Last Saturday was disappointing all round, just as we thought our home form was going to pick up, West Ham dealt us a hammer blow.
Although it was a loss, I would not start calling it the ‘demise of Alan Pardew’ as some idiotic Newcastle United fans posted on Twitter in the aftermath of our defeat.
Twitter can be such a useful tool, but when you see such ill-informed fans commenting and posting complete and utter nonsense it just becomes totally unbearable. Last weekend was one of those on social media.
It was certainly hard to take. Pundits felt West Ham played well and deserved the three points and to an extent I agree with them, but on the other hand, before the red card for Dwight Gayle we were building up a head of steam.
I will not go into detail on the red card, we have more qualified people here at TEB to look at that incident. The second yellow was after a stupid challenge no doubt about it, but I do agree of sorts with Pardew that Gayle should have been given the benefit of the doubt and his final warning.
For all our fine defensive work up until the Manuel Lanzini, goal we deserved a point. However, you cannot excuse the lack of concentration from two experienced professionals in Mile Jedinak and Jason Puncheon. The Argentine drifted into the box unopposed and scored what was a sucker-punch.
There is plenty to dissect and discuss in this week’s edition of the Red And Blue Report. First up I want to look at our next game against high-flying Leicester City.
To coin a famous Ian Dowie phrase, the side now needs to show ‘bouncebackability’ at the King Power Stadium. Last year we got a positive result against the Foxes. This season it will be a slightly different proposition.
Under Claudio Ranieri they have started the season in great form. The draw away at Southampton was another indication of their never say die attitude. If I am being completely honest, if we keep their danger-men quiet we will be more than a match for them.
Pardew said in his post match interview that the side normally reacts well after a damaging defeat, and I am expecting to see the side move on from the pain of the West Ham defeat.
Ever since fan favourite Glenn Murray left for Bournemouth, there was always going to be a point in the season where we could be short in the striking department. It looks as though that is coming to fruition now.
Gayle is suspended for the next game, and whether Connor Wickham is ready to play is a mystery. We have Frazier Campbell, but he has not really had a look in so far this season.
Last week we lacked a physical presence upfront. Yannick Bolasie is not a striker, we all know that but Pardew seems to think he can do a job up top. Last Saturday was yet another indication that we need a different ‘plan B’ when things take a different turn.
It would be nice to get Wickham back into the fold as we have not really seen too much from the former Sunderland man. Given a run of games he could be the answer we are looking for upfront.
If we keep getting injuries in our forward areas, Pardew and board might have to address that situation in the January transfer window, but for the time being we have to make do with what we have.
Watching the game last week, and especially focusing on the second-half, I think Pardew got it wrong in terms of selection. We were obviously going for a point but I would have rather have had a recognised striker on the pitch, and with Campbell sitting on the bench he was the ideal person.
I would have shuffled the pack further and kept on Wilfried Zaha and kept Bolasie on the pitch by sacrificing Puncheon. That way we would have had more pace on the counter-attack. It is so easy to say but I am no Premier League football manager and I certainly do not know the rigours of top flight football!
It is certainly not that suggested ‘demise of Pardew’. Far from it in fact, it is a blip in an otherwise excellent start to the season. If we perform like we have seen on several occasions already this season we are certainly capable of getting a positive result at Leicester.
