derry

Your wasting your time. Give it time and eventually the penny will drop that what we have now with Pardew is all we are going to get, because that's the way he manages.

According to Merrington, although we had 5 in the middle, the wide men were tucked in as usual, leaving the space wide for Brighton to pass and move and crowding our midfield denying us the room to play.

Pretty much sums up the narrow crap that is played, which leads to the long ball game. Stewart Murdoch is the scout.

You can make all the excuses you like, we haven't won enough games and drawn far too many, despite scoring plenty of goals against some teams, we were unable to, when we really needed to win. 17 wins in 38 games isn't good enough.

Half way through the season with 23 matches left we were 7 points off the play offs, now we have to win our last 8 games and make up 11 points. We brought in Barnard, Puncheon, Seaborne and Otsemobor and despite the strength of the squad we underperformed most of the time. In the fullness of time I feel that it will be proven that Pardew is a 'don't lose, no risk' manager not 'a get out there and win manager'. I see this morning that Norwich have won 23 of the last 28 games under a manager that gives it a go. Until we have a manager that believes in going all out and is brave we aren't going to be successful. We have been tactically out manoeuvered on quite a few occasions this year and our compact formations have caused us to drop many points.

Carry on singing.

Short memory, Pardew set up for two big strikers but they turned with two little pacy strikers who tore us apart. Poyet did his homework and outwitted us.

I have tried to explain but continually get flak from the same posters who don't attempt to explain their view but resort to sarcasm etc rather than lay down a reasoned tactical alternative view.

If you had done any of that you wouldn't have to resort to being so bloody obnoxious.

Or maybe it's teams like Brighton doing their homework and turning over teams who think they only have to turn up.

I take it you don't believe that formal training courses teach anything you can't pick up as a fan. Of course it gives a different perspective. It is my view we play badly when we compact the midfield and the evidence supports that. And for those pontificating about the merits or otherwise of apparently the only systems they know 4-4-2/4-3-3/4-5-1/4-3-1-2 maybe reading 'Inverting The Pyramid' by Jonathon Wilson would be an education, but then standing in the Northam singing, is education enough.

Whatever!

It is indeed what you saw, but Swindon weren't intentionally marking with two or three, it was the tightness of the play that caused the Swindon players to be compacted and the traffic jam that meant our midfield was constantly under pressure from the sheer numbers of opponents in a small area, which we brought on ourselves by compacting the midfield, which we did again with a 4-3-1-2 even narrower formation on Tuesday until after the first goal. There is a point in time for the second wide midfielder to come inside. Too early and there is no switching alternative and it allows the fullback to tuck in and reinforce the central defenders, Too late and no threat, however it could keep the full back out, opening up the middle for a midfield runner. Ideally hold off and come in late on the 45 on the blindside arriving late with the ability to attack/recover the deep or over hit cross with the posibility of being a free man as the fullback will more than likely be drawn away to help the central defenders.

Ball and Peters plus lots of movement from Hurst and Hunt. Don't need wingers, just need to have players wide both touchlines when attacking. Chelsea do it with about six players, AV use two some use three or four to achieve the same thing with movement, but it is using the full width of the pitch which keeps the passing options open. We compact on purpose and restrict our movement by not using the full width of the pitch resulting in the lumping it up to Lambert. When we do on occasions open up such as Walsall and twenty minutes on Tuesday we are very positive so why do we need to restrict ourselves especially as we seem more secure defensively playing like that.

United play the simplest system in football albeit with very good players. It is break out quickly, get the ball out wide, keep the width on the blind side for the switch in case of being blocked off, the full back on the play side reinforces the wide player and the midfield runners get up quickly into the box to reinforce Rooney or Berbatov. All executed at pace on the break. Simple and devastating.

Width is not being on one touchline with the widest player on the other side tucked in beside the central midfielders, it is using the full width of the field not half of it. Puncheon is quick and often goes down the outside crossing from the byeline either side, Lallana never. Swindon didn't double and triple mark Lallana and Puncheon, they didn't have to, as they were tucked in tight to the central midfielder., the Swindon midfield and back four made a compact 8 denying them the room, It was a traffic jam with 14 players in a small space. Lallana and Puncheon were instructed to tuck in and we got what we deserved. Schneiderlin especially had no place to pass the ball because of the traffic jam. As soon as Swindon got the ball they spread out and moved the ball around from wing to wing keeping possession which we couldn't do.

What I've been saying and seeing all season. The trouble on here is lots of football fans but few with any real experience of playing or coaching. The ex players and coaches I talk to, all see this problem of narrowness restricting the passing options the same way we do. All decent teams have players on both touchlines simultaneously when in possession spreading the opposition and increasing the passing options. Good teams defend in to out and attack out to in but most on here just don't get it.

Nobody talks about wingers, what we are talking about is the wide midfielders not tucking in and allowing the opponents to compact, denying schneiderlin the room and options to pass the ball, then when we lose the ball, providing the room for them to counter attack us wide, which for example Swindon did. The pitches aren't narrow, the best surfaces are out wide on the worst pitches as at Wycombe and Exeter, except for one patch of real soft stuff, we just chose to plod through the middle.

The Carlisle forum were complaining because their criteria was 65 for seniors, whilst we were getting the concession at 60. It was explained that the ticketing policy was dictated by the clubs own rules which had to be adhered to for the final tickets.

I won't have to, he is going to have to convince Cortese he's the manager for next season and I don't think he has done that. I'm not driven by results alone, I want to see teams playing decent football without a big emphasis on booting it long. I happen to think with the players we have got, we could play good football and do a lot better against the poorer sides, rather than trying to negate them by compaction.

Manchester Utd. When we play narrow we lump it up front, when we spread out we play football. It doesnt need Capello or Ferguson, Wilson gets it at Swindon, which is why they pulled us all over the place at SMS and why they are where they are and why we are where we are. But don't let the facts get in the way of the red and white striped mist that obscures the managers shortcomings.

Thanks.

Only needs a rudimentary knowledge which I suppose is a bit better than no understanding at all. Pardew may well have a vast knowledge but allied to a fear of losing it isn't working.

I know for a fact that the wide midfielders are instructed to tuck in. That came from one of them. We don't need a samba or for that matter, sarcasm, we have the pace, we only need to give it the room to play and a lot of the time we don't. To understand that, you need to have a minimal understanding of what makes a team work and it is patently obvious you don't. So with all the goals we still wouldn't be in the play off places without the points deduction. The dire narrow performances at Exeter, Millwall, Brentford, Wycombe, Tranmere etc and a lack of goals in those matches caused that.

The two wide midfielders tuck in and play more like four central midfielders, because they only go to the touch line when the whole team shuttles across leaving the other wide man in the centre of the field. That is why we boot so many balls up front as there isn't the room to pass it around. We were ludicrously narrow on Tuesday and were pulled all over the place, the same against Swindon and the majority of games under Pardew. It wasn't until the goal that Waigo and Puncheon spread out which opened up the back four and led to the goals. If Schneiderlin hadn't been injured and replaced by Wotton I think we would have got a few more goals. With Wotton we were defending too deep and allowed the full back too much room to line up his shot. However the two wide men did a decent job. I would be happy with more of the same. Waigo/Lallana wide and Lambert and Connolly up front.