themanupstairs

"Right lads, welcome to training. Running a bit late today so we'll skip the warm up.  First things first, cardio, everyone give me forty sprint shuttle-runs along this cobbled street and then we'll do some strength traning by moving my mam's three piece suite out of her top floor flat."

Didn't he say though he thought we'd be significantly stronger by the end of January.  One signing won't do that imo.

Think he was on about new transfers plus the return of Cabaye and Taylor.

Proper loving tollemache's posts man. where the f*** did you come from?

indeed. Bimpy who?

cheers!

 

Don't know if anyone noticed it but the subtext to that post was "Definitely don't sack Pardew over this run of form"

Fuck that! tollemache out!

When the chips are down and the team isn't doing well, it's easy to forget, or rather, difficult to remember the context of it all. We are a work in progress and have been since our relegation. It's a bitter pill to swallow when you see your perennial "rivals" regressing, and your team not taking advantage of that opportunity. Moreover, when you witness "smaller" clubs' teams playing better football than we do, it digs at your doubts even more.

Relegation hit us hard at the time, and I don't think it would be as relatively pretty for us this time round should the unthinkable happen again. This is why it's panic stations all over the shop when we sense not only that nothing is going to plan, but that there is no fucking plan to begin with.

Just watched last season's fan review on a rinky dink obscure website, and what a season it was. I want to believe again. I really want to believe we can beat anyone on our day.

Fuck it. I'm opting for optimism. 3-1 win, goals from Ba, Cisse and Santon.

None of them have suddenly become bad players. It's incredible how confidence and focus affect players at that level. There are so many examples of really good players going totally off the boil and suddenly becoming Darko Pancev, and all that happened was they felt a little out of sorts or their confidence faded a bit.

 

I think it's interesting that Pardew publicly complained about players having their heads turned by devious agents, towards the end of pre-season, saying it was making his job difficult and affecting the team's preparations. I read it as a message to his players, as though he felt they weren't getting their heads down, and I think that, along with the effort to accommodate Ba, accounts for a lot of the current malaise. Tiote and Cisse are the two really glaring examples, and Tiote in particular was the subject of loads of transfer speculation.

 

To a certain extent I think what's happening is the price of overachievement. At the first sign of poor form, players like Tiote start wishing they'd played their cards differently, while their agents whisper in their ear about maybe getting that move to Arsenal back on track. At this stage in the rebuilding process, I think we're basically Everton over the last few years. Yo-yoing up and down the league from year to year and losing good players every time we get a good thing going might be our lot for a while. The big difference is that, even spending within our means, we've got more money than they have, won't struggle with debt, and if we keep a good transfer policy going (which might mean the occasional dud transfer window) we're liable to do better than them, sooner.

No idea where you popped up from but that is a brilliant post

Welcome to the forum.

Disagree with you manupstairs. He tries to get back on when he realises there is a reason the midfielder isn't passing to him. Until then he seems oblivious to the defence's line (this season) IMO. Although, thinking back, I seem to recall a few of his goals last season being offside but standing.

 

I'm not calling him a blithering fool or anything, but he doesn't even begin looking along the line until the crucial few seconds are upon him (at which point it is too late). It's an area of his game he needs to develop - and fast.

 

Hopefully our attacking coach specialists will have a word...

I just don't think a first class top division striker doesn't care about being offside. This is what it looks like on some occasions. Take for example that time when Ba played him in from the right channel and he didn't adjust his run. I reckon Cisse thought Ba would carry the ball further up the field before playing him in which is why he raced ahead to make sure he stays clear of his marker before checking his run.

It's frustrating as fuck, and it's to the detriment of the team. But imo it's a symptom of our lack of attacking structure rather than a cause of it.

Italian football, man

 

You must have missed Napoli taking 15k to Bologna last season

 

I doubt it was that many... Their crowd was only up 6k on its average for that game...

 

Might have been the season before, I think many didn't get tickets for the match. Was reported as 10-15k made the journey to the city

 

They took 11k to Roma season before last when they finished 3rd. Video of all the fans at the train station can be found on that well known video site.

Which well known site would that be?

Actually if you notice his runs, he strays offside to lose his markers at times, and tries to get back on. We don't pick him out with precise passes timed to his runs.

The one time it worked perfectly that I can remember recently was when Anita played it to him, either at Southampton or Stoke, can't really remember. It was his first chance of the game and he fluffed it completely. But that's the kind of service he needs. He needs someone to pick him out first time and play it into his path. The guy is not a blithering fool. He's just not clicking with our supply line. They are on different planets so to speak.

Having said that, he should have spotted it by now that those behind him won't give him the ball the way he wants, and should adjust his game for that. If he can't win it in the air, he should be ready to pounce on the loose ball. I haven't seen him try something different yet, knowing that he's in a bit of a rut.

He doesn't look anything special anyway. Next.

Because our defence is all over the place. Every time a team comes forward we look like conceding and Krul has probably saved 5-6 1 on 1s the past month. Coloccini is part of the defence ergo he could be classed as part of the problem, but until we sort it out and tighten up at the back nobody is going to come out looking good.

 

 

this si what i'm talking about. The Fulham winner was largely his fault. His man looked unmarked and he didn't even move! He was nowhere near the second ball for Stoke's winner. Nobody elses fault but his own. Against Kenwyne Jones most defenders will be in for a tough time in the air, the key is the second ball.

