Shak

THIS IS GIGGS!!!!!!!!! http://i.imgur.com/agSiI.jpg

Probably a good thing they didn't, in fairness. Remember Tomasson and Shearer looking quality together before Shearer got injured.

They have McClean and Sess though, not sure where Neymar would fit in?

Kojak

It's a big part of the reason we struggle to link midfield to attack in a 4-4-2. Cabaye plays a little too deep and Jonas doesn't really offer much offensively, so often it ends in a hopeful ball towards one of the strikers.

Jonas is a valuable member of the squad who'll play a lot of football this year, but he shouldn't be an automatic starter the way the likes of Colo and Cabaye are IMO. Yeah he always works his socks off and is a great outlet when we're under pressure, but the sad fact is that he offers almost no end product whatsoever. In games where we're controlling possession and pinning teams back he offers very little, and I think from what we've seen of Marveaux in preseason there's potentially a better option there in certain games. To start the season of course we'll see Jonas get the nod to start, and rightfully so. Could see us using Marveaux as an impact sub in the last half hour or so if we're chasing games, and if he makes enough of his chances then he could see some starts. If he doesn't get injured again, of course.

You must contact our God, the entity known as Dave. *quietly sings the word 'Dave' repeatedly to himself to the tune of the Imperial March*

Skirby pls

I think it's more likely Marv will be fighting with Ben Arfa for a start rather than Jonas, still not convinced Pardew has fully committed with Ben Arfa yet. Can see him replaced most games and missing a fair few as well. I think that too. Jonas will be a starter and Marveaux and Ben Arfa will fight for the other spot. Should depend on opposition IMO. Home games against the weaker sides there's no good reason to start Jonas, Marveaux looks like he'd give you a lot more in the final third. Tougher fixtures you start Jonas though. Ben Arfa should always be one of the first names on the team sheet, regardless of opposition.

As talented as Marveaux is we can't count on him at the moment due to his injury problems. Ba had a handful of poor games but generally played well out wide and was very unlucky in front of goal a number of times. Agree with that, the problem though seems to be that Ba doesn't want to play out wide, Pardew has pretty much said as much. That's a concern for me like. Last night Ba played almost in the hole at times, wonder if that's the plan? Cabaye Tiote Ben Arfa. Ba. Marveaux Cisse With Jonas able to play out left or in CM.

Assumed Bentley just got carried away with the London lifestyle?

Wasn't entirely aimed at you Mole, there have been plenty of similar posts from people who seem to think Carroll isn't even in the same league as Ba, which is nonsense IMO. Carroll at his best was a player that teams (not just Liverpool btw, Spurs also bid over 20m) were willing to pay tremendous amounts of money for. He's decent technically and is one of the most physically dominant centre forwards I've ever seen play football. Having an outlet like that up top is nothing to be sneezed at. Chelsea won a lot of trophies with a gameplan that involved plenty of long balls towards Drogba, when you have a player that wins it that often why wouldn't you? If we had all three of them at the club my money would be on Carroll and Cisse emerging as the preferred partnership tbh.

If he was someone would have bought him for £7m. Who needs a striker in this league apart from Spurs that are better than us? it's pretty obvious why no one has come in for him, because club's above us don't need a striker. But Carroll is not even close to Ba, even Carroll at his best isn't close. Massive pile of rubbish. In terms of technique and ball playing ability, Ba is a better player than Carroll yes. But by the same token Carroll can do things that Ba can't do, he's vastly more powerful and better in the air. I can see why people don't want Carroll back, but this need some people seem to have to act like he's just a big powerful donkey who can't play football at all is ridiculous.

I'd hope not. We need to be signing another striker, even if Ba stays. We only have three now and two of them could be off for a month in January, if Ba goes we need to bring in two.

Yeehawh!!!

We're rightly bummed if anything happens to Tim like.

After the posts that came before it.

That was class from Raylor.

Obertan coming on.

Pass from Cabaye.

What a sentence.

They should play that song Je t'aime when Cabaye is being brought on btw.

Taylor man, guy can hit em.

Cabaye coming on.

Is Viana on the bench?