The College Dropout

We didn;t have Tiote for 10 mins against Arsenal and conceded from a goal down the middle. You rarely get that when Tiote's playing.

WTF? He's been key in preventing Swansea from penetrating.

Aye Demba's looked poor for the first time in a long tie today. He looked very annoyed when that defender blocked his choice. Tiote injured. Fuck.

Swansea are far more WC-Spain than Barcelona, minus the top players.

Yep we could be better on the ball but overall i'm very pleased. I think we've controlled the game. Swansea aren't doing anything we are scared of.

Wouldn't be surprised in the slightest if this is Pardew's thought process today. Chasing the ball back is hard work too, you know. We've largely stood off though. We haven't been legging it around the pitch at all. Kept great shape rather than really trying to win the ball.

Great from us imo. Swansea have rarely truly troubled us. If we can improve our passing I can see us scoring a few on the break.

Still reckon he'll end up at Spurs. 'Arry signing.

Reckon he can attract a club in a higher bracket (financially). Spurs/L'pool type club.

yes but they still physically kicked the s*** out of everyone and how Van Bommell didn't get a red card a game is beyond me When you start Kuyt, Van Bommel & De Jong in the same side, physicality is going to play a major in the game plan.

Pretty certain we beat them 3-1 in the WC group stage in 2002 with Emile Heskey scoring.

De Gea has superb distribution. His passing is very accurate.

Exactly. A tenner today is more valuable than a tenner spread over three years. I'm not sure it's that simple. With interest payments and higher transfer fees I imagine that paying by installments is lucrative and actually preferable for clubs that don't need the money up front. I'm almost certain interest payments are rare in football.

According to FM he wouldn't be able to talk to other Premiership clubs until his contract was up. With foreign clubs he can talk.

Arshavin.

Under-rated now the goals have dried up. Very good despite it.

His current role also removes the expectation that he's going to cover the entire length of the wing and play FB and LW, which must have been a real weight on his shoulders and affected how he is seen by the fans. So true.

The lad gets too much stick.

He's not anywhere the athlete Cabaye is. Not as disciplined without possession. When he's bad, he's a liability to the whole side. Now, he is a good player and I would like him to stay but he's a distance away from being as good as Yohan.

Superb post. Fantastic. It's exactly how I feel about us.

It's not rocket science-like. If you feel a 2-man central midfield is stronger than your duo, it's hardly tactical wizadry to play an extra man. Most teams struggle to control a game in a 4-4-2 against a 4-5-1 hence why so few teams set-up with a 4-4-2 these days. 4-5-1 allows you to keep the ball whilst if you're in a 4-4-2 you will be forced to go more direct unless you have excellent passers and wingers like Manchester United. We are only 1 of 2 teams (other being Man Utd) in the top 8 that consistently plays a 4 man midfield. It's no wonder our midfield has a tough time controlling a game because they are simply outnumbered. Despite nearly always being at a numerical disadvantage they rarely get the runaround for 90 mins. Cabaye & Tiote are a very disciplined duo. Most of our best moments from Norwich came from superb Cabaye balls.

I find myself agreeing with this sentiment, your being paid shitloads of money to play football, and people pay good money to come watch their team play and he's been horrific lately, its not like the fans started getting on his back all of a sudden, its his job to stay focused and play good otherwise he should fully be expecting this type of reaction. I hate this kind of mentality and it does NOTHING to help our team. He's clearly already low on confidence and just looks nervy. That partially attributed to his mistake. However, 45k moaning & groaning at him is not going to help anybody. It will only make things worse and that's exactly what happened. He isn't performing due to a lack of trying so to get on his back will achieve nothing. Say what you like about L'pool fans but they truly try to give their players' confidence. If we want our lads to try and play football we have to accept it may lead to the odd calamitous mistake. We can't have it both ways.

Agreed, defensively they have a great understanding and are an very effective partnership. Going forward is another story.

He played very narrow but he and Gutierrez were at the hub of most of our attacks. They linked up well as a pair down that side. 1st Half. We didn't do a single attack down the left hand side until the 75th minute 2nd half. We were crap for a lot of the Second Half I'll agree. That's where I think Pardew's subs were smart, the introduction of Santon and Shola settled the side down. The subs were right, tho I didn't agree with the HBA going off for Santon. I would had took off Guthrie. Harsh on HBA yes as I thought he did give us a fair bit of impetus in the First Half. Guthrie was decent in fits and starts, but for a guy of decent build he gets knocked off the ball too easily. I just can't get away with how bad he is off the ball, it's where Cabaye excels in as his workrate off the ball is fantastic, Guthrie's for some reason is poor. Yep. Off the ball he's horrendous.

Yeah, we probably do miss Saylor in this respect (a leader on the pitch). For me, Saylor is a player who is so determined for the cause that he would have no problem putting his body on the line (as in, he would go into a 50/50 tackle and he wouldn't shy away from challenges and all that). So could it be that we're actually missing Saylor's "Super-Geordie" mentality? Aye, you question Williamson/Guthrie's commitment for the point/win sometimes.