Demba Ba (now retired)

[LesPaul]

Anyone seen #askBa on twitter?

[Smal]

Hauled off onto the bench

[Skeletor]

Seeing him today made me think just what we might have had if we'd had an attacking minded manager.

[Jack Flash]

Seeing him today made me think just what we might have had if we'd had an attacking minded manager.

 

The fat that people were saying we have to sell Ba to (possibly) make our team look half decent says so much. Widespread Pardaganda.

[KDT]

The love in of his performance tonight is a bit much, yes he had chances but he's playing with better players who are delivering better crosses etc. He played at a point in the game tonight where they were pushing for an equaliser. He's a good player yes but he's always going to be second choice as I can't see him getting the majority of games over Torres who apart from tonight has been in decent form recently.

 

Those 2 headers tonight you could actually put down as chances he should be putting away.

[ponsaelius]

He's the perfect fit for their team. They had lots of creative attacking midfielders and no proper mobile, single-minded centre forward to make real use until now. Cisse would be great for them too.

 

We had imbalanced attacking options (whole squad, in fact) in terms of two #9s that can't play together and a real shortage decent attacking midfielders/wide players. Either square pegs trying to fit into round holes or a shapeshifting peg with an aversion to being round.

 

We could still easily come out of this a more balanced team, but certainly not if we pussyfoot around signing a replacement while important games come thick and fast.

[Mole_Toonfan]

Seeing him today made me think just what we might have had if we'd had an attacking minded manager.

 

The fat that people were saying we have to sell Ba to (possibly) make our team look half decent says so much. Widespread Pardaganda.

 

Not really, all that was said considering the clause the way it was and Pardew's inability to get Ba and Cisse to work that it was only going to end one way and considering that we scouted Cisse extensively and spent actual money on him it was obvious what the club would do.

 

Anyway that horse has been beaten enough, i think most people wanted him to stay and have him rotate with Cisse and buy someone to play wide but whats done is done.

[Mole_Toonfan]

He's the perfect fit for their team. They had lots of creative attacking midfielders and no proper mobile, single-minded centre forward to make real use until now. Cisse would be great for them too.

 

We had imbalanced attacking options (whole squad, in fact) in terms of two #9s that can't play together and a real shortage decent attacking midfielders/wide players. Either square pegs trying to fit into round holes or a shapeshifting peg with an aversion to being round.

 

We could still easily come out of this a more balanced team, but certainly not if we pussyfoot around signing a replacement while important games come thick and fast.

 

every single word.

[LoveItIfWeBeatU]

Ba scored goals in our team when we were creating very few chances. He's bound to score plenty of times at Chelsea with all the creativity that they've got.

 

People who think Newcastle could have done anything to keep Ba need to realise Ba viewed us as a stepping stone to greater things. We were never going to keep Ba no matter how much money we offered him.  I'm sure he'd happily leave Chelsea if Real Madrid or Barcelona ever came calling for him.

[Hanshithispantz]

Seeing him today made me think just what we might have had if we'd had an attacking minded manager.

 

The fat that people were saying we have to sell Ba to (possibly) make our team look half decent says so much. Widespread Pardaganda.

You're twisting what people were saying for some odd reason, Pardew is/was the problem, the vast majority of people will agree with this.

[Chris_R]

 

People who think Newcastle could have done anything to keep Ba need to realise Ba viewed us as a stepping stone to greater things. We were never going to keep Ba no matter how much money we offered him.  I'm sure he'd happily leave Chelsea if Real Madrid or Barcelona ever came calling for him.

 

Agree entirely, which makes it all the more baffling that we pandered to his demands to play centrally. That was only ever done to put himself in the shop window so he could engineer a move under his release clause. If we'd have stuck him wide and played Cisse through the middle then not only would the team have looked better but Chelsea would probably never have wanted Ba either.

 

We shot ourselves in BOTH feet with that one.

[Interpolic]

 

People who think Newcastle could have done anything to keep Ba need to realise Ba viewed us as a stepping stone to greater things. We were never going to keep Ba no matter how much money we offered him.  I'm sure he'd happily leave Chelsea if Real Madrid or Barcelona ever came calling for him.

