indi

Thought the officials were particularly poor today, numerous incorrect decisions against both teams, but the majority went against us. It didn't help that Stoke were a disgrace, throwing themselves to the floor at every opportunity too. Hardly needs saying, but Obertan, what the fuck? It's stunning just how easily we seem to panic for no apparent reason and throw games aways on a regular basis. Carver clearly doesn't know what he's doing with regard to substitutions and game management in general. If we're going to have to put up with this for the rest of the season then they better have someone seriously good in the summer. It's going to be a nerve wracking few months waiting for us to be safe from relegation, it better be worth it!

http://www.theguardian.com/football/2015/jan/22/gary-neville-sky-media-manager Was there not mention of one candidate who had managed to stay off the radar? Possible blip?

Beardsley hasn't got the required badges, has he? Isn't Carver the only one at the club who could be manager?

Wish he'd fucking hurry up.

Threw that game away with a couple of ridiculous decisions. Steven fucking Taylor. It really shouldn't need saying, but why is this moron still here, let alone on the pitch? After his collision with the post - following the only decent bit of defending he did all match, btw - why did we wait for him to come back and play with ten men, when it was the perfect opportunity to correct the error of having him out there in the first place? The guy's a half-wit, or should that be a quarter-wit now? He's our one player that I genuinely dislike and I despise him with every fibre of my being. A total liability that should have been shipped on years ago. Why bring on Armstrong instead of Cisse? It makes no logical sense. Armstrong's a decent tidy player, but I've never seen him have a significant influence on any game where he's been brought on in the second half and today was no exception. It hardly needs saying that the opposite is true for Papiss and there were two crosses from Ameobi today that I'm certain he would have got on the end of and probably put away. Also, it's not just that Cisse would have been more effective than Armstrong in a straight swap, but there's also the effect it had on the rest of the team. Firstly, it meant Perez was moved into a deeper role making him less effective and leaving Armstrong on his own up front, which is just ridiculous. Secondly, it meant that when we did bring on Cisse, Gouffran had already been sacrificed and he had to take Tiote off. I'm not that upset at taking Tiote off, he could well have ended up getting sent off at some point and he looked to be flagging a bit to me. However, if he was coming off he needed to be replaced by Anita - who should have been on the bench for this very reason - because moving Sissoko back there is a fucking waste of our best player. Also, it negates any attacking advantage we might have got by bringing on an extra attacker, especially if he's continually having to cover as Captain Spastastic goes blundering off up the pitch, like he's playing 50-a-side during the lunch-break at school - see point 1. Anyway, I feel better after venting.

Looked razor sharp today and seems to have spent his lay-off learning the offside rule.

As you know. He wasn't getting any playing time and moving to Germany hasn't been great for him. Also note that a 50million pound move to Chelsea for Torres also didn't do much for his confidence. There must have been a reason he wasn't playing, probably because when he did he played like he did whilst here. Torres was a crock before Chelsea signed him.

Hardly surprising considering the toxic atmosphere surrounding everything to do with the club.

But it was clear he was rubbish from early on. I'd have preferred to have played Papiss more because if we're going to persevere with an out of form player to try and get his confidence back, then I'd prefer it's one we own and not one that could have rediscovered his form and promptly fucked off somewhere else.

Remember getting some shit for this at the time, but that's exactly what happened. It's really depressing when you get a feeling like that and you just know that things are going to turn out badly, guess we've all had too many of them for far too long really.

Thought he was excellent yesterday and I think it was really important that he got a reward for it. I hope and suspect that could prove to be a really important goal for us because Cisse is such a form player and in the same way that he was locked into a period of ridiculously good form when he signed and couldn't stop scoring, it hardly needs saying that the opposite has been true for quite a while now. That performance felt like the beginning of a change in fortunes and the goal will hopefully have cemented that by giving him a reward for it boosting his confidence and reminding him that he can play well and he can score goals. I think we'll see him score a few goals now and that could be just what we need to see us through to the end of the season. We will still need to see a significant improvement in the quality of our squad, but hopefully this means that Cisse can be part of that, rather than having to leave and eventually re-find his form somewhere else. Papiss Cisse on-form is worth a fortune, but off-form I doubt we'd get more than a few million for him. So, whilst we shouldn't think that we can rely on him for each and every game in a season, it still doesn't make much sense to sell him at the bottom of his form because eventually he'll re-find it and if that happened shortly after we'd sold him for a pittance then we'd be absolutely gutted. What we need is someone who we can rely upon to score regularly throughout the season and keep things ticking over when Cisse's not on form, then when he is he can take us to another level. Remy seems like that kind of player, but I don't think we're going to get him, de Jong on the other hand hasn't really done anything and reminds me of Stéphane Guivarc'h in that he's probably a decent player, but it's never going to work out for him here and it would be a mistake for both him and us if we signed him permanently.

