TherealnorthernTOON

Cabs probably "injured" aswell then?

Just love how he keeps it simple, allways trying to be an out for the other players. I allways thought of him as a defensive player, but he has shown that he got a few words to tell further up the pitch aswell. Absolutely love him when he drops deep to pick it up from Krul though.

Don't get me wrong on this one, but as much as I love seeing this lad play it might be a blessing in disguise for a few of our other players. More often than not this season we've resorted to the "give the ball to Hatem and let him fix this for us" way of playing attacking football. With him beeing out for a couple of games might make someone else step up to the plate (like Anita have done the last couple of games), pherhaps Marveaux aswell if given the chance. What we might see is a team trying to bridge the gap between a team with a genius and a team without one so to speak.

Like today I can accept loosing to city when we play atleast some sort of exciting football that is neat to watch. If we carry on like this instead of that slump we were going earlier in the season I can see us pick up alot more points and get above midtable. Ambitions are certainly lowered, but top10 should be reachable.

Think Tiote was better today, then earlier atleast, not wasting as much possesion, alot of simple passes instead of the hollywood stuff he had going. Working to break up play and protect the back four.

really think defensively our left hand side was awfully during vast majority of the game. Both Colo and Santon had no control on the opposition. That aside I really think we played good parts during that game, but jonas comes out the looser yet again, offers little both defensively and offensively. Anita is starting to look the act wich is a bonus, great work rate and seems to be available for the pass rather often aswell.

It isn't exactly the norm for a team to go from a strong 4th place finish to relegation in a season. You talk like the squad haven't been invested in for several years. We aren't the first of better clubs to get it wrong in the transfermarket and we certainly won't be the last. What matters is how we rectify it in the upcomming one.

It is quite evident that Cisse is not on the same wavelenght as the supply. More often then not the final pass to him is timed badly. At times he stops his run before the pass as he deems the chance scoundered for him, at times he has ran to far as the pass never came. Playing the game he likes requires alot of the supply line and that is hampered by confidence.

In after thought, I really think Pardew did what he could until swapping HBA out of the game. You could tell Tiote had gotten a telling after the ambitious misspasses in the first half and he was far more conservative in the second. We did try to pass it around, but that kind of game doesn't come naturally after such a dreadfull run with players low on confidence. Especially when you have some very static players in the mix aswell as some who can't string a few passes together.

He might be, but he is a dominant character, making people move forward to enhance his playmaking skills. Think he would suit very well with our strikers and HBA. Might even be able to solve our staticness when going forward. Edit: and he's quite a tall and strong fellow aswell, wich isn't a negative.

Guess it's some time since Taarabt was linked with us now? Think he would be an astonishing player in the current team.

One of the reasons we did have that good spell was our fullbacks beeing pushed up. When they are pushed up like that the wingers doesn't have huge amount of space to run into without beeing under pressure. Usually Pardew just lets the fullbacks stay far back, and we are easily counterd at. Why on earth doesn't he let his fullbacks push up?

Should know when he has overstayed his welcome. Stay in London you cnut.

Hope he atleast saw how a proper fluid 4-4-2 works.

Offers nothing, nothing offensively, nothing defensively. Looked like he wanted the game to end when the kickoff whistle went.

What also annoys the heck out of me is the long ball antics to a lone forward when there are obvious passing options in the inbetweenspaces for HBA etc. just looks so terrible and stupid.

tiote is a disaster waiting to happen, defensive position has been astrious, walkint through like he ain't even there at times. And is passing ain't even worth mentioning. Aside from that the whole side lacks aggression, just look at the oposition, got presence, pressuring all over the place etc. the team is just in a shambles atm.

Got a hunch that the person on the picture ain't HBA.

hard as nuts

Had forgotten how fast Nile is.

Tiote today takes way too many chances. Remember at last game one particular situation where he rather turned a player with brute force instead of the easy option of a backpass. It was such a silly thing to do and is one of the things that really buggers me about him nowdays.

An ok player when full of confidence playing in a team full of confidence, take that away and he's more or less just a pole.

Really think he did alot of good defensively on order to fill in for missing CM's when they were in more advanced positions.

Another win could see us build some confidence before the big games. Hopefully we can snatch a draw of one or two!

Why not ask him to grow about a foot while hes at it? You know you can have a strong core whilst still be small...