Maybe the best that can be said about Saturday’s performance is we got a point, we didn’t suffer another defeat, and the lads showed some grit and good defending in the second half, as West Brom came full pelt at Newcastle.
Steven Taylor – missing a good chance in first half
And we thought Yohan Cabaye looked good again, especially in that first half, when he went very close twice, after Yoan Gouffran had given us the lead on eight minutes.
This is some of what Alan Pardew told the local press today, regarding the performance on Saturday:
“We did what we had to do in terms of on the pitch,” “It wasn’t about talking – it had to come out in the performance.” “We were tired against Sunderland , but there was more energy in the team and more discipline.”
“We were excellent in the first half, we should have had two goals really.” “There were some lovely moments, particularly from Yohan Cabaye, his passing was good.”
“There was a great chance for Papiss Cisse, and I thought we might rue it because the pitch was also difficult.” “In the second half, West Brom bombarded us, and were more direct than any team we’ve faced,”
“We stood up to that with Steven Taylor and Mapou.” “Rob Elliot was particularly terrific.” “We should have done better on their goal, but overall I’m pleased because it’s a tough place to get a point.”
Rob Elliot again had a good game, after what we thought were one or two shaky moments.
It was a battling performance from our lads and we got an away point – and that was about the minimum that was acceptable on Saturday.
We had put out an article last week about the leadership of Mapou, and it was there for all to see in the second half on Saturday, especially when West Brom got corner and corner in stoppage time.
And you could see Mapou telling the Newcastle defenders who to mark – as Newcastle were hanging on a bit in those final minutes.
But we survived and got the point, and another defeat would have been simply another disaster.
We now need a win against Liverpool on Saturday – it’s as simple as that.
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40 comments so far
TorqToon
Apr 22, 2013 at 10:33 AM
Comment #1Lilongwe – An excellent and intelligently formed post.
You know this is nufcblog right?? That’s not allowed!!
@timuJ
Apr 22, 2013 at 10:36 AM
Comment #2lol ED, that article had very little to do with the title.
Quite often your captions and photos have nothing to do with the title.
You need to put a forum on here for your multitudes of readers to start their own discussions.
Lilongwe Geordie
Apr 22, 2013 at 10:37 AM
Comment #3Torq,
Haha, stop it, you are making me blush!
Transfer Sage
Apr 22, 2013 at 10:39 AM
Comment #4Same problem as all season though. We look good attacking and defending when on the front foot, when we go on the back foot we look like conceding and create nothing.
I don’t understand why he can’t see that sitting back very rarely does us any good and when we do press and worry other teams not only do we look like scoring, we also look much more solid.
But Pardew did show he can get us playing well in a game, just needs to show he can have the guts to not fold and drop back (which doesn’t even work).
catchy in norway
Apr 22, 2013 at 10:42 AM
Comment #5oh wow, this guy has balls,
some times he has 3 or 4 missing, hmmmm the guy totally misses the point, its not always about the personel he has , but the way he deploys them on the pitch,
we played man u around exmas with a very weak team compaired to what it could have been if all were fit, and that for me was our best game of the season, even though we got beat,
he seams to think that he can only play football if he has a great squad, when infact its about getting the best out of what you have,
and this is why i think he is a bad man manager, he must think the players dont pick up on the fact he is slating them, and blaming them for him not winning
what bugged me about sat more than anything, was his last sub, he used it in the 90th minut to save cabaye, when infact he should have made an attacking sub to try and win the game much earlier
he tried to see the game out from half time again, and when they scored thought, hey , i still have a point
the guy is a looooser, and yes i hope he does speak to the fans at the end of the season,, but not ours, maybe stokes or any other club
Ibizatoon - Back By Popular Demand
Apr 22, 2013 at 10:42 AM
Comment #6So Man U have a chance to finalise the PL title race and condemn QPR and Reading to guaranteed relegation tonight.
For the second time this season, go Manchester. Really need to get out of this habit.
