BrettNUFC

Aye, he's really earned a start with his high-octane showing in the second half of the derby. I'd go with Remy Cisse Ben Arfa for the foreseeable future. Sick of trying different combinations with none of them settling in, choose a forward line and trust it.

Would actually help if we had a natural winger in our side who likes to get crosses in the box. Once again that's down to lack of transfer activity, i'm not saying Ben Arfa is incapable of putting a cross in the box, he was clearly going solo which was disappointing but at least he was giving it a good go unlike others on the pitch. If we don't learn quickly how to break a side down when they've got men back in numbers, the season isn't going to be pretty. We need to pick our front 3 and stick with it, chopping and changing game to game is not going to get us in any sort rhythm and no awareness for one another will be found. Then why suggest that tactic if we don't have the players to execute it? Because you would like to think if you tell Ben Arfa to get wide and whip a few crosses in, he would actually follow your instructions and give it a go. He's took matter into his own hands and done it his way. Sure he will have got a bollocking for it but it's just the type of player he is, he's capable of producing that moment of magic to win any game but nothing was paying off for him on Sunday, he couldn't even dribble a few yards without slipping and sliding, the ball is usually glued to his feet but it was like he never had it under control. Doesn't address what I said though does it? We dont have out and out wingers, sunderland were playing with 2 CB's who like to dominate aerially, but yeah lets whip crosses into to Cisse/Shola. Or is that all Ben Arfa's fault as well? I'm not blaming Ben Arfa at all, i thought he was one of a few players actually trying to win us the game. Just at times he picked up the ball centrally and had Santon out wide but was always delaying the pass by about 5 seconds, just wasn't quick enough, he had another off day but can't fault his effort. Was more p*ssed off with Remy the fact he didn't want to know, he's capable of coming deep for the ball but he wasn't interested.

Would actually help if we had a natural winger in our side who likes to get crosses in the box. Once again that's down to lack of transfer activity, i'm not saying Ben Arfa is incapable of putting a cross in the box, he was clearly going solo which was disappointing but at least he was giving it a good go unlike others on the pitch. If we don't learn quickly how to break a side down when they've got men back in numbers, the season isn't going to be pretty. We need to pick our front 3 and stick with it, chopping and changing game to game is not going to get us in any sort rhythm and no awareness for one another will be found. Then why suggest that tactic if we don't have the players to execute it? Because you would like to think if you tell Ben Arfa to get wide and whip a few crosses in, he would actually follow your instructions and give it a go. He's took matter into his own hands and done it his way. Sure he will have got a bollocking for it but it's just the type of player he is, he's capable of producing that moment of magic to win any game but nothing was paying off for him on Sunday, he couldn't even dribble a few yards without slipping and sliding, the ball is usually glued to his feet but it was like he never had it under control.

Passing it around them up to the box and having a few long rangers is no good man when they have the worst defence in the league. They had the much better chances. Dummet standing off and allowing Altiadoredore to nip in between him and Krul.Borini's meg of Krul before he scored. Before the first goal Krul was at full stretch to make a save from someone too. EDIT: Our best chance was a near own goal minutes from the end. I didn't think neither team created anything, both teams were relatively restricted to long range efforts but we were far better at keeping the ball then them, just once we moved the ball into the final 3rd our movement was terrible and never stretched them enough. Thought it was an awful game but we didn't deserve to lose and a draw would have been fair. Some people may think Sunderland were good value for their 3 points, that's entirely their own judgement. I just didn't see it that way, once we scored i thought we would go on to win it but it wasn't to be. No good looking by now thinking what might have been or could have been, tough games coming up fast and best to concentrate on them now. I've given you examples of what the Mackems did create though so you can't say they didn't do that. All were better chances than ours, so if anyone deserved the points it was them. They were rank anaarl. I would hope we are looking back at performances to learn from them. Our mistake was not looking back at the 3 nowt enough to see what a derby is about and taking revenge. You've mentioned Altidore nipping in as a chance, he wasn't even in control of the ball at any point. Was a nervy moment which was over in seconds. Krul did make an outstretched save but that was from a long ranger, Borini's was a decent chance but Krul made a hash of it really. I thought both sides carved out a couple of half chances at best, we had long range efforts, so did they, just one of theirs flew into the top corner, hard to take but it can happen.

Would actually help if we had a natural winger in our side who likes to get crosses in the box. Once again that's down to lack of transfer activity, i'm not saying Ben Arfa is incapable of putting a cross in the box, he was clearly going solo which was disappointing but at least he was giving it a good go unlike others on the pitch. If we don't learn quickly how to break a side down when they've got men back in numbers, the season isn't going to be pretty. We need to pick our front 3 and stick with it, chopping and changing game to game is not going to get us in any sort rhythm and no awareness for one another will be found.

I get the sense City will stroll to victory, 0-3. Although i fancy us to put on a better show on Saturday and get a draw. Be interesting tomorrow to see what team he decides to go with, he can't be making too many changes. I'd like to see Anita/Cisse/MYM come in but that would be about it for me.

Passing it around them up to the box and having a few long rangers is no good man when they have the worst defence in the league. They had the much better chances. Dummet standing off and allowing Altiadoredore to nip in between him and Krul.Borini's meg of Krul before he scored. Before the first goal Krul was at full stretch to make a save from someone too. EDIT: Our best chance was a near own goal minutes from the end. I didn't think neither team created anything, both teams were relatively restricted to long range efforts but we were far better at keeping the ball then them, just once we moved the ball into the final 3rd our movement was terrible and never stretched them enough. Thought it was an awful game but we didn't deserve to lose and a draw would have been fair. Some people may think Sunderland were good value for their 3 points, that's entirely their own judgement. I just didn't see it that way, once we scored i thought we would go on to win it but it wasn't to be. No good looking by now thinking what might have been or could have been, tough games coming up fast and best to concentrate on them now.