An almost entirely talent-free first half performance from us. We're so shit.

The reason people like Taylor and Shola get picked ahead of other options is the same reason Tevez and Mascherano used to get benched in favour of British footballers at West ham. Pardew likes to go with the players which fit his ethos. To be fair to Shola, everyone knows he's not up to it, but at least he did something today, I know he didn't take any of them but he created a few chances and got a few efforts on target, which is more than can be said for the rest of them. If I was giving marks for today's game I'd give Shola a 2, Krul a 7 and the rest 0 if they're lucky. I think you're right about Pardew though, I think he often picks players for reasons other than that their the best man for the job. I think he buys into the myth that we want a team full of locals more than we want a decent team, there's no other possible reason that Taylor is still at the club, let alone in the team. Similarly the only reason for bringing Dummett on ahead of Haidara is because he's British. Does anyone really actually care where our players come from? I couldn't give a shit myself. I would love to have local players if they were good enough. Ask a Sunderland fan today if he'd be happier with British players and a British manager and see what answer you'll get. Yeah, but they're not.

The reason people like Taylor and Shola get picked ahead of other options is the same reason Tevez and Mascherano used to get benched in favour of British footballers at West ham. Pardew likes to go with the players which fit his ethos. To be fair to Shola, everyone knows he's not up to it, but at least he did something today, I know he didn't take any of them but he created a few chances and got a few efforts on target, which is more than can be said for the rest of them. If I was giving marks for today's game I'd give Shola a 2, Krul a 7 and the rest 0 if they're lucky. I think you're right about Pardew though, I think he often picks players for reasons other than that their the best man for the job. I think he buys into the myth that we want a team full of locals more than we want a decent team, there's no other possible reason that Taylor is still at the club, let alone in the team. Similarly the only reason for bringing Dummett on ahead of Haidara is because he's British. Does anyone really actually care where our players come from? I couldn't give a shit myself.

only reason I can think of is he or his agent kicked off behind the scenes saying he'd leave unless he was playing and with colo probably off too and replacements Taylor's? Surely no-one could have seen that as anything other than the best news ever.

The worst thing about that game was that the best team won. We were awful and they were quite good. We're gonna miss Cabaye so much and that's not just because of how good a player he is as an individual, but mainly because of his effect on the rest of our team. With him the rest of them who are decent supporting players but don't have that extra creative spark that can change a game can relax and play within the limits of their abilities. Without him they feel like they have to fill the gap he's left behind and try to play beyond themselves, meaning they end up performing worse than they would have done otherwise. We have no-one who can fill that role, so we're going to have to find a different way of playing or the rest of the season is going to be a nightmare. I know it's seriously early days, but De Jong looks like a bit of a dud, that first big chance he had where he was clean through and inexplicably turned and ran straight into a load of their players was seriously depressing. I guess he's low on confidence given what's happened following his last move, but it doesn't look like coming to us has snapped him out of it like often happens, reckon he'll have a disappointing time for us and we'll end up not signing him in the summer. That's just a gut feeling, hope it's wrong. Mapou must have shagged Pardew's mam or something, it's totally inexplicable that Taylor's in the team ahead of him. It's inexplicable that Taylor's in the team ahead of anyone though, to be honest.

This is exactly the kind of game where Debuchy's going to get sent off. It hardly needs saying, but Taylor is a simple minded clown. He did one good thing in that entire half when he actually stepped in and made a clean tackle, but then proceeded to get over excited and when blundering on up the pitch doing his superman impression, totally deserting his post and leaving us wide open to a counter attack. I wish something would happen to take him out of the team and put him out of our misery. I long for the day he leaves the club, he annoys the shit out of me more than any of our players ever has.

Yeah, they need to fit him with one of those things vans have that goes: "BEEP! BEEP! Feel free to run unimpeded towards goal, this fuckwit is reversing! BEEP! BEEP! Feel free..."

Fuck. This. Shit.

Anyone care to explain how the fuck Sissoko's just been booked?

How is that a foul, let alone a booking?

He's played really well so far, very measured, not trying to do too much, just hope he can keep it going for the second half. Was sat with my mouth wide open for the last few minutes of the first half after he fluffed that sitter.

What's happened? Nothing in the end, just wondered if we were in for more of the same when the ref didn't give that obvious corner at the beginning of the match, but the ref was okay today overall.

Taylor's a fucking liability, he must have a brain the size of a pea. What the fuck was that jumping past the ball then standing with your arms out for no apparent reason instead of defending stuff? I knew he was getting over excited when he went on that bull in china shop blunder up the pitch trying to do his superman act. Jesus he's a moron.

Here we go again.