Gallowgate Toon

Idiotic. The man is a complete buffoon.

It's not exactly his fault, Pardew should know by now that he's completely unsuited to a wide position in a 4-4-2. Marveaux is just symbolic of the differing mentality that our manager has to our board. No wonder it leads to rudderless and confused football.

The mixture of personnel and formation played right into West Ham's hands, that is undeniable. With Ben Arfa and Marveaux on the wings, we were very narrow, which didn't suit our strikers, particularly Cisse, and this was compounded by only having one full back on his natural foot. This mightn't have been so bad if we had a really good link man up top with plenty of forward movement but we had Shola, who wasted countless opportunities with crap control, poor decision-making and generally playing on his heels. With our current situation, the only way for us to go is 4-2-3-1.

Especially if there are no crosses coming in. I can barely recall one from out wide that a striker could have attacked. Only Debuchy provided a wide, crossing outlet. Absolutely criminal considering we started 2 strikers, one of whom is a 'big lad'.

After watching yesterday, if we don't buy another player and lose Cabaye, I really hope this lad strikes up an understanding with Anita. Vurnon played 2 fantastic passes yesterday (one to Cisse which would have seen him one-on-one with a better touch and a pass to Gouffran for his first chance), which should have led to goals, if we can get this lad on the end of stuff like that, he'll bury them more often than not.

To be fair, Shola's little bit of link-up in the box with Marveaux (before he slipped) showed the potential of having a good target man. You can't forget how cumbersome Shola is, he slowed down a lot of moves today and lost the ball a number of times trying to be too clever when he had options around him. A proper target striker would have been popping the ball off a lot quicker and would have allowed us to build attacks, and momentum, better. Take last night's team and put a proper left winger in it, alongside a striker with some ability on the ball and we'd look far more dangerous.

Is Ayew more a winger or a striker?

we don't have any actual wide players full stop except for Obertan and maybe Sammy. Its a bit of a huge problem It's massively problematic, like. We were so narrow today and there was just nobody that stuck wide who can deliver a ball, Marveaux and Ben Arfa in the team meant we were always coming inside and that didn't suit our strikers. Sammy actually kept wide and stretched them out a bit, his productivity is just nowhere near good enough.

Going to be turd watching him persist with 4-4-2 for the foreseeable. We just don't have the right personnel for it, both out wide and up top, today showed that.

I could see the theory of him playing but he's just crap, Gouffran links play with more pace and actually moves well, really poor decision.

If our manager wants to play 4-4-2 then a striker capable of linking play and a left winger. Criminal today that we had no delivery from out wide, it was far too narrow.

I respect him for wanting to play 2 strikers and was curious to see how it would work today but we simply don't have the right players for it. There's not enough width or delivery in the squad and we desperately need a second striker to link play effectively, Shola is just way too slow to be any good in that role.

I know he's not a winger but I expected more of him, in all honesty. I was looking forward to having a left footed player on the left but he drifted in too much, making us even more narrow, and I don't remember him crossing the ball at all in open play. He simply just doesn't have a winger's mentality, he's not direct enough. Sammy was more dangerous when he came on but his delivery is absolutely woeful.

Much better.

This. He was solid, him and Anita were pretty vocal as well.

Plenty of the ball, some nice passing interchanges but generally blunt and far, far too slow.

How did he last 90 minutes?! He's just too slow, both physically and mentally. Tried daft things far too often too, like trying to Cruyff turn 3 players on the edge of the box.

Played some lovely passes and was solid. He was my MOTM.

Just doesn't have the physicality to compete in a midfield battle, AM is the only position he can consistently play in this league.

Decent team (bar Shola) if that's what it really is. Going to be good having a left footer on the left and 2 creative midfielders on the pitch at the same time.

Probably Giggs but Williamson's injured, he doesn't start training again until Monday.

Well for now yes, but once Remy is fit and if we sign some more players i wouldn't be adverse to dropping Cisse at all. That's why I said come Saturday I'd be delighted with: HBA Gouffran Remy

We need as many goal threats on the pitch as possible, Cisse and Gouffran are our only true goal-getters, they both need to be on the pitch come Saturday.

Marveaux and Ben Arfa supplying Cisse and Gouffran's movement should be a real threat, I really hope that all 4 start this weekend.

I didn't catch the second half, how were Colo and MYM at CB?