Andy

Good post. He is Mr Cautious. Literally won't take a risk, both in terms of the football we play and the personnel he selects. The Ben Arfa situation is a perfect example of it... I thought for a while it was a personality clash, but now I think he's just scared to play him in case he loses the ball occasionally when he's trying to win the game -- it's not a personality clash but a philosophy clash. Ben Arfa plays to win games, Pardew picks teams to not get beat.

Needs to grow some balls and fuck-off this ultra-cautious approach that we've been taking against top-half teams. We were embarassingly scared of a mediocre Liverpool team tonight and took no risks whatsoever when the game was there for the taking. We have players in midfield and especially attack (if he chooses to pick them) who are capable of controlling games and causing damage, and have at times shown that this season, but instead we play with our backs to the wall and continuously look for an out-ball to a lone striker who is surrounded by opponents with none of our fuckers anywhere near him. Look at Bellamy's goal, man, half of our fucking team were virtually on the goal line - if we clear the ball there it's coming straight back at us anyway. Sky's coverage was shit tonight but Alan Smith was bang on when he said the ball was like a hot-potato when we had it. Kick and rush for about 80 minutes of the match. Really fucking poor stuff and there's no need for it when we have players who are capable of keeping a hold of it.

Not sure if you're being serious, but it's entirely his fault that at least two of the players he persistently puts out there aren't PL class.

So you dont rate him as highly as others do. Even you must realise he cant do much if we dont give him the ball. Good players work hard to get the ball. And good teams make the ball do the work once they've got it... We didn't keep the ball effectively at any point when Ben Arfa was on the pitch.

Sorry like Jon but he was fucking awful today. As a winger he offers absolutely nothing at all and has no idea how to play to his own strengths. Really piss-poor. If you took away his pace I'm not even convinced he would be a Championship standard player. Literally has no "map" of the game whatsoever, which is rare in top-level players.

Fuck off man, the "Ben Arfa iz mint" crew usually do my tits in, but the game was played almost entirely in our half when came on. He's not going to offer much when we don't have the ball. Should've been on at half time when it was perfectly clear that the Vuckic gamble wasn't working. Pardew left the substitution too late again, and Dalglish got one up on him by bringing Gerrard on to give them their push.

Happy with the team as long as he's holding Ben Arfa back for impact later in the game and not just to be a cock. No qualms with seeing Vuckic in there, especially given the role he will be playing.

Shola could have scored it with ease.

Those comments about Ben Arfa currently being a cameo player are very discouraging.

Bet he was fucking delighted that he was gifted the chance to pass it out of play instead of wasting his energy crossing it out of play.

Worrying if he fell down as a result of his knee giving way. Mildly amusing if he just tripped over.

The game passed him by. MotD showed his 2 shots and made it look like he was outstanding whereas i thought he looked lost and put Tiote under massive pressure. Seemed more like Tiote put him under pressure by failing to turn up, giving the ball away continuously and generally having an absolute shitter.

By the sounds of it he carried on his pre-season form tonight.. encouraging. Going to be a very good player, I think.

Fuck. Bad enough having to follow the match on here without it being as fucking topsy-turvy as this.

I felt we'd gone too many posts without the parade being pissed on.

We won't sign a striker.

I actually agree with you in general - at least based on his first half display anyway (in the second half he was no more or less anonymous than any of our other attackers). In the first period he looked the most likely player to create something for our attackers, as, frankly, Jonas was fucking shocking yesterday (something which I think has been overlooked somewhat). I don't think it's so much a case of him being a scapegoat though; I think it's more a case of people being frustrated because there's a more talented footballer on the bench, who (while certainly not his best position) could probably do a far more effective job cutting in from the right than Obertan is currently doing in what is supposedly his natural position.

Aye, in fairness I can't remember too many people being thrilled at his sacking, which as others have pointed out, was not result-related anyway IMO.

He did nothing in the second half that I can remember. You're absolutely right, but that doesn't really change what I said.

Thought it was one of his better performances for us, and I also thought he was better than Jonas today, but neither of those things are saying much.

So, remind me, why did he choose Ameobi?... Exactly. It's not like Shola is the destroyer of worlds when it comes to aerial threat.

...

Seems very peculiar that he's failed a medical given the ones we've signed recently, and I seriously doubt it's a case of "learning from mistakes" as only Marveaux has arguably been a mistake in that regard so far. I'd hazard a guess that we've changed our priorities from a striker to a defender, that money is only realistically available for one or the other, and that the failed medical is an easy way to cancel the transfer without the club pissing too many people off. Might be cynical but hey ho...

Swan Hunters I found the contrast in visible effort there hilarious.