AyeDubbleYoo

If the club are thinking long-term it seems strange to sack the existing manager because of short-term bad results.

He's just mentioning Taylor to big him up a bit. I hope.

Ferguson might be the answer TBH... switch Jonas and Santon over to the right and play Ferguson and HBA down the left. Radical but possible, maybe.

I disagree, I think the problem is that he thinks too much. He is indecisive at times though, that's true.

The problem with Ryan Taylor is that when he's at fullback the entire gameplan basically has to be about stopping him being gang-raped by the opposition wide players. To say he should be ahead of Santon is insanity.

I think we also need to separate "treatment of Ben Afa" from "not always picking Ben Arfa". What I mean is that we don't know what's going on behind the scenes, and we don't have any signs of unrest. For all we know Pardew is managing HBA well and is telling him that he will play a big part when we have a bit more solidity behind him. I would love to see more of HBA, but for all I know he's being treated fine.

If we hadn't played the two Dembas we would probably have got beat anyway, then Pardew would have been slated for being conservative. At the end of the day we didn't have the personnel to cope with Spurs playing like that, and we got a beasting. Not a big deal, just get Tiote and Cabaye back in the team ASAP.

It would be a very weird manager who was specifically in favour of always leaving out his most talented players.

The finals of WC 2010, Euro 2008, WC 2006, and Euro 2004 were all thrilling matches. CAF should be ASHAMED of this match and its lacklustre nature. Zing!

I basically agree with HTT too, I'm Ben Arfa's biggest fan and I would love to see him start every game. All I'm saying really is that Pardew isn't a fan, he's a manager and a professional. He has generated results without HBA and I can (sort of) see why he wants to stick to it. On an individual level obviously Ben Arfa is in another galaxy to most of our other players. But it might not be about individuals, it might be about a team that has proven its ability to get into the top 6. (FWIW I think the dropping against QPR was very odd as well)

There's no evidence of that really, in fact pretty much the opposite.

It's right to say other managers like KK and Robson would probably have built the team around HBA, but I think it's also important to realise how the situation with Pardew and Ben Arfa came about. HBA was injured for a long time, and during that time Pardew managed to hit on a system that elevated us into the upper echelons of the table. It even returned some pretty good results against top teams. So I can see why Pardew has decided to side with the status quo - and in this case that means HBA doesn't have a clear role to play. The problem with our unexpected success this season is the fear of losing it. Like people have said, I just hope HBA is being managed well behind the scenes and will play a big role eventually.

Good news, I hope Pardew is managing him better behind the scenes than it sometime seems from random quotes.

That's amazing! Wonder if they actually converted to Islam.

Sometimes you know you're not going to win though, maybe it was just about making sure we didn't get destroyed. It was a shit game either way like obviously.

Was he at fault for the first goal? Didn't see the highlights, but live he looked like he tracked another player into the box and that was why he wasn't marking Assou-Ekotto. Surely the opposition fullback is the responsibility of the winger?

Appalling defending that, unbelievable.

Release the Dembas.

Judging by TalkSport you would think that this a parade of Harry Redknapp rather than a football match.

Don't forget to factor in press coverage (positive or negative).

Putting Shola in charge of heavy machinery!

Just get one plain sweatband in each colour. Sorted.

Bobby To be fair those stats are pretty close together, Robson is only 6% better than Dalglish.

Class interview that, love the lad already.

Sugar's banter is high quality, like those video phones that everyone has.