Chris_R

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:

I approve of that. And the lady in the post above yours. I approve wholeheartedly of her. No idea who she is though.

Because he's been stuck out on the right wing of a 4-4-2, and he's left footed. Fucking ridiculous. Invert the wingers in a 4-3-3, or orthodox sides in a 4-4-2. It's fucking schoolboy stuff.

HBA quadruple leg break coming right up.

Olivier Bernard. Ya Know.

If a defeat were to get Pardew out, I'd take that. Sadly we could lose this 10-0 and the cunt would still not even contemplate walking.

Dead, iirc. To Pardew at least.

Well that was utterly shit. We've had a shot or 2 so I'd say we've finally found our level, except this League 2 side have still outplayed us by miles.

Yes but Alan Smith counts being on the pitch as "almost scoring".

Why do the players we sign from France join us? I would welcome back Ba without any hesitation Did you read what I wrote? I was talking about Demba Ba. Not the entire French population. I too would welcome Demba back, but he won't come. Because he only moves clubs for more money, and he'll 100% not get that here moving from Chelsea. That move will never ever happen. And the reason we sign Frenchies so easily isn't exactly rocket science. Firstly the PL is a better league to play in, and secondly the French tax rates are astronomical on high-earners and are rumoured to be getting even more severe soon. Anyone who moves to us from France is going to be getting a payrise.

I'd choose Everton and I fucking support us. Next.

Look, Ba's a tremendous player. And he's shown in the past that he's happy to move clubs. But ask yourself this: Why does he move clubs? It's always for more money. That's all Demba cares about. Which is fine, footballers have short careers. But does anyone seriously think we'll offer to increase his Chelsea wages? Because I assure you that's the one and only reason he'll ever move before the end of his contract. Forget him. He may leave Chelsea, but there's precisely 0% chance of him coming here.

I never thought I'd say this, but can we have Llambias back please?

Firstly, I make it 20 players: 10/11: Ben Arfa 11/12: Abeid, Marveaux, Cabaye, Ba, Obertan, Santon, Elliott, Cisse 12/13: Amalfitano, Bigirimana, Anita, Good, Debuchy, Yanga-Mbiwa, Haidara, Sissoko, Mbabu, Kemen and Gouffran But we'lll not quibble over that. In that time we've seen 22 leave, for a combined fee of (you guessed it) £60m. So we're 2 men down for a net outlay of fuck all. If that qualifies as giving him all the support the club can reasonably give, then it's bloody unreasonable. So no clause to seal a permanent deal then..... Wonderful. Everyone comes out of it well apart from us.

Arsenal are doing to is what we do to others. Hard to complain. Still think we should tell them to sod off but our desire to sell has been so clear since July, sometimes seeming to border on desperation.

Newcastle United mean a hell of a lot to me. Just it's hard to get worked up about the same shit every single week. Anyway my Saturday nights aren't exactly rock and roll, it's not like I'm posting here in deference to banging Natalie Portman.

I watched todays game with complete detachment. Barely got excited when we attacked (Yeah, I know...) and barely got concerned when we were under pressure. Just felt like I was watching Grimsby V Burnley or something.

Gouffran isn't brilliant, but he's decent and works hard. Miles better than shola who is neither decent or hard working. Cisse has bags of talent but is also quite lazy. None of our forward are brilliant but I don't mind Gouffran.

How is that even possible. Pretty fucking easy when every shot is from 5 miles out. We had 16 shots, but none of them were in decent positions.

Bewwwwwww

Have we had a shot on target yet? Can't remember one. Disgusting.

OK cisse has played badly for a while, but shola has been dreadful for over a decade. Shocking sub.