 

Agree entirely, which makes it all the more baffling that we pandered to his demands to play centrally. That was only ever done to put himself in the shop window so he could engineer a move under his release clause. If we'd have stuck him wide and played Cisse through the middle then not only would the team have looked better but Chelsea would probably never have wanted Ba either.

 

We shot ourselves in BOTH feet with that one.

 

[Guest tollemache]

Bagged some goals too

[Guest tollemache]

He's the perfect fit for their team. They had lots of creative attacking midfielders and no proper mobile, single-minded centre forward to make real use until now. Cisse would be great for them too.

 

We had imbalanced attacking options (whole squad, in fact) in terms of two #9s that can't play together and a real shortage decent attacking midfielders/wide players. Either square pegs trying to fit into round holes or a shapeshifting peg with an aversion to being round.

 

We could still easily come out of this a more balanced team, but certainly not if we pussyfoot around signing a replacement while important games come thick and fast.

 

every single word.

 

Except the bit about being able to control when signings happen during the window, which is horseshit

[The College Dropout]

 

People who think Newcastle could have done anything to keep Ba need to realise Ba viewed us as a stepping stone to greater things. We were never going to keep Ba no matter how much money we offered him.  I'm sure he'd happily leave Chelsea if Real Madrid or Barcelona ever came calling for him.

 

Agree entirely, which makes it all the more baffling that we pandered to his demands to play centrally. That was only ever done to put himself in the shop window so he could engineer a move under his release clause. If we'd have stuck him wide and played Cisse through the middle then not only would the team have looked better but Chelsea would probably never have wanted Ba either.

 

We shot ourselves in BOTH feet with that one.

 

 

 

For the final time, he played centrally because he scored goals. Started the season 4-4-2 he scored some goals but results where poorish. Went to Everton, he got dropped, came off the bench and scored twice.

 

 

He earned the role and never looked back.

[Interpolic]

Yep, done us loads of good, pre-move and post-move for Ba.  That's why we're 2 points off relegation, we've lost Ba and we have to hope Cisse can get back to some good goalscoring form off the back of a disjointed half season where he's either had the ball hoofed over him or been stuck out on the wing.  I feel quite strongly that we shouldn't have pandered to it and it's played a big part in our predicament up to now and could also affect us badly going forward.

[Dave]

He's the perfect fit for their team. They had lots of creative attacking midfielders and no proper mobile, single-minded centre forward to make real use until now. Cisse would be great for them too.

 

We had imbalanced attacking options (whole squad, in fact) in terms of two #9s that can't play together and a real shortage decent attacking midfielders/wide players. Either square pegs trying to fit into round holes or a shapeshifting peg with an aversion to being round.

 

We could still easily come out of this a more balanced team, but certainly not if we pussyfoot around signing a replacement while important games come thick and fast.

 

every single word.

 

Except the bit about being able to control when signings happen during the window, which is horseshit

 

Thank god for Lille then, generously deciding to give us Debuchy so early.

[ponsaelius]

He's the perfect fit for their team. They had lots of creative attacking midfielders and no proper mobile, single-minded centre forward to make real use until now. Cisse would be great for them too.

 

We had imbalanced attacking options (whole squad, in fact) in terms of two #9s that can't play together and a real shortage decent attacking midfielders/wide players. Either square pegs trying to fit into round holes or a shapeshifting peg with an aversion to being round.

 

We could still easily come out of this a more balanced team, but certainly not if we pussyfoot around signing a replacement while important games come thick and fast.

 

every single word.

 

Except the bit about being able to control when signings happen during the window, which is horseshit

 

Yeah, it's not like they've had plenty of time to prepare for his departure or anything.

[Interpolic]

 

People who think Newcastle could have done anything to keep Ba need to realise Ba viewed us as a stepping stone to greater things. We were never going to keep Ba no matter how much money we offered him.  I'm sure he'd happily leave Chelsea if Real Madrid or Barcelona ever came calling for him.

 

Agree entirely, which makes it all the more baffling that we pandered to his demands to play centrally. That was only ever done to put himself in the shop window so he could engineer a move under his release clause. If we'd have stuck him wide and played Cisse through the middle then not only would the team have looked better but Chelsea would probably never have wanted Ba either.

 

We shot ourselves in BOTH feet with that one.

 

 

 

For the final time, he played centrally because he scored goals. Started the season 4-4-2 he scored some goals but results where poorish. Went to Everton, he got dropped, came off the bench and scored twice.

