Alan Pardew was down to earth when he was interviewed by Sky Sports after the game against Aston Villa today, and he was disappointed with the lack of discipline in some parts of the pitch, and he was right when he said the set plays were awful – again.
Ben Arfa - congratulated by Jonas on wonder goal – scored with right foot
No wonder Newcastle fans love this player
This is what Pardew told Sky Sports after the game today:
“I can’t say that we deserved to win and I could argue that Villa deserved to win, but I will take the draw.” “I thought we were a bit funny today. For us, we lacked a bit of discipline in areas and our set-plays were awful.”
“It was a really frustrating game from a coaching point of view. There was lots of excitement and a fantastic wonder goal for us, with chances at both ends.” “I think we had the bulk of the play and we were better in the second half, but they still had chances to have won it themselves.”
“Fair play to Paul and his team. I don’t think we will come across many teams that work as hard as them as they really worked hard.” “Ben Arfa’s been our bright spark, certainly our player of the month as he’s been terrific, but we’ve got one or two who are below par and we have to try and get them up to speed.”
“It will be difficult to match what we did last year, and we are trying to have a go. It’s been a good start by us, not a brilliant start, but a good, steady start.” “We’ve had some tough games and we caught Villa at the wrong time. After two defeats they were determined to come here and show an effort, and they really did work hard.”
Alan seems about right in his assessment, but a win today and we would have been 8th top and where we were for a lot of last season, but at the moment we are in 10th place and our next game in 15 days is a very tough one at Goodison Park.
It looked for the first 60 minutes that Villa were the better side and we were going to lose this game, and then a magnificent strike by Ben Arfa changed the game, and after that we could have even nicked it, although Aston Villa did not deserve to lose this game.
They looked a very good side, and Paul Lambert had them well organized and they should do just fine this season, once their new players get bedded in.
But there were also some bright spots to come out of this game today for Newcastle.
Vurnon Anita looked good in both central midfield and right back, and young Gael Bigirimana continues to looks a very good player at just 18 years old, and he put in an accomplished display today.
We were again lacking sharpness up front and the manager may have to try something different, with Cisse and Ba not looking good together in a 4-4-2 formation – maybe we should go back to a 4-3-3 formation?
But it’s only three games and Newcastle came back well in the second half, after being poor in that first half, and we’ll take the point for sure.
Keep the faith.
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52 responses so far ↓
1 Tommyy // Sep 2, 2012 at 9:15 PM
It’s got to dawn on us soon we won’t match what we did last year. I think we’ll come 8th – 12th. Simply don’t have the numbers and don’t have the form at the moment.
We need to win these games, Villa will be one of the weakest teams this year.
2 hoppernufc // Sep 2, 2012 at 9:15 PM
We need someone who can cross the ball in out team we would create a lot more chances if we had a quality crosser
3 Jan Stavik // Sep 2, 2012 at 9:16 PM
It seems that Pardew has been promising Ba a striker role to keep him at the club. We’re far better playing 4-3-3 but still he continues with 4-4-2.
4 Jail for Ashley // Sep 2, 2012 at 9:19 PM
Tommy,
What a cheer that would have been Simmo going off and Debuchy coming on,(although I dont mind Simmo too much)
5 Ketsbaia9 // Sep 2, 2012 at 9:20 PM
We’ve got Marveaux and Ben Arfa. We’re ok.
6 toonLYF // Sep 2, 2012 at 9:20 PM
geordie commentator for the Barcelona – Valencia game, haha “LEE-OH-NELL MESSY JED-AYE MIYUND TRIKKS” love oot like that
7 toonking // Sep 2, 2012 at 9:21 PM
well mr pardew what do you expect if you don’t put you foot in and make changes to the starting 11 look at wayne rooney for england he has did so poor but he doesn’t care he knows roy hogson insists on keeping him
8 toonking // Sep 2, 2012 at 9:22 PM
i have taken a look at the next 3 games and in just 1 week we have everton A a europa fixture and also norwich H
because we have only got the dembas ATM both of which will have came back from 2 international fixtures, that week should prove once and for all if pardew is a tough manager or if he is just a puppet who scared to change things.
i expect atleast one of them two premier league fixtures to not include both dembas starting othwise they would have start 3 games in one week.
