Newcastle: Pardew Doesn't Know If Changes Are Necessary

"When things are going badly, we might change things... who knows?"

Despite reports earlier this week that Alan Pardew was set to make some big changes to his starting line-up against Swansea, he has used his pre-match press conference to say that he might not, or he might... we'll sort of have to just wait and see. The smart money would have been on Papiss Cisse coming back into the first team and Gabriel Obertan getting a rare start, but the manager was always unlikely to heed calls to change the system and play two up top. That is despite the emerging form of Adam Armstrong, or the fact that Ayoze Perez scored four goals in one game this week for the reserves. But despite reports that he would be sticking to the system that has seen Newcastle languishing in 19th position in the table, Pardew has today seemed less certain of what's going to happen. Worryingly, he also doesn't seem 100% sure if anything is going wrong or not... https://twitter.com/NUFC/status/517660342080794624 That's not exactly a frank admission that there are problems at the club, and fans will no doubt jump on the fact that so far, solutions have been few and far between. Pardew also stated in his press conference that he's trying to play the football that the fans want: https://twitter.com/NUFC/status/517660307117047808 But it isn't just a matter of playing good-looking football: fans have lost their enthusiasm after months of poor displays, no solutions, no plan Bs and excuses that miss the point entirely. The fact that Pardew cannot openly admit that changes have to be made immediately seems strangely at odds with what the fans see happening. What changes do you want to see happen at the club? Share your thoughts below in the comments thread.
Contributor
Contributor

WhatCulture's former COO, veteran writer and editor.