derry

My point exactly, and they wouldn't have been 20 yds inside the touchline either.

I know this thread is a reaction to yesterday, but it isn't only about yesterday which was just another poor display. I'm talking about how we are playing regularly not just about Exeter. Until we change we are going nowhere. It didn't seem to stop Exeter playing better than us by all accounts.

Quite right. To many people when they get to limits of their knowledge and run out of ideas, revert to abusive behaviour and childish name calling.

You were doing alright until you forgot your manners, this sort of comment is pathetic and does you no credit.

Puncheon left, Antonio right, Waigo with Lambert, yes.

In the Guardian article today Pardew is quoted. He admits he is under pressure and that the owner and chairman want to see better football but that he is not that sort of manager but more pragmatic and won't be changing. If that is the case unless the results are irresistable the owner will get his wish by changing the manager. Either Pardew provides what the owner wants or he will be replaced. It is this sort of information that has led to the doubts about Pardews continuing and now he has confirmed the pressure himself. I don't think that the owner/chairman are getting what they thought they were going to get.

Yesterday we only had two players on the pitch at the same time with pace. When we play with proper width and pace down the flanks with somebody like Waigo up the middle, we will play good football and the central midfield will find it a lot easier to get things going. The central midfield is woeful, James and Wotton aren't up to standard and Schneiderlin can't pass if there aren't players out wide, what we have at the moment is promoting a belt it up to Lambert style and it doesn't work. Yet again another goal from a set piece after two passes.

This is the way we play on good pitches as well, the result, crap against Ipswich, Stockport and a lot of other games. Your Exeter pitch argument doesn't hold water, years ago pitches were awful at this time of the year, far worse than anything you saw at Exeter, but it didn't stop teams playing decent football.

I'd stick with income tax, you obviously have little idea what makes a team work.

The really good thing is it seems both of them have expectations of us playing good football which is what I want. Pardew says he is going to continue with the pragmatism. I don't think that will be enough to either satisfy the owner or win the league scratching out draws and wins. Teams that play this way in the end get relegated PDQ from the Premier.

A realistic view.

I've been to 20 matches this year and yes, they are mostly narrow. Until we use the full width of the pitch, which we don't, we will continue to play this way and it will cost the manager his job.

Two square pegs out of position. Lallana right footed, Waigo isn't a wide player. Puncheon is a natural left sided pacy attacker, needs to play there. Waigo was brilliant last week up front not wide right. Antonio, Puncheon, Waigo and Lambert should have been the front four attackers. Making a place for Lallana and James is compromising the balance. Until we play pace on the touchlines we won't move the ball around. It is the lack of this that is the cause of lumping the ball up front.

He certainly isn't organising a team to do anything remotely like that at the moment. If what I am seeing at the moment is the template for next season and the team isn't developed in the next 20 matches to be a league winning combination then I think he will be gone. I've had confirmation from an unconnected ex director source about the level of incentive. That in itself will cause the reassessment at the end of the season.

Lambert has done it, as far as I am concerned the unbalanced narrow crap being served up by this expensive squad is down to the manager. It doesn't cut it for me and we are going backwards not only against the top teams, but the likes of Swindon, Millwall and Huddersfield in terms of results.

People on here that advocate not changing a manager because we have done it too often are wrong. Clearly if the manager doesn't demonstrate by the end of the season, that we have a collection of talented players playing as a team, capable of winning this league next year, he should be changed. Nicola Cortese has left the banking sector with it's attendant bonuses to manage the club. It is highly probable that he is on a lottery win size bonus to deliver success. He is not going to have a lot of patience with a lack of obvious success. I think if Pardew's team isn't clearly the equal of the best teams in this league and providing performances that will win this league next year I think he will be gone. It won't be lost on Cortese that Norwich, and Colchester changed their managers and Leeds were nowhere until they got Grayson from Blackpool.

Davis.

I think Alan Pardew will be judged on the next 3 months by Cortese. As a result of the expenditure, if these players under Pardew aren't demonstrating the kind of play and results that will win the league next season it is my opinion that there will be a change.

Alan Pardew isn't trying out tactics as he has two formations, what he is doing is poking players into different positions but the blend isn't right. Until he picks the players in their best positions and makes width, pace and balance the criteria we aren't going to win this league. This year, next year or any year.

--------Schneiderlin---Lallana or Barnard Antonio---Waigo---Lambert----Puncheon Wotton isn't the answer to any question.

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.