Chris_R

If WBA don't want him, maybe we should sign Sessegnon? Good offensive player, just what we need really. (I know, as if we'd sign a player. )

So, everyone still glad we looked so comfortable against Fulham?

This is, sadly, spot on.

We haven't had our token derisory bid refused for someone unattainable yet. They'll declare themselves done after that. I think our problem is that it's becoming increasingly apparent that, barring a couple of very rare exceptions, we only buy French players. It's so obvious now, and we're limiting ourselves so much by it. It would be fine if it was because French players were the best in the world and we were willing to pay good money for them, but its not. It's because we perceive that their clubs will accept less money for them due to their lower TV deals, and we can offer their players less gross salary as when you factor in the French tax laws, net of VAT they actually still get a payrise. We've got no intention of buying quality players for decent money. Ashley is just hunting through the bargain bin and expecting to find something rare and valuable. Sure, when you're first to root round it you have a decent chance, but you can't keep going back to that same bargain bin time and again because of two things. Firstly, the owners of the bin will up their prices for you based on your previous success. And secondly, it's now fucking empty. You've rinsed it of anything of value. We need to pack this shit in and widen our nets.

Not true. We signed some kid for about 10p. Kemen, I think?

There's just not even a vague feeling that we might sign anyone. We've all suspected for weeks that nothing was happening, and now it's just grim resignation. 1 kid and 1 loanee who might soon end up banged up anyway. Disgusting. I'd put money on Pardew justifying our inactivity by saying we spent so much in January. I'd put even more money on the spineless interviewer not pulling him up on this and saying "Didn't you spend so much in January because you failed to spend anything the summer before?". Well they're not getting another penny out of me until this attitude changes or they're all replaced.

Yes, bid an acceptable amount for someone you know doesn't want to come. Genius. That way the board come out of it OK, they showed ambition. It was the player who wouldn't come, we did all we could.... They'd shit their pants if he said he'd sign.

Sadly the only person coming after him will be the local landlord with his extortionate bar bill, the drunken old c***. That's why we can't sign anyone, his expenses bill must be f***ing enormous.

Thank merry fuck for that. When Pardew manages to coach the life out of Ben Arfa as well, we're truly screwed.

If Defoe was 25 and available for £6m, I'd snatch your hands off. However I'm not sure on the merits of signing 30+ year olds who are after one last big payday.

Can we just lock this thread? It's pretty pointless it being open really.

Remy looked dangerous because Pardew hasn't coached it out of him yet. Trust me, he'll be Sissoko'd in a couple of weeks.

Jesus, that's so possible it's frightening.

Maradona was always a little fatty, never did him any harm.

I've always been against Jonas playing right wing, as he simply cannot deliver a ball into the box with his left, nor can he cut in and shoot with his right. Again, like Santon, sporadic games on the right have failed to excite us but you can't play 20 games on the left, 1 on the right as an emergency and complain that it didn't work, then stick him back on the left for the next 20 again. My argument with Jonas under a 4-4-2 has always been right side only, or if he can't do that, replace him. I'll say the same now about Santon.

Nothing to do with world class players, its do with being coached properly its easily done. Your acting like its an alien concept, it really is quite a simple set up but we do need the right forwards and a bloody winger. OK then, I've given a few examples in the opening post to back up my argument. Care to back your views up with some examples of (non-worldclass) teams that have made wingers work on the wrong sides under 4-4-2s? He could play wide right in a 4-3-3 and it would work. As it has done in the past. No way on earth should he play as a right winger in a 4-4-2 though. I mean the lad's got enough talent to play as a bloody fullback and look decent, but it'd be a complete waste of him to stick him as a right winger in a 4-4-2. He can offer us so much more.

I have no coherent reponse to this mess of a post. I can only sum up my thoughts with the following combination of emoticons:

I'm yet to see a wide player look consistently effective when played on their unorthodox side under a 4-4-2, with the exception of genuinely world class players at world class teams where they have enough collective talent to make just about anything work. We're nowhere near that level so cannot look at them and go "Well THEY manage it OK". Get the basics right and we might do OK. Otherwise it's a recipe for disaster.

Indeed. But those teams play 4-3-3 generally. Or some variant of it.

City have some of the best players in the world. When you have countless billions to spend, you can fuck about with the fundamentals and try some whacky formations. Otherwise you should stick to the basics that have been proven to work over the last century.

Nah, can't agree with you there. He'd have only been 9.

Under a 4-4-2, you need your wingers to be on their natural sides. Lefties on the left, right footers on the right. That way they can get to the byeline and get a cross in for the forwards. Under a 4-3-3, you need your wingers to be inverted as they're actually operating as auxillary strikers and neet to cut in to support the main centre forward. I don't doubt that someone can come up with some example from the last 120 years of world football where some player has bucked this trend but really this is fundamental, schoolboy level stuff, yet we seem to consistently fail to field a team set up like this despite all evidence that if you do the above it bloody works. Today Marveaux played on the right of a 4-4-2, and did a massive amount of sod all. Which anyone with half a brain could have told you would happen before the match even kicked off. For all his deficiencies I'd rather have had Obertan out on the right if we were insistent on going 4-4-2. Our best football under a 4-3-3, indeed our only successful implementation of a 4-3-3, was right-footed Ba on the left side, Cisse central and left-footed HBA on the right. Guess what? It worked great. As soon as we started fucking about with that template, it all went to pot. And all our best wingers have been on their orthodox sides* under 4-4-2s, can you imagine Gillespie or Solano on the left? Or Robert on the right? It would be crazy, you'd laugh at the thought. Yet Pardew does this kind of shit all the time and we wonder why our strikers are starved of service and our wingers play like crap. You simply cannot put a decent cross in from the wrong side consistently. The attackers have checked their runs as the wigner checks back onto their strongest foot, the defenders can turn and face away from goal and towards the incomming ball to easier head it clear, the strikers have to look away from goal and over their shoulders to watch the flight of the ball, there's far less space between the goalie and the defence to get the ball into. Everything is against such a cross working on a consistent basis. The same applies to fullbacks, but perhaps to a lesser extent as their duties are less about creating. But it still applies. For all Santon's good play, IMO he'll never be a leftback even if we play him there to the end of his career. A fullback's job when attacking is to overlap his winger and provide extra space and width, and to get crosses in as well. Remember Beresford? Bernard? Beye? Venison? Santon on the left can only ever cut inside and congest play. He simply cannot do what any decent fullback should. I know he's played a few games on the right and looked shaky, but after being drilled in playing on the left for so long it'll take a while to adapt to his correct side, but long term we simply must do it and get a lefty on the left. Dummett or Haidara for example. Not sure on the point of a thread about this as tbh I'm just ranting rather than trying to incite debate. I don't think there is a debate to be had because it's clear as day to anyone with eyes. I'll probably just up this to have a whinge every time we end up with players playing shit on the wrong side. I doubt I'll have to wait long. (*Ginola was an exception as that man was so completely 2 footed I don't think even he knew which was his best foot.)

Aulas'll have crapped himself when they went out the cup and we were linked with Ba. Probably couldn't dial Kinnear's number fast enough.

V Leeds. Eurgh.

Well, that's Shola starting for the next 2 months now. Hard to complain as he's the only one who's scored for us in about 4 months. :anguish: :anguish: