Parky

The only interesting player we have crocked in the first minute. Great.

Should be a pleasant distraction from the tonking.

That Man C side looks scary.

Word has not reached Holland the Liverpool are shit.

I can't imagine Bafra been keen on being subbed regularly, especially by chewbacca. He's not one to hang around if he ain't happy and that's putting it nicely.

The worrying thing about those quotes are that they are way too emphatic. Just doesn't sound right. There is protecting/defending a player and then there is making comments that sound like blind praise. These comments are the latter.

Righto, let's close down the forum then people. Didn't realised you needed a UEFA licence to express an opinion about your team. Uefa 'B' minimum apparently.

Nail on head, Carroll needs a partner. He's just not mobile enough to play up front alone. It's a concern. We've got some really good players but they don't fit together very well into an obvious system that will get the best out of them. Hughton's got some real thinking to do. I do want to try Ben Arfa in the role Nolan currently occupies but to do that we really need the wide players to support the front man more, in the same way that, for example, Kalou and Malouda do for Chelsea. No reason why they can't do it, Jonas and Routledge are both good players, but it'll take some work. Malouda is a good example of how Bafra wants to play, his breakthrough after a poor first season was when he was given the licesne to play more centrally for Chelsea.

Reading throught the thread I guess the title is misleading. What I meant was do we need two forwards high up the pitch if that makes sense ie Carroll not islolated. Watching him work so hard game after game, there needs to be a remedy, cause I think given the proper support and ammo he will score goals, he has no fear as is often the case with rookie PL strikers. The last thing we need this season is for him to get disheartened chasing lost causes game after game. The other concern regarding the way we set up of coursse is that when we have the ball, the immediate first phase options are limited as our midfield is busy getting up the pitch and re-oraganising for an attack, this again affects movement and people being available for the ball - this is one of the reasons Bafra is coming more and more inside, cause instinvtively he feels there is a massive gap there. You can play 4411 but the support striker needs to be fast and hit postions and space early or the opp get organised and behind the ball. as someone said earlier this is one of the biggest problems with Nolan casue he slows everything down and we lose momentum. Mosty PL teams score on the break (perhaps not Arsenal who move up as a unit). The reason is there is enough panic and out of postion players for the team breaking to take advantage of. We really are crying out for a little Bearsley type. The closest we have is Bafra and I'd give him a free role with special consideration to go beyond Carroll and Barton needs to do that more cause he has goals in him as well.

hee he...

LoveK - 6 in 44 over 3 years at Schalke.

We've been too conservative against two of the weaker sides and lack of goal chances has cost us both games.

I said when you signed him that he wasn't good enough, and got ripped to shreds (although to be fair, i wasn't really clear about whether I meant good enough for the top flight specifically), but what we saw here was a player who seemed totally bereft of confidence, and didn't want to run at people. Admittedly, he didn't get much of a chance here, but when he did, he didn't look anything like up to it. I saw him play for the reserves a fair bit, and he didn't look the deal there, either, mind. He comes across as a shy bloke (thought that whilst watching the press conference when he signed for us), and he's got form in flopping in the top flight elsewhere, so maybe the current issue for him is just that - ie about confidence to have a go, confidence that he can do it. Maybe the fact he looked so poor even in the reserves suggests tha is the case - pressure to perform, to deliver, that affects him. In defence of Routledge he hasn't got much to hit when he does get in a positon to cross - Carroll is marked by 3 players and Nolan is having a sandwich back on the half way line.

Nolan Interceptions 0 Shots 2 (1pen) Passes 28 (10 failed) assists 0 Weight 88kg How does he start games for us?

Routledge played 8 balls into the box and 0 found a man.

Poor descision making.

Shouldn't really be playing 4411/451 at home, especially with Nolan who is really too slow and not a good enough finisher as a backup AM/F, he's missed about 5 golden chances against Blackpool and Stoke now. We have to try and shuffle it around more and make the best of what we've got for now.

Good read. Especially like the player evaluations with 93 side.

Why was Bafra poor exactly? He's not going to score wondergoals every game. [/wink] He is the only player we have who can give good passes into the box and he did that, just that there wa nobody there except Carroll marked by about 500 Jabba's. He's obviously not going to be amazing every game, and I'm not suggesting that. I just thought he was poor. He rarely attempted to run at anyone, and there was 4 or or 5 occassions where Barton was trying to tell him to go past Carroll from flick ons and he just stood there. Obviously, there is a language barrier there to break down, but I just thought he was poor, and practically marked out of the game. Right see what you're getting at. The real criminal imo was Routledge, just look at the failed passes stats. Failed to find a man at an alarmingly high rate. The opp half is half red on Routledges side where he misses passes/crosses.

Yup.

Why was Bafra poor exactly? He's not going to score wondergoals every game. [/wink] He is the only player we have who can give good passes into the box and he did that, just that there wa nobody there except Carroll marked by about 500 Jabba's.

If the goalscoreres can't get the ball cause we've lost our midfield shape and Tiote isn't there to get the ball back it's completely pointless.