tmonkey

Anonymous first half, scored a goal that was entirely about poor keeping by a keeper on the verge of retirement. Hardly a performance worthy of being labelled the greatest player ever. Same with the CL final against ManU a few years prior to 2011, scored a header but very quiet otherwise. Messi has also been p*ss poor against Inter and Chelsea in previous seasons, i.e. when up against strong defensive teams, hence why commentators were referencing his lack of goals against English sides prior to the Arsenal game (where he ran riot). And like Arsenal, Madrid are not one of those "strong defensive teams", even under Mourinho (they just end up fouling Messi at every opportunity), though they look to be getting there slowly (i.e. they're looking more like a "team" than a collection of individuals as in previous years). I realise this sounds like I'm picking and choosing who I consider to be "eligible" as a good team, but take Messi out of the equation and I don't think I'm being unreasonable at all. FWIW I can only think of a young Ronaldo (Brazilian) being on a par with Messi, Maradona being a more gifted/complete footballer (less effective though), and possibly Zidane being a better "big game" playmaker, in terms of players from my lifetime, hence why for me I'd want to see Messi have one dominant CL campaign to be the clear "best player".

He has frequently been disappointing in the latter stages, particularly against teams that are strong defensively - similar to his performances for Argentina in the major tournaments to date.

Needs a standout CL or World Cup tournament, from start to finish (with the finish part being more important) to put the nail in the coffin in terms of being the greatest ever. Still hasn't had that imo, irrespective of games where he scores 3/4/5 or the total number of goals scored.

He's a mediocre "footballer" outside the box, with inconsistency at the basics being his biggest drawbacks. If he's not switched on and focused, his game turns to s*** easily because he can be so sloppy. His touch has always been unnecessarily heavy when controlling simple passes on the deck throughout his time here, he's frequently having to run an extra yard or two to maintain possession when he should just be trapping the ball neatly. The guy drops deep and works hard, which is commendable, but he does nothing else in this capacity - it's not like he can pick a pass, play slick one-twos, or run past players, so I don't get what others are seeing when they call him a good all-rounder. But he's a different animal inside the box, which probably explains why (imo) his mediocre "footballing" contributions are overlooked. I'd still want us to sell him, despite acknowledging that he's a quality striker in the box who's goals are vital to us right now - the theory behind this is that one would hope we could bring in a genuinely good "footballer" to improve the team's balance and ability to maintain possession/work the flanks/etc, i.e to effectively help the likes of Ben Arfa, Cabaye and Cisse to get into the game more. Bit like upgrading Nolan (goals) with Cabaye (technique). And as far as we know Ba isn't going to be happy sitting on the bench or coming in/out of the side, not at this club anyway. And the reasoning behind this is that based on what we've seen, I think Ba is only suited to long-ball tactics in a flat 4-4-2 system, albeit with a targetman playing in front of him (as opposed to playing as the targetman himself, which he's clearly unsuitable for). Not every striker is compatible with every style of play, so I don't see why this suggestions needs to be such a taboo. The only time we've played decent football on the deck under Pardew was during that infamous period of switching to a 4-3-3 system, and everything seemed to "click" for everyone else other than Ba, who looked like a fish out of water imo - this was both down the left wing and in the middle, as he and Cisse switched positions during games for significant periods, so it's not just about Ba being wide left. He just wasn't making the types of runs or showing the sort of movement that Cisse was which was needed in that system given the different style of play, irrespective of whether he should have scored a goal or two. In short, he's very much a perfect forward for a mid table "kick and rush" team, i.e. the second striker who's running from deep onto either knockdowns from the target man, long balls over the top, or feeding off scraps after the ball gets pumped into the box. He then drops back to help out/chase the opposition down whilst they have possession of the ball, which again is what would be needed from a "kick and rush" team. And that would be the type of football Pardew has set us up to play - let the opposition have possession, we soak the pressure up, get the ball quickly/early into the box, and walk away with a point or three. Just that it's not working very well for obvious reasons.

Needs a better partner.

Minor point, but Gaston Ramirez for Southampton today was playing in the role that we really should be playing Hatem in, bit like a more advanced Cabaye in our version of last season's 4-3-3 (2 DM's, 3 AM's with 1 striker). Of course it helps that the style of play and the system around him suited a creative "number 10".

We did switch to 4-3-3 after a slump of form in January. Although iirc that was mainly due to missing Tiote and Pardew wanting to have an extra body in the middle, so maybe that wasn't quite a forward-thinking change.

