Segun Oluwaniyi

I haven't seen anything from the two reserve fullbacks to make me think they will be starting quality Premiership players in the next two seasons. First of all, one of them should be on loan once injuries clear and both should be given time to develop before being thrown to the lions. I do rate Santon significantly higher than some people on here though, admittedly.

I disagree with almost every single point made in that article. The Europa League isn't any more or less broken then before. You can talk about format all you want to, but the problems with that tournament will persist as long as monetary incentive is low in comparison to the league for clubs in higher tier leagues. When you factor in the fact that second tier teams in top leagues and top teams in the lower leagues generally have smaller squad than those of the CL behemoths, this is what you get as a result. A knockout may be more interesting, but surely less matches would mean less prize money, less money in gates, and less TV money for participating, all of which would exacerbate the original issues. The author is quick to dismiss the likes of Venezuela and Scotland, but the truth is that there are definitely 40 teams in the world capable of contributing to a competitive World Cup. This isn't cricket either, it is one of the biggest events mankind has produced. I doubt interest will wane in any significant manner. The 24 team Euro is stupid because 24 teams is simply a poor number for a tournament of this style. In fact, anything where we are comparing third place teams group by group is going to be tedious and a waste of time. I would propose a 20 team Euro, with a pre-group stage, knockout round, but this idea never seems to stick with anyone other than myself.

This really isn't much different from our normal first team side, other than the Haidara make an appearance from the dark. http://i.imgur.com/iLxRAvH.jpg Anita and Haidara are the only players playing now that didn't play on Sunday. edit: Mbiwa would have played if not for his ban of course.

This really isn't much different from our normal first team side, other than the Haidara make an appearance from the dark.

I don't understand how someone can say statistics are not useful in football. They have been fairly effective in basketball, which is also a very fluid game. I never said they're not useful, but simply not in the way they are for baseball, not even close. The initial point made was that "stats are useless without context" which was disagreed with "because Moneyball" - but that's exactly the point. There is almost no context in a batter facing a pitcher, in that moment alone it's essentially an individual sport, certainly from the batter's point of view. In comparison, there are very few points in a football match where a player's contribution isn't directly influenced by what his teammates are doing. It's chalk and cheese. Very much agree with your subsequent point. Fair enough, I didn't read the whole discussion, your post just stuck out. In a sport like football, that is so dependent on "team" and other intangible things, statistics will never tell the full story, but in 2013 we are able to do many things with numbers that provide deeper information about players and teams. It is just simple things. As I mentioned, they've introduced some simple things in basketball (percentage of time of player is sprinting, shot charts to see where someone is most effective/ineffective, etc) that have been really useful and similar things would work in football. You are right, though, signing someone because they "put in the most crosses" and other such nonsense is a fairly foolish way of using the numbers.

I don't understand how someone can say statistics are not useful in football. They have been fairly effective in basketball, which is also a very fluid game. If you look at managers in the Premiership like Mourinho, Pochettino, Pellegrini, and Lambert, they've all been at their clubs a shorter time than Pardew (in the case of the first two less than six months) and have already given their sides a distinct style and way of playing that is different to what was present before. Even Hughes seems to have imposed himself on Stoke to some degree. The players may not fit their style exactly, but these managers have adjusted and generally made the best out of what they were given. Pardew has managed this team for nearly three years now without an usually high amount of player turnover and still has no idea of how he wants to play, what the best system for the team is, or how to fit players who have been here for quite some time into his systems. What is Pardew's preferred style of play? Listening to his words in the media it seems to be, "fluid attacking football, until something goes wrong and we have to start pumping long ball and sitting back on the 18 yard box because this is the only way to react in such situations". It is thing I dislike most about his tenure here.

Does he have something against the Brazilian authorities? You would think he was raised with dreams of playing in yellow, green, and blue.

They will always be vulnerable and the likes of Torres and Lampard are definitely likely to wear down over the furious winter months, but as things stand they are definitely the best side in England. It definitely seems as though things will be extremely tight until the end at the top this season, though. No one seems likely to just run away from everyone and Arsenal/Spurs/Liverpool (the outside contenders) look quite strong and competent.

It's a more serious offence than Nile has ever been convicted of. Forgery of official documents is a rather serious crime. You can be sent down for years if you are caught making them or taking advantage of them.

