Hughesy

Brilliant in central midfield. His ball carrying ability is so so effective there. Really adds energy and forward drive.

He just glides past people. Love it. Want to see him score a George Weah style goal from our box one day. It will happen..

Well done Pards.

I've had no joy with this argument, good luck! Because using this logic Pardew could never be wrong, no matter what. HBA doesn't play = obviously a waster in training/not motivated/not good enough. HBA plays and is crap = See! Pardew was right all along! All you fanboys were deluded. HBA plays and is good = managed perfectly by Pardew! Or one could perhaps see that Ben Arfa has become a more all round player who is aware of his defensive responsibilities whilst still being amazing going forward?

I'd agree with that - a balletic majesty... Although his legacy was pretty amazing without that - 3 FIFA World Player of the Years, a World Cup and European Championship ain't bad. And of course he didn't have the advantage of playing the best club side of the last 20 years.

Fair enough - I suppose I just think he was almost the ultimate big game player of recent times. 98, 2000 - exceptional. 2006 - pretty much dragged that French team to the final. Anyway - we can leave it.

I already said they played different roles! Let's see if Xavi keeps it up. He's got a lot of goalscoring ground to make up.

Didn't say that, did I? Zidane - 1 in 5 record at club level and 1 in 3 at international level. Xavi - 1 in 9 at club level and 1 in 11 at international level. Bit different.

Have a look at their career stats and you'll see that's not true.

Score goals?

They play different roles so I am not sure they can be compared.

Can't agree with that. Zidane was exceptional. Absolute genius with the ball. Best player I have ever seen live - just had so much time on the ball and made everything look so so easy.

What a strange thing to say.

It's alright - I have put Odemwingie in my fantasy league. He won't score now.

Agree with a lot of that. Personally, I just loved watching Zidane play. He had it all.

They had 43% possession and 3 shots (none on target). Compared to our 57% and 17 shots. If we'd performed like that, you would be spitting feathers.

Good. We can now close the thread Great post though Disagree. It's not much more than a positive spin, whether any of that is an endorsement of Pardew as a manager is debateable.

Alan Smith and Geremi in CM. The stuff of nightmares. To think that that was an Alan Smith in his Newcastle peak..

That's so clearly what he meant, I don't know how you could read in another way to be honest.

Didn't somebody point out that our form hasn't been mid to lower table form since the turn of the year? P 10, W 5, D 2, L 3. = 17 pts (1.7 a game which averages to 64-65 points over a season) And the 8 matches before that? a massive 5 points. Very selective statistics there. As opposed to the ever so random '8' matches you have picked that start off with us playing Man City away, Man Utd away and Chelsea at home. And Norwich with no central defenders.. Brilliant.

So you don't think that, on a man for man basis, their squad is stronger than ours? Did you think that at the start of the season?

Didn't somebody point out that our form hasn't been mid to lower table form since the turn of the year?

I think most of their fans would disagree. Fair enough they won the cup, but considering their summer spending, their league campaign has been hugely disappointing. At home in particular. Yes but you said they've 'underperformed considering the squad they've got' as if it is packed full of fantastic players. I'd say they've got the 6th best squad in the league. I think it is far to say they have underperformed for the squad they have and the money they have spent. It is also worth considering that although they might only have the 6th best squad in the league, I think the vast majority of people would have said at the start of the season that there was quite a large gap between the quality of Liverpool's squad and the 7th best squad in the league.

If he's a League One manager, what are we doing in 6th in the Premier League? Reasons for us being 6th but not deserving it: Luck Good players who have dragged us through Luck All the other teams are rubbish Luck

Maybe HTT is in fact 'allegedly' Jose Fonte? Or Carl Fletcher? That's the only thing that can possibly explain the hatred.