Ronaldo

No, because fortunately even Pardew has more sense than to start him these days.

Aye. Me and every PL manager who tells his players to target him.

Dude, you can't seriously be surprised so many of us want his head. This is a man who gets beat 0-6 at home playing 3 defensive mids then blames the fans.

Pretty short for a CB, Williams. Very good in the air for his height.

See, nobody was doing that, at all. I was using a set piece situation which wasn't defended by those who should be our best bet for doing so, whether it was Benteke or Patrice Evra. The 'aerial prowess' in the squad is nonexistent. Sissoko being the one marking Benteke is the key point, not the fact he scored.

He was doing it 4 weeks ago. Things have changed.

If Sissoko's agents wanted an extra £500K we'd have gone down, imo.

Me too. In comes Anichebe and 4-3-3.

Is that the same George who said Sammy Ameobi was better than Danny Welbeck?

It's fact. That you're a bit of a frustrated fairy? Yep.

We had Ba, Ben Arfa and Cisse fit for virtually all of the first half of the season and managed something like 20 points from 20 games. Relegation form. Players not being available as an excuse is fucking bullshit.

I do, but it just isn't going to happen with our current 2.

Or a striker who'll do everything that Cisse does plus offer what Shearer would do defensively.

so that doesn't make tiote a footballer? which is what you've said bollocks He's a defensive midfielder who can't be trusted to retain or distribute the ball. What's his purpose?

Anita, as much as I'm not his biggest fan, is in another world when it comes to receiving, retaining and distributing the ball at the right time in the right place.

I've said twice now that I'm not blaming Mapou. Watch the goal, watch Mapou's positioning. It's not his fault who he been told to mark, obviously, but at the same time if Sissoko's a better bet (and he might be) than him and Colo to mark the opposition's main threat, we've got a problem, and it'll cost us.

ronaldo backs up flimsy opinion with nothing shocker Flimsy opinion. 90% of the forum and pretty much every PL manager have Tiote's weaknesses sussed. If you wanna carry on being silly or pretending to be silly, fine.

I can't even be bothered.

What's that got to do with the defenders taking responsibility for nullifying set pieces?

I'm not blaming Mapou for the goal. I just think defending set pieces should primarily be the responsibility of the CBs, especially looking at the rest of the team. If Colo and Mapou can't or won't compete in the air, we've got a bit of a blatant weakness to target and some dogshite teams will exploit it even if we're bossing the game on the ground. One of the reasons I wanted a striker like Carroll here, tbh.

He was, yes. With Mapou on the outskirts of anything approaching a challenge.

Having watched the Villa goal again we certainly can't afford our CB partnership to 'defend' like that too often. My only criticism of the pair of them in the past few games but it's a cause for concern.