Dr Venkman

Alright up there, mate? None of this has been personal, at least from me. He's obviously a good lad, and I even follow him on the Twitter. But, I just don't think he's a very good footballer. I'm not going to sugar coat that because he's having a rough time. It's not aimed at anyone in particular, but a lot of people seem to jump at the chance to call someone a cunt or a like. Of course he's not a very good footballer, that's surely not in question, but like I said, he still starts for us, and the 'fans' acting like children towards him isn't going to do us any favours. where are they?

probably based on them not offering him significantly improved terms? judging by the players carr has brought in we should be able to upgrade on simpson, we know it, he knows it.

It's not because they like us as such though. They just see Spurs as a threath for the fourth place. They'll catch a big shock when we finish fourth ahead of both themselves and Spurs. next season

i hope not, too many changes imo. we're away to a premier league team and in with a chance of the quarter finals. i'm loathe to even put shola in the starting line up

Krul Santon Taylor Colo Taylor Obertan Cabaye Abeid Marveaux Ben Arfa Shola

It's when you lose the ball 10 yards outside your own penalty area with most of your team-mates upfield that it's a real problem. He could have lost us the game at that point. I think he'll also have to get used to a different style of refereeing. Challenges which would probably be called a foul on the Continent are often waived on by English refs. He'll have to be a bit more conservative in deciding when to try and beat a man or hang on to the ball. Not a lot, just a bit. Agree. Its fine saying "we just have to accept he'll lose the ball sometimes" when the two times he does it lead to the opposition wasting big chances to win the game. Im still a bit unsure as to his ability to score goals rather than create them, he'll need to do both if we only have one striker & after he came on it didnt seem like we had much in the box at times. the areas he attempts things that may lose possession is what is important, he needs to cut out the very risky stuff in our own half. encouraging your attacking players to take risks in the final third is one of the keys to good management, according to alex ferguson.

Expecting him to have a good game against Wigan btw,it's no coincidence that his stand out performance was at home to Blackburn.

If anything that should be better for Ben Arfa as he was fresh playing against tired players, yet... he wont be fresh til he's match fit and you know that as well as i do So why was he so much better when he came on against Blackburn then? He wasn't? I'm not even sure what the point of the debate is? Yes he was rusty but we'll be much stronger as a squad with him match fit,the only way to do that is give him 90 mins,start him against Wigan.

If anything that should be better for Ben Arfa as he was fresh playing against tired players, yet... he wont be fresh til he's match fit and you know that as well as i do

i believe the initial disagreement was over whether he made an immediate impact, I think he did due to his talent/style of play, others think he didnt and it was merely down to us needing an equaliser. fair enough, you're wrong though

IT'LL ALL COME CRASHING DOWN WHEN THEY PLAY THE TOP 3 TEAMS IN THE LEAGUE no it wont, we'll take what we can like everyone else and pick up where we left off.

Best went missing on Sunday and Ben Arfa made an immediate impact. I would start Ben Arfa behind Ba & give him an hour to see how he fairs. He didn't make an immediate impact at all, in fact his contribution of running at players but losing it due to holding on to it too long was similar to how Obertan played over 90 minutes, only difference was he was slated for his performance. The reason the team picked up was because Spurs had just scored, so we had no other option but to take more chances going forward if we wanted to get anything from the game. he dropped deep, turned on the ball and ran at them through the centre, or he passed it off to someone else and made himself available further up. the results of the passages of play on sunday aren't what i'm talking about, it's the difference to the way of playing. Obertan stands still while an nufc player runs by him with the ball, and that's just one difference. He ran at them through the centre because that's where he was playing Obertan made a fair few runs from our own half too down the right, similar to Ben Arfa he often tried to do too much with it and didn't pass when he should of resulting in us losing possession. the fact that he ran at them through the centre is actually significant because he has the talent to do it

I think it's important to have some players who can swing crosses with the foot that corresponds to the side they're playing on - neither of our left sided players are left footed, although obviously Jonas put a rare tremendous left footed effort in yesterday and if you put Marveaux down the right, it's another player who has to check back and that can slow attacks down and the crosses are rarely as effective. That would only leave Simpson as the one of the four who can put them in naturally, and his crossing is shit. I'm aware Obertan's hardly David Beckham but it's a lot easier for full backs to defend against wingers who effectively can't beat them for pace and put a cross in, no matter how quick they are, because at some point they're going to have to check back. mate i'm fully for putting Jonas on the right and Marveaux on the left, dont think we'll see it this season though

the most frustrating thing about watching him is that I'd be fucking unreal if i had his pace

the possibility of complacency might be another valid reason for freshening the team, give Ben Arfa and Santon a start ffs

Best went missing on Sunday and Ben Arfa made an immediate impact. I would start Ben Arfa behind Ba & give him an hour to see how he fairs. He didn't make an immediate impact at all, in fact his contribution of running at players but losing it due to holding on to it too long was similar to how Obertan played over 90 minutes, only difference was he was slated for his performance. The reason the team picked up was because Spurs had just scored, so we had no other option but to take more chances going forward if we wanted to get anything from the game. he dropped deep, turned on the ball and ran at them through the centre, or he passed it off to someone else and made himself available further up. the results of the passages of play on sunday aren't what i'm talking about, it's the difference to the way of playing. Obertan stands still while an nufc player runs by him with the ball, and that's just one difference.

'Cabaye's good, he'll leave them soon, Colocini's great, he'll leave soon as well'

I think that might be asking a bit too much so do i

he did it in 15 mins on sunday, he just isnt up to match fitness....only one way to sort that out even if it makes Leon Best a bit precious

aye, if we can manage cissokho as well in january we're in for a pretty exciting second half of the season imo

we dont play like this, at all ? Did Jonas not cross for a striker on Sunday......who scored. yeah, that doesnt translate to an intentional and constant method of play though. howay man

HBA can get minutes off the bench. HBA needs to understand that others have played well, the team is working and that unless there's a dip i form or he comes off the bench and plays better he'll continue to get minutes off the bench. Arfa's been okay when off the bench and has done nothing to displace Best except for reputation. We've moved a long way from those days mate. minutes from the bench only takes you so far, Pardew's already said on a number of occasions that he wants the team to play with Ben Arfa off a front man. people need to understand that performances count as much as results when you're in charge of improving a team, and weak links should be upgraded. I'm not talking about never playing Best again, i'm talking about giving Ben Arfa a start against Wigan. Ben Arfa wont be the weak link and the squad will be stronger for having match fit options from the bench.

14m!! in a world where Jordan Henderson is worth 20m Tiote is worth 40m.

Perch, Smith and Ranger excepted of course. We've already shown we can compete for seventh position IMO, January should be about trying to ensure it rather than gambling (again) on doing so without one or more of our best players. precisely, we're well on our way to being self sufficent, and well done to them for it. now reject bids (just like spurs did with modric) and push on to a place where the majority of players want to stay anyway.

we dont play like this, at all