Gallowgate Toon

Agreed. He's not the Ba type to get fired up after being dropped, things will come his way, it just requires patience.

Is that a polite way of saying he's as weak as p*ss in midfield?? We looked much better when him and perch swapped. Well, no, I think he'll flourish in a midfield 3 and that'll be where we see the best of him but a midfield 2 doesn't really suit his talents. It doesn't look like we're going in that direction though and I think he's a perfectly adequate RB until we buy someone else.

I don't think he's suited to a 'dynamic' midfield role at all, he doesn't have the physicality for it, not with just 1 other central player at least. He's either got to be sitting in front of the back 4 doing a pure defensive job or be part of a 3 where he can help control possession with his short passing game and cover defensively. He's our best right back though, no doubt. He's solid enough defensively but makes intelligent runs, is comfortable on the ball and puts in a good delivery.

Great half an hour spell in the first half but poor second, which I think was down to nerves.

We just look generally edgy, unsurprisingly, similar to the same match last season.

Tiote playing like a fucking idiot.

Tiote man.

Unlucky.

Anita's a decent little crosser.

Feel for Cisse but he should have just played that a lot safer. Good performance from us in general I think, controlled and Ben Arfa has just taken it to them.

Ben Arfa

Mine would be fairly similar but I'd put Jonas 10th and keep everyone else the same. Just don't think he has much of an impact as a wide midfielder anymore and when it comes to his central role (where he's played well), I think Anita could do a better job too.

Jonas in the latest is NUFC TV video

Think he's being treated unfairly tbh, he's always put in a decent shift for us and has shown far more potential in his career here than the likes of Gosling. Unless of course he has attitude issues but he doesn't strike me as that kind of character

Want to see this: Krul Perch Taylor Coloccini Santon Tiote Anita Cabaye Ben Arfa Ba Cisse Think we'll start with 4-4-2 again though, go 2 goals down, change it and pull a goal back but then concede again while pushing for the equaliser.

Marveaux is the closest thing we've had to Solano since he left, excellent technical footballer.

Reina

If Perch is available I'd rather play him at right back and put Anita in a midfield 3.

I love Jonas but apart from a select few games a year, he should never be played as a winger. If Pards continues with this 4-4-2 lark then Jonas has to go and Marveaux needs to come in, we need some natural width and good delivery.

Two of the games he's excelled for us- Man Utd h and away at Villa he was in a midfield two with Cheik. I get that it's not a system he is used to or prefers but it's only an excuse that goes so far. He's literally had 2 good games there out of about 30, of course he'll put the odd good performance as he's a good footballer but he's overrun in a midfield 2 and consequently shrinks into the background more often than not.

He's not going to influence games as part of a midfield 2 for us, it's not his game and we won't see the benefits until he's played where he's most effective.

Interesting to see we went 4-3-1-2 for the majority of today, don't think it was really the right game to try it though as it suited a narrow Villa who were OK to sit back after they went up. It was a decent idea and it was nice to see something different but we should simply have 4-3-3 as plan A and use others to pull us out of the shit. Hopefully AP's starting to realise that it just doesn't suit the players.

Anita's a good footballer, much like Cabaye, playing him central in a 4-4-2 is a waste of time. Looked a useful full back, actually knew how to bomb forward and put in the odd decent ball.

I get the feeling that he doesn't really know how to play the side at the minute. One thing's clear, if wants to use that starting 11, 4-4-2 really isn't the way to go.

Saw him wandering around the Metro Centre on his own the other day, he was looking a bit miserable