Ronaldo

Cabaye and Hatem in the same midfield 3 would be asking for trouble against most of the league.

To be fair, the rubbish I read about Shola on here is far more embarrassing.

I've said this so much I feel dizzy, but he's wasted off the striker too. Wide in a 4-3-3 is by far his best position.

If we're going to play 4-4-2 (which I'd never advocate) then Hatem has to play on the wing. There's absolutely nowhere else for him in that formation.

Strange comments from Pardew there. If that's genuinely what he feels Obertan gives us why didn't he play against Everton to nullify Baines?

Blaming Ba is one thing, recognising that a poacher can't be expected to play as a target man or a wide forward is quite another. If we were asking Williamson to bring the ball out from the back you'd probably offer him a defence too, and rightly so.

Not being able to bring down long balls or effectively play out wide doesn't make him limited, mate.

He's banned.

We scored more goals and looked far better as a team when Ba wasn't scoring.

I agree, unless it's for peanuts then I'm worried it will be a poor signing for us. He doesn't fit the wide striker mould and Cisse surely is our main main the centre? Unless we are going back to 4-4-2 or want that as another option I guess. Carroll ironically did stick in some good crosses when out wide for us, but like his goal scoring for us I've not really seen much of him back to his old self at all. I'm also really worried he's too injury prone. Shola, Taylor, Carroll. The only three local lads who've come through the academy (since the 90s) and 'made it' in this division. All injury prone. All of them big, all of them slow, all of them assertive to compensate for lack of other qualities. Makes you wonder what we're looking for at the academy. Carroll's the only genuine talent of the 3 of them, to be fair.

Stay positive, lads. We should and will have more than enough for this lot.

In terms of being old enough to appreciate it, absolutely. We were an incredible team on the break back then. To some extent I always unfavourably compare our current sides to that team/style. Perhaps I always will.

Nicely done.

The rest of his post is equally embarrassing tbh. You'll find a million posts on here from folk who don't want him out wide. Both points of view have their merits. Bottom line, as good as 4-3-3 has us looking at times, there's some big gaps in playing staff that need to be filled if we want to employ it permanently other than in a counter-attacking sense.

easy to hit on the break at 4-4-2. at any formation full stop. We're not, though. When we play with two banks of four we're dreadful to watch because it exposes the crapness of whoever's out wide and leaves us going front to back, but we're not as easy to hit on the counter, no way in a million years. we are easy to counter 4-5-1 / 4-3-3 because the manager thinks its really clever to put players like Cisse out wide, its no wonder why we get exposed down the flanks. But when we play HBA there, Pardew also gets criticised by some on here because he has the audacity to expect HBA to follow the opposition's full-back's runs. he really can't win with some. Yep.

Depends really. Much of our best football last season in a 4-3-3 was playing a counter attacking game - sitting deep and waiting for the right opportunity to break. That's ideal for the likes of Coloccini. That had very good results, but we didn't do it too often.

easy to hit on the break at 4-4-2. at any formation full stop. We're not, though. When we play with two banks of four we're dreadful to watch because it exposes the crapness of whoever's out wide and leaves us going front to back, but we're not as easy to hit on the counter, no way in a million years.

We're so easy to hit on the break when we play 4-3-3, in fairness. At times it's beyond embarrassing, and won't be remedied until we buy a CB to get Williamson out of the team and buy at least one midfielder with ability in going box-to-box. And get Tiote back to his best/replaced.

From what I've seen of him he'd be pretty well suited to that role, unlike our 2.

None of which is true, to be fair.

Shexy Football, still haunts me now. Can remember my best mate being too cheap to buy a Gullit wig so bought a mop end and dyed it black, only it came out blue and ran all over his top.

He didn't have to justify anything, we were daft enough to give him a contract which we had to pay up. He was trying to defend the ludicrous image he has of himself as a proper man in an improper time. Utter bullshit - and he proved it by not walking away.

Oh aye. Justifying himself stealing money from the club in contrast to truly honourable bloke like Gullit.

What?