Shak

Was hoping that the players were all taking ecstasy and going out playing, that would have been a laugh.

Brady's Irish Bar, 14 rue de Lisbonne would be a good bet, I watched a game of ours there before. Mind you that was 5 years ago... if it still exists it was a nice spot though.

Even I think this is shit.

Could you imagine if we swapped Ben Arfa for Carroll? Genuinely reckon I'd kill someone.

We already have Cabaye operating from deep though surely? What we've missed all season is somebody who can link the midfield to the attack. It's one of the reasons why we were so shite in a 4-4-2, neither Ba or Cisse are any use in terms of dropping off the front and linking the play, this lad seems like he can do that. We played some of our best stuff all season against Chelsea, and IMO a lot of it was down to having this lad in the position he was in. Dropping him deeper would just leave Cisse isolated and feeding on long balls again. I reckon he'd be well able to play a bit deeper if we needed him to, if Cabaye and Anita were both injured for example I could see us dropping Sissoko in deeper and playing Marveaux in the number ten role. But through two games for us in that spot he's looked absolutely immense, was arguably our best player against Villa and was an absolute colossus against Chelsea. Seems a bit daft to suggest he's not suited to the role.

Or, we could offer him that, bring him up here, show him the city, play FIFA with him. Then let him do his medical and when it comes to sign, we could pass him what he thinks is a contract, but really it's just a dossier that says "Loic Remy is a massive cunt" for numerous pages.

Skirge and his three at the back. Tiote in for Perch, same team otherwise. No-brainer really.

Oh ya get well soon Danny lol

I like how there was 20 posts in a row from people who post in the NFL thread.

Wonder if he translates Pards' poor grammar into French or does he clean it up?

Go home Ian you are drunk.

Tiote will play if he's back. Pardew absolutely loves him. Looking forward to seeing him in there alongside Cabaye and Sissoko.

Nigeria won? Get in!! http://img440.imageshack.us/img440/4192/adebisi.jpg

Anita looks to me like his best role is playing where Cabaye did yesterday. Operating from fairly deep but constantly on the move, looking to get attacks started. I never saw him play for Ajax tbh but if you say he was a DM there then maybe. I think what Pardew wants more is a physical presence though, someone who'll intimidate the opposition and throw in some strong challenges when necessary. From what I've seen of Anita so far he looks more a creator than a destroyer.

Aye, just touched on it in the Perch thread. Tiote being asked to do Perch's role today would be ideal for him. Keep it extremely simple in possession, and sit in front of the back four and destroy our opponents attacks. Trying to be an all-round midfielder doesn't work for him, he's not good enough in possession. But I honestly think he's got all the tools to be truly magnificent as a pure holding midfielder. This would allow Cabaye more freedom to attack and would also allow our fullbacks to bomb forward at every opportunity. He just needs the right coaching and he'll be back to his best.

He's a very ordinary player but I think him playing instead of Anita does make sense in a lot of ways. When Perch plays in CM it's clear that his job is to be the holding midfielder. He'll sit in front of the defence and try and move the ball on as quickly as possible when it comes to him. The major plus of this is that it allows Cabaye to play a more expansive game as he's got a partner in CM who he knows is going to be holding position, protecting the CB's. When Cabaye and Tiote play together they seem to often end up trying to share the holding/creative responsibilities and the end result is that neither of them does anything very effectively. I'd worry it'd be the same if Cabaye and Anita played together, neither are really what I'd classify as holding midfielders. Really hope that Pardew will have the sense to use Tiote in the role we saw Perch in today. Cheick's quite poor when we have the ball but when our opponents have it he's immense, we need to start using him in a more effective way. Tiote/Perch and then two from Cabaye/Sissoko/Anita moving forward IMO. Maybe in home games against lesser opposition you could start the latter three together.

No, you won't. You'll look like an utter bellend. Listen to Stu, tollemache. He knows.

He also missed a hatful of chances. 6.5 isn't exactly a bad rating, other than those missed chances he didn't put a foot wrong. It'll click for him soon, you can tell. Aye, he should have scored a goal or possibly two today. Good to see him getting in the positions though, the goals will flow eventually. Looks a lot better up top on his own and with a team playing on the deck, some nice link up play.

Team showed wonderful character today, for that he deserves credit. I thought a few times before Christmas that he might have lost the dressing room, seems pretty clear at this point that he hasn't. The woeful starts to 2nd halves have to stop, mind. The two fantastic strikes by Lampard and Mata made it seem worse than it was, but we still started poorly after the break yet again. It's worrying how often this seems to happen.

Clearly completely different players. Why bite man? Just bask in the warm glow... of Moussa Sissok-o. The Moussa Sissok-glow, if you will.

£2 million http://i.imgur.com/nyPTG.gif

http://24.media.tumblr.com/773d687b1a6b9ec2c4714450e0ad496b/tumblr_mgo137oUy91s3qqm0o1_250.gif

What a fucking game.

YEEEESSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!