Conjo

Is this real life?

Anita for Jonas and I'd have been contempt. Still think MYM and marveaux should have been in there, but Jonas does more harm than nothing these days.

In the first half, I thought both Gouffran's and Sissoko's quick one touch passing was something we've missed for a long time. Whether he'll get the goals needed still remains to be seen, but both players are going to contribute positively in terms of developing the pass and move football required. Agreed. Gouffran is obviously an overall better player individually and collectively. Still think Obertans highest Level when everything clicks (which is very very rare) is higher than that of Gouffran. Anyway, I can understand why people would disagree.

Nah, point stands.

It was ment as a compliment to him Obertan is quicker, has a better first touch, better passing, better dribbler when he is turned on. Most often though he just doesn´t know how and when to use what - as Gouffran clearly does although Obertan is capable of doing everything Gouffran can better. IMO.

Seems to be a competent player, but other than his hold-up play, work ethic & footballing brain, Obertan beats him in all aspects of the game. Although he hasn´t played a whole match for us yet, it proves for now at least that you can have all the talent in the world, and still not be good enough for the top level.

For a big intimidating presence on the field, he sure was weak in the air? Didn´t manage to time his leaps at all. Once he gets used to the pace he´ll be one of our top top performers though. Was well impressed by what I saw. Keep in mind, Ben Arfa, Cabaye & Marveaux all said it took them some time to adjust to the pace of this league, so I can see why he was knackered and had to be subbed.

tactics probably the same as the first but they never responded from the whistle in the second half. the players never responded to the higher pressure and tempo. Probably the same? Or looking at all of our other performances under Pardew, were they probably different? Given that we almost always concede initiative if we're winning. looking at today we didn't have the ball enough to see if we'd changed tactics. one thing for definite, cabaye and sissoko had nowhere near the movement looking for the ball and working in the second half, or was that pardews tactic, stand still 35yds out and don't even trail back ? I don't know what his exact instructions are, but we can all see the effect of them, can't we? and if the instructions were "just keep it going, more of the same" but we couldn't live with the tempo ?, we were without an effective central midfield for the last 35mins. And the reason for that is.....................?

it sounds so easy "keep possession", do you not think we were actually trying that but failing at it and thats where the pressure came from ? it's like saying "try not to shoot wide" Hard to try and keep possession when it´s 10 men behind the ball in our own half for 40 minutes, so no. The players might have wanted to, but the tactics didn´t allow it to happen. I know it sounds so easy to say "just keep possession" by the way, hence the sentence afterwards

I could have understood if the Villa pressure had been going on for 15-20 minutes, as they really did fight tooth and nail and it did shake us up. I don´t think it is a weak mentality in the team. Problem lies with Padre who set us up to invite the pressure on us, instead of trying to calm things down with possession. Those subs man....I am speechless. I don´t think I´ve been critical to Pardew this season, but tonight he made me doubt how this season will pan out. All he had to do was sub Anita on for Jonas and give him the same role, and instruct the team to retain possession. I know that sounds extremely pompous, and although the second half never would have been as good as the first due to the immense work the Villa players did, we would have won in a more comfortable fashion.

Thank fuck Pardew didn´t manage to fuck the game up for us, although he seemed to try his best to cock it up.

Looks like a flat 4-4-2 to me. Sissoko RM, Guti LM with Cisse & Gouffran up top. Interdasting.

Ffffffffffffffffffffffuuuuuuuuuu clock! Still 11 hours left until kick-off

us ? yup There´s not a page in any transfer thread on here where "yada yada yada crowds of 50k yada yada" being mentioned. Have to be said though, that it´s the only thing this team has had going for it for a long time, so it´s not very surprising.

To be fair: http://img12.imageshack.us/img12/9434/screenshot20130126at122.png

I was. Had to leave before i had the chance to go back and verify who it was :/

Think i spotted him and marveaux or abeid and possibly mwiba in gate 24 heading to Paris. Can anyone confirm? Wondering whether to creep outside of the window or not.

Just youtubed Moussa Sissoko, and the first video is of a goal he scored, beating none other than Haidara..... Great piece of information, right?

So highly unlikely in other words

The one bad NUFC moment I have actually laughed about in recent time. It was so obvious it was going to happen when he eventually got it in space

Nah, let´s stoop down to the mackems level to get things really fired up! fucking Shitdrew...

On a Pardew related note, those subs were just baffling, and took away all creativity in the team. Hope he realised the mistake when he took off Cabaye and heard the crowds reaction.

some people....

Not entirely impossible its going to be Krul Debuchy-Willi-Colo-Santon Marv-Anita-Cabaye-Guti Shola-Cisse Could work...but not encouraging to say the least.