9 jawballsaswallwell // Sep 2, 2012 at 9:28 PM
That was another ordinary performance by the Toon, certainly by the loftier standards of last seaon. In a word they laboured. There’s been suggestions of disquiet among players due to a lack of some more quality additions. Some players may have lost some spark, believe a little less, had their heads turned, but I worry just as much about the manager having his head turned now. He may well be more upset that they didn’t get one or two more through the door and his own stock has never been higher. He has some work to do, he might wonder if he’s being asked to dp too much.
10 Tommyy // Sep 2, 2012 at 9:29 PM
Thought Simpson was decent until the injury, Anita is 10x better going forward though and it really showed.
11 toonLYF // Sep 2, 2012 at 9:32 PM
not Newcastle related, but i’m doing the sky sports fantasy football on behalf of my mam, it’s all of the Sainsbury’s workers in the north east (who wanted to enter) in one league, and Ben Arfa’s goal took me second out of 7489 people.
——————–Al-Habsi——————-
Jagielka—Kompany—Colo—Winston Reid
-Ben Arfa—Yaya Toure—Nolan—Hazard-
—————-Tevez—–Torres————-
is my team.
12 wynsleap // Sep 2, 2012 at 9:33 PM
Pardew says “It will be difficult to match what we did last year”.
It might not have been if you have made some bloody investment. Oh forgot – we all have to be thankful to Ashley for not selling any of our top players. This pathetic window is coming back to bite us in the backside big time – I’m sure of that.
13 voodoo85 // Sep 2, 2012 at 9:35 PM
i agree we need some spark and creativity in final 3rd, cant just rely on HBA
Jonas works hard etc and perhaps his true value would be shown if he was left out (maybe Santon benefits from Jonas playing) but when up against a side such as Villa, i would have preferred seeing Marveaux start if fit
Villa did not play with any width today and i think Santon didnt really need Jonas helping out and we would have been better going forward with Marveaux on whilst not sacrificing some of the defensive stability
Against teams with true width like ManU (Valencia, Nani, Young) or Spurs (Bale, Lennon) etc – keep Jonas in team but not every match
14 voodoo85 // Sep 2, 2012 at 9:38 PM
Oh and i would love to see us trying out a 4-5-1 / 4-3-3 formation in a cup match or something such as
Krul
Simmo——-Taylor——-Colo——Santon
—————–Tiote——Anita—————
———————-Cabaye———————
Ben Arfa—————————–Marveaux
———————-Ba / Cisse——————
15 beefman13 // Sep 2, 2012 at 9:43 PM
wyn, come on lad the last thing the club needs is fans saying i told you so.
a lot of fans got the last three years predictions all wrong, we all want to win
we all want our prediction to be correct but if they are not lets not rub it in, i tell you there will be plenty of good nights again this season, not a pop at you son lets all try and be a bit more positive,
i am even trying to post my blogs a bit more user reader friendly, thanks for the nudge on that!
16 jawballsaswallwell // Sep 2, 2012 at 9:47 PM
Taking a brighter perspective, form is temporary , class is permanent and there was a lot of class on that pitch yesterday, even without Tiote.
17 Spuggy // Sep 2, 2012 at 9:47 PM
HBA is ready for a more central role, he’s improved massively on last year. Either Behind Ba and Cisse or instead of one of them.
………………………….Krul………………………….
..Santon……Saylor…….Collo……….Anita.
……………….Tiote………..Jonas/Bigi…………
..Obertan……………HBA…………..Ba/Marv.
……………………….Cisse/Ba………………………
Would love to try this, swap Anita/Santon if needed, even when Simmo is fit.
18 Spuggy // Sep 2, 2012 at 9:48 PM
Whoops missed out Cabaye haha – replace Jonas with Cabaye.
19 Jail for Ashley // Sep 2, 2012 at 9:48 PM
Man U got mugged paying for a 29 year old with no resale value in the last year of his contract..didn’t they ?
