Gelling - What do YOU think?

[up and away]

One fluke 7-1 reverse at Colchester...that is not 'form'. As I said, we have no idea what he inherited.

 

Yes, that's true, a poor comparison. I have lost my patience with Pardew because of the repetition of errors in two areas.

 

We struggled and struggled until we found 451 in desperation and it worked very well. The only problem that things looked very good when we switched to 442. So Pardew than goes off in a search for the holy grail of 442 which just did not work, completely forgetting how we solved the problem in the first place. I don't fully understand why it works with Wooton sitting in front of the defence, but it does. I have seen us having no control in midfield so many times it is beyond exasperation. This is accompanied by no support for the forwards making them look useless and a good defence now under pressure. The smart move would have been to keep things tight with what we knew we could do, until the transfer window allowed us the players to change things round.

 

Hammond, I remember a few posters saying if we lost him or his form went, we would be in trouble. so it has. We should never have allowed Doncaster an extension to Gillett, because if he can do a good job for Doncaster a league higher, he would have been useful for us, if only in the cup games to rest players. I don't care what we do with Gillett once we get decent players in the window. Now hopefully when we get Hammond back and Puncheon can change things round we can get things moving, but it is a very big ask now after throwing away points because the manager is stuck in a groundhog loop.

 

When we do go with 442 against the lesser teams, we often look less than ordinary without some pace alongside Lambert. I've witnessed it so many times now and seen the resulting change when Waigo goes up the middle.

 

I keep reading that the league is our priority, well it looks anything but that to me. I understand a lot of fans interest in the cups, just not shared by me as I believe it has cost us points. With all of this, if Cortese is happy then that's fair enough but I cannot accept the excuses being made for Pardew. I accept that Pardew has done good things, but the repetition of the same errors time and time again drives me nuts. I am pretty sure we will drive on from this and might even get to the play off's, but if we do not it will be down to these repetition of errors.

[Legod Third Coming]

Yes, that's true, a poor comparison. I have lost my patience with Pardew because of the repetition of errors in two areas.

 

We struggled and struggled until we found 451 in desperation and it worked very well. The only problem that things looked very good when we switched to 442. So Pardew than goes off in a search for the holy grail of 442 which just did not work, completely forgetting how we solved the problem in the first place. I don't fully understand why it works with Wooton sitting in front of the defence, but it does. I have seen us having no control in midfield so many times it is beyond exasperation. This is accompanied by no support for the forwards making them look useless and a good defence now under pressure. The smart move would have been to keep things tight with what we knew we could do, until the transfer window allowed us the players to change things round.

 

Hammond, I remember a few posters saying if we lost him or his form went, we would be in trouble. so it has. We should never have allowed Doncaster an extension to Gillett, because if he can do a good job for Doncaster a league higher, he would have been useful for us, if only in the cup games to rest players. I don't care what we do with Gillett once we get decent players in the window. Now hopefully when we get Hammond back and Puncheon can change things round we can get things moving, but it is a very big ask now after throwing away points because the manager is stuck in a groundhog loop.

 

When we do go with 442 against the lesser teams, we often look less than ordinary without some pace alongside Lambert. I've witnessed it so many times now and seen the resulting change when Waigo goes up the middle.

 

I keep reading that the league is our priority, well it looks anything but that to me. I understand a lot of fans interest in the cups, just not shared by me as I believe it has cost us points. With all of this, if Cortese is happy then that's fair enough but I cannot accept the excuses being made for Pardew. I accept that Pardew has done good things, but the repetition of the same errors time and time again drives me nuts. I am pretty sure we will drive on from this and might even get to the play off's, but if we do not it will be down to these repetition of errors.

 

I understand and indeed share some of your frustration,

 

However, I still give Pardew the benefit of the doubt because he is still building a squad and attacking on three fronts.

 

On Saturday, I felt he accepted that Stockport were lesser opposition and put out a sub-standard team but one which he felt could still do the job.

 

The league results (and all results) over the past 25 games have been championship winning form. Our recent history is tainted by the losses at Leeds and Colchester which on paper do not look good, and draws away from home at both Millwall and Brentford caused by failure to capitalise on our advantage. It's also very easy for us to believe that the league is the be all and end all, but in fact the management team might be asking for success in the JPT as a huge morale boost to a club who - be honest - have won absolutely nothing for 33 years!

 

A poor run was bound to happen - looks at Leeds' recent results.

 

However, if we now move forward and win our remaining games all of this will pale into insignificance. And with our new squad that is exactly what I anticipate we will do. We are still 6th I think on recent form, despite our 'bad results'.

 

I do not concede the Pardew is negative as some do - 11 goals in five home games says otherwise, 5th top scorers in the league says otherwise.

 

He is clearly having to find the right balance for the team.

 

And while it's easy for us to say go back to 4-5-1 it was working (I myself said the same) it doesn't take managers long to 'work you out' given the TV coverage available today! So it is imperative that we have options and can play at least two systems well and even then mix it up (I noticed Holmes and Antonio switiching sides on Saturday a couple of times to do just that).

 

You can argue with Pardew's selections and his tactics, but at the end of the season if we win the JPT, get through to the 6th round of the FA Cup and find ourselves in the play-offs, it would be very, very churlish to argue with the results.

 

It is still too early to say Pardew is not the manager we need, given our recent form. In fact, it's preposterous to say it.

[sadoldgit]

I agree. One particluar (doom-laden) poster often refers to Saints as the "Man City of League 1". So let's have a look at City (all figures from Soccerbase).

 

2006/07 season, finished 14th.

 

Throughout close season and January transfer window City bought: Bianchi, Geovanni, Petrov, Corluka, Elano, Caicedo, Benjani, Bojinov. Total spend £32M (+ Corluka undisclosed). End of 2007/08 season, finished 9th.

 

Throughout close season and January transfer window City bought: Jo, Ben-Haim, Kompany, Wright-Phillips, Berti, Zabaleta, Robinho, Bridge, Bellamy, De Jong, Given. Total spend £92M (+ Ben Haim, Zabaleta, de Jong and Given undisclosed). End of 2008/09 season, finished 10th.

 

Throughout close season and January transfer window City bought: Barry, Santa Cruz, Taylor, Tevez, Adebayor, Toure, Slyvinho, Lescott, Viera. Total spend £93M (+ Tevez undisclosed). Current position 6th.

 

 

Moral of the story; success takes time and spending vast amounts on players is no guarantee of immediate success. Even if we are supposedly the Man City of League 1 it's clearly still going to take time for the team to settle and the class to consistently shine through.

 

But the penny doesn't drop. There are still plenty of people on here who think you can buy promotion immediately.

 

As for gelling, some teams gel quickly, some take longer, some don't at all. Again, it is a question of chemistry and if it is not working it is down to the manager to make changes until it does.

 

No amount of money can do that. It is getting the right balance on the pitch and if it were that easy all teams would cancel each other out each week.