Shak

http://travelony.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/img_4787.jpg Which one are you? Have fun anyway mate, looks good if you're into that sort of thing.

Mid 20's with a wee breeze where I am.

How the christ does he have us 13 points behind Wolves? They're 19th and we're 5th FFS. Wolves fans must hate him.

DEMBII ffs. And I don't think Guthrie and Cabaye is an ideal partnership in the middle tbh. Cabaye ends up playing the more defensive of the roles as Guthrie can't, honestly, and his game is restricted as a result.

I'd wank in a bag and send it to Pardew as a sign of my gratitude if we came 4th. We should all do that, actually.

I remember being really excited about Kluivert and Bellamy. They played together, looked class, and the partnership was never tried again.

Start cheering for Equitorial Guinea.

Tiote and Guthrie would be fine too. Cabaye isn't as big a miss as Tiote is, with how he's played this year Guthrie is a very good replacement for Cabaye. We do look a great deal softer with Tiote out though, we don't have anyone who's even half as much an animal as him in CM.

I'd wank myself silly and miss the first half if that was announced tbh.

We did get one for Ferdinand's really good tackle on Ben Arfa, tbf.

Larsson is way better.

Don't buy into the passive personality thing at all. I'm a very laid back guy but put me in a game of 5 a side and I'm going to get stuck in and to an observer it would probably look like I give a shit. I'm sure plenty of other footballers are pretty laid back off the pitch, how come they all manage to look bothered?

Wonder if Pardew will switch back to 4-4-2, three games in a row now we've started 4-5-1. If he does go 4-5-1 I'd like Krul Simpson Colo Williamson Santon Perch Taylor Guthrie Ben Arfa Jonas Ba Think we'll see 4-4-2 though with the same back four and Taylor Guthrie Perch Jonas Shola Ba

this. baffling what's even more baffling is how he comes up with performances like spurs this year, was quality That's why people dislike him so much, he'd have been capable of playing like he did against Spurs on a regular basis if he had any sense of determination whatsoever. He has got talent, lots of it in fact, but he doesn't have the heart/drive to actually put in the hard work needed to be a player on a consistent basis. Just cruises along on auto pilot, doing the bare minimum necessary to keep his job. Most of us would run through fucking brick walls to be a footballer, it's no wonder that seeing such a waster on a consistent basis pisses people off.

It is womblemaster tbf.

Some part of me thinks it's encouraging to see Pardew changing the system to accomodate Ben Arfa, even though i think that without Ba, Tiote and Cisse we haven't a hope of currently fielding an effective 4-5-1. Another part of me can't come to terms with the idea that he has such a lack of trust in Ben Arfa to play wide in a 4-4-2 that he'd force the rest of the team into an unsuitable formation to try and protect him. It's not like Obertan is a fucking defensive colossus or something. Sounds like he was shite yesterday though, will be benched for Sunday I imagine.

Just came online at last, saw we won 2-0 and was like 'Nice job lads, big result'. Then I went to page 64 and burst out laughing at the comments. Sounds like a woeful performance and the jammiest win ever, beautiful.

I will say that I think it's mad that we've started doing this when Tiote, Cisse and Ba are away, three of the most important players in our squad for making this work.

Aye, this business that the ref is infallible is nonsense. No problem with Cabaye getting a ban, but the system in general is a shambles tbh.

Maybe he does want to go 4-4-2 long term Seems strange that he'd try and use this formation now if so though, he's basically playing two players out of position (Jonas and Best) to try it when a 4-4-2 with the same personnel made much more sense. Also, we have a lot of central midfielders for just two roles.

I'm not sure, it's still a midfield role afterall and I think it'd be a little too deep for Demba for my liking.

Did he really say that? Big Sam-tastic tbh if so, hope I'm being whooshed.