20 Mystic Mike's Iron Curtain // Sep 2, 2012 at 9:48 PM
Pardew’s got a defeatist attitude this season, coupled with a few players who are clearly unsettled and him persisting with 4-4-2 to pander to Ba, i revise my prediction of 7th to 10th, which would be a travesty considering we have a player who is one of the best talents in world footy in HBA.
21 jawballsaswallwell // Sep 2, 2012 at 9:50 PM
No place for Cabaye, Spuggy!
22 beefman13 // Sep 2, 2012 at 9:50 PM
jawball, that is without doubt top international players at the toon now,
we just need to hit that right formation especially up front and we could really roll a lot of teams over this seson.
for me the two dembas are a poor pairing up front, no communication together,
that has got to be looked at and big decisions may have to be made concerning it.
23 Spuggy // Sep 2, 2012 at 9:51 PM
I think Anita gave is a taste of what Debuchy would have brought to the team today, proper techincal skill going forward.
24 Transfer Sage // Sep 2, 2012 at 9:52 PM
Other teams around us sold their best players.
Arsenal lost van persie and song.
Spurs lost modric and vdv, and are without pavlychenko from last January.
Liverpool have 2 strikers only, neither a goal scorer.
Everton lost rodwell but invested well.
We aren’t in as bad a place as people think.
Hopefully our form is due to cabaye, Ben arfa and cisse not having much of a pre season.
We need to give them all time to get up to speed.
25 Marty-Toon // Sep 2, 2012 at 9:52 PM
Hes right there about our set plays….useless
26 toonLYF // Sep 2, 2012 at 9:58 PM
Alexis Sanchez having a stormer here. What a player.
27 GeordieoftheSouth // Sep 2, 2012 at 9:59 PM
Today showed we needed another striker, Cisse and Ba need competition, with another striker Cisse should be dropped to give him a kick up the arse.
I would start Marveux and Obertan next game, inject more pace and freshen up the team…but our plan of attack should just be – pass to Benny Arfa!! World class.
28 jawballsaswallwell // Sep 2, 2012 at 9:59 PM
Yeah, that set up is looking a bit pedestrian for a squad that has so many creative options. I rate Ba highly, but he may need to go head to head with Cisse for his spot, at least at home or accept a wider role and again be prepared to fight hard for his place.
29 beefman13 // Sep 2, 2012 at 9:59 PM
transfer sage, cabaye is that sort of player it tends to take him a while to get up to pace, he only did 20 mins pre season, hehas been out of sorts so far in my opinion,
but finished the game well today, his dead balls have been very poor so far,
i personally would love to see interactions with benny and marveaux and a up and running cabaye!
and even though he is monly 17 young adam campbell will cause shockwaves at st james if he gets a chance somewhere soon down the line, terrific kid.
30 YOY_Yorkshire // Sep 2, 2012 at 10:00 PM
jawballsaswallwell @9 you could be right… pardew did a good job last season on limited resources abducted picked the side up when Carroll was sold. I wouldn’t be surprised if a couple of the senior players move on in January abducted pards soon after.
31 pardew no 1 // Sep 2, 2012 at 10:00 PM
i would love to see this team
………………..krul……………………
anita……….collo……taylor…santon
…………….bigi…………tiote……………
………………….marveuax……………….
obertan………demba…………ben arfa
cabaye might still be gutted that debuchy didnt arrive and cisse about the Olympics. i dont care what you say ba has had a good attitude this season and i didnt last season i think it was just frustrating for him that he was linked with big money clubs and wasnt scoring
32 wynsleap // Sep 2, 2012 at 10:03 PM
After the last two games Pardew should have the players out for two hours a day just practising corners, freekicks and swinging the ball in.
Our inability to beat the first man is becoming really embarrassing.
Perhaps they should sit in front of a video of Ryan Taylor’s performances to see how it is done?
If we can’t get the players to do that simple part of the game we should stop doing it at all and practise passing the ball around and through defences. Problem is we haven’t got one genuine central creative player (not Benny as he plays wide) who is capable of doing that. And please don’t say Cabaye.
