According to Alan Pardew's unsurprisingly not exactly revelatory interview with the London Evening Standard - who are card-carrying fans of his work, and have openly asked why Newcastle fans think they're entitled to protest (while saying Spurs fans definitely are) - nothing has changed at Newcastle. The media were already portraying the beleaguered manager as a rock of self-confidence, standing sturdy in the winds of discontent from fans who were hurling personal abuse at him and his family and had no grounds for protest, and now it's getting out of hand. Pardew's arrogance saved him, but only from resignation, it didn't precipitate change, and it didn't inform any of the wins that have come since the winless streak ended. According to that interview, Pardew always had faith in the same philosophy that he brought in at the start of the season, and that nothing has really changed (aside from the formation, but that's apparently not a big deal). But the question is, if nothing has changed, and the wins are coming naturally because of the same old philosophy and the same system, then how come there have been such obvious changes? How would the manager account for these six massive tactical changes that he seems to be suggesting are a figment of everyone's imagination?
