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Spineless, Negative, Pathetic…And That Was Just The Team Selection!

11 years ago
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Now I was never behind any of the Pardew out campaigns, especially when there was the hysteria after the derby. However, what I saw on Saturday was one of the worst performances, if not the worst, I have ever seen from Newcastle United.

It was utter garbage, now I can accept that sort of result when your’re playing a Man City or Man Utd but a Liverpool team without their best player?!! We made them look like Barcelona!

I don’t know where to start with what went wrong. As I mentioned earlier, the team selection summed up the day. How you can justify playing what is effectively 5 defensive midfielders and expect to get a result is beyond me!

Now the problem is that Cabaye is being asked to play in front of the defence and dictate the play. Now there is nothing wrong with that as his range of passing is exceptional but then what does he have to aim at? Jonas who has played two good halves of football a couple of weeks ago, or maybe Sissoko who previously was a holding midfielder and is now playing right wing?

Or perhaps Mr.Offside himself who has pretty much no chance in holding off two giant centre halves such as Agger and Carragher. Maybe his best chance is to pass to the men alongside him who have around 2 goals between them in 2 years. I don’t have anything against Perch but Tiote has been utter rubbish this season and his passing at times is abysmal.

Now anyone who was at St James’ Park on Saturday will have seen our new offside tactic, called ‘The Worm’,  where our back four forms a nice wavy line where no one is anywhere near each other. The part that really upsets me is the clear evidence that there is no sign of improvement, or potential to do so.

Ben Arfa would be a good start, and maybe Colo, but we are pulling at straws then. We aren’t showing any sort of tactical improvements, slow in attack and as per usual started the old long ball which was as much use as a chocolate fireguard.

Furthermore, the brilliant comments from Pardew that we have been working on our set-pieces this week nearly gave me a heart attack! We haven’t scored a corner for nearly 2 years, we should be working on them every day!

As I’ve said, I didn’t want to become a Pardew hater but how much has his motivation been damaged by his contract? Unlike most premiership managers, where there is the pressure of 3 defeats and you’re out, it doesn’t apply to him. When we lost at Arsenal and Man Utd we accepted it because we had a go and tried, Saturday there was nothing there! Simply an utter disgrace.

The bonus is we are away for the next 2 games which I can only see as a good thing. Can we get anything? I would have to say no! For the sole reason that we will use the same tactics in the next 2 games where we will play to avoid defeat and 9 times out of 10 if you play to avoid defeat, you lose.

I hope Pardew shocks me and keeps us up but either way he won’t be here in August and anyone who thinks his 8 year deal isn’t performance rated is naïve, this is a man whose whole empire is bonus based and performance reviewed. Ill not be chatting Pardew out and will be massively behind the team for the next 3 games, we need a miracle…and then a new manager I’m afraid.

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