The College Dropout

Needed better from Anita, Colo & Santon.

Fuckin 'ell Tiote tbh that made me laugh

Tbf Anita & Tiote have done well in there.

We are a very small team if you take Shola off and they're very big. IMO Shola's playing until he can no longer walk, then he'll just stand there on the pitch. Like a spider with his legs pulled off.

Guys in the studio seem to think it was given for Colo's challenge.

He's not much like Hatem at all tbh. Hatem is explosive, quickens the game. Marv floats about, little run here then lays the ball off so smooth. He's not the type to demand the ball but he has too. When he gets the ball we play better.

Was poor for 20 minutes but really came into his own as the half went on. Headers, blocks and great closing down. Passing improved too. Did a good thing with being tight to Fellaini too. However his reputation cost us today. Reputation and reputation alone. Never a foul, Fellaini stumbled and because it was tiote near him it was a foul.

Wasn't a foul like.

Fuck sake.

We are missing bares predatory instincts a bit. Harsh on Cheick there.

Marv just doesn't lose the ball...

Need to get Marveaux on the ball more..

tell you what though. Backs against the wall Tiote is invaluable.

Tiote is actually shit isn't he?

they've highlighted Colo as the weak man in the air.

Both are total #9's tbf. The Cisse back-heel lives long in the memory.

Fucking Demba still picking the team!

Can't say anything against that. Money aside he should have shown more respect to his teamates, manager and the fans. I think we will be better without him, as long as the penny pinchers do their job for once. He's played well and is leaving for a more successful club. Nowt wrong with what he's done.

I think he enjoys the responsibility of being the main man. same with Demba.

We shouldn't really be asking him to be too involved with build up play though. You have to in this day and age. Even Defoe has been improving that side of the game and Bent isn't getting a game partly because of it. Ba is hardly Bergkamp but he's better in that regard and Cissse needs to develop that part of his game. That's a fair point. I do think he's equal to Ba in terms of hold up though, even better on some occasions. He can't really do the brute force backing in type stuff but his ball control is often much better and he releases the ball quicker. There's a bit of unfair stuff being said about him in the Ba thread as well with regards to him playing in a 2. I don't see any reason why he wouldn't flourish in a 2 if we found him the right partner and created some chances from wide, Debuchy should help massively with this. IMO he always goes for the difficult finish. It doesn't help. You can't just be a poacher in this division. Link-up and/or bully defences. If Hernandez had the link-up play of Welbeck, he'd be really fighting for a first XI place.

He was benched. Unfairly too. Then he just kept on scoring. You tend to pander to the in-form players.

Got to wonder what some of the bigger pros are going to think- the likes of Krul, Colo, Ben Arfa, Cabaye. Well, we are losing a brilliant striker and definitely one of the best in the league That's my biggest worry about him leaving tbh. Indeed - from what I've read he's a popular player in the dressing room. Just need to bring in a quality replacement - someone who can compliment Cisse. I think we should follow the Spurs route and not the Arsenal route. They've lost key players, nearly every year. Carrick, Berbatov & Modric off the top of my head. But they've replaced them straight away and are stronger than they've ever been. We sell Demba and bring in Remy & Debuchy and the players' think we are a serious outfit. It would be a problem if he was sold to QPR though. Any team not in the top 3, can have their pick of the PL players' pretty much and everyone accepts that. It's sad but the fact that if you play well for N'castle and go to Chelsea is probably a benefit to prospective transfer targets.

Can't begrudge a move to Chelsea. Good luck kid.

hopefully he just defends properly. Been worse than Simpson in recent weeks.

Tim Krul.