Breaking teams down and creating chances is the most important thing in football so you are talking s****. We struggled, Ben arfa had another poor game, wasn't through his lack of effort, nothing paid off for him. Remy just went missing, Gouffran just ran around doing nothing. When your three forwards aren't in the game, you're going to struggle and we did but we kept the ball well and kept plugging away, after our goal went in thought we would go on to win, think our players sensed that too but got done by a very good goal on the break, it can happen.

I'd argue all day and night that we didn't deserve lose yesterday, a draw would have been fair. We did play by far the better stuff but just couldn't break them down, the early goal meant we wouldn't be able to counter. Call me a WUM all you like but I'm not going to change my views on the back of one game. They beat us, great strike, fair play to them, but I'm not coming on here to slaughter our players.

Lured in, pricks! We still played by far the better football yesterday, first 10 minutes they had more desire and passion but they were just slogging through, we kept trying to play our football and took control of the game with our passing but once again struggled to create chances. We still haven't worked out what is our best forward line and that's worrying but it will come. We don't need major surgery to our side, need to stick with them. We got done yesterday by a great strike, it can happen. Typical of us though to lose to them when they played the worst football we've seen this season. More infuriating witnessing first hand just how bad they were and we lost. Don't think it's time to turn against the players though and start crying out for the manager to be sacked. Got tough games coming up and they need to show their team spirit, a couple of them need to realise they can't pick and choose when they fancy playing. A win on Wednesday would be a good start to getting over this, but it's another hurtful defeat yesterday, painful.

To be honest, he was generally shit along with the rest of the team last season, he was immense in this fixture last year but it was all downhill after that until he came back towards the end of the season in which he was a rock and led us to safety with a couple of superb displays. All in all though, a season to forget for him.

5 starts, 2 sub appearances and zero goals suggest to me he's not eating anybody for breakfast anytime soon. No need to worry about this striker just yet when he hasn't shown us anything to be frightened of in the PL, let alone eating one of our players for breakie.

The club, Pardew and Colo have done nothing wrong in the slightest. People just very quick to judge Pardew's man management, the club's lack of communication and Colo's commitment. Bit silly really but it's blown over now, hopefully he might be fit to make Sunday, great if so.

What difference does that make? None whatsoever is the answer to that. He's completely missed the point.

In other words...It's not our fault, the Independent lied to us, we don't really mean that about Colo now we know it's not true. Terrific support for your club captian right there.

Oh dear. Golden!!

I love Colo

If the player doesn't wish to explain his reasons, you respect his privacy. We don't hold any sort of right to know simply because we pay money to the club to watch them play. It's a game of football, it's their job, they can tell their problems to people inside the club but if they wish to hold that information from the fans they play in front of, that's well within their right and you just respect that, not doubt them. You can choose yourself in whether you wish to support them through there issues or not but criticising them for it is completely wrong imo.

I'm just not quick to criticise our club captain or manager for their decision making when i'm not sure of the exact causes are. If it turns out Jonas' 'personal reasons' are more serious than your current assumptions and Colo is out there supporting him, a few fans may be made to look very silly. We've lost Colo and Jonas for the derby but i'm sure they both would love to be playing in it as much as anyone.

Surely the club captain could defend him....oh wait! Nobody needs to defend anybody. Even without colo we have leaders in the dressing room who don't require Colo holding their hand telling them everything will be ok. He's injured, he's flew back to Argie, what's the big deal? Nobody was calling Ben Arfa when he spent months in Paris, players do sometimes go home when they injured, nothing new. People question his commitment for the cause but they weren't questioning that in the second half against Cardiff when he held us together and was excellent in getting us the 3 points required. Overall in his time here, he’s shown nothing but a first class attitude, yes his personal problems got in the way earlier this year but he’s come through that and knuckled down for us. No need to give him so much abuse. I'm a bit of a traditionalist at heart, and a club captain should be someone the rest of the squad look up to; will listen to and respect. Going back to Argentina prior to a game with our biggest local rivals, even whilst unfit to play, to me is f***ing totally wrong and what's more Pardew wants shooting for allowing it. Or the fact Jonas has went back for personal reasons, ever occurred Colo might be offering support with him in this difficult time? People do have lives outside of football and sometimes when put into perspective, the derby game isn't as important as offering his close friend support. Pardew may have found this totally acceptable as he is injured anyways so isn’t really in a position to massively affect the game on Sunday anyways and has allowed him to stay in Argie with Jonas.

Surely the club captain could defend him....oh wait! Nobody needs to defend anybody. Even without colo we have leaders in the dressing room who don't require Colo holding their hand telling them everything will be ok. He's injured, he's flew back to Argie, what's the big deal? Nobody was calling Ben Arfa when he spent months in Paris, players do sometimes go home when they injured, nothing new. People question his commitment for the cause but they weren't questioning that in the second half against Cardiff when he held us together and was excellent in getting us the 3 points required. Overall in his time here, he’s shown nothing but a first class attitude, yes his personal problems got in the way earlier this year but he’s come through that and knuckled down for us. No need to give him so much abuse.