The last two and a half games have seen us playing with some form of 4-3-3/4-5-1 formation. The results have been... mixed, at best. After a very good season so far it would seem a strange move to drastically change our system at this point, especially now when it appears we finally have a worthy strike partner for Ba at the head of a 4-4-2. But long term I do think it might be Pardew's vision for the team, and looking at how the squad is shaping up I have to say it has the potential to be pretty tasty. With everyone fit I think we have 9 players who I'd feel very comfortable starting in it. Krul Santon Colo Taylor Tiote Cabaye Ben Arfa Ba Cisse Tiote and Cabaye would both really benefit from being part of a 3 man midfield. They're a great little engine room but at times the gap between the midfield is much too big, hence a lot of our long ball assaults this year. Tiote's problems tend to arise from trying to do too much when in possession. Put him in a pure "destroyer" role with two others who are expected to do the creative work in there with him and we'd mask his weaknesses and accentuate his strengths. Cabaye's game seems to be more built around being the guy who drops deep to start attacks than it is being the player who picks out the final ball around the opposition penalty area. Even when playing alongside Tiote he seems unwilling to get into advanced positions and hurt teams in the final third. I think he'll benefit from having a another midfielder more advanced than him that he can link up with. The issue obviously is finding someone to fill the most advanced of the three midfield spots. Ideally we'd be looking at a tidy player with an eye for a final ball who'll also get beyond the striker and nick a few goals himself. Looking at our squad, the only player who I could see fulfilling this role is Vuckic. I like Jonas, but he's not a good long term option in the middle of the park IMO. Yes he runs a lot and his energy levels are great, but a lot of his movement isn't particularly intelligent and he's no real threat to score or produce a piece of quality in the final third. Guthrie could potentially do a job in this spot, but long term I'd see him more as a quality backup for Cabaye than a starter in this system. The problem obviously is that we don't know if Vuckic is ready yet, or if he ever will be for that matter. I admit I do have reservations about moving Ba out wide given how lethal he's been this year. However, some of his best play has come playing as the more withdrawn of the two strikers when he can find space between midfield and defense to work in. He's not going to be playing as an orthodox winger in any case, rather he'll try to find the ball in space out wide and cut infield. The same goes for Ben Arfa, who is absolutely made for this formation. Another nice thing about Ba is that in the event that Cisse misses some games then we can move Ba to the striker role and bring in Jonas/Obertan/a new signing to play the wide role rather than having to witness Shola or Best trying to lead the line. Cisse will play on the shoulder of the defense, giving Cabaye an option over the top if teams play a high line against us. Obviously, a potential issue from playing with two wide men like this is that unless you've got two full backs with both the energy and quality to consistently get up and down the field and contribute to the attacking play then often you're going to get caught playing too narrow. Your full backs need to provide an outlet if teams give you nothing in the middle, and having a dedicated holding player like Tiote and a player like Cabaye who sits relatively deep too gives both your full backs plenty of license to get forward without too much worry of leaving you exposed on the break. From what I've seen of Santon, he looks good enough. He absolutely needs to be on the right though. You want your full backs getting to the byline and whipping in crosses, not arsing about trying to get the ball on their stronger side. We need a left back, obviously. The links to Cissokho make a lot of sense, from what I know of him he can get up and down the flank all day. If not him then someone else who's good going forward. Ferguson actually makes some sense from what we already have, but honestly he seems more like good backup than a good starter, at least for a few years until he proves otherwise. In the summer I'd look for us to move on Shola/Best (ideally/realistically), Lovenkrands, Smith and Perch. Main target is a top quality left back. After that we need to find another CM. I'm not sure who this would be honestly, I'd trust Carr to find someone though. Then add another wide man (Hoilett would be great if he's going cheap) and a reserve CB. Possibly a reserve GK too if they think Elliot is no good. First team squad then looks like this: GK: Krul, Elliot/New GK RB: Santon, Simpson, R Taylor LB: New Signing, Ferguson, R Taylor CB: Colo, S Taylor, New Signing, Williamson CM: Tiote, Cabaye, New Signing (First Choice Trio) Guthrie, Vuckic, Gosling, Abeid Wingers: Ben Arfa, Ba, New Signing, Jonas, Obertan, Sammy Strikers: Cisse, Ba, Best/Shola Or maybe we should just stick with the 4-4-2?

Voted 'Happy'. The failure to bring in a CB was disappointing and may end up costing us a few points this season. However we've shelled out a fair amount for a prolific goal scorer who hopefully is going to be banging in goals for us for a number of years. Assuming Cisse lives up to expectations then we've improved the first team considerably. I don't think you can expect a whole lot more from a January window tbh.