Gallowgate Toon

Thank you. Suarez, Bale, heck even Demba Ba get themselves into positions either with skill, pace, movement or just sheer strength and they get their shots off. He's shown he can score in this team, as has Demba Ba. Now all of a sudden, we are so crap creatively 6 goals in 20 something games is "about right"? The same amount of goals as Yohan Cabaye? Less than Lambert. Probably around the same as a couple Reading lads. Aye, "about right". People moaned and cried for months from him to be the head of a 4-3-3 type system. We've done that. We've added some pace and movement to the left. A better outlet from deep on the right. Real movement, strength, power, pace and quality balls from our #10 type player and #4 deep midfielder. Now these guys aren't doing enough FOR Cisse. Maybe Cisse isn't doing enough for them? You are completely missing the point. I don't think 6 goals is where he SHOULD be at, but considering the complete lack of service and consequent lack of decent chances, it's not really a surprise and regarding Demba, he's a different striker who scores different types of goals. You mention Lambert but he plays in a very creative team and takes their free kicks and penalties. Cisse's had a couple of games at most this year where he's had more than one decent opportunity and there's been lots of others where he's had absolutely nowt to work with. Are you genuinely calling us a creative side here? Like I said, I don't think Ba's goals this year were really because of great or even decent, inventive service, he's just first class at getting on to stuff and making something out of very little, that's his game. And as if it was going to be as simple as moving to a new shape. You cite new players, but how have they helped him in the last couple of games? We've improved as a team, but you're unbelievably narrow minded if you think we're getting the best out of Cisse in any way, shape or form. This doesn't mean I think he's at all blameless here, the offsides are annoying etc. but I still don't think we're doing enough to help him out, we're not playing to his strengths as a striker and we won't until we attack with more variety.

His main asset is his movement, that's something we certainly don't play to. To complement that, we need to give him service quicker, both in terms of crosses out wide and balls through the middle. His goal against Bordeaux was class, it came from a left-footed left back that can whip in a ball early, something we've not seen in the league. Last month's link up with Cabaye and Sissoko showed exactly what he'd really been missing, someone with vision who could supply early through balls as he hung on the shoulder of the defender. Lastly, get some people and movement around him in the box, we don't get enough players in there and he just doesn't have the power (like Ba) to get extra bit of space while battling with defenders. It's simply too slow and predictable and there's consequently too much of an emphasis on physicality getting goals, there's no intelligence there and he's not going to thrive like that. In terms of general play, use him as a target and link up man as little as possible, and if we do, keep it on the deck because he's useful with one touch passes etc. Sissoko's pretty much a centre forward for us, he's the link man between midfield and attack, his presence should allow Cisse to play on the shoulder, where he's most effective.

It's more than just a system Unbelievable, it's about playing to his strengths while in that system. He's getting very little service, as Wullie pointed out. It did improve initially after the new signings but over the last couple of games he's again had very little to work with. Our crossing is abysmal on the whole, he's had little in the way of passes behind defence all season. Where the hell is he supposed to get goals from? 2 shots a game for a striker is horrific, and people wonder why he's not getting more goals. Let's not agree with facts though, that's simply an excuse. Just on a sidenote, he and Ba have around the same conversion rate this year.

Says it all. Those first couple of months I really felt for him, he just didn't get a sniff. Ba's gone but we still expect the same results from a completely different player, we've got to play to his strengths more.

Considering the complete lack of service to him, I'm afraid it is, like I said, over the season I bet he has had less than a chance a game. You don't find many strikers like Ba who can get so much out of so little. You want Cisse to get goals, give him some openings by getting some movement going on around him and give him some service, like the vast majority of strikers out there.

Jonas might as well have been full back yesterday. The player position map from yesterday showed Debuchy was higher up than him.

Can you not count? We need to create more opportunities, unless you honestly believe one chance a game is good service? Is another striker going to be more clinical considering how little we create? The average conversion rate for a top striker is 20%. For 18 months we've had strikers that can score regularly. Now, with a better team, we aren't creating the chances? Cool. They are 2 completely different strikers. One finished off scraps, literally only scoring twice from outside the box in his whole time here (one a deflected free kick vs Arsenal), the other isn't like that, he needs service and scores a variety of goals. You play to your striker's strengths as he's the one who wins you games, we don't do that with our current one. Edit: Adding to what I said. You've obviously been duped into thinking we're some kind of creative team, Dropout. I'd say Ba's fantastic ability to get something out of nothing in the box has masked our creative deficiencies, this year in particular. We've leaned on strikers in hot form for too long, we need to be more expansive as a team, apart from a few games last year, we simply haven't played to our potential under Pardew.

