Newcastle: 10 Major Mistakes Pardew Has Made In 2014

4. Blaming It On Ben Arfa

Don't blame it on the system, don't blame it on the lack of a plan B, don't lack it on the transfer policy. Blame it on Ben Arfa. Back in 2011/12, when Newcastle played as part of the attacking 4-3-3, Newcastle soared to fifth in the league on the back of a run of form that was as much down to Ben Arfa's enterprising approach play as it was down to Papiss Cisse's explosive striking form. The cogs worked together perfectly, but Demba Ba wasn't happy and Alan Pardew was forced to change his system to return the Senegalese striker to his preferred central position (ironically so he wouldn't lose him, which he ended up doing anyway). And then when Ben Arfa was given a different role entirely, and was expected to track back and contain the opposition, rather than simply looking to unlock attacking opportunities, he inevitably didn't work. He was a gold-plated, diamond, encrusted square peg thrust into a bland round hole, and of course he wasn't going to work: but Pardew took that ineffectiveness as some sort of personal slight, and basically accused Ben Arfa of being wilfully defiant, pinning the problems of his broken system onto the Frenchman's shoulders, hen he should have been working harder to accommodate his talents. Whether the criticism was fair is not the key thing here, because all Pardew did was make a martyr out of the player and force a wedge between himself and the fanbase.