Cronky

It felt like a very important win, given all the negativity. A fresh start is what we need.

Yeah, I wonder about his attitude, and how well that's going down with his team-mates. He avoids difficult physical challenges and often looks like he's a bit above it all. He didn't seem to participate much in the goal celebrations. The Wonga episode looked like a bit of a pose, given other aspects of his lifestyle. None of the others, Muslim or not, felt the need for a public demonstration of their supposedly finer feelings. That thing of inviting a group of fans to his house looked like a rather naive publicity stunt proclaiming himself as a great guy, more than anything else. I'm all for footballers devoting part of their spare time to community work, but a line should be drawn at the point of their home lives, and the whole thing won't have impressed his team-mates, however good it looked in the papers. I just wonder if he's getting a bit isolated off the pitch, as well as on it.

Pardew still seems to believe in him, so it looks like we'll have to wait until an injury before he'll give anything else a chance. And because he doesn't get stuck in, he doesn't pick up many injuries.

No point in waiting till they equalise, Al. Make a change now.

Yeah, for some reason, we have trouble switching wings. We often ended up jammed up trying to thread the ball through a wide area that's become too crowded.

Agree with the exception of Cisse who hasn't imposed himself on the game (/for a while). Would rather have Gouffran over him atm. At times, it feels like we're playing with 10 men. We seem to have lost our shape a bit since the goal. Villa look bright on the ball and I think we'll need another one.

No-one can be completely happy with the way things have been run - there have been a number of mistakes, the latest one being Kinnear. But this current outburst feels a bit reactive. I suspect if we'd signed Gomis, most people would have been generally content with the transfer window and we wouldn't be hearing all this. It was made quite clear in January that the glut of signings then was the summer spending brought forward. Remy has been a good addition so lets just see how the current squad gels before manning the barricades.

Greg Dyke is talking a load of rubbish. Our lack of success has been a feature since England became seriously involved in competitive international football in the 1950s. It predates the Premiership by a long way, and is primarily down to the lack of technical ability in English players. At the very top level, we get found out. If anything the gap in technique between ourselves and the rest has narrowed since the Premiership was formed, even though it's still there. And the current England team are better than the vast majority of England teams I've had to watch over the last 40 years.

We're dependent on Remy staying fit and out of jail. Otherwise, we'll find it difficult to score. Gomis would have brightened the picture. It's hard to tell what happened there. He may have been stringing everyone along from the start.

What about the likes of Tom Ince or Andre Ayew? Wouldn't they improve the side? While it would be great to sign a striker, it would be nice to strengthen in other areas of the pitch as well. Ince I'm not convinced about at all. Nobody seems to be taking the plunge, for the price they're asking. I don't know much about Ayew, or why we haven't landed him, but he's already playing for a CL club, and may well need a bit of persuading to drop out of that echelon. The player that was surely within our means and IMO would have been a great asset is Redmond. I can't believe he's ended up at Norwich. I don't know every player in Europe, so I can't debate every possible signing. But other clubs are competing for the best players and at the moment we're not that attractive.

The problem that must be there is that the players who can really improve the side, like Aubemyang, are also being chased by CL clubs. Gomis seems to be the one we've got closest to, but even he seems to be hanging on for a move to Marseilles. The previous regime would overcome a player's reluctance by throwing money at them. This lot won't. It's a long-term strategy and it's not clear yet that it's the wrong one. I don't believe that the club are deliberately planting false rumours about bids, or making bids that they know won't succeed, just to look good. They are strict about going down the Freddie garden path, though.

Yeah, I agree. His passing is erratic, and because he sees a lot of the ball, there are quite a number of mistakes for anyone to pick on. But his appetite for hard work, his strength and his ability to open situations up will make up for that.

He looks like the player who can get our attack going.

I've already got more faith in him than Santon. Particularly in defence.

Most of them are his mates who he had a say in getting over here, easy as pie. As if they'll give a fuck man. It feels to me like he's given a public vote of no confidence in the team. I don't think he'll be facing outright hostility, but it's not exactly a boost to morale.

None of this seems to come out when he's on the pitch. I've never seen him moaning to a team-mate. It's one of the qualities I admire about him. He does tend to hang on to the ball, so it wouldn't surprise me if now and then someone complains that he should have passed to them. Perhaps he doesn't handle criticism well, I don't know.

On the face of it, I'd rather we took the money and re-invested it in a player who wants to be here. Quite how easy it'll be for Cabaye to walk back into the dressing room after all this, is anyone's guess.

I think you're probably right, Chris. The more a player plays down the centre, the more it's an advantage for your weaker foot to be on the outside, because you'll get more shooting chances than crossing. It's logical enough. I'd certainly agree about Santon. It's not just his difficulty in crossing from the left that's a problem. It's when he has to play a 15-25 yard ball on the deck, down the wing further down the pitch. It's inevitable, if he's hitting it with his right, that it's more inclined to drift out.

Sums him up. He has good technique, but I'm just not sure he's big enough.

Agreed.

Two great passes from HBA for the goals. Nice to see him release the ball at the right time. Some daft decisions from Sammy at times, but he does have the ability to get past opponents in all sorts of unpromising situations. We need to persevere with him and give him more experience. Good-Mapou-Elliot were a very nervous axis in defence. Hopefully it's the last time we see Vuckic in that role. It's a crucial position and with him losing it all the time, we couldn't get any momentum. It was a chance for Gouffran to shine, but he didn't take it.

Vuckic looks like a player who needs space in which to operate. In that secondary striker role, he sees a lot of the ball and he's just losing it every time. Elliott looks very nervous. How Morecambe haven't scored from a set piece I don't know. Good has a bit of class about him, but he doesn't look strong enough for this particular test. And I keep telling you Sammy is good.

Our young lads will probably get the shit kicked out of them but it'll be interesting to see how they do. There's plenty of skill there on show.

Aside from any debate about how good Ba was out wide, he made it clear he didn't want to play there, and Pardew made the foolish promise to him he'd be playing 90% of the time down the middle. Bringing him back and asking or expecting him to play wide is only going to lead to trouble.

Pardew got a few things wrong last season but not sorting out Ba/Cisse was probably the biggest mistake. Yep. It should have been sorted in the summer. The toon wasn't big enough for the both of them.