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Graham Carr Or Alan Pardew Has To Go

10 years ago
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One of the problems at Newcastle, Carr and Pardew.

I loved Cabaye while he was here but the last few non-Newcastle footballing days have made me think about Cabaye in the bigger picture.

In fairness Cabaye, while a great player, wasn’t used to his best here. He prefers to be part of a midfield 3, picking passes and dictating tempo, not being a number 10 where he isn’t fast enough or good enough at taking a man on to really shine.

Look at his goals here as well; long range strikes, free kicks, and late runs into the box (well really the edge of it) they’re not the goals of a number 10, they’re the goals of a Regista (deep lying playmaker) like Xavi and Pirlo are, and for that we already got Anita in 18 months ago.

Following this idea, another name popped into my head. Jonas. He was all action for us, a true workhorse, could pass, defend and was at one point a very decent centre midfielder for us (yes he started as a winger) when we went on that 6 game win streak. And in truth for 10 or so games that season he was good in the middle of the park. So he needs replaced. Except he doesn’t, because again it was already done, Sissoko. Strong, quick, helps out in the attack and the defense, good passer who can chip in with goals at times. He is what Jonas needed to be in that role.

And that brings me to a point. The roles that Sissoko has played in, and that Cabaye has played in, are not what they were signed for really (in my eyes at least), but rather how Pardew had them play.

This isn’t Pardew’s team though, Its Graham Carr’s.

He has signed these players for a system that Pardew doesn’t like to play, Pardew goes for the 4-4-2 or 4-2-3-1 (which is really just a 4-4-1-1 with 2 defensive mids and the 1 further back, the way Pardew uses it).

This side looks every inch like it was made for a 4-3-3, Remy isn’t a central striker as he needs to be out left, De Jong is a central striker, HBA is clearly a right sided forward (in this tactic) and the midfield has Tiote the ball winner, Anita the distributor, with Sissoko the workhorse.

Below that front three there is Gouffran, Cisse and Marveaux, who can basically each be described as a worse version of the one ahead of them. Is it not fair to say that this is evidence of how the team was built; it was built by Graham Carr to be a good fluid team with a 4-3-3 structure, Pardew seemingly doesn’t buy into that.

Carr isn’t going to stop his scouting of players considering his success rate, while Pardew isn’t going to adapt to it. One of them has to go in my opinion but who?

One of the best scouts in the country who is building a very good team and style into our club, or a once LMA Manager of the year who does have a few tricks up his sleeve, but seems to be a bit of an old fashioned sort of manager.

I think unfortunately Pardew is the one who has to go and it’s a shame because I do like him. I just don’t think he is compatible with the Newcastle of now. He was a good manager for Carroll, Nolan, Barton and other players of that style, he isn’t though a good manager for HBA, Anita, Cisse, M’biwa ect.

His time here may just be up. He can’t take us forward and because of that, is it not time to say goodbye to our once loved manager?

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