33 murvar // Sep 2, 2012 at 10:05 PM
Amazed that no-one seems to be commending Bigi today – what a wonderful performance for a kid stepping into the Premier League. The block of the bent shot saved us a point. And Anita will be a very good asset for us too.
34 Graeme // Sep 2, 2012 at 10:06 PM
To all the wonder fans who are adamant that the squad is stronger this season than last, please go and watch the highlights .
You will see one of the few defenders we had, missing for months with an ACL knee injury; you will see another of our now scarce defenders going off with a hamstring injury.
You will see a team that was supposed to be so much stronger after a year playing together looking like they had 7 players who had met for the very first time at about 1400 this afternoon.
We were an utter abomination of a side. In the first half we couldn’t pass, we didn’t know how to defend, there were a bunch of half hearted, non committed individuals out there who were a disgrace to call themselves a team.
If it hadnt been for a bit of sublime skill by HBA, we would have lost this game and deservedly so. We were pathetic.
The chances of a successful run in the cups, or a top 6 finish in the league are non existent by today’s woeful performance. Pardew needs to face reality and get this lot on the training pitch, 6 hours a day, every day, until they learn how to control a ball, pass a ball, defend a ball.
He needs to sit down the two ends of the pantomime horse who own and run this club and replay the game, highlighting every problem their parsimonious close season has failed to address in the slim hope it might just sink in before January.
What a load of crap.
35 beefman13 // Sep 2, 2012 at 10:06 PM
wyn, cabaye is the french international central midfielder, he has done some fantastic things for us
he is not at the races at the min which is fair enough but he is top drawer, and marveux could defo unlock defences playin in a roaming attacking midfield.
36 Transfer Sage // Sep 2, 2012 at 10:13 PM
Graeme
Could it not just be that 3 of our best players in cabaye, Ben arfa and cisse barely had a pre season due to euros and injuries so were unable to get up to speed?
I understand defensively issues were not addressed by the board which is annoying to say the least but pardew can only work with what he has.
If any team of our level had 3 of their better players under performing they would struggle.
I urge people to give it 7/8 games and see what we are like then.
That’s hopefully when we will see them back to their best.
37 beefman13 // Sep 2, 2012 at 10:14 PM
greame do the wag of school on tuesday and go and tell them the score at the training ground. you cant be more than 14, what a moan.
38 BelfastMagpie // Sep 2, 2012 at 10:16 PM
I hope it’s just poor form with Cabaye at the moment & that he’s not in the huff about something.
39 jawballsaswallwell // Sep 2, 2012 at 10:16 PM
I agree that Cabaye is not a truly creative central midfielder relying much more on high quality movement and distribution but I’m not sure the creativity has to come from the centre of the park. Ben Arfa causes havoc at times from the space he finds on the flank, might he not interrupt the play in a more central role.
40 Jamesthefirst // Sep 2, 2012 at 10:21 PM
@murvar I thought Bigi was immense, again. Undroppable for me. Stunning signing for £1 million.
If he is this good at 18 how good is he going to be in 2-3 years?
41 ITUNDERASHELL // Sep 2, 2012 at 10:24 PM
Spuggy, that looks like a good team although l would like to leave Bigi in and drop Cabaye until he gets his head sorted out.
l also think Santon would be better on the right and l would play Cisse and Ba for 45 minutes each match.
42 Jamesthefirst // Sep 2, 2012 at 10:26 PM
Cabaye
I think he is our engine. When he plays well the whole team plays well.
This season his form is missing, but more worryingly is his absence from a tackle. He was always putting his foot in last season and showing some fight. This season he seems disinterested.
I don’t think his head has been turned, and he definitely has his match fitness by now. I think he is in a huff about one thing:
He spent the summer tapping up Debuchy so we could sign him, and the club didn’t do enough to bring his mate here. You could just imagine how much slagging off Debuchy has done of us to Cabaye by text messages.
43 ITUNDERASHELL // Sep 2, 2012 at 10:42 PM
@42
Totally agree, we need him firing on all cylinders and also playing further forward to support our offensive play.