Toon Tang
Apr 22, 2013 at 10:45 AM
Comment #7if we weren’t to laugh we’d cry eh lads. some of yous may already have done, ive been near, but always held back.
we are newcastle, united we stand, divided we fall.
and believe me my apprentice, the north will most certainly rise again. we just have to make sure were on the revolving wheel of fortune as its in its ascendency.
toonarmydownsouth
Apr 22, 2013 at 10:45 AM
Comment #8Ibiza
No mate I think it’s if utd win they win the league, if villa win QPR and reading are relegated, either way there done for though!
Lilongwe Geordie
Apr 22, 2013 at 10:46 AM
Comment #9Sage,
Agreed, but we have seen it on several occasions. We don’t seem to be able to do it consistently, whether that is fitness levels, tactics or both I don’t know, but either, and both can be solved on the training field, so why hasn’t that happened?
Ibizatoon - Back By Popular Demand
Apr 22, 2013 at 10:48 AM
Comment #10tads…Ah yes, that would make more sense 🙂
BigKirky
Apr 22, 2013 at 10:49 AM
Comment #11Lilongwe, when Enrique was overlapping, Jonas was actually attacking more (although still couldn’t cross), plus we had Carroll to aim at so the tactics were different. Barton was pinging balls in from the right side as well.
Santon isn’t a great crosser (but not mega bad either) but he drags their players out of position with his runs.
I like Jonas, but not as a left winger.
Players have to be played in positions where they can contribute to winning games but also maintain balance. Play Santon a bit higher (Carver said on radio they see him more of a winger) and play a left back who can defend.
Goals win games, sitting back and not providing crosses and through balls (Cabaye played FAR too deep a lot of the time) just prolongs the time ’til the end of the match without us scoring and allows them to press us.
Nearly every time Jonas crosses the ball we will turnover possession back to them, creating more running and defending. He doesn’t attack players like he used to either as he knows he has a higher priority to defend.
catchy in norway
Apr 22, 2013 at 10:50 AM
Comment #12Lilongwe Geordie
according to many on here, because we didnt strengthen in the summer
but we did in jan, and that has made no difference at all,, these players have gone backwards also,
i wonder what the common denominator is hmmmm
Transfer Sage
Apr 22, 2013 at 10:54 AM
Comment #13lilongwe
I don’t know. I find it hard to believe Pardew is so stupid he can’t see it doesn’t work, if everyone here can see sitting deep is not as good for us as attacking then surely a professional manager can see that too, can’t he?
I don’t know whether Pardew wants us to play like that or can’t do anything to stop it…but something isn’t right with the team.
I think the players do take a lot of blame as well, it’s only fair that if they get credit for doing well they get blame for being poor.
No matter what pardew coaches them there is no reason they should be able to pass a ball 10 yards which has happened over the season. If they can’t kick a ball under no pressure then no manager can help them, they need to help themselves too.
Transfer Sage
Apr 22, 2013 at 10:56 AM
Comment #14catchy
In fairness though often players come in mid season, have a instant impact but then opposition see what they are about and after a few weeks but plans in place to stop them.
I don’t think that’s purely down to bad coaching/tactics.
jeff
Apr 22, 2013 at 10:57 AM
Comment #15http://www.reddit.com/r/NUFC/comments/1csv96/ben_arfas_house_up_for_sale/
Lilongwe Geordie
Apr 22, 2013 at 10:59 AM
Comment #16BigKirky,
To be fair, I don’t see us needing to cross too much in games. As you said we had Carroll then, now, I don’t see Cisse as a major aerial threat, good, but not his main strength. We are better off threading the ball and using incisive passing. We don’t really have many people at the club who put in a good cross. (Which is part of my argument against getting Carroll)
I think Jonas does what he has always done, he seems a yard slower but large amounts of the negative comments about him are unfair and largely unwarranted.
