HawK

Weren't we ranked the 2nd best or best club in Europe a few years ago on something like this? lol

He hasn't done enough work to have his insight measured

I don't think anyone suggests Sissoko is better with the ball then Ben Arfa, but what he does do off the ball has allowed Debuchy to show how class he is going forward. While we have Debuchy at RB, there really isn't a place for HBA on the right. Needs to be in the middle up top or just behind. On form Debuchy shouldn't need Sissoko ahead of him to perform. IMO it's ridiculous to say there's no way for Debuchy and HBA to play on the same wing. I agree - it's just our shape with and without the ball, along with everything else, that makes it a weakness for us while Pardew is at the helm. More competent managers would cover up that side with Tiote whilst we were in possession if that's where we have ball - rather than having Tiote playing the (often) final ball through the middle as a punt.

I don't think anyone suggests Sissoko is better with the ball then Ben Arfa, but what he does do off the ball has allowed Debuchy to show how class he is going forward. While we have Debuchy at RB, there really isn't a place for HBA on the right. Needs to be in the middle up top or just behind. Serious question. If HBA is one of our most dangerous attacking players and performs best from the right, should we be playing him elsewhere to ensure one of the defenders can get forward? Fwiw, in the match which relegated Ben Arfa to the bench, both Debuchy and Santon were pushed up to the halfway line away from home for no apparent reason. If anything, they have taken up deeper starting positions since this time. Seriously, with a half decent manager, who'd get tiote to cover right for hba and debuchy, they should both be playing

I don't think anyone suggests Sissoko is better with the ball then Ben Arfa, but what he does do off the ball has allowed Debuchy to show how class he is going forward. While we have Debuchy at RB, there really isn't a place for HBA on the right. Needs to be in the middle up top or just behind.

Our players stand still when anyone has the ball...that's the problem, nobody is making fast runs into space after passing and it means the opposition have too much time to get back in numbers. Seems we work so hard when we don't have the ball that when we do have it, everyone switches off. Best bit of possession football is that you have energy in attack.

Point remains, if he was that good he wouldn't be here. Flawed genius.

Debuchy wouldn't have been playing with this much freedom with HBA in front of him, as a pair Sissoko and Debuchy have been great. HBA needs to be in the middle at or near the front so that he can be carried. Elsewhere it's too exploitable.

As if this hasn't been plan A for the majority of the past 2 years xD

Anyone got the stats for while he was off vs when he came back? Seems we did better defensively without him that with him, vs stronger teams too. I could be wrong I haven't looked into it.

Tbh in the short time that Hughton was in the Premier League, we seemed to be similar. To an extent I've always thought we'd done better against better sides as a team for quite a long time in general. SAF always stuck his best teams out against us as I recall and we'd usually give them a decent game.

Enrique is still better than anything we have at left back, one of the best we've had. But Debuchy is a class above.

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1880981-report-in-kenya-manchester-united-fan-killed-himself-after-newcastle-loss?

Wow Jimmy Carr's put on some weight.

So Pardew gets the best out of his players and plays to their strengths? I don't think so, this is my gripe, it's basics imho.

Same football now as it was going on 3 years ago. Pardew's been so incredibly lucky to have 3 strikers play the best football of their careers for us for up to 6 months at a time to cover up how shocking we are playing with the players we have available.

Is it really depicting never-ending lines of monkeys sniffing eachothers bottoms?

I think Ibra should get it, sort of like when Giggs won whatever he did, can't remember, as like a 'life time achievement award', he's won big wherever he has been and is truly a great player imho.

Barely 1% of Robert's, which was in a PL match, and involved a half-backflip..

Have we been set up as a flat 4-4-2? At work got no commentary or anything.

Imo managers should just resign when promoted from the Championship.

stereotype # racism

Jose Enrique Jose was criticised in his first season, after that can't remember anyone rounding on him, lots of players have had poor starts then picked up their form, that was nothing new. I've perhaps listed him out of context, as I meant the fan reaction when he demanded to leave due to the lack of ambition the board was showing. Not really to do with his on-field form at all really. Point taken ^_^

Craig Bellamy, Jose Enrique, Alan Shearer to name a few off the top of my head :/