A change in tactics? Or more of the same?

I might be the only one who is thinking this, but I believe that this summer could see a switch in the way that Newcastle United try to play football.

I can't quite put my finger on why, but I feel that over the summer we will see a switch in focus and will try to become a more passing, perhaps more technically gifted gifted team. You won't hear any complaints from me on that front, as long as the results stack up of course! Fellow blogger Premandup would enjoy this no doubt.

Now Andy Carroll was a fantastic player for us. He scored important goals before he toodled off to Anfield all-smiles. However, the problem with Carroll is that it was far too easy to resort to the long ball game, which used to happen quite a lot to be fair. Now I'm not criticising it as when you have a player like Carroll it can be a useful weapon to have and proved effective at times. Now though, we don't have Carroll, so that is probably no longer a viable option for us.

It's a good job really as, in my opinion, we are starting to see a shift in focus from being a side that plays to Carroll's strengths to being a side that is starting to play to the strengths of the rest of the squad. I'm not talking all of the time, but generally we do try and knock it about a bit more these days.

This kind of fits in with my belief that we are going to be looking at players from traditionally more technical leagues. In fact we've pretty much been told that we are looking at players in France and Holland. Maybe not directly but there have certainly been enough caveats to suggest we'll be seeking players from the French Ligue 1 and Dutch Eredivisie. A more technical gameplan would automatically suit them.

Then you have a look at the players that we already have. None of them are really suited to a long ball game, apart from Joey Barton who pinged many a long range ball onto the heed of Andy Carroll. However, Barton doesn't just have that in his locker. He is also a very good passer of the ball and can keep the ball on the deck if needs be.

Moving on from Barton to Stephen Ireland, who I believe will be one of our summer signings already. He is hardly suited to playing a long ball game is widely regarded as a gifted, technical midfielder. He has an eye for a pass and can split a defence in one pass if there is the required movement in front of him.

Then you look at Hatem Ban Arfa. He is arguably our most technically gifted player and is not well suited to a long-ball game. I'm sure he can hit a ball some distance, but his forte is close control, skill and trickery. Jonas Gutierrez is much the same as, let's face it, he can't really cross can he?

This is all important stuff really as it kind of shapes the players that we'll be looking at. For instance if we are to be playing a more technical, more controlled game then wingers aren't so important. As fellow 'blogger Toby le Rhone says: "yes we will need players comfortable with playing in wide areas, but not wingers". I tend to agree with this.

If movement is to be important then it is obviously going to shape what kind of striker we are looking for. Players like Gervinho and Kevin Gameiro are players who rely on movement and a bit of quick thinking who will surely thrive on through balls being pinged through by a creative midfield?

If that doesn't work we can turn to the backup plan of introducing Shola and pumping the ball up to him!

I like the idea of this technical side. Pardew said the other day he is after being an attractive and fluid attacking side, which is surely what we all want to see?

Whether Pardew can pull it off however remains to be seen.