Tachikoma

Back to hoofball it is.

Perch has been fucking immense

Get the feeling that its not supposed to be asymmetrical like that. Just what does Simpson do that Santon doesn't do better?

Well, it appears it is and he's doing well so far. I'd say that he's done more defending than the fullback on his side.

I hate you.

Whoah

CPR really should be taught at school - even if you don't do the mouth-to-mouth bit (which is arguably unnecessary) its still WAAAAY better than just doing nothing.

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?) Yeah, the team/school that was doing the kicking was called english... something (not sure how I'm supposed to translate it). The kids in white were already doing things I can only wish I could do Oh, they have a proper english name, the English School Foundation (ESF).

Seriously?

We lost 5-2. Have we actually played them at St James this season (edit: hmm, tight 2-1 win?) The first half was sexy stuff, but in the second half we just gave them the ball and they raped us with it.

I dont want possession football, possession football is boring as f*ck. I just want us to pass through midfield instead of completely by passing it, theres a difference between possession football and a direct style based on accurate passing and wing play. What you've described there is more or less the way Aston Villa used to play under Martin O'Neil, I think. It works, but eh, we have two, maybe three CMs very capable of strutting it around. Our wing play (Ben Arfa aside) is terrible most of the time anyway.

What we want isn't really "attacking" football, its possession football which isn't always the same thing. Swansea has conceded (and scored) fewer goals than us, simply because they hold on to the ball so much better than everyone else. I'd also like to think that they've proven that you don't need Barca-level players to play good possession football.

Ben Arfa goal within 15 minutes, nervy defending for the rest, they score in the 90th minute.

Lol. Why so serious

There aren't many keepers who can kick it long and accurate as far as I know. Vorm has the highest pass completion rate simply because he takes the short pass more often than other keepers, and that's obviously down to their style of play. Frankly I'd rather he passed it out to Williamson than to kick it long - it worked pretty well when he did it in the Arsenal game.

I think all we're really looking for is for Pardew to act like a sensible person, like not having shit players as favourites and playing to our own strengths. Its amazing how difficult common sense comes to modern football managers.

Ironically, Tony Pullis is probably one of the most proactive managers out there. You can't say they don't try to impose their way of playing on their opponents, can you I have no issues with Pardew being "reactive", but he could try to react in more ... sensible ways? "We're playing QPR, we should look into attacking player X cos he's shite" etc and not "lets play Ryan Taylor and Perch down the right to contain SWP".

Lies, damned lies and statistics. As for the bit about luck, there have been plenty of instances where we were lucky not to concede as well, so what's wrong with including deflected goals if you want an accurate measurement of our team's defensive performance?

No one looked particularly good in that period to be fair.

I'm sure someone will chime in and say "we're talking about individuals" but eh, lol.

Lol. Can only picture the massive trollface RVP was wearing.

Careful, anymore strengthening of your stance and people will talk. Would it kill you not to take an extreme position for once in your NO life?

If Pardew was managing that lot they'd be fighting one right now <_<

Notsureifserious. edit: woops, final third, fair enough. Cabaye has been played more like a second defensive midfielder than a deep lying playmaker in the last few matches, which has only resulted in him running his socks off to very little effect (3rd most ground covered in the Arsenal match, in the first half).

Happens a lot on these pages. I'll confess I never saw the lad play in France so I'm only going off what he's done for us. Which to be honest was very little, a few decent showings maybe in the league cup and a simple lay off for Cabaye v Wigan? Forgive me for my pulse not quickening. I wouldn't poo poo league cup performances, we've seen how we managed to embarass ourselves against the likes of Brighton and Stevenage. Just going on crossing ability and footballing brain alone he'd be a huge upgrade over Jonas offensively.