Even on here where the intellectual debate is held in good stead, I've notice a number of well established posters never miss having a pop at the beautiful and gifted Tunisian boy.

I agree. Cisse looks like he likes to drift wide and pick up the ball and has that turn of pace from deep.

http://www.readytogo.net/smb/showthread.php?t=679475

Is Pards the blind one?

Also I'm beginning to think that a high finish will give Pards a bit more confidence and he'll be less defensively minded next term.

Think that order is spot on.

Pardew reserved special praise, however, for Hatem Ben Arfa, who stepped off the substitutes' bench at half-time to produce an outstanding individual display full of creativity and threat in the final third. "This guy is exceptional. I don't want our fans to start thinking I don't think this is a good player," explained Pardew. "He is special and we have got to get him on the pitch. I've got to find a way of getting him on the pitch to play like that, because that was his best 45 minutes. "We've got 11 games to go and he can cause some real damage. He was the big difference between the sides in terms of the technical quality. "You need a technical player who can unlock the door - he did it about four times and we were unlucky not to get a goal in those moments. It was a big game for him."

Pardew reserved special praise, however, for Hatem Ben Arfa, who stepped off the substitutes' bench at half-time to produce an outstanding individual display full of creativity and threat in the final third. "This guy is exceptional. I don't want our fans to start thinking I don't think this is a good player," explained Pardew. "He is special and we have got to get him on the pitch. I've got to find a way of getting him on the pitch to play like that, because that was his best 45 minutes. "We've got 11 games to go and he can cause some real damage. He was the big difference between the sides in terms of the technical quality. "You need a technical player who can unlock the door - he did it about four times and we were unlucky not to get a goal in those moments. It was a big game for him."

I've seen one or two of them comment that it's an improvement on last season's game. Not fucking hard like, is it? Mind you, I think we gave them an equal battered as we did last season. Just didn't have the finishing. I disagree. It's not like we created many clear-cut chances that the strikers missed, it was more a case of whipping endless shit balls in that were impossible to convert, or Tiote/Cabaye having weak and inaccurate shots from distance. After the squandered penalty I view that as a point gained, we were poor imo. We have the ability to annihilate a team like that, especially down to 10 men. Not if we persist with straight long balls down the middle and a midfield sitting so deep they could mine coal.

It's been average/poor for years.

Players are allowed to move you know.

Agree with all of that.