Mole_Toonfan

True, the off the ball movement is one of the biggest issues.

Well yeah, there's a few issues but actually passing the ball on the ground so we can get our best players into the game would be a start.

Aye, but personally to make that work some width would be required.... one of the problems we have atm is the lack of width.

That will never work while the RB provides no width.

Might want to stop hoofing it and ignoring the entire midfield and watching the opponent's CB's winning the ball everytime and the ball just comes back again then.

Still don't understand tbh, Santon looks comfortable and been one of our best players and even when he has played RB on the odd ocassions in his career he looks worse if anything. I agree Fergie should play but it should be in midfield and i really can't see Jonas being dropped.

Swap Cabaye and Ben Arfa and i'm with you 100%

I'm not convinced it's the system that's the main issue atm. It's as soon as we get the ball hoof it to Cisse or Ba, Cisse and Ba playing deeper than the wingers, absolutely no off the ball movement from anyone and the fact we have no balance that are the main issues.

He's no fullback for me, he's definitely a winger and we are not going to drop Jonas so....

They definitely can't play together with the constant hoofing anyway.

Not at the moment, but having said that i could not live without it.

Cabaye was a massive miss today but we was awful in general not withstanding that. Anyway i think we can make 4-4-2 work( i obviously would rather we didn't use it) the main problem is the blatant lack of balance and the fact everytime we hoof to Ba and Cisse it just comes back again. If we actually played through the midfield and use the wings while passing on the floor it could work. So yeah hoofing and no balance

I'll take that tbh.

I don't think people are grasping the difference between outright negativity and not believing in the manager and positive criticism of how we can improve. There's nothing wrong with criticising the manager no matter how well he does there's always room for improvement. Because someone criticises the manager doesn't mean we think he isnt good enough etc etc everyone want's the best for us and see's what we need to improve some positive criticism doesn't hurt anyone. For example, yes we finished 5th last season but i for one would like to see a better standard of football, better set pieces and actually play well for more than 45 minutes. Doesn't mean i'm not backing the manager or want him out just that i see what we need to improve and would like to see the manager implement it. None the less i'm confident in the long term we will see all those things come to pass.

Would be at all surprised considering Pard's comments about Williamson and how he should'nt have played in the week, if we see Perch at CB, Anita at RB and Bigi alongside Tiote. Not exactly ideal but i wouldn't be surprised.

Usual behaviour down here. Kabul is an improvement. Aye they'd certainly concede less goals with him in the centre of defence.

Actually pisses me off thinking about it

i actually wanted him to make a success of it in the end

Loving this Steve Kean on and off saga me

Would be at all surprised considering Pard's comments about Williamson and how he should'nt have played in the week, if we see Perch at CB, Anita at RB and Bigi alongside Tiote. Not exactly ideal but i wouldn't be surprised.

16m Another player that could be going to Africa in January Uncertainty surrounding Ba

Aye, no one expects to match the fees of the top 4 or even the likes of Spurs and Liverpool. What we do expect is be able to pay for the likes of Debuchy and Douglas etc etc because we all know damn well that isn't outside our reach. What we hoped was we used last season as a platform to go further rather than using last season to maintain success instead of improving. I personally feel top 5 is a real opportunity, i don't consider Everton and Spurs to be better than us and we have more dangerous forwards than they do so we can win games without playing well where as maybe they can't as much. Despite the disappointing summer i'm still very confident of repeating last season and solidify our status as a top 6 team, then we will have to see where the board will go from there. And no the assessment of how desperately we needed improvements isn't up for debate, if we achieve 5th again it will be down to using the Europa League as a learning experience for the kids rather than a legitimate push at trying to win it and getting lucky with Injuries. We still are very short in 3 or 4 areas, this isn't up for debate if we are successful it will be down to Pardew managing what we have exceedingly well rather than the squad being strong enough not to need 3 or 4 quality additions.

Everton? don't get me wrong they have improved but i still would'nt swap our team for theirs. Personally we should expect to finish above Everton, Chelsea are far ahead due to thier ridiculous spending but Everton? nah not for me. What are you on about man? Who cares about those clubs? We should look to continuously improve ourselves. That's it. Nothing else to it.

Top 4 is unrealistic IMO, but repeating last years success is a definite possibility. Spurs and Everton are not better than us IMO and Liverpool are shite.