derry

A friend of mine who has been to the last few matches and was a brilliant player but smart, Teddy Nutkins knows him well, summed it up last week. He just said "Pardew just doesn't get it" That's what I think too.

Bloody hell Duncan, only starting. :smt052

We've been crying out for a natural pacy wide left footer all season. So what do we do, buy one and play him up the middle. Waigo looked phenomenal up front alongside Lambert, we brought him in as a striker so we play him wide right. He was on at the same time as Antonio who gives us more pace, he is dropped. In comes the favourite James and a compromise formation so that Lallana can play.

For a man that says he is going for it, he puts out some bloody negative teams and formations. Alan Pardew seems to me to be a manager that tries to stop the opposition and focuses on the negative aspects. We aren't going to be relegated, we sure as hell aren't going to get to the playoffs the way we are setting up at the moment. Unless Pardew opens up the team and puts in his attacking players including all the pacy ones and goes all out attack we are going to end up playing the same narrow crap for the rest of the season trying to snatch one goal wins. If he does that, I would prefer someone else.

So it's a bad pitch and we play crap. Nothing to do with the fact we have been playing crap on great pitches then. It's the unbalanced selections that are causing the problems. We have the players but the tactics are neutering them.

We signed Waigo as a striker who could play wide then hardly played him up front. When he has played there except for a couple of early games when he had offside problems he has been very dangerous. He can score goals regularly so we should give him an extended run up front and play Antonio wide right. Adding Puncheon's pace will balance things out and give Lambert the room to play. Pace is the vital x factor we are short of, only Waigo and Antonio have had it to date. I would like us to sign them both.

He is the one who makes those decisions subject to discussions with Pardew so as it was his connections I would think it is correct.

I've heard that his feet aren't as far under the table as some people think, after the Millwall game. Duncan has obviously heard the same thing as he made a similar remark to the Record in a previous thread on here. I'm not happy about his misuse of some players especially Waigo, obvious favourites and his negative approach, but that is a personal opinion. Before somebody weighs in about the results, we have only beaten one team in the top 10 and those are half the matches left. If we are going to get into the playoffs we have to now win nearly all of those. I think that Cortese may well have set his sights on the playoffs this year hence the investment in players. It was him that brought in Waigo and I wouldn't think he is particularly impressed by his use to date. It is now known he is a hard taskmaster and I wouldn't be at all surprised if Pardew isn't under pressure to get to the playoffs as a result of the multiple signings.

Wotton had no real part in the last half hour. Waigo was the key and Schneiderlin and Holmes responded. Pardew not for the first time got it wrong, he made the only change he could because he had four defenders and a goalkeeper on the bench in fact a complete back four, plus Gillett. Gillett should also have been brought on for Wotton. I personally think we have a decent squad but the manager isn't getting the best out of them. I don't rate his team selections or the way we play. It is better result wise, and so it ought to be, but this is a not the CCC. Anyway we aren't going to agree.

I hope not Ron. I'd take Antonio Lallana Schneiderlin Puncheon as long as Waigo was up front with Lambert. If not Waigo instead of Antonio but It won't happen. It's far too attacking for the manager.

That starting eleven was flawed because it couldn't pass the ball. Holmes was too slow, Lambert isn't that mobile and waits for the ball to be thumped at him, but Waigo was terrific with his movement, which opened things up, gave Schneiderlin the chance to play, consequently Holmes got more room. Waigo ran 30 yds to get that header in that went wide nobody else would have got there. The manager looked really stupid for the way he has misused him recently.

No, because Wotton stops us playing. He is too slow in defence and it is an illusion that he gives us cover. He gives the ball away incessantly and consequently we don't play. That team was never going to be any good. Barnard may prove me wrong but he seems a weaker version of Lambert and lacks pace. Pace is the vital ingredient but leaving it on the bench is nonsensical. That team had no pace except on the right. Puncheon I think is quickish, which should help, but I'm not sure Lambert and Barnard will do well together unless we have Waigo and Puncheon wide when they play together.

We've just spent £3m on players and for an hour on Saturday we were just lumping it up front. That doesn't cut it for me. Waigo is one of the sharpest players we have on a bad day, sitting him on the bench match after match and playing hoofball isn't clever. He proved how stupid that was, in half an hour on Saturday.

His team selections and leaving better players out. Wotton in midfield is bizarre. He will now have a problem because of his increased options and favourite players. He doesn't seem to have any idea what his best team is or the way it should play.

And there I was thinking that George Burley was, in a higher league. And I happen to think this manager might not be around as long as you seem to think.

It's probably lost on you but it isn't 4-5-1, secondly it bears no resemblance to what we played before because of the pace of the three up front and Lambert isn't the target he is now able to come from outside the box which he is much more suited to. We might be the 5th top scorers but we haven't scored many against the top 10, we've only won one game against them.

We have only beaten one team in the top ten in the league. The thing that gets to me, time after time, is listening to the team announcement, and thinking that that isn't going to work, then being proved right. Waigo should be starting. Wotton is stopping us playing. The team selection and plan is the problem. We have the players but the manager is too negative.

I'd like to see us give this 4-3-3 a try. Passing the ball out wide. Davis Murty/Thomas/Otsemobor Fonte Seaborne/Jaidi/Perry Harding/Mills Hammond Schneiderlin (one holding the other getting forward ) Lambert in front of middle two onto the edge of the box. (Lallana, Barnard, Connolly for alternatives) Antonio wide Waigo Puncheon wide Lots of pace up front.

We could now go for a lethal 4-3-3 with Antonio and Puncheon wide, Waigo up front. Hammond and Schneiderlin with Lambert (Lallana, Barnard, Connolly) in front of them. It would give us real pace up front and allow Lambert to come on the burst. We can then play a passing game. Mr Negative won't do it though.

When anybody replaces Wotton it will make a huge difference.

Are you a hockey player?

Waigo.

They aren't, except as a criticism of the selection policy. The negative plodder is picked ahead of Gillett, the quick, incisive, attacking player is continually left out. Today is the first for a while that he even got half an hour usually it's injury time only. I think Pardew is demonstrating a negativity that will see him out of a job if he doesn't start doing better than this. I can't see Cortese putting up with these sort of performances indefinitely especially after the money he's spent on players.

Did I say that? Waigo should start and Wotton is hopeless. Gillett was available as was Gobern. To make a peurile remark like that demonstrates a total lack of understanding.

I don't get this shouldn't start crap. It's the likes of Wotton that shouldn't start not Waigo. Waigo is talented, has a good touch, great pace and movement, plays head up and moves the ball quickly to feet, if Pardew wasn't such a negative **** he would start. We won't make the playoffs with this negative approach.