Obviously Cabaye went and wasn't replaced but it is more than that. The week Cabaye went we passed Norwich off the park, hit the woodwork 4 times and were very unlucky not to win 4 or 5 nil yet it ended as a 0-0 draw. That was without Cabaye. He is then sold, Pardew comes out and says he doesn't trust the players to pass the ball without Cabaye and we will have to go long from now on. Since then we have been diabolical, beyond ****e.
We are routinely beaten by teams with technically worse players but who are a team, we are not a team. Pardew does not believe in teams, his game is keep it tight and solid at the back (not even doing that) and then have good enough players at the other end of the field to pull something out of the bag (Remy, Cabaye until the end of Jan). His footballing philosophy stinks and he needs to be binned. I've never heard so many excuses from a manager in my life, he is worse than bloody Souness of excuses.
By all accounts club captain Fabricio Coloccini and Ben Arfa have both ripped into Pardew in the dressing room after our last two games. The dressing room now appears to be split, English v the rest and there is no harmony at all. It is coming to a horrible end.
The other thing, is our recruitment strategy just doesn't fit a dinosaur manager like Pardew. Carr wants to sign young up and coming technical players, Pardew likes grafters. Remember the board sold James Perch under his nose to force him to use Vurnon Anita more.
I'm quite confident he will be sacked at the end of the season, 8 year contract or not (there will be clauses).