Gallowgate Toon

How many other times have you seen Ben Arfa play? I'd say a good 25-30 times now, watched various games when he was at Lyon and Marseille both league and European competition. Put in some great performances but some average ones as well, hopefully we can get that consistency out of him. Ability wise, i'd say that he's a step up on Sessegnon, who's a good attacking player but doesn't have the stand out attacking qualities HBA possesses. Where did he play positionally when you saw him the most? Winger, either right or left. Sometimes as a sub, sometimes as a starter.

How many other times have you seen Ben Arfa play? I'd say a good 25-30 times now, watched various games when he was at Lyon and Marseille both league and European competition. Put in some great performances but some average ones as well, hopefully we can get that consistency out of him. Ability wise, i'd say that he's a step up on Sessegnon, who's a good attacking player but doesn't have the stand out attacking qualities HBA possesses. I agree with most of what you are saying, but in terms of end product (in Ligue 1 anyway) there isn't a lot between them. Sessegnon is a very underrated player. In terms of end product, you're spot on, there isn't. I just feel that in terms of ability, in its rawest sense, HBA is in that league above.

How many other times have you seen Ben Arfa play? I'd say a good 25-30 times now, watched various games when he was at Lyon and Marseille both league and European competition. Put in some great performances but some average ones as well, hopefully we can get that consistency out of him. Ability wise, i'd say that he's a step up on Sessegnon, who's a good attacking player but doesn't have the stand out attacking qualities HBA possesses.

I agree that Zog's a better player overall but they're in that same bracket/level of ability. Both good with the ball at their feet, decent passers and crossers and can get a couple of goals (this is where Zog's better). HBA on the other hand, is a complete step above, he has the potential to be a top, top player. His acceleration, ball control and passing were just outstanding against Everton, I still watch that video quite a lot.

Sessegnon's a good player, I'd put him in the Zog level but he's in the league below HBA and could only dream of putting in the kind of performance we saw against Everton.

They're not a very good side at all, don't deserve to be anywhere near 3-0.

Aye, he's in Viduka's old house if i'm not mistaken?

It's a strange comment to make, considering he's supposedly fitter now than when he first arrived here.

Can't believe Shola lasted that long, he looked knacked for the majority of the second half and was giving the ball away virtually every time he touched it. Sloppy performance in general, we didn't look particularly organised defensively and lacked retention and ideas offensively. Pards will probably say the game against Man U will have fatigued some of our players, i couldn't tell if they looked half-arsed or tired, it just wasn't good enough. Krul played well though, decisive performance.

The only positive from that game (actually Krul played well) but that was more down to the ineptitude of our own players, not him putting in a great shift. Looks confident on the ball and played some intelligent passes but he just never got into the game, probably because we never kept hold of it for long enough.

I like the look of Ireland, he seems comfortable on the ball, keeps it simple and gets into good positions.

This is embarrasingly bad like, we just seem incapable of keeping a hold of the ball, so poor.

Unlucky for Loven but we need someone who has more quality on the ball up top.

Running through our midfield here, we've been awful at just holding theplay up and making them work for it.

Cracking strike.

He had to more disciplined than usual, looked to me like he'd been told to do a job on Rooney, who's been on fire for the last 6 weeks or so. In other games he plays higher up and gets his stamp on games with quick passing etc today he just couldn't do that. I was impressed by a quieter and more disciplined but equally effective performance.

How long was Valencia in training for before he came back to the team? I remember seeing some photos a couple of weeks ago but he seems to have gained fitness rapidly.

The team you have? Who are these supposed players that are so good? You say you've got a better team than Fulham on paper but you don't have players as good as Hangeland, Dempsey or Dembele.

No point in pissing about with him anymore like, just get him back. He would have been fit for the Wolves game imo but we've become far too complacent over recent weeks, letting him go back to France symbolises it imo.

There's definitely a feeling of complacency within the team at the minute, thinking it's just going to take the minimum effort and we'll be fine. It's now coming back to bite us, hopefully this will give us the kick we need to get us back into gear.

Is his Twitter real? The media are saying he's out for a month.

Agreed (although I still have a slight inkling that his impact is partly down to tired legs). Ditto! Ranger had not much to show for when he met a team similar to Everton, Fulham. Ranger needs his physicality to gain a good advantage, which he's not getting if he's starting. I hope for Shola and Best on top. Ranger can come on during 2nd half. The Fulham game was an absolutely crap team performance, you can't judge Ranger on that. Aye and against a really organised defence as well.

I reckon 'the switch' is Ireland playing off Best/Ameobi, dropping Loven. Other option is Nolan playing off the front man and Ireland in CM, again for Lovelyhands.

He'll be a success for us and the main reason for that is that he will feel 'loved'. It's obviously important for him to feel wanted and he's very Ben Arfa like in that respect and good on Pards for as it looks like he's given him all the spiel.

Valencia had some great chances to win that game, they should be kicking themselves.