 

 

He earned the role and never looked back.

 

We shouldn't have been playing 442 in the first place, and we played it for a long time.  The God-awful football we played in that formation seemed to suit Ba more than Cisse, who knows?  The point is we shouldn't have abandoned a system that was working well for us.

[Hanshithispantz]

 

People who think Newcastle could have done anything to keep Ba need to realise Ba viewed us as a stepping stone to greater things. We were never going to keep Ba no matter how much money we offered him.  I'm sure he'd happily leave Chelsea if Real Madrid or Barcelona ever came calling for him.

 

Agree entirely, which makes it all the more baffling that we pandered to his demands to play centrally. That was only ever done to put himself in the shop window so he could engineer a move under his release clause. If we'd have stuck him wide and played Cisse through the middle then not only would the team have looked better but Chelsea would probably never have wanted Ba either.

 

We shot ourselves in BOTH feet with that one.

 

 

 

For the final time, he played centrally because he scored goals. Started the season 4-4-2 he scored some goals but results where poorish. Went to Everton, he got dropped, came off the bench and scored twice.

 

 

He earned the role and never looked back.

Thanks for clearing that up, Alan, but would you please do the honourable thing and walk.

[The College Dropout]

Yep, done us loads of good, pre-move and post-move for Ba.  That's why we're 2 points off relegation, we've lost Ba and we have to hope Cisse can get back to some good goalscoring form off the back of a disjointed half season where he's either had the ball hoofed over him or been stuck out on the wing.  I feel quite strongly that we shouldn't have pandered to it and it's played a big part in our predicament up to now and could also affect us badly going forward.

 

You're looking at it from the view of us playing crap as a whole because of Ba (or him contributing) and i'm looking at it that we played crap despite Ba scoring loads.

 

You haven't mentioned once how Cisse has been poor. The long ball doesn't work well for Ba either, he's good at the flick-ons from a big man but isn't good at doing that himself.

 

I don't know why some fans can't understand that Pardew saw Ba as the safe bet goalscorer after 5 or so matches. Like I said, when he came off the bench and scored twice and he kept his place in the team through the middle. Did he earn that or did we pander?

 

 

Cisse hasn't been playing well and has hardly looked like scoring ffs.

 

This pandering shit is idiotic. Ba was scoring. Pards thought if we could stop conceding, we would start winning because of Ba's goals again. You know? The thing that got us in a strong position before Cisse came last season. If Cisse was scoring and he got moved out wide, then yes maybe, we pandered to Ba. But he hasn't.

[ExiledGeordie]

Cisse hasn't been playing well and has hardly looked like scoring ffs.

 

That might be true but he's been playing on right wing ffs. He didn't even play down the middle against Everton. Give him a run down the middle and he'll get goals as it's his natural position as proved last season.

[The College Dropout]

Cisse hasn't been playing well and has hardly looked like scoring ffs.

 

That might be true but he's been playing on right wing ffs. He didn't even play down the middle against Everton. Give him a run down the middle and he'll get goals as it's his natural position as proved last season.

 

 

He started the season up front. We switch formations all the time too, he's had loads of minutes in a 4-4-2. He's also started numerous games in cup competitions.

[Segun Oluwaniyi]

Cisse hasn't been playing well and has hardly looked like scoring ffs.

 

That might be true but he's been playing on right wing ffs. He didn't even play down the middle against Everton. Give him a run down the middle and he'll get goals as it's his natural position as proved last season.

I don't understand all the excuse making for Cisse. He has been extremely poor 99 percent of the time this season at whatever position he has played. He hasn't been finishing and has managed to contribute almost nothing else to the team. Outside of Man U and Bordeaux in the cups and two decent finishes recently, when has he actually played well this season? I genuinely cannot remember any other quality performances, which is alarming given he has played in every meaningful match this season. Even his "positive contributions against Stoke, Wigan, and West Brom are a result of Ba. You can blame Pardew ad nauseum if you would like, but unless he is poisoning his drinking water, the manager is not the only problem.

 

Frankly, I think the effects of managers can be overstated. At some level, players simply have to perform, and Cisse has the ability to do better, regardless of the boss instructing him.

[Interpolic]

How many games has he played in the middle of a front 3 after it worked so well last season? 1 half I make it.