Nobody Posted December 10, 2015 Share Posted December 10, 2015 Assume the quotes regarding Aarons and Tiote being "days away" means that they are days away from their next injury. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
TRon Posted December 10, 2015 Share Posted December 10, 2015 Cabaye wins the ball a good amount. He's not quick across the ground but he reads the game well. Holds position well and times his runs forward smartly. On average, he makes the 3rd most interceptions in the league behind Koscielny and Kante. Stop comparing him to fucking Jack Colback. Colback just runs around for the sake of it chasing shadows. Cabaye was effective alongside Tiote because the two of them could defend well against 3 midfielders and Cabaye had that bit of class to get us going forward. Cabaye's great for a team on the counter. 1 touch to get the ball out of his feet and he's playing it into space for forward players accurate as hell. I don't think Cabaye and Tiote worked very well as a midfield pair personally. I think the good results were more down to defending deep and nicking games with a bit of magic. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest reefatoon Posted December 10, 2015 Share Posted December 10, 2015 Have to agree there Tron. I used to hate how deep Cabaye went, which always made Tiote move further forward, which was never ideal. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ronaldo Posted December 10, 2015 Share Posted December 10, 2015 That's because he rightly had no confidence in Tiote receiving the ball from the defence. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest reefatoon Posted December 10, 2015 Share Posted December 10, 2015 Exactly, just proves the point they didn't work well together. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Collage Posted December 10, 2015 Share Posted December 10, 2015 Maybe they weren't a perfect match but they complemented each other quite well. I'd say Tiote benefitted greatly and played his best football here alongside Cabaye. In many games, particularly in the 11-12 season I guess, they both stood out as our best players. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ronaldo Posted December 10, 2015 Share Posted December 10, 2015 Only if you discount (at the very least) Krul, Cisse, Ba and Ben Arfa. Our midfield wasn't great that season at all. We seldom controlled games and were totally reliant on the back 4 keeping things tight and those up top spinning straw into gold. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Gomez Posted December 10, 2015 Share Posted December 10, 2015 It's easy to forget how good Tiote was in his first couple of seasons with us and that Cabaye's best form only came when he was playing for a move. He was always good, but quiet quite a lot of the time and , as far as I remember, didn't really dominate games like he did at his best. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nobody Posted December 10, 2015 Share Posted December 10, 2015 Only if you discount (at the very least) Krul, Cisse, Ba and Ben Arfa. Our midfield wasn't great that season at all. We seldom controlled games and were totally reliant on the back 4 keeping things tight and those up top spinning straw into gold. This isn't even a debate, is it? We all know the football for the most part during that season was poor and we were saved by a defence doing very well and Ba and Cisse scoring from out of nowhere. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Posted December 10, 2015 Share Posted December 10, 2015 Do I need to say that was a sarcastic comment? Wasn't on about you. McClaren's comment. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
The College Dropout Posted December 11, 2015 Share Posted December 11, 2015 I don't think a midfield in a flat 4-4-2 is ever going to dominate possession unless they are way better than the opposition. Like a Watford now. Best they can do is protect the defence and get the ball to the front players in good positions. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
The College Dropout Posted December 11, 2015 Share Posted December 11, 2015 I would say we controlled most games that season but on the back foot. We where rarely over run and desperate. Most of the wins where by narrow score lines but comfortable. Even in games like Swansea away where we had little of the ball we where comfortable defending and dangerous in attack. Tiote and Cabaye besides Pellegrini Man City sides are the only 442 midfielders to succeed in the last few years. As a two - especially defensively. They where great. Didn't dominate possession but the team wasn't intended to do so most of the time. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrmojorisin75 Posted December 11, 2015 Share Posted December 11, 2015 you say that lest sentence like Pardew had a plan Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yorkie Posted December 11, 2015 Share Posted December 11, 2015 That comment about the Europa is as bad as any of the shite Pardew ever came out with on the subject. Defeatest bullshit and just plain incorrect. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ronaldo Posted December 11, 2015 Share Posted December 11, 2015 I think it's become the mantra of the managerial fraternity to disparage the Europa League at every given opportunity. They all (with a few exceptions) seem to hate the format. Can't wholeheartedly blame them, if I'm honest. It's become a completely shit tournament in the past decade. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
