Lotus

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.

http://www.nufc.co.uk/articles/20130529/pardew-wants-dominant-defensive-threat_2281670_3194452 Bit more season review context. Do other managers ever spout this kind of bullshit? Was talking to some fans of other clubs past couple of weeks and they were rolling around laughing at some of the s*** I was telling them he says. I think if you analysed other managers' quotes to the extent we do with Pardew, without the audio/video and the context/question, you could generate nearly as many ridiculous quotes. Maybe not the same amount, but not far off. Especially if you only concentrated on managers under pressure or where things were going badly on the pitch. Any examples?

What's silly? Sorry, just didn't understand what you were referring to...

He is one of the best at NOT losing the ball in our own half. He tends to lose if further upfield as he tries something.

2011/12 Starts Substitute Goals Assists Shots Shots on goal 20 11 7 5 38 14 2012/13 20 7 4 3 53 14

How many goals and assists did he get this season and last?

180 cm. Would hope for someone with some height. MYM is the most talented of our CBs, not sure Taylor beside him will be much good for him. Need another CB if/when Colo goes. Preferably someone tall so AP can be satisfied with that and actually look at signing a striker who can score.

If we are interested i wonder who else we're looking at to play alongside him. To give him the balls to attack in the air. None of our current lot have looked able.