Lotus

Perhaps the thousands are being a bit naïve. Playing to Cisse’s strengths isn’t that simple a matter. The way I see it, at the top level, there’s a real problem with integrating a specialist finisher whose hold up and linking play isn’t that good. You can – a) Play him with more of a target man, but then you have two players who are both looking for the same advanced, central position, albeit for different reasons. b) Try a), but then ask one or the other to move into a secondary, withdrawn or wider role, but then you’re asking one of them to do something they’re not good at. That was the whole Ba / Cisse issue. c) Ask the finisher to play as an all-round striker, which is what we seem to be doing at the moment, but that isn’t working well. d) Don’t ask the finisher to do anything other than play on the shoulders of the CBs, and get the rest of the team to create chances for him. Trouble is, your system lacks the interchanging of positions that can help to open up a defence, and you can look a bit static. It can also feel like you’re playing with 10 men, particularly if you’re up against good opposition. Apart from all that, to make plan d) worthwhile, your finisher has to put away a high percentage of the chances that come his way, and personally I don’t think Cisse’s conversion rate is good enough for that. I think perhaps you're over-thinking it a little. I would say we need people capable of creating space and committing defenders. Ba used to do this for him, and Best did it for Ba pre-Cisse. We have Ben Arfa and Gouffran who can do that. Play Gouffran up ahead of Cisse or have Cisse flanked by both, and he will keep getting the ball around the D where he does what he does best. That sounds like option d), but in practice, the advanced striker has to play some part in the build-up and link with his team-mates, and that's where Cisse's limitations are being exposed. You can't exempt a striker from those tasks and just tell him to wait for chances to come his way. So it's reasonable to consider whether we can get a striker who offers a better package. Who would you suggest who we can afford and might be possibly willing to come?

Italy. Don't know about good career but at least a better one.

Thought last season was going to be an important one for him (obs injury curtailed that). Can't say i've seen much to whet the appetite.

Jonas looks like he should be good at something ffs!

Some things he's good at and some things he's not. If we're going to utilise him then we will have to play to his strengths more. If that means changing the ethos and application of the team then you can see the sense if getting someone in who's more akin to what the manager wants/needs. Hardly rocket science.

Can't say any of our midfielders have looked good enough in all aspects to play as part of a MF duo. Especially as they would largely be playing against a 3 man midfield. Sissoko might do if he can prove he has the fitness, drive an intensity to keep it up over 90 minutes every week.

Yep, if they're desperate I suppose. I don't think they will be though. If they're just a bit unhappy then I doubt we'll let them bail out. Unhappy players tend not to give good performances. Not to say for certain but it's tendency that's been well and numerously times observed.

Ba on the left of a front 3 with Cisse in the middle. Yes, i thought that would work. What with their being a precedent an 'all. Football isn't that simple. Cisse scored at least half his goals in a 4-4-2 as well. Everything he did was amazing when he first came, it was obvious 6 games into the season it wouldn't be the same and it would be a tougher season for him. Just look at Jelavic at Everton. Moyes did't persist with the same thing that worked towards the end of the previous season and it ended with Jelavic coming off the bench for most of the second half of the season. If you actually saw Cisse play, I don't see how you could think everything would be solved and he'd go back to scoring a wonder goal every game if you moved Ba wide and kept him up top. Yeah, if i'd actually seen him play......

Ba on the left of a front 3 with Cisse in the middle. Yes, i thought that would work. What with their being a precedent an 'all.

Would people advocate replacing Marveaux with Ince?

Probably a couple of places higher, but that's not really the point. Also, Chelsea would have done much better as well. That's a good point!!

Glad somebody was seeing what I was seeing... Is anyone saying he was a great finisher a la Shearer?

Was amazing to see. What was more amazing was that neither had been Robson's first choice targets for each position... (Jeffers/Ronaldinho) Thought we were after that Dutch dude not Ronaldinho....

Same.

Don't get the Bony love tbh.

Was amazing to see.

Once you deal with Carroll's signing on fee and the wages you'd be paying him above what Cisse earns, it will use up all the Cisse money. So it would be pretty much a straight swap. Selling Cisse to bring in a guy who can only score about half as much in a team totally suited to him. If we can really get £18M for Cisse, could be ggod business. But blowing that on Carroll. Just stupid. No other word for it.

No, he wouldn't.

Would love it if we could replace him with someone like Capoue.

We should train with the ball more. That would help imho.

I agree but I was too scared to post this myself! His style is safety-first and conservative a lot of the time, but I don't think he's a long ball manager or much like Pulis at all. He actually said he wanted us to be on the front foot and get it forward early. Now, never mind long or not it means, and you can tell by watching, is that he likes to get it to the forwards at the first opportunity and you can tell (just by watching the last 70 odd games or so) that the forwards rarely have midfield support. Hence, when the ball goes forward quickly we don't hang on to it very well. Worked better with Ba, a lot worse without him but we persisted with it anyway and we'll persist with it next season. It can work if you have the players for it, which we don't, but maybe we'll replace 2 or 3 of a forward players for ones who can.

I think if we had someone other than Jonas on the team we'd actually be a decent possession based side. Not the managers ethos though. He likes going forward quickly rather than the probing approach.

I said this before (tongue in cheek) but there really is some merit in it. Pulis is probably better at the kind of strategy that, if we're honest, we know AP favours. He could do with some help.