I sense a lot of venting needs to be done and maybe this thread is the right place.
Rather than rant and scream at each other let's try and have a cogent well argued debate, I for one am fed up of reading knee-jerk "pards out/sack the board" posts with no supporting reasoning.
So...
i) Is Pardew the right manager for the club?
ii) Is it the players?
iii) Have they failed to gel as a team, are they insufficiently prepared for the physical demands of this league? Again is that Pardew's fault?
An argument could be made that he recommends which players we should buy, selects the team and tactics and if we are wanting in those areas then it is he that should be held responsible.
Iv) Or is just bad luck? Seemingly every time we make a mistake we seem to get punished for it.
For my part I'm loathe to join the Pard's out crew at least just yet, there are many examples from football and life where an apparent failure as a manager has turned into a success (Fergie at Man U the classic example) and the change in squad this year was always likely to produce variable results, with some players making it, while others won't. Saying that the inconsistency on display this season in a weak league is perhaps only matched by our inability to muscle results and goals when necessary, occasionally winning ugly is the right tactic. Overall I sense that we are a soft touch, perhaps not enough match-hardness and determination is on display, too easily bypassed in midfield and susceptible to high balls into the centre. A couple of the goals we conceded today (at least) seemed to come after Weaver made an initial save, was it bad luck that the rebound fell to a Blackpool player, or poor reactions and marking by our defence?
Fortunately this year it is a weak league, and consequently our frequent cock ups have been matched by other teams screwing up (West Brom lost at home again today) and therefore been that disastrous - we are still in the play-offs after all.
Also, well played Blackpool.
0
Comments
Some of his signings have been dreadful and I do not think the week in week out mistakes are being addressed enough.
Most of all I think that Pardew is naive, they should not be going off to Spain to get away from it all instead they should be dragged in as a squad and made to sit through video upon video of where it is all going wrong so they get to have an idea of what the fans have to go through wek in week out lately.
Better still they might actually learn something.
Five fecking goals - to Blackpool.
Absolute disgrace.
I'm fuming - I really thought we were going to kick on and instead show our amatuerism.
Five fecking goals - to Blackpool.
I feel sorry for the 1700 up there. After the debacle at Scunthorpe there was no way I was going, But never in a million years did I think Blackpool would score five times against us.
2) The players have to accept some responsibility but the buck stops with the Manager. That's what our most successful manager, Alan Curbishley, used to say. He didn't "spin" it to blame the fans for any inadequacies displayed by himself or his team.
3) People are moaning about Reid going but in my opinion the biggest loss has been Todorov. Gray has yet to perform to expectations and some of the responsibility for that lies with the manager.
4) We certainly don't seem to have had the rub of the green with refereeing decisions but you make your own luck if you display the correct attitude.
That's not a bad thing if channelled into making the team perform better.
Going back to Pardew we have to ask ourselves what he has brought to the club and what grounds are there to expect something to change in his second year.
Personally I cannot see how this will happen. The guy is set in his ways, his tactics, team selection and buys and I do not know of anybody in football or any other walk of life who will sit down and admit to himself that he is not doing his job and adapt a new style in order to succeed.
Managers do not get the results the players do and Pardew's crop are not good enough. We have a weaker team than last season and have weakened that even further this season yet still have the audacity to repeatedly suggest that we are amongst the best in the division.
We ahve a manager and two coaches on the bench, I cannot think of many other clubs who have such an armoury of football knowledge all in one place on a Saturday afternoon yet it is failing and failing big time.
I just cannot see how Alan Pardew can change things around when he refuses to adopt a different personal approach first, starting with some of his signings.
He should be looking back at the likes of Rufus, Brown, Robinson, Kinsella and Mendonca who all came to the club and wore their hearts on their sleeves from day one and did not cost a fortune either.
I find it amazing that a player who scored goals like Andy Gray did at Burnley has come in and cannot repeat his ability, does this mean that he is not as good as we thought or Pardew's system does not suit his style of play?
I would say that it is the system as so many other players who have joined us have not repeated their performances at their previous clubs.
To be honest the writeing has been on the wall since the beginning of the season. At no point have we looked consistent enough.
In all fairness with the money we had at our disposal we should have walked this league, but we haven't. And thats all down to poor team selection/transfers, simple as!
I hope he walks when we don't go up, his heart was at West Ham when he joined and when I listen to him now talking about the team under-performing almost every week there doesn't seem to be any passion, its all just words, and they are empty ones at that.
Surely this in itself is not good enough
I also feel the same - having seen little to suggest a case of it being if we don't go up rather than when we don't go up. I also don't have much confidence in us beating the pigs next weekend. As I have said elsewhere I just hope I am proved wrong.
I didn't go, and I'm glad about it too! - But I really feel for all those that spent their hard earned money and all their Saturday going to watch that rubbish.
I can just see it on the OS all this week "Pards encourages fans to travel to Sheff Utd" - My arse!
Fair play to the home side but that defending was truly rotten.
Pardew should stop making comments about how low our away following is.
After today, I think I will be the only dumb schmuck going to Burnley (looks at ticket and thinking of filling it with tobacco...).
Fair play to those who have spent a large amount of cash by making a weekend of it.
Dicko....yer a filthbag!
The trouble is I really don't think you want to be proved wrong and you'd love it if you're proved right so you and a few others can come on here and other boards and tell the rest of us that you "told us so".
I actually think you get some kind of perverse pleasure in Charlton losing. You may well be a ST holder and I agree everyone is entitled to their opinion but it appears that you only voice your opinion when things have gone wrong. Perhaps I'm wrong, perhaps after a victory you come on these boards and tell everyone how proud you are to support Charlton and what a great performance and result it had been.
explain????
We are over dependent on our midfield scoring.
And for chunks of the season have had problems in defence, which does not appear to have been sorted out and has been chopped and changed regularly (partly through injury but also through lack of consistent selection).
We don't appear to be getting better in these areas.
I am not at AP out stage but I am also not a massive way from it.
;)
What do you want me to do - Come on here and start saying what a great position we are in and how much bad luck we must be having and that its all ok - Wake up fella!
I'm fed up with going to games and seeing us collapse, like we did against Watford, and we did the same today.
We are lightweight, and for all the money that has been spent it just isn't good enough.
I hope it all gets turned around and maybe we can have a good crack in the play-offs.
There are serious issues going on at Charlton and they need to be resolved. Think what you want about me be a doom monger - I'm only saying whats happening, look out our current form and we just aren't good enough!