2 Penalties, 6 Yellows, 1 Red & Premier League Survival

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I was sick of watching our players throwing themselves on the ground in the hope of getting a free kick.

@Annie

I thought I was the only one swearing at the TV watching them do that. Schoolboy tactics. Ridiculous team play. Can't string more than 10 passes together. Terrible possession and no want. We stay up thanks to Bosingwa and NOTHING else.

Been the story of our season ! No tactics no commitment nothing , nobody in that team can claim to have had a respectable season and I'm just glad it's over
I don't expect them to turn up next week now as they have rarely done so all season and with nothing left to play for I doubt there gonna start now but ill be there if only to give harps a good send off
Pardew was right about needing 2 strikers in the summer but I think the rebuild should begin at the top and get someone in who knows what positions and tactics best suit the players he has got to begin with

I would keep Pardew on, I really would this season should be a massive wake up call for him. I think changing manager would be a step back again for us, moyes at everton had them down the near the bottom a few seasons during his long stint there. There have been excuses this season, injuries and also something that has went under the radar a bit, how much has bad officiating cost us this season, off the top of my head I remember at least a few bad calls.

Lee Probert before today had never officiated a match with NUFC where they had won, some of them decisions today were shocking tbh.

We have been awful this season and a lot of that has to land at Pardew's door. Saying that, he deserves another shot. It would just be another step back, unless there was a top manager to walk into the club.

If there is one thing about AP I cant stand its his excuses. I dont think he will be here that much longer to be fair, but fans shouting "You dont know what your doing" just makes us look like right f00king knobs. A bit of solidarity and support and AP doesnt have any excuses.

.....the players not playing for him, now thats a different point and a lot to worry about. Players like Cabaye have really dissapointed me these last few months. Im sure the press will say his head is elsewhere but we need more from him. He shows his petulant side too often so he needs to shape up or ship out.

He is clearly to arrogant to stay ! Mourinho has earnt the right to be that way this clown hasn't
He blamed this season on just about everything , the injuries - Europe - tired - refs - the fans booing him and now mike Ashley ! I hate mike Ashley but I have to back him here he gave pardew 30m in jan and got 5 players in its pardew's job as manager to choose the players he wants he should of had a back up for remy . What if he had failed the medical or personal terms
The fact is he failed to be prepared and now it seems he's daring Ashley to fire him ... Well just do it who will he blame for poor results from his poor tactics and selection on next ? The cleaners , the stewards
Hes too arrogant to change tactics when we can all see they aren't working

I agree on some of that however what options has he really had on the bench to play a different system? Usually the only players available to change the system are unavailable through injuries or suspension. This season the whole PREM has been much closer than it ever has from top to bottom, if we had won say 3 extra games where would we have been? Yes there has been some shocking performances along the way but how many times have we fielded our first choice team this season? Stop being so fickle and get behind the team.

Quote:

tom09
Hes too arrogant to change tactics when we can all see they aren't working

Couldn't agree more with this sentence, sums up AP and our entire season.
There were glimpses of it last season too, but we were happy to be getting the results and to be fair, it was quite a lucky season, almost everything went our way.

A little bit of adversity this year though and we almost crumble.

Horrible, negative tactics and route one "big sam" type football, which for us is inexcusable especially since we actually have the type of players we need to play a much more positive, attacking game.
So that means AP doesn't believe enough in the quality of the players to allow them to express themselves on the field and actually go for the win.
Regardless of injuries, we could still have done it that way, the excuses are just not good enough.

And, worst of all, the tactics were even less effective because we were so dismal at set-pieces all season! When was the last time we scored from a corner?? I can't even remember! It seems like we didn't practice ANY set-pieces at all in training!

Hated watching them play this season.
Thank god its over and we don't have to worry about it for a couple of months.

I keep asking this question and dont get an answer, who do all the people on here calling for Pardew to be sacked want as manager

Maybe they want Joe Kinnear back or Graeme Souness ?? Kenny Daglish is in the market again.

Um, there's always King Kev Part VI!?!?

I told you Martinez and was told he's not good enough any way he did win the Cup and his style of football would suit the French players we have. He'll probably end up at Everton anyway.

For sure he is in a relegation fight every year but Wigan play entertaining football but have a poor defence. They are an unfashionable club with a town better known for its rugby league team.He has however put the football team on the map and would have the respect of the players.

i dont get the whole wigan/martinez thing, he's had how many seasons at the club to get the team playing the way he wants it and he cant sort out the defence, he plays amazing attacking football yet with our apparently woeful lack of tactics or ambition we scored more goals than them and conceded the same, bearing in mind we've played most of our season without the first team playing at the same time and wigan have had nowhere near as many injuries or games to play!

Martinez for me has shown a lack of ambition in the last few seasons, he has had numerous job offers yet he decides to stay at a small club where he's going to be in a relegation battle every year but he knows whatever happens he is safe in that position and what ever he does he is going to be worshipped for it rather than go somewhere and test himself!

As for winning the FA cup, it had nothing to do with them out playing Everton or Man City it cam down to Everton and Man City simply didn't turn up!

