Jack Flash

Clutching at straws a bit here, but Pardew might be trying to milk every last goal out of Ba we can get before January, when few of us would be surprised if he left. Then we'll switch to Cisse as the main man and use the Ba fee to fill the spot on the left. That's not wishful thinking but I can see that happening.

I didn't enjoy the Championship season as much as I thought I would. Don't know if it was because we were winning every home game easily or if it was because we were beating teams full of players I've never heard of, but something was missing. The ups and downs keep it interesting to me. Things like waking up to see we've sacked Hughton for no reason or that we almost got into the Champions League last year are just so unpredictable that it's fascinating. Seeing Man Utd in another title race with minimal off-field fuss MUST be boring after a while.

I feel a bit sorry for him. We probably Cabaye'd him into signing

Found myself changing that (2:23) to "Demba Ba, Demba Ba Ba Ba". I can't undo it now

It's definitely both (player + manager). It's the same with Cisse; not playing to his strengths but he's playing absolutely s*** anyway. Ba's somehow manifested seven goals out of our limp attack so far. Cisse's got no excuses for basic footballing attributes completely abandoning him, in the same way Cabaye's got no excuse for letting his poor mentality getting the better of him and him fading out of games. Agree with that. Some players just aren't pulling their weight and it exacerbates the other problems we're having. For all the criticism about Nolan needing the team built around him there's plenty of talk in here about Cabaye needing something similar.

There's far too many excuses being made for Cabaye this season. It can't be his fault! It can't be!

Anita's a plan B? Tiote and Cabaye are the starters when available and that won't change. Anita is even sometimes behind Perch*. He was a strange signing and it's an even stranger one now we've seen how we're playing. edit - *add Jonas and Bigi to that too.

West Ham are currently 6th. 4 points ahead of us. They've just beaten us. At home. Nolan scored the winner. (plus their goal difference is +3 when ours is -3) Yep and West Ham are going to stay there all season They're there now and that's all they can do. Avoiding relegation is their aim and they've probably already done that by November.

He scored a winner yesterday and played Carroll through for a 1 on 1. No idea what Cabaye did. Nolan's goals will keep West Ham up. Same as his goals helped them get promoted last year so he's far from "extremely limited". I shouldn't need to say what he did for us. He has a role in lower to mid table team and is a good player at that level. But I'm afraid he is a limited footballer. He is slow, unfit and not that good technically. What he has in his favour is that he is positionally good and is a good finisher. But where do you play him? He can't play in a midfield two. You have to build a team around him and hope that his 10 goals is worth it. If we had a manager who could operate different formations/systems he'd be a very useful player. Most teams rotate their system and certain players for certain games but we either don't or can't. We're as predictable as any team in the league at the minute and our only plan B is bring on Shola. Having a different game plan as a plan B seems like a luxury when it's the norm at most clubs. How many people, without irony or sarcasm, though Nolan would score yesterday? The pre-match thread is full of that and he's still written off despite doing what we all said he'd do. Not sure any club would want to give their 29 year old Plan B a five year contract with wages of 50k a week. There wouldn't be a set plan A and a plan B if used correctly. Whatever system fits the next game would be plan A. If we're talking paying loads for a plan B then i'll meet you in the Anita thread.

West Ham are currently 6th. 4 points ahead of us. They've just beaten us. At home. Nolan scored the winner. (plus their goal difference is +3 when ours is -3)

He scored a winner yesterday and played Carroll through for a 1 on 1. No idea what Cabaye did. Nolan's goals will keep West Ham up. Same as his goals helped them get promoted last year so he's far from "extremely limited". I shouldn't need to say what he did for us. He has a role in lower to mid table team and is a good player at that level. But I'm afraid he is a limited footballer. He is slow, unfit and not that good technically. What he has in his favour is that he is positionally good and is a good finisher. But where do you play him? He can't play in a midfield two. You have to build a team around him and hope that his 10 goals is worth it. If we had a manager who could operate different formations/systems he'd be a very useful player. Most teams rotate their system and certain players for certain games but we either don't or can't. We're as predictable as any team in the league at the minute and our only plan B is bring on Shola. Having a different game plan as a plan B seems like a luxury when it's the norm at most clubs. How many people, without irony or sarcasm, though Nolan would score yesterday? The pre-match thread is full of that and he's still written off despite doing what we all said he'd do.

He scored a winner yesterday and played Carroll through for a 1 on 1. No idea what Cabaye did. Nolan's goals will keep West Ham up. Same as his goals helped them get promoted last year so he's far from "extremely limited". I shouldn't need to say what he did for us.

Don't agree with the first bit at all. When a player isn't pulling their weight consistently, they'll be criticised like everybody else. Cabaye (at home) has been largely anonymous all season. He stands next to his midfield partner almost all game and his corners are mostly awful. Not that I disagree about the second bit, but we scored twice in the Reading game which is rare for us.

We crossed the ball in from wide areas far more than West Ham did so he'd have certainly been more effective for us than them. His back was to our goal for most of the game and there's only so much you can do in that position.

Agree with this. We shouldn't be having a discussion about Ba either being on the wing or leaving, if only because he's not a winger. We wouldn't be anywhere near the level we are now without him and his goals when we needed them most last season. Finding a way to make these 2 work together would paper over loads of cracks, especially this season, and it should be the priority of the manager/coaches.

He's playing far too deep and I don't think that's because he's made a decision to play that way. He plays much better when he's getting into the opposition box and he'll not do that on the edge of our box. He is allowed to get forward, like in the examples you quoted above. There is no link between midfield and the forwards and I put this down to Cabaye more than anyone else. If the ball gets smashed forward he should push up. It's common sense. Jonas playing behind him today should have freed him up to go forward more but he didn't bother.

The Williams Way.

Not good enough, bro. wudunt work in are sistem.

Of course it's with hindsight, with hindsight we'd be worse off without him. The players aren't the problem, the way that we play is. The players will become as much of a problem as our playing style because it will become so ingrained that they'll struggle to change if it goes on for much longer. We'd only be worse off without Cabaye as there's nobody else to take his place. His lack of dominance/effect on most games leads to us losing the midfield, which is a huge part in why we're playing badly. We look so much better when he turns up but that's not very often.

http://www.whoateallthepies.tv/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/Danny-Boy-Simpson.png It's all he can do. No pace or power on any cross.

We created nothing in the first half. That's not Cisse's fault.

Should we have dropped Cabaye before the Liverpool game when he turned a defeat into a draw? Should we have dropped Cabaye before the mackem game when de did the same thing? Should we have dropped him before the Everton game where he played a class ball through to Ba when Ba went on to score? That's all with hindsight. He's massively underperformed almost all season and he'd have been dropped if we had another good player in his position (and a manager with a backbone). The nearest player is Gosling and he's both not very good and injured.

Some players know they're guaranteed a game due to the lack of talent in the squad and that can only breed laziness. Cabaye should have been dropped months ago but there's nobody who can come in. When Cisse/Ba come off it's Shola, a player who hasn't "worked" in over 10 years. Next summer should be interesting, one way or the other, with all that extra money coming in.

Inters away record in the league this season: Played 6 won 6 scored 14 conceded 2. I bet on them... 1-0 down in 10minutes http://i50.tinypic.com/20iui3d.jpg

Him diving last season and then missing that 1 on 1 today summed him up perfectly since he left. We should be well shot of him with the 2 strikers we've got. Incidentally, it was a very good ball by Nolan to set Carroll away. Shame he's not good enough for us though.