Sifu

Llorente off, shame!

It really does. Lovely.

Great goal.

Just switched the Bilbao-Man U game on. So I gather Man U have been crap? (judging from wormy's post).

Yeah, it was one of his better games this season. So it was actually a shame what happened at the end, it does go to show that one lapse of concentration can really be costly and stupid. In terms of his development, you could say that his poor performances at the start of the season were down to his personal problems - but now that such a period is behind him, I was really hoping to see some signs of improvement from last season and to see him properly step it up. Unfortunately, I've hardly seen any signs of him developing. His attacking play is very limited and it does limit the team, it has to be said. Like I've said before though, would still like to have him around.

That's a nice, interesting read. The analysis is decent imo and it does point to one thing that we've known for a while now, we miss Steven Taylor. But, as ever, stats don't count for anything if you don't have the actual performances to back it up. For example, Simpson making the most tackles doesn't really say anything about his actual overall defensive ability (still better than Raylor's though).

A serious doubt according to the Chronicle.

Nice couple of articles on the last two pages or so. Very positive stuff. The lad certainly has a massive role to play in the final 10 games! Now, whether you can attribute Hatem's recent rise/return to the team to Pardew's man management is quite a difficult question to answer imo. I really think that Pardew's handling of the whole affair has been wrong. What Ben Arfa simply needed was an extended run of games and given the same number of opportunities as the others, such as a certain Gabriel Obertan. Pardew's quotes in the press about Ben Arfa's workrate/defensive work has also been the wrong way to go about the whole situation too - Alan was pretty much voicing a bit of his discontent in the public and you really can't be doing that. However, you could probably argue that Ben Arfa needs to be constantly reminded of his responsibilities to the team so maybe that's why Pardew's been saying these things in the press (I'm just guessing here btw, no one really knows what goes on behind the scenes or at training). So, genius man management? I doubt it, the fact that Ben Arfa has been in and out of the starting lineup doesn't really equate to Pardew handling the situation properly (for me anyway). Think we should give credit to Hatem, guess he's really stepped it up in training and showing Pardew that he can be relied on in both an attacking and a defensive sense.

Worst set of tactics I've ever seen a manager employ. I remember that SSN interview very well, "0-0 would be a good result." Urgh.

They own the airport man. Said so on RTG. Ponteland ftw/tbh. FTM.

Ah, so it looks like they sacked him then, good news.

No chance that's working? You'll have to explain why such a common system would not work. Ba has played that role plenty of times. Stick in Taylor at CB there, Marvin Martin at AM and you're just a good LB away. You'd need to find a Dani Alves type LB to fill that role. No chance of us getting one. Cissokho maybe?

Worst thing about it is that it appears to be a British guy coaching a bunch of young Chinese kids. Way to go England. (might be Hong Kong actually?) Yep.

Yep.

Well, Napoli completely bottled that.

Yep, really thought he had got rid of his playacting tendencies. Not so eh?

6 minutes left, howay Napoli!

Fuck off!

Whey!

Oh shut the f*** up, Clive.

Eh? What happened there?

Clive with a loud YES there.

Urgh. Silly from the defender.

Close there.