Why dont we go for Alex McLeish he has won a cup and regularly finds his teams in relegation

Manchini is now available too!

Just because you can't think of anyone that means your happy to continue with the status quo !
Paying to watch a team with no pre organized attack plan , no idea when it comes to corners or set pieces
No idea when it comes to substitutes so just continues to bring on his favorites like obertan and blames everyone but himself for the dire football on show
There are plenty of managers in England and across Europe who could do a good job if the board showed a bit of ambition but let's face it they have only ever give the job to there pals (kinnear/pardew) and to a coach lookin for an opportunity to make the step up so they can keep the manager on a short leash

I guess Mr.P will still be with us at least at the beginning of the campaign I do hope I'm wrong.

You're right, I don't have a suitable replacement in mind.
I'm not exactly calling for his head either, I just wish he'd wake up and take note of what is happening around him.
We played some of the worst football I've ever seen us play this year. In the last 3 HOME games we've shipped 10 goals with zero response! Come on... Even Sunderland, who have been utterly woeful, and whose players have passed out drunk in casinos in midweek, managed to give us an absolute caning.
The tactics have to change.
We haven't looked dangerous in attack for months now, even in the last hardly convincing 2-1 win over the worst team in the premiership, which we made extremely hard work of.
I'm not usually so pessimistic but I'm really worried, we will be relegated next season if we keep trying to play this way.
I'm not normally the sentimental type, to get caught up in the hysteria of those who say we need AC back in the team, but this time I think they're right.
At the moment, almost all set-pieces are utterly useless to us.
We don't even try to make the most of them. Unless it's Cabaye, we may as well give the ball straight to the opposition keeper when we win a corner or a free-kick.
Yesterday not a single corner was contested in the box, instead of attacking the ball our players seem to go through the motions and stay on their feet ready to sprint back to our box in the hopes of quelling the inevitable counter-attack.
Yes, we really managed to tighten up at the back in the last game, but Arsenal weren't exactly going for the jugular either. They were nervous and twitchy and not exactly at their best.
Even so, when they scored I thought we were going to crumble and take another hiding at home, but Colo in defense is the biggest reason we survived this year.
Ben Arfa baffles me, he is so skilful and yet his decision making in the box is hopeless. Last season, if he got into the box at all, I thought right its goal time.
But this year, horrible, he should've scored yesterday but blasted over.
That's my ranting done for the day but seriously, do you think the players are burnt out and just need a rest or do you think we should all be worried?

Mourinho is available, and so is Benitez!

Piston, totally agree with your post, i think the players are totally burnt out both physically and mentally and have been for a while, i know people keep saying Pardew uses it as an excuse but the europa league has totally ruined our season, we didn't have the squad to allow us to rest players on the Thursday for the Sunday game, the guys were travelling back from Russia on a Friday and then having to do a light training session on the Saturday to prepare for the sunday game with disastrous results.

I've said before that i think a Andy Carroll type player would be perfect with Cisse, although Carroll has many things going for him i.e he's local and we know he'd give his all for the club he's also going to cost around 15million and about 60k in wages, i'm sure the club will have a similar cheaper option in mind!

I don't know where cisse was playing on Sunday but it wasn't up front , he just drifts where ever he feels like which would be fine if it followed the state of play but it doesn't , debuchy put in a great cross and he was no where near the box and This has been happening all season
We need a striker to play along side him and a manager who can get him to understand where and when he needs to be !
It seem like pardew has given him a free role and he obviously sucks at it . He needs to either tell him to just stay up front and concentrate on staying onside or use the training sessions to drill into him when to be in the box and when to float around the pitch
I don't buy into all this blaming the Europa for tiredness bull ! Yes it's been tough and had an effect but other teams have competed in it with smaller squads and managed to cope in their leagues better than we have fared
Our results and performances this season are down to inept tactics and substitutions (extremely baffling at times) as it was to fatigue , IMO Anita has been largely under utilised this season he started off a bit shaky but just as he started to come good he got dropped and pretty much forgotten about until sissoko was injured

Quote:

tom09
He needs to either tell him to just stay up front and concentrate on staying onside or use the training sessions to drill into him when to be in the box and when to float around the pitch

I'd love to know what really goes on in these "training sessions" you speak of, I wonder if the team have actually had any productive ones at all this season!
Like, did we practice any set-pieces at all??

And back to Cisse, I don't know if I want him floating around the pitch, I think he should focus on being upfront and being onside because he clearly cannot focus on more than one job at a time!
When he plays deep, he doesn't do much except exacerbate a bunching effect in midfield, collect the ball and pass it back into our half, or get tackled and lose possession.
He doesn't take the ball forward, and to be fair that should not be the expectation of him, it's not playing him to his strengths.

I feel that except on the odd occasions we've been given a sound caning, the opposition haven't really been better than us, we've beaten ourselves by not playing to our strengths. In that case, barring a miracle, the outcome of the game is decided well before KO because AP doesn't seem to realize that our tactical ineptitude can and will be punished by even the crappest teams!