The run in to Xmas is a write off leaving us bottom 3 but then Pards should only get a couple of games to show something if nothing he has to go.
Yes we've had injury problems and some players haven't been quite as sharp but the underlying problem is Pardew. He's took a system that works with players who fit into and play well in that system and enforced a clearly failing 442.
Fine if he tried with it and realised, like everyone else, that it wasn't working and switched back. Instead he keeps going like a moron and we can keep losing. There were others factors, but it's strange that our only win in 6 was playing 433....
Jesus H christ, firstly Utd have been pants, and were even mostly terrible against City, City are thoroughly beatable at the moment, though I wouldn't expect points from either, but QPR, with you at home is a write off?
Sunderland would need to win 2 games, with Utd and Southampton away and Reading at home, if you've seen Sunderland playing, you wouldn't think they'd get more than 3 points, if that. Southampton have Arsenal and City. QPR could win all three and wouldn't drop you into the bottom three.
You've had a bad run, a bad season and bad form. One of the biggest differences between Newcastle and everyone else last year was consistency of the team they could put on the pitch, virtually unchanged through the first third of the season IIRC.
Almost any key play has been injured at some stage this year, most problematically all your CB's and central midfielders.
Take basically any team, City, have Kompany miss half the games, Lescott/Nestasic injured for half the games, Yaya missing from half the games, etc. Now any club without 200mil of replacements is going to struggle.
Are Newcastle playing well, no, would any manager have a constantly changing team, with their key play maker injured, their key defensive midfielder injured while the play maker was fit, and the CB's all over the place injury wise.... no.
You've got a small squad AND have Europe thrown in to make it more difficult.
Even with the squad completely fit you would have found that a run in the Europa league would have dropped you down several places in the league, because almost every team that gets a run in the Europa league reacts badly(less so when more used to yearly European games and a bigger squad).
Without injuries only two more wins would have you 8th, 3 would have been joint 4th. How many less points would Everton or West Brom had if they had 3 injuries to key players, they'd be where Newcastle are, Arsenal and Spurs have had injuries and still up their points wise, why? Experienced european squads, used to playing in europe every year(most years for Spurs) and bigger squads capable of handling the extra games. What don't Everton and West Brom have? European football.
Smaller teams with less players can get away quite well with just putting out a joke side for European football, reserves/youth players, but when injuries mean some of those guys are on the bench or playing in the first team every weekend, those Euro appearances start to hurt.
Almost every team without a huge squad struggles when they get european football, drop down the next season, do better the season after if they've missed out on euro football, do a bit worse when they get Euro footie back, etc, etc. Thats football, it happens to everyone outside of the bigger teams with bigger squads and more money. You can get 5 extra players and maybe do better when you get euro football, but if you still get effected and miss out the year after, suddenly you're in trouble.
Ultimately Newcastles future is, yoyo-ing between euro and non euro seasons, getting a bit better in euro football each time, with an extra player in the squad every year, maybe two, until you finally established as a year on year top 6-7 team at which point you then you add a couple more players but rather than squad players, you start buying better quality players.
Everton/Villa/West Ham/Bolton/Blackburn/Newcastle this happens to MOST teams who aren't spending 90mil + on wages, no euro, have a good run in the league, euro footie or even a couple good runs in both domestic cups, league form tanks.