I genuinely don't believe that we couldn't attract a significantly better manager than Pardew if we wanted to. No, we won't get a big name, but there must be promising coaches at smaller clubs, be it here or abroad, where the manager clearly has the ability to "coach" a team into playing a decent brand of football. People wanting Martin Jol for example, he was the manager of a tiny Dutch club when Spurs appointed him - how did they identify and recruit him, or more importantly, why, given that he had no Premiership experience? They must have done their homework and identified him as someone competent and able to work in their structure. Same thing with Arsenal and Arsene Wenger, who was in Japan (f*** knows why) when Arsenal got him. Roberto Martinez was managing Swansea in the lower leagues before Wigan snapped him up. Etc etc. Even Pardew himself, who some don't want to see sacked, was an unemployed ex-League One manager when he casino'd his way into this job. So there's undoubtedly talent out there that none of us on this board will be familar with because they're not household names, and given the way the sport does seem to be improving in terms of coaching quality (West Brom, Wigan, Swansea, Southampton - they are definitely "good football" sides and far superior to the equivalent "small" teams we had in the Premiership 5 or 10 years ago), coaching badge requirements, etc etc, I'm sure there are naturally talented managers out there who don't have Premiership or CL experience (be it domestic or foreign). The only issue with replacing Pardew should we want to, therefore, is whether the board are progressive enough to identify/find these talented/upcoming managers or know who they are. And I'm sure once we did find these guys we'd have little problem attracting them if we did identify them given the general stature of the club and the current crop of internationals. So it's not a manager of "can't" but "won't", which is naturally a different matter. Of course there's still the nightmare scenario of another Kinnear, but to be fair to Ashley/Llambias, given that post-relegation our transfer policy has been pretty much spot on in terms of identifying the type of players we should be going after (ambitious/hungry/etc) and the fact that we seem to be actually scouting players competently for once, I wouldn't say it's impossible that they may have improved in this department. Maybe they should just ask Carr if he knows of any talented/promising managers out there with a reputation for attractive football?

It's getting to the stage where Obertan on the wing is starting to look like a better option...

Williamson

Simpson a good defender? What a joke. Absolutely raped down our right hand side starting with Simpson getting easily bamboozled by Llama.

Run faster. Win headers. Show desire.

Last season was a one-off imo, not just because we didn't play all that well for the majority of that season, but also because I don't ever remember a Premiership season like that where opposition teams were so consistent at wasting their chances. The only difference between many of the games where we picked up one or three points and those handful of games where we were thrashed (Spurs, Fulham, etc) is that in those heavy defeats the opposition were a bit more clinical with their opportunities - in any other season we'd have comfortably dropped more points. In practical terms, last year we had bucketloads of sliced finishing or poor balance from opposition strikers, awful final balls from opposition players in promising positions, Krul making strings of top quality saves, clearances off the line from Simpson and Saylor, etc etc, all of which led to us supposedly having one of the best defences in the league up until Christmas iirc (when in reality opposition teams were getting plenty of chances). Think about those games where we had Raylor in defence getting completely and utterly left for dead, yet nothing rarely came of those instances - it was defintely an abnormal season imo. The "norm" seems to have been restored a bit this season in that we are conceding more goals when we "should" be conceding them. I know that sounds slightly strange, but if we're not defending well and the opposition are being gifted chances, then at Premiership level it should only be expected that we'd be punished for it more often than not - and that seems to be what is happening this season so far. I realise some people don't like to think this way and have this viewpoint that "if you finished 5th then you deserved to", but imo that's similar to extrapolating performances from results - it doesn't paint the most comprehensive of pictures.

What a ball by Vidal.

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/4649279/tulisa-sex-tape-danny-simpson-stephanie-ward.html Interview with the ex there. Does make Simpson sound a bit of a dick, but then there's always two sides to every story.... though the only side that interests me in this charver love story is that Simpson must've had a pretty serious mid-contract crisis to opt for such a downgrade (in the looks department). Maybe he "doesn't care" because he's already set on leaving the club/city?

The defending

Oh, and now we'll attack a bit. Because naturally we couldn't do that before falling behind. Wonder why.

Aguero needs to be a bit less selfish.

Made some vital interceptions/blocks. But that ridiculous pass over Cisse's head was...ridiculous.

This week and last week = why Woodgate > Coloccini. Still a class act for us though and he's had a rush of blood like this before (elbowing Elmander iirc), so fortunately it's a rarity.

Frustration. Colo had struggled against Suarez all game.

This 4-3-3. Just need Ba back on the left and Cisse central.

Just hope we make a good start in a game for once.

Jason Bourne in the window.

I'm confident if he does leave that Cisse will step up to the plate.