Newcastle: Rating Pardew's 10 Games So Far This Season

5. Tactics

A little all over the place so far: the intention was clearly to play 4-2-3-1 with Siem De Jong in the middle of the 3 dictating play, but his injury and the lack of progress with Remy Cabella so far has set the team back and forced a rethink. To be frank, that rethink took way too long: Pardew persisted with his tactical set up despite the loss of his key player, and attempted to work around that, ignoring the calls for more natural width, and persisting with Yoan Gouffran as a wide front-man, who was being asked to do way too much defensively to be of any real value to the team's attack. Once Pardew changed his outlook and started to use wingers - helped in part by Rolando Aarons' return from injury - the team were able to attack more expansively, and finally the deeper midfielders had an outlet to give the ball to, rather than passing it between themselves 8 or 9 times. That naturally meant a drop in possession, but the possession we do now hold tends to be more valuable. Rating: 5/10 (8/10 for October)