Cronky

It might be that Benny himself has received advice from his agent. This kind of stunt isn't going to encourage any future manager or club to take a chance on him.

I am going to agree. It would be nice to have a more accomplished version of Tiote but he's the only player of his type we've got. Colback and Anita are better on the ball, but they lack physical presence and athleticism which he brings to the team. It's quite telling to me that his better games have been against the top sides where he can compete because of those qualities, I'm not sure the other two can live at that level. Yeah, I think he'll be difficult to replace. Anita doesn't look strong enough to me, and I'm not sure Colback is best used sitting in front of the back four. But he's not very secure in possession and his passing is poor. He often slows the momentum of an attack down by not releasing the ball early enough or positively enough. If we're going to really improve, we need someone better in there.

People like you deserve every piece of fucking shit that the club peddle. Every minute of turgid Pardew anti-football, every four yard sideways pass that your favourite new ginger signing plonks across our static midfield, every Steven Taylor rick, every time our coaching staff absolutely ruin a class player or alienate a great talent like Ben Arfa because they haven't got the talent, the inclination or the arsehole to properly manage him. You're like Henry Hoover, man. Swallowing the crap sprinkled everywhere with a big, dopey grin on your face. You ought to consider whether, on this particular issue, it's actually you that's swallowing crap.

Players and managers fall out all the time, and some players are more difficult than others. I'm sure that the current crisis, which dates from the end of last season, isn't the first time that Pardew and Ben Arfa have clashed. What seemed to happen last season though was Ben Arfa decided to use the media and his popularity among many supporters to put pressure on Pardew. Ben Arfa is always going to win a PR battle, but once you cross that line there's really no way back. This public rally of his supporters, if it comes off, is just the latest and fiercest shot in that battle. Obviously if you're of the opinion that anything that's bad for Pardew is good for the club then you'll be happy. But I just see this as another example of the kind of behaviour that has ruined his career at every club. When the crunch comes, he drifts into a selfish ego-trip and doesn't think about his team-mates, his manager, his club or frankly anyone else. If you think he really cares about the supporters, think again.

There was talk a few weeks ago that Van Gaal was going to try and convert Zaha into a striker. Not the worst idea in the world, because he is strong and fast, with a good shot. He seems to have failed as a wide player in the Premiership. He could dominate Championship defenders, but at a higher level it just looks like he tries to do too much and loses the ball. He needs to calm down and adapt.

Even with Cabaye in the team, we still weren't particularly fluent in midfield. Cabaye could produce brilliant passes to the strikers, and was good at set pieces and long range shooting. But the midfield still didn't combine well. Obviously Colback won't solve that problem on his own, but it would help if we had another midfield player in there who's more comfortable and secure in possession than Tiote, Anita or Sissoko. There seems to be a bit of a love-fest on Anita at the moment, but he still doesn't convince me.

I wish I could see what you constantly harp on about regarding Colback. To me, he looks absolutely bang average, 6/10, areet but nothing special at all. That's all well and good but when he's going to be keeping a terrific player like Anita on the bench because of our dinosaur manager, I fail to see your optimism regarding the deal. Well okay, I'll try and pinpoint the main issue, for me. For some time now, we have had a very dysfunctional midfield who struggle to create much on the deck. They have either lacked confidence or lacked ability in passing and receiving the ball. We often see passes designed to keep the ball rather than use it. It goes sideways or backwards, often behind the receiver because the passer isn't confident enough to play it into someone's stride. The result is that the opposition find it very easy to put pressure on us, the ball finds it way back to the keeper or the back four, who then have no choice but to hoof it long because the entire team is on the back foot, with no-one in space. What Colback does, better and more consistently than any of our other midfield players, is he's able to lift his head up, if necessary switch direction, and pass the ball forwards into the receiver's stride. Nothing spectacular or particularly eye-catching, but the momentum of the team is then forwards rather than backwards, mobile and not static. That is why Pardew is playing him, and Allardyce and Poyet wanted him. He's a decent tackler too.

As someone who actually thinks Colback is a good player, I just hope all this abuse isn't typical of the local support. I don't want him to be booed every time he makes a mistake, leading to him losing confidence, or getting fed up and leaving.

Barring the injured De Jong and Tiote, that looks like our first choice eleven. I still have this nagging feeling there's something missing in the blend of our midfield. It'd be good if we landed Grenier. And you lot are soooooooooooooo wrong about Colback. Agreed on Grenier, there's a Cabaye shaped hole in the squad at the moment which none of the CMs can fill. About Colback, out of curiosity what are we wrong about? His ability or the likelihood of Pardew starting him? His ability. He does the basics of a CM really well. Covers a lot of ground, confident in possession, can tackle, and looks to play a positive, forward pass quickly when opportunity presents. Nothing spectacular, but very decent. I can only think that that image of him after the derby and his celebration has set a lot of people against him from the beginning. Well, get used to him, because he's a certain starter.

Barring the injured De Jong and Tiote, that looks like our first choice eleven. I still have this nagging feeling there's something missing in the blend of our midfield. It'd be good if we landed Grenier. And you lot are soooooooooooooo wrong about Colback.

Lulu and Sheena Easton

I'd say one last chance. Last season, he had to put up with Kinnear, and I think he seems much more comfortable working with Charnley. I'm not expecting top six, but I do want to see an improvement in the quality of our football.

Krul Janmaat Willo Colo Dummett Sissoko Tiote Colback De Jong Riviere Cabella

I think most of you have got this lad wrong. He's a decent all-rounder and will prove to be a good signing. As someone else has pointed out, it's not as if we're overloaded with talent in CM. Colback is the least of our worries.

Our passing is still worryingly poor. We won due to the outright pace of Aarons (though the second goal was a fluke) and a defensive error. Willo, as has happened in the past, gave us that bit of leadership at the back.

I think his chief asset is the strength that he shows in the penalty box. Get the ball to his feet and he can usually muscle his way into a shooting opportunity. So I'd prefer to see him operating centrally, even though he's not the greatest playing in a target man role. My other hesitation is he's a bit greedy. He'll often try to do something himself when he should be releasing the ball to a man in a better position. He'd definitely be an improvement on our current situation, but really it depends on what our alternatives are.

I seem to remember that when we signed him on loan, Milan were rumoured to be interested as well. Or maybe he was interested in Milan. If the offer is genuine, I'd have thought he's bound to go.

I haven't understood the last two pages. Too old.

Has he started many games for Dortmund, or is he usually a sub?

That crossed my mind too. He's good, but short of top notch.

Even allowing for the fact that he played for a long period at full back, he was really poor today. He's as keen to go as Pardew is to get rid of him.

I don't.

Got to say, the opposition in both games was far better than I was expecting. Both teams passed the ball better than us, but were let down by poor finishing and poor goalkeeping.

I thought we played a bit better than against Sydney, particularly in the first half, when we were playing 3-5-2. Colback looks a great signing. He switched the play well, and actually passed the ball into the receiver's stride rather than behind them. He seems to be our only midfield player who consistently has the confidence to do that. It makes a huge difference. Armstrong looked good when he came on. I'm a bit worried about Riviere. With the formation we were using, he had his back to the goal a lot of the time, and he really struggled.

What did he do that for?