TherealnorthernTOON

Just keeps getting better, top notch! now lets keep the club progressing and get into europe!

Planning etc where his next move will go according to positioning of defenders will come with time. Give him some slack to gain experience and the pace of the game contra the united reserves will come and he will rip more left backs then Evra to shreds. He got awfull lot off skills in his locker and they will come good. Once he starts using everything right in the manner of PL he will be a valuable asset to the team.

Did anyone else see that little flick he did at the right side of the pitch today? Never saw that comming tbh. Gabby's confidence is growing!

Should get more games comming up for him, especially against manu wich are struggling in the middle of the park. Aswell against chelsea wich are struggling at the back at the moment. Allthough might put Best in at chelsea to hold up ball and play through Ba. Against the teams after that again there are alot of goodies for HBA to drible past!

Doesn't he allready have 2-3 assists? Pretty good for a defensive minded midfielder imo. Especially in a team set up for either wingers or AM to get the assists.

Played well the lad. Expecting him to do better against lesser teams and hopefully he will take the opportunity against norwich and swansea after the big 3!

it's fine by me that we meet 3 good teams on the trot. So far only Raylor might have got a smack on his confidence. But he should learn from the incident with the 2nd goal and clear the ball in a hurry in such a situation. However we created a few opporunities against the best team in the league and now we got another two tuf opponents wich we can nothing but gain from. After those two matches the pressure is on to perform. But the players should look to get anything right now.

they still play with 3 very hardworking midfielders in a trio wich made it hard for our midfield to get any kind of play going.

In this game I would get HBA back in again. Their central midfield has been a wreck since cleverly got injured. And having 3 men in there would really get them something to think about. Let tiote follow rooney around and keep hernandez in offside. Fancy us having a go at their place.

Ben Arfa proved alot of points in the game imo. What he did was against probably the best defence in the league with de jong and yaya toure infront of them. Both whom are very capable defensive midfielders. What he did out there was class imo and what he could do against lesser teams playing with one less man in midfield is going to be wanktastic.

atleast he didn't cost us 35 millos )

This is essentially what I like about Pardew. He does everything down to the acadamy and up to the first team. He's so thorough in his work and is really determined to be a good premiership manager. Long may he be at the helm!

The tactic city deploys will see it hard for ben arfa despite his talent isn't up to match fitness, and beeing up against barry/toure at the same time wich will pack that area I think our best bet is down the wings. Getting on the end of a crosser could be problematic but both best and ba isn't scared of going in with their bodies to get on the end of a cross so might win a few on pure will power. Allthough, might be worth it to have HBA on the pitch just for the fact he will force players to watch him all the time as he just needs a split second to create that crucial chance.

With his performance of late I'm glad if its true, he is a really good replacement in midfield whenever suspensions, tiredness, ANC or whatever is on. And as first in line he can easily expect 15-20 games atleast during a season. When in europe pherhaps double that.

I'm starting to think more and more of having jonas and santon on the wings for defensive power, might even chuck guthrie in central midfield aswell and work out things to half time. Try to find a weak spot with Santon and Jonas bombing the wings. And switch it around for 2nd half.

I really think the best thing about him is, if he wasn't playing himself he would be in the stands screaming like a little girl every time the team scored. And that shows. Everytime we score he is one of the first over to celebrate. He loves the club and he truly loves it when we score. Deep in he will do whatever it takes to win matches for the club and that's really the only reason I miss Carroll in the B&W shirt aswell. When he was here he was just like stevie.

Pardew looked really strict talking to him before he came in. And probably knew he had to work his socks off and not dissapoint in the last minutes of the game.

anyone know where I can find post match inverviews if there was any?

The more he plays the more he seems to overtake Cabaye really. He is capable to spot those cross field passes up the wings. Aswell as working tremendously hard. Cabayes movement upfield is better though.

It's pretty much this. Just the way Chelsea plays. With Jonas in the ramirez role where he is a central midfielder in defence but moves up to link up in the hole/out wide for crosses when in attack. Really think he got the engine to do so.

Pardew will get it right!

Bestie plays a huge role in todays Newcastle. And I think I even mentioned that Ba liked to work off an even bigger man then himself when we signed him. As he was flourishing alongside CC in wham. What really concerns me about HBA is his lust to allways make something happend. And I especially think it would be alot better for him to not use his excellent dribbling skills all the time and just keep the ball in the team and explode into attack. Just like messi does. Playing a midfield trio is something we could do and many pherhaps would like to see. But that would be jonas playing into the midfield trio if we were to implement it to get all three of Ba, Best and HBA up top wich might have been ideal. It could work with Jonas, Tiote and Cabaye having immense amount of graft in them. We got a ball carrier through middle wich jones showed he can do against chelsea? or was it manu last season. I think it would be interesting as jonas could have much more of a free role. But implementing this would mean more attacking fullbacks and a high defensive line(wich we allready are using). To get the with and depth in attack. Would be a quite good formation with alot of problems to create for the opposition. What would worry me though would be the front trio not contributing an awfull lot in defense.

http://www.anfieldindex.com/3892/jose-enrique-premier-league-left-statistical-comparison.html#tb came across this while scrolling over other clubs forums. Quite a nice read regarding the statistics.

The stoke match was special in that case aswell. Best and Ba put in a tremendous effort defensively aswell as offensively. They were both down for all throw ins, free kicks and corners to add aerial power in our own box. They had to get all the way back up top and work against the biggest bullies in the league once again in attack. No wonder they were specially knackered at the 70 minute mark. Especially if he was ill from the start.

Tactics was spot on. Very good on Pardew.