Why Pardew's Newcastle cannot afford to feel sorry for themselves

Alan Pardew's Newcastle are in an alarming run of form

Around this time last year, I wrote a blog post arguing it was time to start taking Alan Pardew's Newcastle side seriously.

They were flying high in third place in the Premier League - similarly to West Brom this season - yet they were not getting the credit they deserved.

The general consensus was that they would eventually fall away and finish in mid-table, but they defied their critics to maintain their form and ultimately finish in a brilliant fifth.

This season, though, the tables have been turned.

Newcastle's form has slipped so alarmingly that they are currently 14th in the Premier League, but, similarly to last year, the feeling is they are in a false position. To believe that, though, would be dangerous and wrong.

Pardew's side are exactly where they deserve to be based on their performances. In fact, it could be argued they should be one or two places lower.

But for the majority of the derby game at Sunderland and a couple of Europa League wins, Newcastle have not had one fully satisfying and convincing performance yet this season, so they cannot claim to deserve to be any higher than they are.

They have now lost their last three Premier League games, and all three fixtures seemed eminently winnable.

Home games against West Ham United and Swansea City, followed by an away match at Southampton, should be fixtures to relish for any aspiring side.

For Newcastle to get no points from the nine available is more than alarming. It's embarrassing.

If they are not careful, they will be dragged into a relegation battle. They are certainly playing poorly enough to be sucked in.

There is zero depth to Pardew's squad and the club is now paying for its penny-pinching policy.

In the absence of key players like Yohan Cabaye and Hatem Ben Arfa, youngsters like Shane Ferguson and Sammy Ameobi are being relied upon far too much.

Ameobi has looked good in patches, but is not yet good enough to be a first-team regular

Ferguson and Ameobi undoubtedly have talent and have shown it in glimpses, but they are not yet ready to be regular starters in the Premier League.

Newcastle have an excellent crop of eight players who would be good enough to play in most teams in the country, but beyond that there is very little.

When two or more of those eight are unavailable, the team is simply not good enough.

With youngster Haris Vuckic injured, Cabaye is the only creative midfielder at the club, and when he is also unavailable, Newcastle are predictable and easy to stop.

Pardew has persisted with a 4-4-2 formation throughout the season, with Demba Ba and Papiss Cisse up-front, but it is painfully obvious the Senegalese pair cannot play together effectively.

They did play well together during the second half of last season, but Cisse was in the form of his life during that period and Ba was pushed out to the left.

An obvious option for Pardew should be to drop Cisse, who has looked a shadow of the player of last season, play Ba up-front on his own and have a three-man central midfield. That would stop Newcastle being over-run in that area and allow the wide players more freedom to roam.

However, Pardew's only central midfield options at this time are defensive, while his wide players are hardly consistent.

He would surely like to play Ben Arfa behind Ba, with two out-and-out wingers, but at this time that would mean playing Jonas Gutierrez - who is a defensive winger - and a player like Gabriel Obertan or Sammy Ameobi on the flanks, and Pardew would have virtually zero confidence in a ploy like that working.

So for now, he is persisting with the Ba-Cisse partnership, and Newcastle are limping their way through the campaign.

Their squad is simply not big enough for the rigours of the Europa League, and the club has missed a huge opportunity to build on last year's success.

Four or five players needed to be added to the squad just to beef up the options available to Pardew, but funds were not forthcoming and Newcastle are now paying for it.

There is no doubt the Magpies have been incredibly unlucky with injuries and suspensions, with fringe players like Vuckic, Dan Gosling and Ryan Taylor out long-term, Cabaye missing, Cheick Tiote and Fabricio Coloccini missing games after red cards and Ben Arfa now ruled out for at least two weeks.

However, those injuries should not be used as an excuse for Newcastle's poor form.

Yesterday's pitiful performance and defeat at Southampton came when Pardew had just three first-team regulars missing, so there is more to Newcastle's recent slump than bad luck.

Even when the likes of Coloccini, Ben Arfa and Cabaye have been in the team, Newcastle have still not been good enough this season.

They have only won three times in 13 league games, and two of those - against Tottenham and West Brom - were barely deserved.

Ben Arfa has been Newcastle's best player so far, along with the free-scoring Ba, but Cabaye has looked off-the-pace for the most part and even Ben Arfa has not performed on a consistent basis.

Ben Arfa is a magician at times, and his absence over the next two weeks will be keenly felt

There is no doubt he has been the team's biggest threat, but he has also at times been wasteful and defenders have dealt with him effectively.

Perhaps Pardew's Newcastle have simply been worked out, perhaps the team have become too comfortable, perhaps Pardew has made tactical mistakes and perhaps injuries and suspensions have scuppered their chances.

However, now is not the time for them to feel sorry for themselves.

Pardew has the security of his unprecedented eight-year deal, so shouldn't be too concerned about his future.

You wouldn't find too many Newcastle fans who would want to see Pardew leave given the miracles he performed last season, and it is likely they will stand by him for the foreseeable future.

There is only so long that will be the case, though, so Newcastle need to have an upturn in their fortunes soon.

It could be argued Pardew himself is too comfortable with his eight-year deal and should be managing with the pressures of any other top-flight boss, but to question his future at this stage would be harsh in the extreme.

It is only six months since he was named manager of the season, so to call for his head now would be folly.

When Graeme Souness was Newcastle manager, he used to say the club was only ever two consecutive defeats away from a crisis, but Pardew is not quite in that situation left.

He will be given plenty of time to turn things around, starting with their trip to Stoke on Wednesday.

That will be another extremely difficult task, and could very well lead to a fourth straight league defeat for Newcastle.

They would then go into the Wigan home game badly in need of three points to stop themselves being dragged ever nearer to the bottom three, so Newcastle need their excellent fans fully behind them now.

The fans will need to be patient, as the lack of depth to Pardew's squad is painfully obvious and they don't look like a team on the brink of a good run of form.

This season is now a dangerous one for Newcastle and if they're not careful, a long, hard campaign will lie ahead.

They still have plenty of time to turn it around and now is not the time to panic, but they badly need a positive result soon.

Last season's success seems a long time ago and Newcastle cannot afford to be thinking back to that.

This campaign is a fresh one and the challenges for them are different, but a top-eight finish would still be a success if they could somehow achieve it.

At the moment, even the top-half is a long way away but Newcastle are only a win or two from forcing their way in there.

In contrast, a defeat or two could plunge them into the relegation zone, so now is a crucial time in Newcastle's season.

Get the next few fixtures right, and the heights of last season may not seem so unreachable. Get them wrong, though, and the rot could begin to set in.

It is time for Pardew to earn his dough. He needs to again prove why he has been given an eight-year contract and work a few more miracles on Tyneside. It's not going to be easy.