The College Dropout

Aye they won't blame him. It's bigger than football, he's risking his place at the WC with this. It's not good for us though

Ba seems to need 3 to 4 games in a row to get up to speed. He'll never get that at Chelsea.

Don't want to see Colo & Yanga at the back any time soon

If anything I think the other two need to be less dirty! Nah. We'll not be rolled over with those 2 in midfield. Even aganist 3 men. Cabs will do a shin high tackle and not get booked.

IMO Anita could be a bit more dirty. Cabaye/Tiote often decide they will break up play one way or another (foul) and it's better imo.

Willo's a bit of a leader. Very important imo.

Sticking by Benteke as Lukaku continues to score for Everton is killing me. I just know as soon as I take Benteke out he'll start banging them in and Lukaku will go on a drought.

Said before but Soldado is suffering for some reasons Cisse did last season.... they have zero width, they don't move the ball quick enough, don't get passes in behind or crosses into the box. Soldado is then forced to come deep to get involved and then there is no one at end of moves. Its basically us last year, except Spurs can defend. ( City debacle aside) Don't think Soldado is anywhere close to as bad as he looks at the moment, in fact i know he isn't. ( same goes for Cisse) Neither offer anything outside the box for their team which makes things x3 harder mind.

We took some tonkings but overall we where a very solid team. That's how any good Pardew team will be. Solid at the back, relying on moments of magic up top.

He's doing very well relative to his past performances in the side and is fulfilling an important role in the system, but he hasn't played exceptionally well or anything. Even when he is on good form like this, Shola still has some glaring limitations and provides very little in the way of goal threat. His performances in the last months or so for club...and country have surprised me, though. He was involved in both goals. A presence, a nuisance. Generally he kept us moving forward time and time again.

Most of his fouls are petty. Great at killing the sting of opposition attacks mind.

Willo was pretty solid most of that year too. Shola and a monumental couple matches as well (Spurs & Man Utd spring to mind). Shola and Ba tore man utd apart in the 3-0 up here iirc one of the goals was just a punt downfield by krul and shola knocked it on to ba Yep Shola out jumped Evans and Ba made Ferdinand look silly. Such a simple thing but it wouldn't happen with someone like Cisse playing.

Was something like his 4th foul in 30 minutes tbf.

When he plays like this he looks a world beater. I know it's only WBA at home but he was superb. He has a spring in his step at the moment. More energy. Loving it.

Genuinely happy for him.

Willo was pretty solid most of that year too. Shola and a monumental couple matches as well (Spurs & Man Utd spring to mind).

Aye imagine how much better it would be if we had someone who could hold it up AND score? Very rare trait that though and why we haven't had anyone like that since Shearer. Carroll? Aye it would be awesome if he could be relied to score 8-12 goals in the PL. Anymore than that is a brilliant striker.

Because you know nothing about football perhaps? If you can't see his value after watching Cisse's limp wristed efforts uptop by himself for so long then you're watching the wrong sport.

We're walking a Shola wonderland. We are benefiting so much from someone who is able to hold the ball up and link with others up front.

Agreed.

I understand why he didn't. The timing for that move was now or never. But still.. because it was him and who he was and what then happened I was super disappointed. No time for him at all. In terms of good players for us - I have Given as one of the most disliked. Might be the only one. I try not to get too attached to footballers but he was arguably captain of the ship - and he jumped board. Nowt wrong with that as it wasn't his fault. But seemed very wrong.

It's about timing. They won their last 8 games our something close to that last season. If they can do that this season, they might very well win the league. By November they where out the race last season.

One team having a bad night at the office doesn't mean the league is bad.... i hate this mentality of CL results = strength of a league. With that said its embarrassing for Leverkusen to lose 5-0 at home to a team which has struggled all season. I think the best teams in Europe are more spread out than we've been used too in the last decade. France, Germany, England, Spain and Italy all have teams capable of winning the CL this year. Good point.

It's not the City result in isolation like some are claiming. Nobody who watches Spurs play regularly have been impressed by their attacking. They've looked solid and strong but they've grinded out wins. That's great but that's the best it's got. 7 goals from open play in 12 games is bad work by any standard. They'll be fine in the end no doubt.