I don't think anyone is arguing the contrary. Everyone can see he was at fault for those two particular moments. But you're making it sound like he's in last chance saloon or something.

Coloccini isn't safe from criticism when he deserves it, just like any other player in our squad. Unlike every other player in our squad however, the times when Colo has let us done pale in comparison to the likes of Williamson, Simpson and the other usual suspects.

Fuck me that stupid Arsenal song

Me and a mate keeping having an argument about who we'd rather have out of Ibrahimovic or Falcao. Ibra is the better all round player but I'd rather have Falcao in my team.

 

Falcao has more sell on value.

 

Ah well, Mike and Bill will be in Madrid soon.

 

http://i46.tinypic.com/15f3vx2.jpg

bit late but :lol:

It deflected off Riise's(?) leg. Saw about twelve replays of the moment it contacted the leg.

Possibly off his shin pads? Watching the replay on a dodgy vid now, and that's the only point of contact it would have made with his leg. You just don't see an obvious change in the flight of the ball at all, which is why I still think it was a superb golazo

Erm, pretty sure it did.

 

If it doesn't, it's out-of-this-world s*** goalkeeping. The same thing which made Adam Johnson's goal at the weekend apparently not very good.

 

I was laughing at the goal, it was like Ben Arfa thought "I am working with idiots, have this."

I dunno man. The flight of the ball looks natural to me in the replays from as soon as it leaves his foot. It certainly didn't change direction. A slight deflection may have changed it trajectory tho. Schwarzer was expecting a cross, and I think that's why he was caught out.

Right. So Neil just trying to fuck with my mind then?

Bastard. And to think I was cheering for the smackems to beat the spuds 

Swear I've seen a hundred replays of HBA's goal, and none of the angles show a deflection. I thought it was when it first went in, but having seen the replays changed my mind.

I thought this was quite an even game. Don't think either team were particularly lucky/unlucky - both hit the woodwork, both had efforts cleared off the line, both had a goal take a deflection. Ultimately it was - at least it looked like - some s**** marking for the winner which gave them the points.

 

I thought Anita looked a really tidy player. I think what you missed was someone centrally from midfield linking the play with the front men. Ben Arfa was all over the place trying to do something but it felt very forced (as in there was no-one else doing it). Dare I say if a fully-fit and firing Cabaye was playing instead of Jonas there would have been a different outcome?

 

Don't think it looked like "relegation stuff" at all but maybe that's just my own opinion. Still absolutely convinced you'll finish comfortable top half.

Yeah. He seemed to be involved in the game constantly for 90 minutes, so 2 or 3 below par moments doesn't seem too bad in that context.

Not sure if sarcasm...

What I'm trying to say is that he didn't hide. He clearly knew he made a hash of a couple of situations, but he put in the effort to try to rectify them. Which is the least I'd expect from such a brilliant footballer, and club captain no less.

Love how some people just creep out of the wood work when certain players have a bad game.

 

He's having a poor season. Absolutely nothing wrong in pointing that out.

 

People need to accept that certain supporters don't give a flying f*** if it hurts them that we're criticising their most loved and favourite players.

No arguments there at all. He's not put in the near 10/10 displays he managed last season, and he still struggles with the same type of forward. But I find it ridiculous to question his commitment during a game like yesterday. Of course, when someone who is normally on top of his game makes a mistake, it gets highlighted more because it is not expected. I just don't think his temperament or his commitment can be questioned when you see what he's done for the rest of the game.

Is Fletcher back for them tonight?

Excellent little performance last night from this guy. His passing and movement is so crisp, sharp and done with a certain level of "know-how". His technique is a cut above. Good to see that he also has the heart to match.

Really don't know what to do with Cisse at the moment.

Whatever it is, the manager should make a decision and stick to it. The indecision isn't clever, and the in-game dicking about with formations isn't a deliberate plan of attack. It's part of the indecision. Cisse is a center forward. Full stop. Either play him there, or keep him on the bench.

If Obertan had been fit, I wouldn't mind going back to the way we played first half of last season with him on the right, HBA behind Ba. Would definitely work better than the shambles we're witnessing now.

That's it. They were wide open down that side during nearly every attack. An actual football player would have seen that and looked to get in behind them. It was just the same ball in, over and over. They were quite happy to give him all the time in the world, presumably to give Hangeland a bit of practice after coming back from injury.

 

To be fair to Simpson, even the good ones he put in led to nothing due to our abysmal movement.

 

It's a bit more than that imo. We never hit a cross at full sprint. We never cross the ball, either in the air or along the deck (between the goalie and the penalty spot) with our players moving forward at pace. If we did we'd have the oppo defenders facing their goal, trying to track our runs and we'd be creating some indecsion in their backline. That's exactly the situation in which players like Cisse will thrive. Instead we stop or slow down, our forwards have to check and their defenders get to turn and face us and then just pick our crosses off.

Spot on.

Ironically it was Cisse who put in our most dangerous cross when he played it early to Ba after Schwarzer had fluffed his clearance. That's the difference between a real footballer and Danny Simpson. Schwarzer made the catch at the time, but it was crossed early, at pace, and into a dangerous area. 5 or 6 of these a game, and our strikers should fill their boots.