AyeDubbleYoo Posted December 12, 2015 Share Posted December 12, 2015 It's not really the fault of individual managers or clubs that staying in the Premier League (or a Champions League place) now eclipses everything else. The structure of the game has been allowed to get out of whack. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Interpolic Posted December 12, 2015 Share Posted December 12, 2015 Aye they need to do something to make the Europa League important again like. If they're really intent on the Champions League being the be-all-and-end-all then they should do something that makes the Europa League become more of a gateway to that tournament, for example cutting back the automatic league qualification positions (3 maximum in each country) and say that those teams that make the Europa League quarters get a CL 2nd last qualifying round place, semi-finalists get a place in the final qualifying round, and finalists get into the groups (the winner seeded). This would be a way to mix things up and fast track good European teams to the main competition. Spread the money around in other words. And get rid of the group stuff as it's been a disaster, make it a UEFA cup-style knockout competition. Also have the matches on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, let's not pretend many watch on Thursdays anyway. Get it on terestrial TV when the competition has been given more value. Both the group setup and the Thursday kick-offs that are not hyped whatsoever compared to the hype-machine of the CL has made the competition an after-thought. It used to be a big deal, the Cup Winners Cup was a bit of a joke by the end but even that was better than this is. I'd actually prefer a more extreme version of the above where there was a max of 2 qualifiers in each country and the other competition(s) were given more worth, but something like that would be a decent start. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hughesy Posted December 12, 2015 Share Posted December 12, 2015 I still think they should have a play off between 4th place in the league and the FA Cup winners to get the last Champions League place. It would mean people would take the FA Cup more seriously, could potentially make the CL less of a closed shop and, if they insist on the whole 39th game thing, make that play off the 39th game. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
loki679 Posted December 12, 2015 Share Posted December 12, 2015 And get rid of the group stuff as it's been a disaster, make it a UEFA cup-style knockout competition. This. 2 leg knockout all the way to the final. Maybe have one off semis at neutral venues too. Might not have the glamour of the CL but it would be a great competition for the fans. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
STM Posted December 12, 2015 Share Posted December 12, 2015 I would say we controlled most games that season but on the back foot. We where rarely over run and desperate. Most of the wins where by narrow score lines but comfortable. Even in games like Swansea away where we had little of the ball we where comfortable defending and dangerous in attack. Tiote and Cabaye besides Pellegrini Man City sides are the only 442 midfielders to succeed in the last few years. As a two - especially defensively. They where great. Didn't dominate possession but the team wasn't intended to do so most of the time. I'm sorry but you can't control a game on the back foot. If you are on the back foot, you certainly can't be in control of the game. I'd argue that you can't even control the game with a defensive tactic, unless you are very good at retaining possession. Pardew never had a plan, other than to stop the opposition and it rarely worked. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
hakka Posted December 12, 2015 Share Posted December 12, 2015 And get rid of the group stuff as it's been a disaster, make it a UEFA cup-style knockout competition. This. 2 leg knockout all the way to the final. Maybe have one off semis at neutral venues too. Might not have the glamour of the CL but it would be a great competition for the fans. Agree with moving to knockouts like this. Also want to remove the CL dropout to this competition too. Fucking hate it that a big club can do shit at CL and get a chance in another tournament. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
loki679 Posted December 12, 2015 Share Posted December 12, 2015 And get rid of the group stuff as it's been a disaster, make it a UEFA cup-style knockout competition. This. 2 leg knockout all the way to the final. Maybe have one off semis at neutral venues too. Might not have the glamour of the CL but it would be a great competition for the fans. Agree with moving to knockouts like this. Also want to remove the CL dropout to this competition too. Fucking hate it that a big club can do shit at CL and get a chance in another tournament. Aye, that's absurd. Imagine getting knocked out of the FA cup and getting parachuted into the later stages of the League cup instead. Ridiculous money motivated bollocks that cheapens and demeans the entire competition. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
The College Dropout Posted December 12, 2015 Share Posted December 12, 2015 I would say we controlled most games that season but on the back foot. We where rarely over run and desperate. Most of the wins where by narrow score lines but comfortable. Even in games like Swansea away where we had little of the ball we where comfortable defending and dangerous in attack. Tiote and Cabaye besides Pellegrini Man City sides are the only 442 midfielders to succeed in the last few years. As a two - especially defensively. They where great. Didn't dominate possession but the team wasn't intended to do so most of the time. I'm sorry but you can't control a game on the back foot. If you are on the back foot, you certainly can't be in control of the game. I'd argue that you can't even control the game with a defensive tactic, unless you are very good at retaining possession. Pardew never had a plan, other than to stop the opposition and it rarely worked. The definition of control is the ability to define and manipulate something. That can be done with or without the ball. All those times Mourinho beats Wenger. Those times SAF beat Wenger. Or when Madrid beat Bayern in the CL. Those teams controlled the game on the backfoot with much less possession. The aim of football is to score and not concede - you don't need loads of the ball to dictate that. IN games where a team has lots of possession but doesn't look like scoring and is susceptible to the counter, they're not in control. The other team is. That's like saying you can't control a boxing bout on the backfoot. It's absurd. As time has gone on and what he's doing at Palace, it's very clear he does have a plan. But it doesn't involve having much of the football. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darth Crooks Posted December 12, 2015 Share Posted December 12, 2015 You can't be in control out of possession man. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
The College Dropout Posted December 12, 2015 Share Posted December 12, 2015 So because you have the ball - the game is going to your gameplan to win? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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