Lotus

How would a stepladder help I use my real ladder to be honest. I'm not on speaking terms with my step-ladder. The arsehole.

He isn't moving very far, but his role would be hugely different. He would be expected to track back and cover all the time, which would completely change and affect his game. Absolute madness to ask Ba to do anything even slightly different to what he is doing now. As i said Ba isnt moving anywhere he's been playing that role all year long, he just joins up with the other striker when we are on the attack to make it a 4-4-2...... For proof look at his average position against Man Utd...... http://i45.servimg.com/u/f45/16/55/20/10/averag10.png Exactly where i put him in my formation. I'm fairly confident that with 13 players we'd beat anybody!

If Obertan starts showing some good form then people will be clamouring for him instead.

Might be worth putting Jonas on the RW to help out with Bale. If we put Ben Arfa on the LW we could also get some genuine crosses in to the box from either side. Think Santon would have a harder time of it but as they're good on either flank it's going to tough anyway!

Hope he improves so he can provide real competition for places.

He did better than previously. Some good play and some wasted. Hope he continues to improve.

There's more pattern to their attack, you can see they have a clearer idea of what to do in attack as a team than we do. Think we've been open to the ball in behind but that's been true for a while now. I do think we've got enough about to us to win this though, our best chance i think will be trying to play through the middle, i reckon we can do them there.

Aye that's exactly what i was thinking after re watching the match We were soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo bad last night Thankfully, in the final 3rd they were a little bit worse!

Is that he's so f**king arrogant to go with it that so pisses me off!

Is this really the most effective formation for the players we have available?

Well, you never know but i think Ba might be more effective being a little more central than that. As a suggestion: Back 5 ......................Cabaye...........Tiote........................ Ben Afa.........................Ba......................Jonas/Vuckic ...................................Cisse................................... A 4-2-3-1. All others points you've made seem logical to me.

That was very evident actually. He so rarely had any options for a good pass or through ball.

Agree. Tbf, the tactics we employed just exposed him today. I'm not sure that's entirely down to Pardew either because it seemed like our midfield stopped pressing hard which gave their midfield to time to pick a pass. I'm sure Pardew didn't tell the players to stand off at the same time as keeping a super high line!

Yeah I'm pig sick of it n'all. But it's not Krul's fault the defenders take the easy option and knock it back to him every single time. I think Krul is told to launch it actually.

I think so too. Don't think he had many options on the bench though tbh. I think i would have been tempted to take Shola off, put Best in the middle and play Obertan on the left (if he can cut inside he might be a little more inclined to take a man on). Think we could have countered then with Obertan and Ben Arfa down the flanks.

If you're not quick you have to have a good body position on the turn and anticipate the ball behind. He doesn't seem to have that habit which is a bit odd tbh!

It's odd how he never moves a little and lines up against a FB or even the shorter CB (Senderos in this case) but stands completely still while he gets beaten repeatedly to the ball by Hangaarland (sp). You see other CF drift off and go up against someone they know they can have a good chance against, like a FB on the far post. Not Shola though, dead centre every time!!!

I know, especially with a slow CB (williamson) but even more critically, when we're not pressurizing the ball sufficiently.

It's not just that he's slow, he stands so square on when a player is blatantly about to spin in behind him. It's a really bad habit!

I think it has been more individual player errors rather then the set up. Pen was dodgy, then Williamson and Simpson have not defended well at all. He should do something about Ameobi though because Shola is not contributing.

When you look at our bench it's not like we have anything to change this

He's holding us back a bit now, no movement (which you expect) but he can't hold it up either.

Sessengon looks a good player to me. Never watched him for 90 minutes but i can understand them wondering what all the fuss is about with Ben Arfa when they have a player doing that well themselves.

That and pace. Could be stronger too.

Tbh, i did think he could have made better decisions a couple of times. Maybe that will come with games.