LoveItIfWeBeatU

Says he turned down the chance of a loan move to Arsenal in January: - I'd have my doubts about him. I'd rather we got players on their way up who would see us as an improvement on their current/previous clubs.

http://www.thejournal.co.uk/sport/football/match-reports/newcastle-united-1-crystal-palace-6867326

It could be that or it could be he just doesn't get in the right positions. That could be why Borussia Mönchengladbach were happy to loan him out with a view to selling him. I bet Borussia Mönchengladbach are gutted that Luuk de Jong hasn't had much of an impact at Newcastle so far. Cisse got into about 5 goal scoring positions against Crystal Palace.

For all the strikers who have scored plenty of goals in the Eredivisie the list of those who have failed once they moved to a better league is longer than those who have succeeded. Does Altidore just need more time to adjust? He scored loads in the Eredivisie.

Why put 100% of the blame on Carver? Ben Arfa is not exactly well known for being an easy character to get along with. Just ask all his previous managers.

Yes and no. "He actually listened to my instructions and did what we asked", "I've actually been getting on quite well with Hatem recently, probably the best I've got on with him." and "he's quite a nice guy when you have a real conversation about family and life, nothing to do with football" makes it sound like Ben Arfa doesn't usually follow Carver's instructions, Carver hasn't got on well with Hatem in the past and Hatem is a nice guy when you don't talk about football.

He never had hamstring surgery. That's an interesting insight of how Carver views Ben Arfa. I did notice that Ben Arfa passed the ball to his team mates quite a few times on Saturday where previously he'd have probably tried to do something on his own.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/tottenham-transfer-news-sadio-mane-3275913?

I can't believe anyone would recommend signing him based on what we've seen so far. Even if our transfer budget wasn't restricted I wouldn't want him. Strikers need to score goals.

Gomis. He regularly scores goals and should be relatively cheap.

People moan about every misplaced pass and poor shot where I sit. It doesn't matter who does it. As an extreme example, I imagine Real Madrid fans have higher expectations of Ronaldo and they do of a lot of their other players. Newcastle fans don't have many creative players to cheer so when Ben Arfa has a less than good game it stands out more. If we had a few creative players there would be less pressure and expectation on Ben Arfa. Gouffran's spell of goal scoring is probably what has kept him in the side. He doesn't really have any competition for the left wing.

Terrible example picking Shola. How many people rate Shola? People have low expectations of Shola. People have higher expectations of Ben Arfa and get frustrated when he doesn't reach those standards consistently. People know Ben Arfa can provide the quality, we'd all like it if he did it consistently, even Pardew. Anyway, we won the game and Ben Arfa provided the assist. Be happy. People trying to point score off it isn't good.

By not getting into Europe we'll be able to have a good go at the League cup and the FA cup.

Is it the person who starts the pre match thread or the actual match thread who has claim on the winning 'power'?

A quick turn around.

We do need a link up player. Maybe Sissoko or Marveaux could play that role with Ben Arfa on the right. NUFC won't be spending £8m of our transfer budget on Luuk de Jong to be a link up player though. If NUFC have £8m to spend on a link up player I'm sure we could get a player who would provided more of a goal threat and creativity than Luuk de Jong.

In what way is he being asked to defend though? Come back to defend corners? I don't understand how a striker/forward "defends more" apart from set pieces.

He wasn't a link player in the Netherlands, he was a striker. If he is no longer a striker then he is of no use to us. We have more than enough players who offer no goal threat. His link up play didn't create many (any?) chances today did it? Let's face it, he has played against Fulham and Crystal Palace and not looked like scoring. If he can't look like scoring against teams from the bottom of the Premiership I doubt he'll do it against the better teams. As for seeing him play when we play two proper wide men, we haven't got two proper wide men.

I don't know why he did his prayer at the end of the game. If he believes in all that then surely the god he was thanking was the same god who was stopping him from scoring all season.

Is he fit enough to start? If not, is it better to start him and he lasts one half or would he be better coming on in the second half as a sub? Also who do we drop? Like I said, Cisse could also have scored from Sissoko's passes. Ben Arfa and Sissoko both play best on the right. Someone to replace Gouffran on the left would be best but I wouldn't want to put Ben Arfa on the left.

If he plays well I'll say it. If he doesn't play well I'll say it.

He did nothing today to convince me NUFC should buy him. Did he have a shot today?

I think most people's doubt with Hatem Ben Arfa is about him putting in decent performances on a consistent basis. I'm glad he provided the vital pass. I really hope he keeps playing well. Who wouldn't want him in the team when he's on form? Ben Arfa's best position is on the right. Sissoko's best performances for us have also usually been when he is on the right. Cisse scored from Ben Arfa's pass. But for some good saves Cisse could well have scored from Sissoko's passes too.

One thing that helped him was the team actually played quite a few through balls to him today. He often looks to make runs off the last man but more often than not the pass never comes.

My main point is that I wish Hatem Ben Arfa was worthy of the praise and defence he gets on here. You can't really have a sensible conversation about the positives and negatives of Hatem Ben Arfa without someone blaming Pardew or all the other players for his failings.