TRon

There is not a chance in hell of it being over-turned.

The problem today wasn't the poor quality of our youngsters, it was the lack of balance in the team. There was no left side due to Enrique and Jonas being out and we lost the right side by playing Barton on the left. Add Smith next to Nolan and you have a disaster waiting to happen. We would have done far better to include some fresh legs and Ferguson down the left. Don't blame the players.....blame Pards!

We know his weaknesses but we have forgotten just how badly we rely on him and Jose to actually play our football. Without the outlet Nolan and co are reduced to lumping it high and long.

If Tiote is out then we are in big trouble. Pardew should have kept him back for next week but it was just one of a number of massive mistakes made today.

What a headless chicken, can't cross, weak shot.... ....oh wait...

We might know but clearly Pardew didn't which is understandable. It's not like he's been picking them consistently for the first team. He wanted to give some players a rest, and understandably so, but unfortunately for him he thought he could rely on Nolan and Smith agains a league 2 side. Again, you could see why he might expect them to cope. However, they are both shockingly poor players, who have proved they aren't even up to League 2 standard in the middle of the pitch. Doesn't he talk to Steve Stone? Doesn't he discuss this option with the rest of the staff? Doesn't he watch training or dvds? He clearly sees things different to the rest of us as he seemed to think it was the youngsters who let us down today despite the fact they weren't even on the pitch.

You don't have to hate Pardew to criticise his team selection, which was fucking abysmal. He's our manager so I want him to do well, but the side he put out today displayed Souness levels of cluelessness.

No chance of this move going through now that Pardew has showcased his shitness on national television. Nice one Pards.

Anyone who thinks this loss wasn't solely down to Pardew's ridiculous line up needs their head checking. We were back to the year 2010 B.C. (Before Cheick).We all knew what happens when you pair Smith and Nolan in central midfield, and it was compounded by the loss of Enrique and Jonas who gave us what little running we had. Not only has Pardew cost us the FA cup run, he's probably cost us the derby game as well by chucking on Tiote.

Sunderland have supposedly entered the race for him but hope to pick him up for a free in the summer according to the journal. Bruce signed him for Birmingham so he must rate him if he's back in for him.

I don't think anyone mentioned dropping Nolan, but in the longer term I'd like to think we'll upgrade to a midfielder who is more mobile or creative.

It'd be a dynamic formation. But tactics and discipline it should work no? Someone posted a solid formation with Tiote, Nolan, Barton, Larson, and HBA playing together which would be a great one. Barton Tiote Nolan Larsson Ben Arfa Carroll It might work. Simply Larsson, Barton, Simpson and Tiote can pass the ball around until one can whip it in from the right with Carroll and Nolan getting in the area, and Ben Arfa lurking outside the area to deal with any clearances. If necessary we can switch the ball to the left and let Hatem and Jose do the damage. I have this sneaking suspicion that Nolan doesn't perform playing off a lone striker as well as he does playing behind two. Do the stats and more importantly the results back this up? Barton Nolan and Tiote would continue to play the same role the currently do within the side. So Nolan would not be playing off Carroll. The two new widemen would be playing off Carroll. or.... barton tiote larsson(?) ziani (?) ben arfa carroll two new average players to suddenly break in to our first eleven? no thanks in place of nolan (less than averag when he doesn't score and our other forward, less than average whoever it is ? Nolan is istrumental in our team. If we are looking to be a team whose only aim is to stay in this division then yes, he is.

I reckon Ashley would sell Smith over Pardew's head if we got an offer - and he'd be right to do it.

That looks impressive.

Michael is right. and btw, Nolan is our 2nd top goal scorer and Barton has the most assists. Seems silly to tamper with those two. Maybe, we should accept that we are building a SQUAD! Both are important players at the moment but in centre midfield both have something missing at a higher level. Nolan isn't quick enough across the pitch to be box to box effectively as he could be, and Barton sits too deep. I think the lack of pace with both is the reason for the drawbacks to otherwise very good abilities.

He's fetched some pretty big fees previously, must be a bit of a player.

Seems a bit too specific to be a daft rumour so I will go with this one for now. Anyone know his position in midfield?

A bit of common sense would see us rest key players where we have decent cover. Routledge and Guthrie in for Barton and Nolan for example. Perch and ranger should also play, these players are hardly kids that they won't be able to handle Stevenage. I'm with Pardew in wanting to take the Cup seriously but there's an easy compromise without weakening the team too much.

We seemed to carry the ball up the pitch fine without Jonas against Everton. Hence my point about players who deliver the ball and do little else in terms of carrying it, which HBA is clearly not. Certainly no problem with Jonas being dropped for him other than it perhaps being a waste of the Frenchman pushed out wide. Yeah I would think HBA will replace Jonason the left in the short term anyway. Left wing or playing off the target man is his best position for me.

You don't need to go off transfer rumours, usually it's easy enough to join the dots. I called this one on the first page of the Bentley thread. Even if it doesn't happen you can quite easily see why it would, in the same way anyone with any sense knows Liverpool aren't going to pay £8million for Routledge no matter which lunatic website reports it.

I still think Ranger will come good, he needs a goal though. I don't like writing players off until they've had a proper run in the team. Just look at how many people wrote off Best.

Bentley's a quality player IMO, but as a player coming into a squad with a great spirit Larsson might be a better fit.

I think we must have got Larsson otherwise I'm sure we could have got Bentley ahead of Birmingham on a loan deal.

It would be worth getting Cisse just to play him against Sunderland.

I thought Jonas has been pretty good the last couple of games tbh. By his standards anyway.