Lotus

Don't agree tbh. Think Ba thrives on having another forward throw themself about and he takes whatever opportunities pop up. Cisse's knack is finding a bit space at the right time and being cold as ice when it comes.

Yeah, we don't see enough of that pass into the feet of a player who's in between the opposition midfield and back four. Everything goes via the wings or direct to the strikers. The Ba - Cisse combination, in whatever form, was never going to help matters. However, I can understand that there was pressure on Pardew to give it every chance. What puzzles me is that the strikers that we seemed to be going for in the summer - Carroll and De Jong - wouldn't particularly help either. There appears to be a distinct lack of strategy as to what he wants to do as it happens.

I think our problem is don't have anyone who moves up into or drops deeper into the 'number 10' position when we're attacking. No one who's got the ball in between the CBs the midfield with their head up looking to play one of our forwards in. Whether it's Cabaye moving forward and either receiving the ball there and carrying it there or HBA drifting in or Ba dropping deep and looking to play Cisse in. It's that position that creates panic and indecision in the oppostion and once you've got them guessing then you can try an occasional direct approach or a long diagonal or down the flanks and actually put a cross in but at the moment we're so one dimensional and what's more, we're pretty badf at it. It's like we've opted to rinse and repeat the one attacking tactic we're worst at.

Rivaldo NOT a top player?? Jesus H..... Good in the air, great shot, clever, and his range of passing and vision was sublime.

Hope he's realised by now that using Sammy instead of Marveaux is idiotic and brings about the exact reverse of what a substitution should.

Some what perplexed that we brought Sammy on. Was obvious he would offer nothing other than lose the ball. Very strange decision.

Stoke will reckon we're there for the taking. Hope they're over confident. Would love to see Cisse whack in a couple of wonder shots and bring that sh*te hole of a staduim to silence.

Problem with our long balls is that they are aimless punts to our stationary forwards rather then clever long diagonals that pull their defenders all over the place.

I want him out but the team in my thinking comes way before him, i want us to win 100% always, no matter what players are on the pitch or who the manager is. And despite this sounding strange after my clear fed-upperdness with him, i will support Pardew while the game is on. Fair enough but I get vibes that this is similar to Souness last game at Man City,when people didn't really mind us losing. Wow! I've never been a big fan of Pards, even last year with wins against Man U and Chelsea i said we weren't as good as some people made out and we had more than our fair share of luck, but even so, i could not compare him to Souness. I wanted Souness sacked because there was NO hope with him. I agree completely. I'm just saying I get vibes from people that they are wanting Pardew out at all costs. Yeah, i know you didn't feel that way. Was just saying i'd surprised (and a little horrified) if anyone did.

I would find it very difficult to believe he said that.

I want him out but the team in my thinking comes way before him, i want us to win 100% always, no matter what players are on the pitch or who the manager is. And despite this sounding strange after my clear fed-upperdness with him, i will support Pardew while the game is on. Fair enough but I get vibes that this is similar to Souness last game at Man City,when people didn't really mind us losing. Wow! I've never been a big fan of Pards, even last year with wins against Man U and Chelsea i said we weren't as good as some people made out and we had more than our fair share of luck, but even so, i could not compare him to Souness. I wanted Souness sacked because there was NO hope with him.

You've put words into my mouth there.

Pardew's wages are linked with our wage bill and our debt. It's also possible that his wages are linked to league position, qualifying for Europe, cup wins, etc. Couldn't say. We know that they are linked to the wage bill and the debt though. So, if he thinks he can get by with what we have then that's what will happen. Logical enough. It's his job and he has a set of objectives that can affect what he earns, naturally enough, they will influence his decisions. As they would yours and mine. Have i missed something? I mean I've seen people mention it before, but never thought anything of it other than speculative bollocks. How would anyone 'know' this? (aside from Pardew etc obviously) Its bollocks, good bollocks but bollocks all the same. You don't remember Golfmag do you?

Pardew's wages are linked with our wage bill and our debt. It's also possible that his wages are linked to league position, qualifying for Europe, cup wins, etc. Couldn't say. We know that they are linked to the wage bill and the debt though. So, if he thinks he can get by with what we have then that's what will happen. Logical enough. It's his job and he has a set of objectives that can affect what he earns, naturally enough, they will influence his decisions. As they would yours and mine.

I can't believe that the reason is to keep Ba happy, I've never believed that. I just think Pardew prefers a more rigid system. Bit of both imo, I don't trust the form of cisse to play the 433 with Ba on the left and Cisse upfront. What I do want is the 433 though so that we can play 3 CM's as we are getting killed in midfield time and again. Probably. I don't think Ba is 'ideal' for the wide position, but all things considered it's definitely the best option for the team. Why isn't he being played there then? Pardew doesn't agree? Clearly, he has his reasons.

I can't believe that the reason is to keep Ba happy, I've never believed that. I just think Pardew prefers a more rigid system. Bit of both imo, I don't trust the form of cisse to play the 433 with Ba on the left and Cisse upfront. What I do want is the 433 though so that we can play 3 CM's as we are getting killed in midfield time and again. Probably. I don't think Ba is 'ideal' for the wide position, but all things considered it's definitely the best option for the team. Why isn't he being played there then?

Actually, i can imagine Willo having a decent game against Stoke. They're not exactly full of clever runs and off the ball movement. Unless they play Jones, he'll just knock Willo over.

Rooney, who is a far better player, gets put on the left of a front 3 . Ba can't be told to though or he gets upset. Something wrong here.

Incoming transfers means Pardew gets paid less. I reckon he'll think that Willo played for a lot of last season and can probably do the same this year.

Who is that a quote from? Remember when we were told well in advance Hughton was out? Remember when we were told Pardew had been contacted and his contract drawn up? Remember that it was a couple of weeks before it broke out? The lawyer responsible for it let that little nugget go. All on the board for anyone who wasn't paying attention at the time.

We have to remember this: 'Part of Pardew's remuneration is based on how much the club's operating expenses (wge costs for him) are reduced. I think that this fact will influence much of this summer's decisions - ones that seem logical to us and ones that don't. ' You have to ask yourself if there are any other managers that you'd want, would they be happy with their wages being based on the above? Would YOU be happy if that was a strong factor in their thinking?

What does a 'fitness test' involve? Cones? Shuttle runs? A couple of 50-50's?

We've got players in our squad that teams we've been out played by would kill for. But the way we've got them perfoming you'd think we were from a couple of divisions down!

How many crosses does he provide from wide left? Cisse scored from a Ferguson cross in a previous Euro game. Think that's a confidence thing more than a weak foot thing as when he's played on the right he's struggled to put decent delivery into the box too. He's barely played there. If he can defend on the left he can defend on the right. It's not much of a difference. He might also put in the occasional cross from the right. Italy U-21's play him at RB. I reckon they know a thing or two about defending. Anyone who says (and i'm not including you in this) that he can't play RB is clueless.

Absolute nonsense. Wullie really lets himself down in this thread. We've got no strength in depth and and players missing in every position. If we have no strength in depth and are struggling to play two games a week, why did Pardew play so many first team players yesterday against poor opposition? Then the spastic was whining about losing Ben Arfa and Cisse as a result. Does that make any sense to you? I think he's trying to get a bit of fluency back in the side. Reckon we would have won too if those two had stayed on.