He's had a couple of matches where he's missed a few (Reading and Chelsea) but I think overall, he's had less than one chance a game this year, 6 goals is about right considering the abysmal service. We were dreadful in the opening 2 months especially, I can barely think of any opportunities he had and he's not the type to overpower others to finish scraps, like Ba.

Can you not count? We need to create more opportunities, unless you honestly believe one chance a game is good service? Is another striker going to be more clinical considering how little we create? The average conversion rate for a top striker is 20%.

We need to create more for him, yesterday wasn't good enough on that front and it hasn't been since Chelsea.

That was hardly a simple chance, it was on his weaker foot, bouncing and he was getting closed in on very quickly by 3 players. Put Van Persie on his right foot in that situation on the other side and you'd hardly be surprised if he didn't bury it, the disappointment for me is that he didn't hit the target. We've only given him 3 chances in his last 2 games IIRC, he's buried 1, that's still above par for the course for the vast majority of strikers (around 25% conversion). He is not a hold up player but quite frankly he shouldn't need to be with the level of talent and power in our midfield, he needs to be on the shoulder of defenders, moving around so players like Cabaye and Sissoko can play him through. We've simply not given him the service he needs of late.

I would have agreed, but I think that role works for him perfectly now that we have Sissoko. He's playing as much more of an all-rounder now imo, instead of being totally hampered by his defensive responsibilities. Agreed. I've just looked at the players' average position heat map thing, and he wasn't as deep as I first thought. I do think Cisse misses his passing ability around the box though, but hopefully HBA will fill that void when he eventually returns.

Cabaye's still a little too deep for me, we need him a little higher so he can link up with Cisse a bit more.

I think Anita and Marveaux have been treated poorly since the new lads came in mind, for all Pardew's skill as a man manager it's been bad form how he's just dumped them. They were both very good in our poor run and they would hardly be detrimental to the team if they got more than 5 minutes here and there in the league. We should rotate Tiote and Anita anyway but that's just not going to happen.

That's not exactly true like, Marveaux was excellent in Kharkiv, tracking back in the last minutes of the game etc but he's not particularly intelligent in his defensive duties. I agree with your general sentiment though, I think he can only play wide in certain situations and should mainly play as an attacking midfielder. Cabaye Sissoko Marveaux Would be a very interesting midfield 3 to try at some point (preseason).

We will make more chances when we have a more balanced attack. It can't be underestimated how little Gutierrez produces compared to Ben Arfa but I think it affects the whole balance of the front 6. We don't really want Sissoko out wide trying to create that often but he seemed to pop up there a bit yesterday, especially on the right, he did good work there but it meant when we got the ball in the box, a massive presence was missing. I think if Hatem's there, he's got the intelligence to fill that space at least but I think when he's back, we'll see Sissoko staying more central. I think that will help Cisse too. We've really not given him much to feed off over the last couple of games, Sissoko's through balls haven't been happening, there's not been many dangerous crosses and Cisse's link-up with Cabaye seems to have disappeared too. We look dangerous going forward but are lacking a bit of imagination at times.

We do too many floated balls. We're never going to be the best at corners, we just don't have any great headers of a ball, so just drill it in and see what happens. Do some short ones to add some variety. The closest we've come to scoring from a corner this year, was when Ben Arfa tried to score one against West Ham

Our defence today had quality, but it's easy to forget how new some of the lads are. Communication seemed to be a bit of a problem at times, but that's natural, the team still needs to gel.

He'll take us up another level in attack. We need his vision and quality in the final third, Cisse in particular needs another creative outlet.

If he'd made a change before the winning Swansea goal I have absolutely no doubt he'd have been slagged for changing what was working. This

He was very good in that second half, perhaps could've been a little smarter at times but he's such a terrific player. I love watching him, so many good qualities.

We just need another wide man in really, someone who can get to the byline and deliver a good ball for when Hatem's injured.

Cisse had one chance all game We're lacking someone in the final third who can provide for our goalscorers. Hatem will fill that void when he gets back but it really shows where we need to strengthen in the summer. You could say Marveaux is that man but I think we'd have struggled with him playing wide today, especially in that first period, it just doesn't suit him and he doesn't work hard enough.

Our defending and discipline when we don't have the ball needs to still be tightened up but I thought that overall, he was fine today, the players are more at fault this time. Perhaps he could have made a change a bit earlier but we'd been playing so well.

We played well for large parts, I'd say we were just about the better team overall but if you don't take your chances... Their goal was comically bad, just rubbish but we looked a bit ropy whenever they came at us and that needs to change. Ironically, we need to do a little more out-of-possession shape work on the training pitch, as we look very comfortable going forward. It was just one of those days really, you win some you lose some, things just didn't quite fall our way. No mass blame to anyone, we deserved a result but that's not how the sport works.