Happy Face

You should be able to try it now, don't need to wait till you're there.

Not if he's being a miserable prick at the moment. See my comment in the Liverpool thread about his attitude to Dummet's goal. He should have tore up Hull if he only plays against poorer opposition (which I don't accept he does), but he didn't. He's not put in a performance since Villa...after which he was promising he would be bringing consistency to the table.

You're the boy who cried wolf CT. You've talked so much shit no-one can see past that shit when you actually say something which isn't all that unreasonable. Ben Arfa's not been dragged off versus Everton or dropped for Cardiff due to injury, but on his performance. There was spin wanking in this thread when the teams were announced on Saturday and we heard he was being deployed as a "false 9", but when he was ineffectual it's blamed on the position he was played in. Maybe it was an experiment gone wrong, maybe he needs a few games in that position to get up to speed, but Ben Arfa does seem to need the planets to align to put in a performance, in the right position, in the right formation, against the right opposition. When the planets do align he is incredible. It's up to Pardew to shift the earth to get him in that mood as frequently as posible. Whether he starts against the mackems or comes off the bench, he should certainly play a part. It might be common sense to keep him away from the frantic first half and introduce him in the second when there's more time on the ball available.

Anyone else notice that when Dummet scored there were 9 players jumping all over the lad.....Ben Arfa was walking back to the halfway line for kick off.

Wins Pardew turned into a loss or a draw 11/12 - 11% (4/38) 12/13 - 18% (7/38) 13/14 - 25% (2/8)

And now the post-game analysis... In a Premier League fixture that has rarely disappointed in 20 years, we saw yet another Newcastle-Liverpool clash full of incident, goals and excitement. Newcastle lost Yanga-Mbiwa before half time to a red card and did well to go back in front before Sturridge levelled the scores. In the corresponding fixture at the end of last season, Liverpool dominated by using combinations to exploit the wide areas, particularly with the use of some brilliant third man runs, the wingers running inside and quick balls out to the full backs overlapping giving them plenty of joy. Saturday was different for Liverpool, with a different system this time around, and more of the play going through the middle of the field. Newcastle began the game in 4-1-4-1-ish shape, with Cheikh Tiote sitting in front of the back four. His responsibilities were mainly to prevent a quick turn for Liverpool players receiving between the lines, and pressuring the balls that made it through the midfield bank of four in front of him, providing problems for Suarez or Sturridge when they dropped deep to receive into feet. Hatem Ben Arfa played the lone forward role, looking to receive support from Gouffran and Loic Remy moving in from the wide areas, while Sissoko and Cabaye also looked to get forward from midfield. Liverpool stuck with their 3-4-1-2 formation which has served them so well this season, a system which has not particularly allowed them to play the outstanding, fluent and attacking football we saw at the back end of last season. However, as we saw in Jed Davies excellent analysis, what it has allowed them to do is occupy the most important areas of the field, construct more play through central areas, improve the speed of their transitions, and most importantly, defend well and win games. The system is not necessarily a drastic change from the previous 4-2-3-1/4-3-3 we have seen used in the past. It is has simply been adapted to allow Rodgers to best utilise the players he has at his disposal. We have take into account the injuries he has had to manage, the selection headache with his new group of defenders, and the consideration that he is now finally able to field Suarez and Sturridge together. Arguably both function best as the main striker, or how Brendan Rodgers sees them, he referred to ‘the 9 and a half’ position – the system allows him to successfully function with both. The two are able to dove-tail seamlessly between one going short, one going long or wide, combining with Moses and the wing backs or each other. Upon losing Mbiwa, Newcastle were forced into a basic 4-4-1 formation with Paul Dummett replacing Moussa Sissoko at half time. It reduced them to defending first, and allowing Liverpool to dominate the ball, particularly in the central areas we have mentioned. Above you can see roughly where Newcastle looked to hold their defensive line, relatively deep and progressively further into their own half the further the game progressed. You will also notice, with Tiote now forming the bank of four, he was no longer a presence between the lines, which allowed Sturridge and Suarez to now drift freely into these areas without him picking them up. This also left Hatem Ben Arfa isolated with the back three, making it difficult for the midfield to make up the ground to get up and support him. Newcastle faced another problem which stretched their lines and forced them to defend in a less orthodox fashion – the Liverpool wing backs. Below you can see how disjointed the midfield 4 became, as Gouffran was assigned the job of marking Aly Cissokho when he ventured forwards: There were many times when he found himself alongside the defence and looking like a bank of five. This dented Newcastle’s ability to counter, but also provided some extra dilligence in defence rather than Gouffran passing him onto Debuchy. In their winning and drawing positions, scoring wasn’t particularly a priority so Newcastle did extremely well to limit clear cut chances in the wide areas until Suarez exploited space in behind to assist Sturridge. The following statistics tell the story: Liverpool had 62.3% possession compared to Newcastle’s 37.7%, and racked up a massive 556 passes at 87% accuracy, almost doubling that of the home side. Steven Gerrard and Jordan Henderson dominated this ball possession, with 183 passes between them at 91% and 89% accuracy respectively. This says a lot about the control that Liverpool had in the central areas, and it resulted in 19 chances, 3 coming from set plays, 3 of them being clear cut chances, and 2 of these clear cut chances being converted. Alan Pardew will be delighted with his teams performance and the point was a fair result for both teams, for Newcastle in light of the red card, and for Liverpool in terms of levelling from losing positions and salvaging something to keep them only 2 points from Arsenal at the top of the league. http://eplindex.com/42763/newcastle-united-2-2-liverpool-stats-tactical-analysis.html