Catchy,
I’m not sure that the players have gone backwards. If we played to suit there style they would look better, but there is nothing to suggest they have gone backwards, more badly utilised. However, as you say there is a common theme, but it isn’t just Pardew as you like to say, it is the entire coaching staff.
BigKirky
Apr 22, 2013 at 10:59 AM
Comment #17I do appreciate the fact that Jonas helps out defending, that is not lost on me. However you don’t get three points from defending all game.
You get three points from getting more goals than the opposition, which means creating chances whilst staying solid at the back. We tried to do this in the first half on Saturday and it worked fine. Second half, we tried to prolong our lead without creating chances, and we let them back into it.
Sir Bobby knew the importance of providing chances, which is why he always would play Nobby and Robert. Shearer would be shouting at Robert during the game regularly “Laurent, GET IT IN” during a match, cos he know his chances would be limited without the ball being crossed in. Bernard would be bombing on as well as Robert would hardly defend. But Sir Bobby knew the importance of providing service to the strikers so went with it.
…And Laurent (and Nobby) could cross brilliantly 🙂
catchy in norway
Apr 22, 2013 at 10:59 AM
Comment #18transfer
pardew is on a looser with this,
if the players are doing as he asks, he looks a very poor manager, and is simply not good enough
and if there not doing as he is asking them , and welook this poor because of the players doing what they like, well that means he has lost the players,,
so what is his job?
he makes sub,,, and gets them wrong most of the time
Hatem's better than Messi
Apr 22, 2013 at 11:01 AM
Comment #19Pardew wants to meet the fans … there’ll be 52,000 of us behind you on Saturday.
We’ll all be cheering the team on.
Not sure we’ll be walking in a Pardew wonderland though.
Suarez return to cannibalism might just save Pardew’s and our skins.
We can sing “You don’t know what your doing” before kick off , right?
The fan’s dilema .. you want to support your team but you want the manager to know you think he sucks.
Lilongwe Geordie
Apr 22, 2013 at 11:03 AM
Comment #20Sage,
In the first half, if certain players could hit a barn door from 2 paces we could have been out of sight, and we would have been praising how well we played. But as they didn’t Pardew decided we needed to sit deeper, yes WBA started playing differently, but we didn’t make any real attempt at countering that, and by not playing in the same manner as the first half, let them push us deeper and deeper.
Players must shoulder some of the blame, but if we had put it to bed by half time, Pardew would be taking the praise for the manner we played 1st half. Rough with the smooth.
ichrisho
Apr 22, 2013 at 11:04 AM
Comment #21Who was “…Triffic…” on Saturday Pardew…. WHO???? You melon… talk about desperation… did anyone get a stink of it?
Rotonda heights
Apr 22, 2013 at 11:05 AM
Comment #22What a damning indictment with the squad we have that Pardew says finishing 17th is good enough. Absolutely disgraceful and pitiful. I think I had more respect for JFK than this chancer and that’s saying something.
You can guarantee if a Garcia or Poyet type came in the place would just get an enormous lift. The shackles would be lifted.
Players would be allowed to play in their right positions. and be picked on merit and there would be more emphasis on attack with a philosophy of pass and move for a whole 90 mins, not just shut up shop on a 1-0 lead all the time.
Finishing 5th papered over an awful lot of cracks and was due to a wide range of extremely extenuating circumstances.
Yet here were again in familiar territory with Pardew in 16th place a la West Ham and Charlton. playing god awful football and with players now looking as confused and clueless as the manager.
TorqToon
Apr 22, 2013 at 11:06 AM
Comment #23I think after the game is the ONLY appropriate time to vent frustrations at the management (should people desire).
Before and during the game we need to be 150% behind the lads as we have shown in the past we can truly be the 12th man.
However Liverpool are a VERY different proposition without ‘Jaws’ and should be get a win…I doubt there will be many angry chants.
