TherealnorthernTOON

Could be absolutely relative though. He just came back from a 1year 2 month injury. That he is back to training as a professional footballer is good in itself. It takes time to get the condition up. And people who has been out of training for a sustansial period of time know what happends with your mind when you get really tired and use most of your focus to move your feet around. He is a professional footballer and it's expected from him to have physical condition good enough to play games and still be awake. But he's been out. Lets respect it and for me? hope he can really make an impact on our play from christmas out. His playstyle aswell and dribbling also is alot down to what the defender does as he isn't a ronaldo esque show off dribler type and more of an suarez/messi dribler type wich uses what stance the defender allready got to his advantage. It will come back once he regain his fully fitness.

This is actually a game I would want us to line up like this: krul Santon/simmo Taylor, Cini, Raylor/Santon Tiote Cabaye Gosling Marveaux Gutierrez Ba/best Reason? A small pitch against a clogger side is perfect to pack midfield. We got pace and trickery along the wings wich should give their static fullbacks something to work on. Ba or best should lead the line and pressure the oponent on their backfoot as the most offensive midfield duo tries to get along in attack. Another reason is, Gosling got more height as does Santon. Defo needs to play. Hell might even swap willo for coloccini, but injury problems is a hindreance. Because the of the small pitch our midfielders will practically be almost offensive midfielders aswell and should have no problemo traveling the distance to get to the box area. We know cabaye got a good finishing and is unlucky to not have more goals in his tally so far this season. Best/Ba can score out of almost anything. What will be key is to get the ball in the channels in this game and be more of a hindreance to stokes play then they allready are themself.

If there's one criticism I have of Krul, it's his reluctance to get the ball out to the full backs quickly... though to be fair I'm sure that's due in part to who the full backs are. If you looked left and right, saw Simpson hiding and Raylor beeing 3 ft from a languishing walters would you throw the ball to a fullback? doubt it. One of the reasons why we have to punt it long is because our fullbacks aren't capable ballplayers enough.

I wonder, who was the guy Cabaye ran to to celebrate his goal?

Actually taking the liking for Diame quite abit. He's a good footballer, strong and quick aswell. Should try to punt him seeing as he only got a year left on his contract.

It was quite evident though. When you play with 1 forward, you have til fill up with players around that box and cabaye did it very well trying to link up with hba. Hba just him alot but seems like he ain't up to speed yet misplacing a few passes. But he sees the space everytime. He's quick with his feet. But he hasn't touched a ball in so long you can see how he misplaces his own touches. When he carries the ball you can see it isn't your normal kick it ahead of you touch. It more looks like he touches it infront of him with good speed but with a bit of a undertwist making it stop much earlier. It makes our players surprised alot it seems when he gives the ball to them. At the same time when carrying the ball he gets far more touches of it.

The funniest thing when HBA gets the ball really is, that all our players even just stands still looking what he is going to do next much like oposition defenders are. Because they got no real clue at all and they allways seem surprised at the fact that he just pushes the ball into a space for them wich they didn't think was possible. This is also where he right now looses the ball at times. But when our players know they just has to position themself to tap it in HBA will shine through everything.

Didn't really controll his turns that well, often kicked the ball too far ahead of himself getting cought in posession

I really concurr with the above post about signing a left back to be top priority. So far Best has shown tremendous form, allways works himself into the box, same with Demba Ba. What we need is more attacking fullbacks who knows how to drill inn a cross and is comfortable defensively. Up top we got two adequate strikers, with ben arfa to mix into it along with Sammy and Vuckic as direct contenders to get gametime. Shola Ameobi can make a shift in at times aswell. And at a crisis situation I fully believe Marveaux could take the Ben Arfa spot and relish in it, looks a class act around that box area.

Ben Arfa is pretty much the player wich holds onto the ball. Keeps it until he sees something he can do to create a goal opportunity. I think playing him through the middle requires us to have way more advanced wingers then we have now. They should be sniffing at their backline allready when he gets the ball. Ben Arfa himself has to make time for himself and start the movement by leading the ball to a place where space opens up. This is where he will relish imo. Where he draws out players from the central line to take the ball from him and he punts it on into the little space left by the defenders for wingers/ba to slot in.

I really got this feeling that Pardew is trying to get him to beeing a more of a traditional winger flying down the right hand flank. Obviously because he got the speed to do so. But during games he looks far more comfortable running inside then outside. If Pardew succeed with that intention over the autumn he could become a very different player alltogether. But who knows? will he be able to? he seems rather uncomfortable when he is going outside down the flank tbf.

