Ronaldo

Berbatov's got the worth ethic of Bellamy compared to Viduka, like.

Has that ever worked for a side? You end up with teams launching it long and trying to be bullies. It worked back in the day with Bruce and Pallister.

LOL.

Best man for the job.

Agree with that completely. Given the choice though I'd take two of the latter over two of the former any day of the week in this league.

Yes. A fair few of us said it at the time too. Stupid, stupid thing to do replacing him with Obertan from a financial and playing perspective.

Kilgallon did alright against Ba yesterday.

Haidara may help, but I've really not seen enough of the lad to say. Thought he looks like he has a bit of power about him. Thing is, I think with everyone available 5 of the front 6 picks itself, leaving a choice between Tiote, Marveaux and Anita for that last midfield spot. I can't think of too many games in which Anita would get the nod. He looks handy at FB to be fair to him.

He was running fine 2 minutes later.

Me too, I really like his style of play and I hate the cliche about the physical nature of the English game, but I fear there is a bit of truth to it. He can't complete against quite a lot of CMs in the league. Support from Cabaye and Sissoko might mitigate that a bit, but it's still a concern. Cabaye, as agressive as he is only compounds that problem at times. I honestly don't think (with everyone fit) there's any additional room for players lacking physical presence. A hell of a lot of our 'good' players who we all want on the field often get bullied off the ball and don't compete for set pieces.

This is the Daily Mail version of events, before anyone gets excited.

I think he's a good player who's made a good impact overall so far. Just at times a bit of a square peg in a round hole in that system.

I didn't see many long balls yesterday, like.

LOL.

Well Simpson was tracking him initially, but gave up halfway in his run Then started complaining, presumably about himself.

Probably about 10 mins, mate.

2 more and he'll become our top scorer this season.

It's 12 for us this season I think. Agree with the rest, though.

That is brilliant.

To me he's looked very confident since his winner against Southampton. I think confidence is massively important with him and we've seen the benefit recently.

It's laughable that he was posting in the match thread while the people who would like to see Pardew fail were actually at the match supporting the team and by doing so, supporting the manager. It's laughable that I was posting in the match thread? Sounds like you don't get out much any more.

From his very first game at Villa Park he looked reluctant to take players on. He set up the first v Southampton taking on a player I didn't say he'd never done it. For such a quick lad and playing out wide you seldom see him running at full backs.

This apart form Tiote who should be nowhere near the pitch for this tbh. Fair point. I wouldn't really want Anita out there either, tbh. Yeah same. Bigi perhaps? Such a shame Hatem's probably not gonna be back. Ideally I'd play a midfield of Marv, Cabaye and Sissoko for this.