Newcastle: 10 Major Mistakes Pardew Has Made In 2014

2. Ignoring The Ineffectiveness Of His System

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results, but nobody seems to have told Alan Pardew as much, as he has persisted with a reductive 4-2-3-1 system that was designed to take advantage of a number 10 that he didn't have at the end of last season thanks to the loss of Cabaye, and he hasn't got now thanks to the injury to Siem De Jong. Pardew needed to redevelop his tactical approach to use the players he actually had available, rather than wrongly assuming - as Louis Van Gaal was accused of at the start of the season - that the system would overcome issues with personnel. It would have been more sensible for most of this year either to play 4-3-3 (as Newcastle are now pretending to do, despite lining up in the same 4-2-3-1 formation when on the pitch), or reverting to 4-4-2, rather than isolating the lone striker, and asking the wide men to cover the full-backs. It just made Newcastle look toothless, and is the over-riding reason why the Goal Difference column has looked so unhealthy.