🙂
Lilongwe Geordie
Apr 22, 2013 at 11:06 AM
Comment #24BigKirky,
When Nobby and Robert were crossing we had one of the greatest “old fashioned” centre forwards. Cisse isn’t the same player, so the way t create chances for him is slightly different.
Ibizatoon - Back By Popular Demand
Apr 22, 2013 at 11:06 AM
Comment #25ichrisho…I think he says Elliot was.
catchy in norway
Apr 22, 2013 at 11:07 AM
Comment #26lions
100% agree, not player suddenly turns a bad player
if you introduce a new player into a winning team he can look like a supper star
introduce a good player to a loosing team, he will soon fall to the rest of the teams playing level,
and that is what has happend for me,
we are playing the same as last season but without all the luck,, and we still have had lots of luck,, how many 90min winners this season?
for me, its all about coaching, everyone of those first team coaches should be sacked
pardew dosnt have the balls, and it seems like carver and stone are both yes men to pardew
Transfer Sage
Apr 22, 2013 at 11:07 AM
Comment #27catchy
Yeh i think there is a problem, either bad tactics or not being able to get them to follow his tactics.
Lilongwe Geordie
Apr 22, 2013 at 11:08 AM
Comment #28Rotonda,
I hope that isn’t advocating your potential support of Poyet as manager? He hasn’t proved that he is anywhere near capable of managing at the top level.
ichrisho
Apr 22, 2013 at 11:09 AM
Comment #29Ibiza.. thanks for that mate 🙂 I had a re-read through less misted eyes and can see that Elliott was indeed “…Triffic… ” – he made a save.. big deal – he’s a goalkeeper…
Rotonda heights
Apr 22, 2013 at 11:09 AM
Comment #30I genuinely feel like Pardew thinks geordies are stupid. His jumping in the crowd antics with a desperate last minute get out of jail card are so easily swallowed by some sheep, but I think way more people are on to him than he realises.
Transfer Sage
Apr 22, 2013 at 11:11 AM
Comment #31torq
Yeh i think it’s best to back the team during the game, cheer them on. Can see how negative play though can pass to the crowd and kill the atmosphere. If we see our team go from pressing to trying to hold out it can really suck the life and energy from the crowd which then goes back onto the players.
Ibizatoon - Back By Popular Demand
Apr 22, 2013 at 11:11 AM
Comment #32ichrisho…He is indeed 🙂
ErnestHemingway
Apr 22, 2013 at 11:11 AM
Comment #33Ichrisho, from previous thread.
Pardew is a nihilist? That’s a new one on me. Are you sure you’ve used the right word? If so, explain yourself. I’m a big fan of ridiculous theories and I’m very open minded.
Hatem's better than Messi
Apr 22, 2013 at 11:14 AM
Comment #34@Rotondo #22
Last paragraph is so true. Ashley has to act.
@TorqToon
Pardew can’t get down the tunnel fast enough. Probably to find a camera to start his spin. So what do you do?
jail4pardew
Apr 22, 2013 at 11:15 AM
Comment #35The problem lies with Pardews continual refusal, to change his way of thinking, concerning team tactics, we got away with it last season man many times, listen even the bloggers who are more mediating can see we are on the edge of the drop, it has been said many times Alan Pardew has an ego that is so big he wont give in as a sign that he has got it wrong, that’s why the continual excuses wont stop.
MA make a statement saying you back Alan Pardew 100 per cent and have total faith in his football management, not just the arm around the shoulder bit man on man scenario like KK was good at, if both Lambias and MA are happy with our football then I will have to question that seriously, and I support the owner in normal circumstances.
Pardew said if he got the signings he wanted in January then we would be looking towards Europe again (trust me on that) well they were ll available on Saturday again, you are strangling our team and squad. you have the tools but you have the same excuses, are you listening MA our very own prime minister Pardew is spinning you a yarn, YET AGAIN.
