Andy

Ben Arfa bound to be fucking shit now.

Can we though? We've bought a lot of worse defenders for bigger prices in the past. Just because we've done worse doesn't mean it isn't still bad. Our recent transfers show that there is value in France and Holland, so for barely more we could get Pieters, Mbiwa, Douglas or even Samba. They'll be on our radar, so lets just go for one. Young + Highly Rated + English = potentially high sell on value. I get the impression we'd rather sign Tomkins for around the £4m mark than someone like Pieters, for example.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/40191515@N05/6647379499/#

If he keeps banging in goals and lasts a full season without any major injury troubles I would be surprised if someone didn't want to take a gamble on him.

Same here. Obertan is a much better footballer at the end of the day. Ryan Taylor's biggest contribution was vacating the left back spot so Santon could play there instead. Rubbish. Obertan is a considerably better athlete but is one of most incompetent footballers in our squad.

The most enjoyable thing about this result is reading and listening to the "end of an era" reactions from Man Utd fans in the aftermath. The fact that so many of them seem to think we've confounded their demise is wonderfully satisfying

Last ever photo of them together. Great memories.

Gave the ball away a few times but played some intelligent passes as well. He's a far more competent footballer than Obertan.

Class. Hope his knee doesn't explode from now on.

Fucking fantastic tonight; on the ball and off it. Not very often you see such a technically gifted player cover as much ground as he does.

"Today we had our best team out there and it showed" Interesting comment... Fair play to him tonight though, got everything right.

Again, he's more concerned about dealing with the opposition than causing them problems. It's been said a lot of times that he works with the defence in training far more than the attack, and that mentality is obviously going to be reflected on the pitch. We set ourselves up to combat the opposing team's strengths instead of playing to our own strengths.

Baffling really. The Swansea game especially - awful decision making by Pardew there.

Aye, even Christmas Tree realises that he should be starting... For Hartlepool, granted... But still starting...

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. Interesting post. That Wolves game was the telling one for me. Cruising at 2-0, they're on the ropes - what do we do? Retreat. Lucky (and I mean that) to escape with three points in the end. Glossed over at the time. Not the first time it's happened either. The constant James Perch/Alan Smith substitutions that have occured over the course of 2011 are evidence of it as well.

Imagine Demba Ba with wingers in the vein of Robert and Solano in their pomp on the flanks man. Can only imagine that it must be infuriating for him watching our current pair clown around for 90 minutes.

For the job they do, we might as well just play two competent defensive midfielders on the wings or another pair of full-backs.

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.