I would prefer Pardew not once again stuck with 4-4-2 formation while playing away from home against a team playing with five in midfield and with our midfield containing two lightweights, Ferguson and Anita.

Newcastle need to be far more solid while playing against Stoke City, that means Cisse needs to left out with Ba playing up front on his own, according to sportsbook review here.

In my honest opinion, continuing to play 4-4-2 using Ba & Cisse up front is extremely unlikely to prove any more successful than it has this season to date.

I’d pack the midfield with the most experience possible given the injury situation. If Steven Taylor had been fit I’d have considered playing him, Williamson and Colo, with Colo sitting in front of the back four. Unfortunately, we don’t now have that luxury. So, I’d go for 4-5-1 with something like:

Krul
Simpson – Williamson – Colo – Santon
Tiote – Perch
Marveaux – Anita – Jonas
Ba

With seven of of what is nominally our strongest team playing – including our entire first choice defence – our performance last night was frankly embarrassing, not to say deeply worrying.

Yet again, the main problem lay in midfield where we were unable to get any measure of control. Bigirimana looked what he is, an inexperienced kid who is not ready to play at this level. Like Bigi, Anita worked his socks off but is weak in the tackle and certainly not an incisive passer.

Despite his goal that was very well taken, Marveaux was as good as a man off, repeatedly pulling out of tackles and generally giving the ball away. Our dead ball kicks were even worse last night than they have been all season.

Frankly, this particular failing says something about what is going on on the training pitch and is a bloody disgrace for a Premier League football club, and also for another mystifying substitution by Pardew in the 2nd half.

With Anita and Bigi struggling desperately to get a toe-hold in midfield, and pretty well being overrun, the gaffer sent on Abeid, a defensive midfielder.

Just what we need I say, but what does AP do? He takes off Sameobi, moves the unbelievably weak Marveaux into central midfield and plays Abeid up front alongside Ba – where he was hopeless. Utterly mystifying.

Why on earth didn’t he just play Abeid in front of the back four, leave Anita and Bigi where they were, and either leave Marveaux wide left or take him off and leave Sami wide left? Square pegs in square holes, and all that.

I’m sorry, but imho this was a really dumb move and could well have cost us the two points. Pardew and Carver seem to have stopped thinking logically at the moment.

The Magpies are now without a win in four league matches and another draw against Maritimo in the Europa League on Thursday evening, before taking on Pardew’s former team Southampton over the weekend in the Premier League.

Pardew said: “We’ve had a bit of a dip and we’re sad about that, sad for our fans”

“I think it will help if we have our senior players back and hopefully we’ll have one or two back this week and maybe a couple more next week. So that will arm me and make the side stronger.”

It is certainly not time to be pushing any panic buttons at St James’ Park just yet – Newcastle are in twelfth position in the league and only five points away from the top six.

In truth, Pardew’s men have not hit the heights of last season just yet and performances have not been at their best. But, that will all come in time. Players such as Yohan Cabaye coming back into action are key as he is one of the most influential members of this squad.

When Pardew has all of his players to call upon, you will see a big change in performances and results in this Newcastle side and if he is given money to spend in the January transfer window, then a top four finish is certainly not out of the question. If you like a free bet, you will see they are out at 66/1 to finish in the Champions League places.

With Southampton, Stoke City, Wigan and Fulham to come in the league, Newcastle do have a decent run on games on paper. There are of course three Europa League games sandwiched into this though and it is all about how well Pardew can rotate his squad, or even if he is able to with the injury problems he has.

It is an exciting time to be following the Magpies and with the success the boss has had at the club so far, you would back him to turn this mini-blip around.

They were the better team and deserved the three points, but only just managed to do that. I couldn’t fault the effort yesterday but we lacked cohesion, playing like a group of individuals rather than as a team. Effort without teamwork is highly unlikely to succeed at this level.

Tiote’s return certainly helped. He had a decent game, showing a lot more control than in previous outings. However, we were still outmanoeuvred in midfield, and I still feel AP’s insistence on playing 4-4-2 is not helping.

He probably felt he needed to attack Swansea at home, but their control and movement prevented us getting control in midfield and caused us massive problems.

Anita worked his socks off, but he is rather weak in the tackle, is not really an insightful passer, and Swansea were frequently able to pass around him and Tiote.

Sammy Ameobi was the defacto ‘support striker’ with Demba Ba playing up front. Sammy simply lacks the experience and nous to provide the support necessary to the midfield when not in possession.

While he made some useful contributions going forward, I feel this was a flawed selection. He actually looked a lot more comfortable when he was switched to the left wing in the 2nd half.

Still lacking adequate support from midfield, defensively we were all over the shop – and certainly not helped by Krul’s erratic kicking that was materially responsible for the vital first Swansea goal.

Williamson had a bit of a ‘mare’, and looked a nervous wreck. Without a big striker to mark, the two center backs did not link effectively, and there were frequently big gaps between them.

Despite all the problems, we created several good chances – largely courtesy of Hatem Ben Arfa, who was by a long way our most effective player. Indeed, Ba could have had a hat trick within 5 minutes or so at the start of the 2nd half. However, most of our shooting was in the ‘high, wide and handsome’ category.

I’m beginning to worry about the Manager. He has undoubtedly had a myriad of problems to deal with this season, some not of his own making. However, he seems to have stopped thinking clearly. His team selection yesterday was curious, particularly against a team that retain possession as well as Swansea. Some of his substitutions also seemed strange.

Replacing Ferguson with Shola was perhaps understandable, even though Shane had not done too badly. However, this simply served to further deplete our already struggling midfield unit.

Unless Simpson was injured, his replacement by Marveaux was unfathomable, bringing about two changes to an already struggling defence – with an exhausted looking (or was he injured?) Anita going to left and Santon switching to right back.

With our only creative midfielder looking as though he may require surgery, these are increasingly worrying times.

That day is when Kevin Keegan was Newcastle United manager and also our first Premier league season. Newcastle players who scored were Andy Cole and Rob Lee.

And when Cabaye finally break the deadlock with his typical shot on goal from a perfect Ben Arfa’s cross, I was screaming and thought that the goal would definetely a sign of our winning day.

The game starts with little chances in the opening minutes for both team with Luis Suárez, as we often saw keep performing what he can do best beside scoring goal, falling down to the floor with everytime he has been challenged.

In the 43rd minute Hatem Ben Arfa overturned Jose Enrique down the right flank before serving the ball over to the far post where Yohan Cabaye is waiting to controll the ball and then volleyed past Brad Jones.

To be honest, their equalising goal also a special one, from you know who and that will keep me thinking of why that such quality player would have another equally high quality skill to easily down to the ground.

Suárez from the start, had a constant battle with Coloccini from within minutes of play when he was appealing in vain for a penalty for a slight contact from Colo.

His intention is finally come to a conclusion with seven minutes remaining which I hate to say but it may have been a well deserved red card for our captain although from a replay there’s no hars damage was inflicted. As for the remaining seven minutes plus four of added time, we fought hard to keep the score sheet in ballance, and come out from there with a point.