Rotonda heights
Apr 22, 2013 at 11:15 AM
Comment #36Lilongwe
has he been given a chance? Doing a cracking job promoted first season, in play-offs this season, plays brilliant football to watch.
he was a very good premiership player at Chelsea and spurs and international , has great contacts and is well respected. I would say that’s quite a few up on Pardew already.
Pardew along with most other English mangers has the most UNremarkable CV and low win percentage ever for a near 15 year career.
Sometimes you have to take a chance a la Pochettino and Laudrup. Losing the fear of well Pardew is the devil we know will go a long way.
ichrisho
Apr 22, 2013 at 11:16 AM
Comment #37Ernest – Hes more of a moral nihilist… taking the view that morality does not exist as something inherent to objective reality… As an example, if someone kills someone else, such a nihilist might argue that killing is not inherently a bad thing, or bad independently from our moral beliefs, because of the way morality is constructed as some rudimentary dichotomy. What is said to be a bad thing is given a higher negative weighting than what is called good: as a result, killing the individual was bad because it did not let the individual live, which was arbitrarily given a positive weighting. In this way a moral nihilist believes that all moral claims are false….. ergo… Pardew is a liar, a vagabond and a deuce… 🙂
Ian Toon
Apr 22, 2013 at 11:42 AM
Comment #38Lilongwe- a very good post. My point was that the best players are not governed by tactics. Talented players are often restricted by managers but the best players determine outcomes in that they are the predominant force not tactics. In my opinion Cabaye is our best player but not the same type and influence as Messi Ronaldo and Bale. I was using it to make an illustrative point in mentioning Bale in the Spurs game. I did watch the game at the ground and I will not follow up your other fan opinion related points because we should just agree to differ. That said I think if you were to ask Saylor and he were to answer honestly he would agree that he throws the coaching manual out of the window in his resorting to back peddling when under pressure. It is a human trait to retreat rather than advance when you feel under pressure or stressed ie into a comfort zone. It is apparent that a number of players are struggling from a fitness aspect and we will see more from them after a pre season. I am not really looking to apportion blame until the end of the season. Pardew is prone to be defensive but it’s far to simplistic to solely blame him for an abysmal
season. When teams are losing fans blame the manager and tactics. A manager has to choose a system that maximises the advantages and minimises the disadvantages associated with players available. ( i ad nauseum mentioned Simpson and Williamson in this context earlier in the season) Llambias was at fault for not getting the alternative to Remy through the door because since the Reading game we’ve missed countless goal scoring chances. Particularly Cisse who needs help.
Every time I watch Ba I rue what were missing. Players schooled through the academy are taught how to react suitably in most situations. Whereas you can have a rigid defensive system and possibly in DM area you look to encourage creative players to drift more between the lines. They have more license – the manager has some control but not full control because players particularly the more talented cannot be restrained. Finally, tactics are merely a frame for what happens most frequently. Personally I don’t share the general view that it’s the managers fault. Try blaming the players once in a while. I fully anticipate a big clear out of a number of non performing so called aspiring youngsters.
fatash
Apr 22, 2013 at 12:36 PM
Comment #39New amazing book!
Coming soon 10,001 best excuses for losing points. I kn.ow them all and for the first time I am writing a book.
Enquiries to A Parsnip an NUFC
lol
toonluvva
Apr 22, 2013 at 1:55 PM
Comment #40Twice in the mackem match (1st half) we played the ball for Cisse to run onto, he got between O’Shea and Cuellar and absolutely blew them away for pace.
The first time it has a high ball (not hoofed) and the bounce took it on to to Mignolet but Cisse was close to getting onto it.
For the second, the ball was played on the deck straight up th middle, again splitting the 2 mackem central defenders and Cisse was unlucky that Mignolet was alert enough to get to the edge of the area to cover it.
My point being that on both occasions Cisse was able to exploit his pace and because of his starting position was in no danger of being offside.
Sadly we never tried anything like that again in the match.
We should try to manufacture similar chances for Cisse and I’m sure he’ll put a good number of them away.