The next game is going to be vital for him I would believe. He could very well be dropped for a few games if he doens't perform against wigan. And rightly so, Wigan is a team I expect us to really put up against, atleast with their current form and our wingers will have to be lethal going forward in this game.

Just don't feel he's the right kind of player for us at this moment. If we we're to bring in another player like this type he has to be better in every aspect as compared to best and ba. What we lack more of is a luiz suarez, andy johnson type. Little player with strenght and good close control running tirelessly around the box for a finish. Mostly just to get use of all the creativity we have around the midfield.

Think none of us will live too see the results.

tiote > masch though.

Haven't really seen him in game, but according to the youtube clips I'm not directly impressed. Seems to be a good header of the ball though and manages rather often to create power behind his headers. Got kinda flairish movement aswell but looks rather wimsy.

And so it has begun, yet another player "too good to play in the northeast"-media spunk.

Pretty much, wigan game would be a perfect game to accomodate Ben Arfa, but can we afford it if he's so far off match fitness as it looks? he didn't really look sharp at all and wanted far too much. A full 90 minutes winning against Wigan would maybe give him the rest he will need to get back to what he was good at? On the other hand this type of game is where I would expect Best to have a walk in the park with his current form and playing him, curse me for saying this, I believe we would have more of a safe chance of nicking the victory. Might be good to try to get BeA in at around 60 minute mark to rest one of either Ba or Best for the next fixtures though. Fully expect him to get minutes regardless.

I feel confident in Pardew selecting a team wich will give us a result we want. The club has taken leaps last year with him in charge and right now he got my full loyalty to make the right decisions in the regards of selection.

There are a few differences in the few mintues I saw Santon on the pitch as opposed to Simpson. Better going forward, by alot. Got a few tricks up his sleeve to not be pushed into a corner. And aswell what has bugged me alot with regards to Simpson is his backtracking after a forward run, more often then not he jogs back beeing far too late to get home when the ball is lost. Santon was sprinting like a maniac back to his position.

He's been tremendous so far. And tbf i'm quite satisfied as he's the only player we bought this summer I was a 100% sure would take the league by storm. However I do blame him abit for the first goal as it was his sloppyness leading to the goal. Glad it didn't affect his game though and he went on to have a brilliant game come end of it.

I really think people should keep more faith in him. He got tons of talent going forward. And according to last game he does have qualities tracking back aswell. Hopefully with a few more games and more directions from the coaching staff they can get more out of him. He will skin almost every below top6 winger in the league. He poses an arial treath aswell and got trickery. He drifts inside alot though and often got cought out with two or more persons around him. Despite this happening alot last I really think we will see a better Obertan come spring when his manure farse is totally over and he's enjoying himself again. Don't know if you've seen it in his lost eyes but to me it looks like he's enjoying himself more and more. And its better that he actually tries and looses the ball then hide himself where people can't pass it to him. Afterall he got the pace and trickery, one day it will just say click in his head and he will terrorize alot of fullbacks.

Anyone else had an Arsenal flashback when tiote fired the shot?

Some of that has to be attributed to us being massively lucky, though (dodgy ref decisions in our favour, etc). Pardew was basically playing the same system Hughton had setup when he took over in any case and only started changing it this season, so Hughton does deserve a little more credit for handing Pardew a team that was basically good enough to take care of itself. Also I think Enrique would have stayed if Hughton stayed. Why? The twits he posted after Hughton's sacking + gut feeling. totally relevant, must be true.

To me he really looks knackered around 60 minute mark. He usually does quite well tracking back at start of games etc. But as the game goes on he stops. Think pardew had him on the pitch because of the pace he has on the counter and actually swapped loven and obertan at one point during the wolves game because of this. It't quite clear that Pardew cherish his pace. And imo he's getting better at using it as the games goes by. But his fitness levels aren't top notch yet. Dunno if he'll ever be a hardworker for 90 minutes ever. But seemingly he hasn't played first team footie for a couple of years and might need some time to get back in it again. Once he really gets going I do bet we'll see even more direct play with a little trickery and goodies. Bet his crossing ability will be worked at alot aswell. He got all the tools to be a top notch winger pissing on right backs in the league getting us alot of goals in the comming years. And he came here for a pittance. It's a good signing, we just need to get his fitness and confidence levels up imo.