loki679

We don't have the players to effectively provide width in a 4-4-2. If we had a quality left winger who could put a cross in and hug the touchline then it might work but as things stand the only player of that ilk close to the first team is little Fergie. I think we naturally look better in a 4-3-3 because it plays to our squad's strengths. We should be picking the formation to suit the players at our disposal, not choosing a formation and then shoehorning players in where we can.

Not sure about this really. I don't think it's by any means certain he'll stay with us at the end of the season. If QPR get promoted then he can go back there, still play in the premiership and be on a salary about double what we would pay him.

There are many ways you can use blind and Jonas in the same sentence, 'blind alley', 'like a blind man', 'blind drunk' but 'blinder' is not one of the usual suspects.

We actually had more points after our first 6 games last season.

Love it when people miss a joke and come in with a massively OTT reaction. Glad someone got the message at least.

That's fucking dire. I hope he'll wake up soon and realise he's inviting pressure onto us with his negative tactics, not tightening us up as he intends. Some positive tactical points this season at least and he's looked to go a bit more offensive, we can only hope the Everton game was a bit of a brain fart and he goes back to the Villa formation and lineup and sticks with it. edit: Just had a look at our stats so far this season and the goals per game and goals against per game are 1.16 and 1.83 respectively. No change basically.

That's it Alan, cross your fingers and hope.

So if the opposition had a left back who might be a particular threat going forward you'd want HBA up against him to pin him back a bit and give him something to worry about? Of course. How can a full-back be more of a threat than an attacking midfielder or forward anyway, especially one as talented as Ben Arfa? One for Pardew to answer... Really? You wouldn't play players out of position and adopt a defensive stance to try and nullify the threat? This is mind blowing stuff, we're re-writing the rulebook here.

So if the opposition had a left back who might be a particular threat going forward you'd want HBA up against him to pin him back a bit and give him something to worry about?

I never said it JFK being anywhere near our club made sense, just that in our circus of a management team it's within this particular clown's remit.

If Ashley wanted Kinnear in to be his ears and eyes on the football side as he himself isn't too clued up on the intricacies of the professional game then it makes sense that JFK would be there.

Well it must be testing their creativity by now at least.

The big question is after the stadium renaming, JFK, etc etc, what the fuck can they do now? Surely they're out of crap they can dump on us by now.....

Window licker Ryder was wrong? Good heavens, whatever next?

Top swearing. Don't you have lizard people to blog about? http://i.imgur.com/wjANVCD.jpg

Don't think you're allowed to say that. It's all getting a little bit minority report. I'm working myself up into a rage cos he trod on my foot in 3 years time.

Maybe we should wait until he actually does it before we crucify him for it

Couple of changes there. If we're going 4-4-2 i'd think that could be a likely line-up. Maybe HBA for Gouff but i'm undecided whether he'll bench him or not. I wouldn't be surprised if he did but neither if he started. I think more likely to go to 4-2-3-1 (4-5-1 the way we play it) such as: Cisse Remy Cabaye Gouffran or HBA Jonas Tiote Santon Colo Willo Debuchy Krul Could just as easily see Anita in there for Jonas. He could do fucking anything to be honest, not a lot would surprise me and that's the biggest worry of all.

We'll probably play a goalkeeper tbf

You guys need to stop over-reacting, it's not like we're in the bottom three.

We've had a lot of stats thrown at us recently and none of them have meant a damned thing because they took only a small part of the game in isolation. The point of this game is to score more goals than the opposition and ultimately get more points than the opposition. I hate stats, they just don't show the full picture of a complex dance which is a football match. Over time, as the sample size increases, there may be broad conclusions you can draw from the raw numbers taken in concert with each other but they will never replace what you see with your own eyes. We are football fans, not mathematicians. Numbers can never replicate the depth of understanding we get from just watching a game. How do you blend together a stat on long balls played with shots on target with aerial duels won with tackles made in the defensive third with number of corners with pass completion with number of offsides with number of foul throws with number of dogs on the pitch? You can't. And yet that's what we do every time we watch a game. There is no number that can tell you the picture yet there are hundreds of thousands of fans who have assessed every little thing you have calculated and more, blended them in a way you will never be able to and reached a conclusion based on all the evidence, not just a select sample. We don't need numbers to tell us what we're seeing.

Why? Because Ivorian defensive midfielders aren't usually noted for their ballroom dancing skills.

Depends how he sets us up to play (obviously). That high line is suicidal for us and he needs to manage the space between the defence and midfield better. Stick with the formation from the Villa game, keep HBA on the right and Remy on the left with Gouff in the middle (quickly becoming a big fan of his) and we should be able to hurt them. The defence needs sorting out, like. Total circus last couple of games and he needs to address that on the training field and the tactics board. Anita has to start ahead of Tiote for me and play Sissoko in his natural box to box role. Cabaye is probably the best option for the tip of the midfield three and he was in decent form yesterday but I wouldn't be overly upset if we tried someone else in there. If we play to our strengths and don't worry overly about them I can see us taking three points, 1-2 maybe or even 0-2 however if he shits the bed and goes full retard again it'll be a different story.

That Barkley looks decent.