Holding midfielders cannot be making the kinds of runs into the box Sissoko has made a career out of. It is the antithesis of the position. You must be thinking of his long lost cousin, Momo. It is funny, with most teams that bring in foreign players to this league, they struggle at first and gradually start performing to a high standard as they come to grips with the league. Our players come in and look like world stars, only to become "rubbish" as soon as they reach the period when they should be fully adapted. He can mark the likes of Benteke when our new £6m CB is busy marking fresh air. What is this line you are pushing?

I think it is a clever idea if done correctly. I proposed my idea on this forum before, where 24 of the teams (based on the seeded sides and the highest ranked qualifiers from each federation) are guaranteed entry to the group stages and the remaining 16 teams play a new first round of knockout ties to determine which eight sides join the other twenty four in the groups. It would be very entertaining. FIFA are probably thinking of a double group stage though, which can be tedious.

Shola was the best striker by a distance today.

This was more than a year ago. Even Ba, who was supposedly holding him back, has been gone for nearly eleven months.

Arsenal are top of the league, there was one Englishman in their starting eleven yesterday. Load of s*** blaming the 'foreigners'. Arsenal are top of the league, there was one Englishman in their starting eleven yesterday. Load of s*** blaming the 'foreigners'. Foreign players doing well=British players overrated, overpriced. Foreign players doing poorly="British toughness and grit" needed.

Aye but we have more than strikers that can get in the box Anyone who can score headers? Not sure our strikers can do that Gouffran, Cisse, Remy, and Ameobi are all fairly good headers of the ball. What we don't have is players who are dominant aerially and can make use of the rubbish floated balls we put into the box constantly.

Two seasons with Arsene Wenger and I'd put any money you like on him being one of the best and most consistent players in Europe. I rate Gerets and Deschamps fairly highly as managers and they couldn't do it either. Tbf they did. He was just a troublesome (behaviour) player but contributed to title wins 5 years on the trot with both those clubs iirc. He didn't. He was a developmental player at Lyon when they were absolutely dominant. He won himself a title as a starter in 2008 under Perrin at Lyon then got himself kicked out the club. He won another in 2010 under Deschamps as a super sub and was promptly allowed to leave that club as well. He's never really fulfilled his full talent.

Two seasons with Arsene Wenger and I'd put any money you like on him being one of the best and most consistent players in Europe. I rate Gerets and Deschamps fairly highly as managers and they couldn't do it either.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/3/34/Middlesbrough_crest.png/210px-Middlesbrough_crest.png

It is the same as the match last season. They scored some fantastic goals that those players aren't usually capable of, but this happens because they are put in position where they are allowed to strike the ball freely at very good angles in front of our box. When Ben Arfa, for example, cut inside looking shot late, there were several players back cutting off angles and making such a goal much more difficult.

He's played well before in derbies. When he plays well, the opposition matters little and the vice versa is true when he is poor. He's been off-colour since the Everton match and it continued today.

Calm down.

Last week was a fantasy. It's good that he gets used to the reality of Newcastle life. While I understand your point, it is my opinion that he was hung out to dry today by Pardew. Who was the alternative? Could Tiote have played Centreback? It's a bit shortsighted to criticise the Perch sale because of one match where we happened to be missing three centrebacks, but it would have been nice to have him around.

Once again, the second goal came as a result of our attacking play having a complete lack of incisiveness. So often we commit the cardinal sin of pushing 6-8 players forward without having any actual plan as to what we will do with the ball. We pass the ball around a bit, inevitably lose it, and the other side gets to attack a rather unprotected back four (or two). Today, we lose the ball, Tiote is talking to the referee, Cabaye is pressing in our own half, the full backs are very wide, and with one simple pass they are 2 v. 2 against Mike Williamson and an inexperienced fullback playing centreback. This is understandable if we are causing a threat to them, but we were generally doing not much of anything as per usual. This was a step too far for Paul Dummett. He's just clearly not a centreback at this level. We don't een know if he is a good enough fullback yet, but at least he has a chance to compete there. Today, he was out of position often and couldn't deal with physicality. I hope to see him more, but not in the centre. Cisse cannot be played at this point. He is detrimental every time he touches the ball. We all admire Ben Arfa, but he has to do more. He will always be an inconsistent genius, but his poor matches cannot be ones where he provides nothing to the side at all.

It's easy to see he's talented on the ball as well.Pretty good dribbler and passer. Just his shots and crosses are inconsequential far too often.

Tiote and Cabaye shouldn't have been on the half way line while the other team was scoring.