Lotus

He's got good vision actually and decent technique. I can see why out of all the players we've got he gets given the 10 role. What he is bad at imo, is playing with his back to goal and he has to that quite a bit here. It was noticeable that H'field marked him heavily. I think more of his team mates should have shown for the ball more in those situations. We'd have had overlaps, etc elsewhere as a result.

Bizarre 2nd yellow because from the direction of the ball you'd have to think Shelvey got a bit of it. To see that and then make the decision to send a player off, seems like very poor refereeing.

I kind of think you should jog on and support someone else tbh.

He doesn't even look quick which is a problem. If you haven't got good feet or any other obvious skill you'd want him to at least have pace :-/

I think the Mutawa lost their ability to make arrests a while ago. Before this dude came to power. No idea if he was behind that from his previous role though.

But aye, i did forget about him!

I assume Rafa didn't trust him to start and be any better than Diame.

Well, yesterday says different. He started and was fine for the 1st half. No it doesn't So you're saying it's ok for a player to start even if he can only last 45 minutes? It's a waste of a sub. He'd be better coming on with 20 minutes to go so he'd be up against tired opponents and less risk of him tiring himself. Last night's options were Colback or an apparently injured Hayden. Judging by Diame's performance i could see no problem starting him. He should have come off sooner imo.

Well, yesterday says different. He started and was fine for the 1st half.

He was pretty decent 1st half. Then his legs went. No need for the vitriol imo. He should have been subbed when he tired. He wasn't. Not his fault. His age has caught up with him and he can only go for so long.

Very much agree. We do play some decent football at times. It's really a marked improvement how we move the ball up the pitch. It's done with intelligence and purpose. Our efforts are very much hurt by not really presenting a danger in the box. npw..

Shows how bad Pardew's perception of the situation was. He basically read it as the exact opposite.

Really? Didn't know that. Wonder if it's genuine interest or the usual media b0ll0x.

How about Ante Coric? Young Croatian 10. Looks a good prospect.

We'll be better organised, of that i'm sure. Worry about our goal scoring ability as ever. Would be nice if a forward had a good game!

Only watched the highlights but massively encouraged by how we used the ball to work towards shooting opportunities. Such a difference.

We were a decent striker away from a point. Not a top four type striker or even a top 6 type. Just a decent one. The fact Ashley won't allow it will cost us in games like this. On the whole i thought we controlled the ball pretty well.

Something he got right then.

Him and Beye were Allardyce siginings weren't they?

I would think we have the personnel for a midfield 3. Shelvey......Hayden......Merino Hayden sits, if Shelvey pushes up Merino can drop back and vise versa.

What a client base :lol:

So, he was good except knowing what to do and when. Wonder why the rest of the footballing world didn't batter down the 26 year old's door down when he was available on a free....

He had more than muscle. He was just error-prone. He could be the best and worst CB you'd ever see, I don't think it was down to being thick really. Maybe a lack of confidence/certainty in what he was doing. He was long, long, long way from the best CB i've ever seen. I mean, so far away it makes it embarrassing.

How anyone can have a hard on for Bramble i'll never know. What use is a bit of muscle when you're as dense as he was. I wanted him to do well but he clearly didn't have thimbles worth of the composure and awareness needed to make the right decisions when it mattered. The fact he went to Wigan and Sunderland afterwards speaks volumes.