The College Dropout

We played mostly on the front foot with Shearer and Bellamy, that's my biggest problem with Pardew.

Cabaye doesn't have quick feet. He's great when he has a bit of green ahead of him. But when it gets tight Marveaux is far better on the ball. It helps that Marveaux can actually dribble to create himself some space.

Totally pointless stats when you've took out his substitute appearances - 10 of them. Didn't Sissoko end on three assists? Meaningless. He's not the best passer of the ball in the team or the most creative either, Cabaye & Ben Arfa much better at both & Marv is far too inconsistent. Nope. Ben Arfa lacks vision and Cabaye is great at long passing but doesn't have the quick feet for the great short passing. Marv is the best at the intricate passing imo. Best through balls at the club, head is always up and he knows exactly when to release the ball.

HTT you're talking the most bollocks. David Haye would knock out Floyd Mayweather and Floyd Mayweather is twice the boxer of Haye. Now you're just talking shit.

No one said Rooney needs to bulk up. He needs to lose weight and add lean muscle physically. And he needs to improve his fitness.

Wow ... sorry, but you are so wrong. Why do people automatically think gym work equals bulking up. Terrible mindset. There are sports specific exercises that can help improve your game immensely. It's not just about going in there and doing bench presses and curls. Your mentality is very old school. I don't, but English footy clubs/managers/fans do look at some players and think hmmm, he needs to bulk up. Take Sammy, or even Ben Arfa for example. You've totally misread my post btw. Ah right, you're referring more to the too small to play, must bulk up mentality. Yeah, really think that is disgraceful. I certainly think Rooney could do with sticking to whatever gym programme they put together for him. He has no lean muscle, and is carrying too much weight. It's definitely affected his "suddenness" i.e. his quickness, burst and explosiveness. All those great physical abilities he had as a youngster have gone. He didn't put in the work to maintain and even enhance them. Look at Christiano Ronaldo in comparison. It's a shame. Exactly.

One year experience in going to the gym and you expect to see results of that of professional athletes? You can definitely get quicker by growing your legs. I've experienced it before. Eh, no After going to the gym for 6 months or so I bulked p and it effected my pace, mobility etc. I didn't intentionally bulk up nor needed to, its just that every week for example say bench press you would try and lift more and as a result you would naturally bulk up a bit. Mind I can go to the gym for say 2 months and bulk up easily for some reason. As for legs, you're right, you can improve speed, mobility, the lot with leg work, but it is easier to develop your upper body over your legs so the legs are always gonna play catch up compared to other areas of your body. My upper body bulked up at a rate of knots compared to the leg work for example. That's all good, but what has this got to do with the blokes point that if Rooney had the determination that Ronaldo had, and proved it by among other things following his excercise programs, he would not be in the position he is now? I've went off on a tangent, I'm attacking the view point that players need to bulk up/beef up etc. I look at Rooney body wise and see a well proportioned, physically well off bloke to be honest. Could he lose more weight, slim down, cut some body fat out etc.? Of course, we all could. Would that make him much better footballer though? It might improve his game a little but I dare say cutting out the fags and the booze and maybe junk type food would be much more beneficial to his game than extra gym work... That's my whole point RE Rooney. My stuff about bulking up etc. is valid stuff I feel given the mentality within our game especially from the fans and certain managers. Again, people look at Sammy and think the lad could do with a good meal and some extra gym work. Bull s*** is all I say. Your points contradict. If he stopped the fags, drinks and ate properly he would lose weight and be a better footballer. Any athlete knows it's at least 50% training, 50% diet. It's a lifestyle. Rooney isn't focused in the gym and he's not focused on his diet. It's piss poor.

I do believe some players bulk up upper half too much but it's because they choose to, rather than what coaches are telling them. I remember Gabby Agbonglahor thought he was too weak and decided to beef up massively against the wishes of his manager.

One year experience in going to the gym and you expect to see results of that of professional athletes? You can definitely get quicker by growing your legs. I've experienced it before. Eh, no After going to the gym for 6 months or so I bulked p and it effected my pace, mobility etc. I didn't intentionally bulk up nor needed to, its just that every week for example say bench press you would try and lift more and as a result you would naturally bulk up a bit. Mind I can go to the gym for say 2 months and bulk up easily for some reason. As for legs, you're right, you can improve speed, mobility, the lot with leg work, but it is easier to develop your upper body over your legs so the legs are always gonna play catch up compared to other areas of your body. My upper body bulked up at a rate of knots compared to the leg work for example. That's not true either. Your legs are the biggest strongest muscles on your body and have the most potential. If all you did was squat/bench you would hit a plateau on the bench long before you hit it on the squats. Cronaldo is a flat track bully because he's stronger and faster than damn near everyone else. Same thing with Bale.