Once we get our shape sorted out confidence and ability will shine through although Cabaye needs to remember its a team game and no player has the god given right to play when under performing.
44 beddersmag // Sep 2, 2012 at 10:54 PM
Dont think anyone should be immune from the drop. Cabaye has been weak this term. In fact i thought he went missing a fair few games last year but finished the season strongly which left a good impression. As dodgy as obertan can be i would have had him on earlier today as his pace can cause problems and it wasnt as if there wasnt a load of poor performers who deserved to come off. I include cisse and to a lesser extent ba in that. Thats the only problem this season- our top players eg cabay tiote ba cisse have not turned up. When they do we will start winning again
45 Jamesthefirst // Sep 2, 2012 at 11:01 PM
The problem with dropping players not in form is that you will never get them in form. Players need a run of games to get their form back.
That is the Catch-22 for all managers.
People on here keep talking about 4-3-3 but tactics are not the reason we are struggling.
We are struggling because our best players that we depended on last season haven’t turned up yet.
Last season Cabaye, Tiote, BA, and Cisse were magnificent, and all at the same time.
When they are ALL playing well we will beat most teams in the league.
Just be patient. Our form is coming.
46 beddersmag // Sep 2, 2012 at 11:08 PM
I agree james. Wrong terminology. I would have brought cabaye/cisse off- not dropped them. As you say they needs games but if its not working after 60 mins and 3 points are on the line id bring off one of those underperformers and try win the game. It will get better though.
47 Rozzy // Sep 2, 2012 at 11:12 PM
Spuggy
Santon is a left back and Anita is a midfielder but if he was to play in defence he would play right back first. He only played left back for Ajax because they were short in that area.
48 Jamesthefirst // Sep 2, 2012 at 11:42 PM
A bigger concern was if we had a team of average players. We don’t.
We have an excellent first 11 filled with internationals and a number of match winners. And in Bigi and Arnita we have signed two outstanding talents.
Those asking for Cabaye to come off seem to forget it was his 95th minute free kick that nearly won us the game. He can produce what Obertan never will.
For me Jonas is the weak link because he no longer offers anything going forward. Marv is so much better in that position.
Not worried about BA and Cisse because strikers just need a couple of goals to get their confidence back. Once Cisse scores he won’t stop scoring. But last season he scored 13 goals…7 came from Cabaye assists.
Cabaye is the key to our season. Pardew has to get him firing again.
You cannot expect to beat anyone when your engine is switched off.
But 10 games in I am confident we will be firing on all cylinders.
49 Brutooon // Sep 3, 2012 at 12:31 AM
1) We need to drop Jonas for some game. This guy is hardworking but NO END PRODUCT.
2) Anita could do well at the full back. His overlapping he did last night is more than what Simpson did in 3 season!
3) the team is too dependent to HBA to do the attacking.
50 karasu // Sep 3, 2012 at 2:15 AM
Quite honestly I think we got away with it. We were totally outplayed by Villa for the better part of an hour. Passes went astray, intercepted and we keep letting those villans slip by. It was only after Ben Arfa waved his magic wand did our play start to bear some resemblance to our past plays. This is simply unacceptable and we will not succeed in any competition with such poor displays.
51 karasu // Sep 3, 2012 at 2:18 AM
On a positive note, Bigi had a solid, if unspectacular BPL debut.
52 Colo-Sus // Sep 3, 2012 at 7:54 AM
Cisse and Ba were woeful yesterday, occupying the same space alot of the time, its so apparent they are not used to playing in a 442, and that they are used to being a lone striker. Cisse’s movement in particular was poor. Cabaye doe not look like he has fire in his belly, you can bet he was one of the players to have had their ‘head turned’ during the window.
Simpson injured, not the end of the world as Santon should shift to RB, and Anita LB, WE SHOULD HAVE SIGNED DEBUCHY THOUGH!!!!!!!!!
Still a point is a point, but I have a niggling worry that the Harmony we had inb the dressing room is not what it has been…If we had signed a couple more first teamers I think the start to the season would have been alot better.
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