stozo

Aye that's the reason we are getting battered The anti-Obertan dogma is awful on here. He has been very, very poor and was totally at fault for the Assou-Ekotto goal. However, Guthrie and Perch have been at least as bad or worse and will get criticism nowhere near as harsh.

I think it's clear that our starting midfield is too poor for us to have gone 4-4-2 against a team like Spurs. That said people on here would have gone mental had Cisse been dropped for us to play 4-5-1.

What the fuck are Guthrie and Perch doing pllaying that high up the pitch?

3 points behind Chelsea in 4th...

Can't believe we won that. Class finish from Obertan!

The change sounds mad but HBA has been really poor.

How are we winning this?!?

Nervous about tonight. This is a game we should really win but I'm not at all confident in getting goals from either Shola or Best.

Don't think they'll neccessarily be first choice. Article says defender on loan would be for "defensive cover".

Sunday Sun says we'll look at loaning a defender if we can't get Mariappa.

SACK PARDEW GET IN MOU I suppose we're going to need somebody when Pardew goes to manage England...

Very silly there. Going to get banned for that.

I think you've pretty much explained the argument against them starting. 3 games in 8 days which will turn into 5 of 15 if they play against both Blackburn and Villa.

Maybe he thinks Blackburn was a league game?

The fee according to that article is 9m Euros (£7.45m).

http://www.foot01.com/equipe/lyon/cissokho-une-fausse-blessure-et-un-transfert-lundi-a-newcastle,82919 The absence of Aly Cissokho in the group that travels to Montpellier on Saturday surprised many, the defender of the official Olympique Lyonnais with muscle pain. Depending on progress, this package could be justified by the imminent departure of Cissokho. The regional newspaper says it will do in the next 72 hours the trip to Newcastle to undergo a medical examination. If it is positive, while Aly Cissokho could commit on Monday with the Magpies, who coveted for quite some time. No price has been raised so far, but we know that in this case Jean-Michel Aulas wanted to get a sum of around 10 th, even if now we talk now 9ME. A relatively respectable for a defender given the current status of the transfer market.

Again both of you point out Obertan and Jonas do nothing going forward but fail to address the fact that were Ben Arfa playing in there positions he would leave the full back woefully exposed.

It's a shame that he and Sammy are needed as back-up for the first team and I think both could really do with a couple of months on loan in Championship.

He did nothing because he had very little chance to do anything and you cannot comment on his tracking because you do not know what role Ben Arfa was player. He might have been instructed to sit in the gap and not track players... How do you know he hasn't sorted his 'defensive side'? Do you know something more than the rest of us? Do you think it is a coincidence that he is the only player who doesn't track players or press the ball and he is the player (despite him being talented going forward) who doesn't start?

I really don't understand the Ben Arfa love on this forum. Once again he did nothing last night. I actually think he was in some sense worse than Vukcic (Ben Arfa was very slightly better going forward) as his pressing and tracking was very poor. To be honest I'm more annoyed with Ben Arfa than Pardew. He's had a couple of months now to sort the defensive side of his game as he hasn't done it. This teams success this season has been in everybody working together (even Obertan tracks back despite him being crap going forward) and Ben Arfa seems reluctant to pull his weight.

Thought they could only ban retrospectively if ref didn't see it properly. Might apply for Coloccini but ref had a perfect view of Cabaye and let play continue.

Not massively disappointed. It was the second goal that killed us and I just can't understand why Simpson dropped back onto the line. Not buying the Tiote/Cabaye were poor line. They didn't dominate but they hardly had a lot to work with. Jonas, Obertan, Vukcic and Ben Arfa were all poor tonight which didn't help Tiote and Cabaye. My biggest gripe with Tiote is he let Gerrard run past him for the goal.

I can only think that it's Ben Arfa workrate that is keeping him out. He obviously doesn't press as hard as Ba or Best and Pardew obviously doesn't want to lose that by playing him?

Isn't needing a striker and putting all your eggs in one basket by only following one target who, if it doesn't come off, leaves you not even attempting to buy a striker in about the 5th transfer window you've needed one "betting the house"? In real life I don't think things work like this. You can't actively pursue a player as a back-up just in case the deal falls through. There may well be players who we like and have researched but who simply aren't available in this window because the club won't sell or the fee is too high. In this scenario why would we sign player Y in January just because he is available when player X who the club knows is better will be available in the summer? I will say however if it is simply the club haven't done the work (which is a possibility) then they have fucked up and deserve to be criticised.

If the club can get 50,000 people sharing your view, Ashley has got himself a nifty business model. Staying up is enough, and a professional footballer is a professional footballer, no matter what their actual level of quality may be. What is there to gain by buying now? We look on course to finish higher than last season, even if things don't go as well in the second half of the season we will be OK. If our plan is Europe in the next three years then it is better to make steady progress in developing the squad than betting the house on a player to get us there in 6 months. Because it's quite possible that the 7th position we currently find ourselves in could make this our most attractive period in terms of appealing to players for some time if we now slide down the league? Let's be honest unless we have European football to offer there isn't much difference between finishing 8th and 14th. Also the point I'm trying to make is that whoever the new 'panic buy' striker in January was they would have been a massive gamble. High transfer fee, high wages, long contract and not enough reearch done to ensure they are right for the team. For a club that currently has Alan Smith and Xisco on its books and had Albert Luque on its books for many years surely we should have learnt the problem with this strategy. So presumably if we now buy Cissokho you'll condemn Ashley for making a mistake in not waiting until the summer? Or is there doublethink going on here where if he doesn't buy a striker now his only target has "fallen through" it's because to do otherwise would be foolishness, but if he does then that's just fab? Cissokho is clearly a long-term target who have done our research on and who appears to be available at a price that suits us. It is a little pointless as its a hypothetical scenario but say the club was called tomorrow and offered Gameiro, Gervinho or Erdinc at the right price. I honestly believe the club would move for those players as they are targets who the club had done there research on. What I don't think we will do anymore is buy players who we are not certain about and for me that's the right policy.