Sorry but this is BS. You can't compare your routine to what Wayne Rooney could do at Manchester United. He has the best fitness, strength and nutritional coaches and experts money can buy. He could be more lean and more muscular AND a better athlete if he dedicated himself. It's not just the fags. I'm sure he doesn't drink Jack on the rocks or with flavoured water, he probably drinks calorie ridden beer. And I'm 100% sure he doesn't eat very well at all which is VERY important. It's rarely one or two things. Wayne Rooney is not the best natural athlete (or the worst) but his lifestyle compounds that. You look at Cronaldo you can tell he has dedicated himself to every facet of football. Technical training, fitness training, diet, lifestyle everything. Gareth Bale too. You can gain lean muscle, add explosiveness without slowing down. Cronaldo/Bale have the physique's of long distance sprinters (200m/400m) muscular but lean enough to have incredible endurance. It's not a choice. You can train technically very hard and then train fitness wise very hard. It's clear Cronaldo/Bale do just that, they've added technical skills to their games as well as physical. It seems Wayne would rather just play for 90 mins. It's understandeable to a degree, when fitness has never been your strong point, you won't enjoy focusing on improving that to elite levels.

15 years ago big players only came here for the money.

It's all you need. Good team Norwich, they did lack in quality. If the team can work as well as they have with the quality additions, they'll be midtable and comfortable.

Aye in a 3 driving the team forward I think is ibis best bet. On form all our CM's sucked at the end of last year.

He played AM in most of those games. I remember Stoke vividly - he was horrible.

If a pass is not on.. play it simple. He's too gung-ho. You don't want your AM continuously losing the ball.

Of all the new players, i'm sceptical about Moussa the most.

I disagree his passing is too impatient, in fact he's very quick at spotting a pass and is very good at quick one-twos. With our lack of movement though, obviously the options become much more limited and that's when you might get the passes getting over ambitious to compensate. Now I could suggest why there is this lack of movement but then I'll be accused of insulting Pardew, so I'm just going to echo the manager and say it's a mystery. His passing was often under 80% completion. That's lower than any other good player you can think of. It's pretty terrible in fact. 74% at WBA. 79% at S'land. 72% at City. 74% at Wigan. 69%.......SIXTY NINE... against Stoke. 3% more than the lovely Ryan Shotton.

I don't know tbh. He was excellent for a few games and terrible ever since. He's got a good engine. Can dribble well. Strong on the ball. Passing is too impatient. Rarely keeps possession. I'd have him in a midfield 3 flat, with licence to break forward. He would need more patient passing for that. Or tbh.... wide. As a #10 he's shit.

Except Dyer was better on the wing and at AM.

Could you imagine Paddy Vieira playing on the wing or having any success at AM? No. Tall, lanky, black, strong, athletic yes. But they're not the same type of player.

With the current squad, I don't see how we can't replicate the successful 4-3-3 - Sissoko replacing Jonas and Gouffran (Remy, perhaps?) replacing Ba. I know this has been whinged about a million times but it really is frustrating how we completely abandoned the most successful formation in (my) living memory, just cos we got tanked at Wigan on a day where nothing went right. One thing the 4-3-3 did was put everyone in their best position. If we could just do that with at least 4 or 5 of our front six (instead of 0), I could live with a different set-up. We rarely played 4-4-3. It was normally 2 CM's sitting behind an AM. Jonas-Tiote with Cabaye pushed up.

Never. He doesn't have a defensive mindset. I mean in the Viera sense. Not a standard DM but a mobile holding midfielder with license to break. I agree with you that he doesn't seem that defensive. Vieira put a foot in and could play as a DM. Sissoko doesn't look like he can even tackle. Hope i'm wrong. I'd like him deeper to close midfielders down personally anyway. But not in a 4-4-2 with Wor Cabs

Never. He doesn't have a defensive mindset.

He has for France. Dunno about Toulouse though. Personal view that he doesn't belong to the wing. Pardew just said he played to the side for Toulouse.

So he played wide for Tolouse as well as France......