Liverpool took more shots against us than any team in any game this season or last home or away (23). More than twice as many as when they beat us six nil (11).

What was annoying about that to us was that Ben Arfa had been more central and Gouffran had worked his arse off providing cover for Debuchy all game. We switched that round moments before Liverpool scored the second equaliser, easily passing it around Debuchy who was pegging it back while Ben Arfa was a spectator, jogging back down the line. That's not necessarily to blame Ben Arfa before people get defensive, I'm not saying it should be his job, but we talked about it on here before the game, as a team our decision-making on when the wingbacks get forward and when the midfielders or left/right sided attackers have to cover needs a lot of work.

Only manager outside the Champions League clubs to do the double over Pardiola last year. Alan will be out for vengeance.

Last season Swansea took 11 points from 16 games against the top 8. This season they have had a hard start, but going on last seasons form they should still have taken 3 or 4 points from those 5 games against top 8 teams. They've only managed 1 so far this time around though. I think Laudrup is gonna suffer in his sophomore season.

Only Man u have had a harder start from the other teams in the top half this season anaarl. Not daft enough to make this bet a second time though.

Got some right last year, got some badly wrong. Finished up on the bookies off my Man U bet. So this years current standings... Average position of opposition for every team in the league... Aston Villa 6.5 Norwich 7.3 Cardiff 8.5 West Ham 9.0 Swansea 9.3 Man Utd 9.6 Sunderland 9.6 Crystal palace 9.7 Newcastle 10.4 Hull 10.5 Everton 10.6 West Brom 10.6 fulham 10.9 Stoke City 11.0 Man City 11.5 Chelsea 11.6 Tottenham 11.8 Liverpool 12.8 Southampton 13.1 Arsenal 13.9 Unfortunately, the bookies aren't convinced by Arsenal either so there's little value in Chelsea or man City. I'm gonna have Fulham and Stoke to be relegated at 3/1 and 4/1 respectively. Like to think Stoke will go the journey based on having the easiest start of anyone outside the top 6 but still only 1 point clear of relegation spots...and with the longer odds.

Harsh on Parky

In probably touchy following the BT support reviews

Can you be denied when you were never actually in the lead?

Was told yesterday by a lad that knows him he was told he was going in the summer but Pardew had also told all the players that whoever came back fittest would start the pre-season games. Dummet came back fittest of everyone, got his games, put in excellent performances and hasn't looked back. Good to hear if true. Proper desire to succeed at this club.

I'd be amazed if it wasn't.

Got 4 from them last season.....deserved 5

I always thought Pirate Bay was shite...can never locate the button for actually downloading a torrent I'll have a go though

Isohunt has gone the journey. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-24580130 Where's next best?

Aye, exactly, so that got scrapped and they valued properties into bands and charged those households rather than individuals. When did the McKeag protests get serious? Was it ahead of Hall showing his appetite for taking on the club or only once everyone saw the alternative that was available?

I heard the same story about the Nazi Youth.