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Match defining moments that he tends to make with his own ability in the first place. As yesterday where he performed a sublime turn on halfway to beat a man and then scampered past another couple before overhitting the pass. He should've done better, but there is no other player in our team (nor many in the league) who could've created that opportunity at all.

 

He's the last person people should be on at, but of course he shouldn't be totally immune to criticism.

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nothing whatsoever was going to happen for us in that game yesterday unless HBA did it entirely on his own, we said the same watching the match and it proved to be so

 

if he ever gets to play in a team with decent movement around him he's going to be fucking devastating, at best with us he has 1 striker making a run once or twice in a match, the rest of the time everyone is on the back foot and stood in rigid formation

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Match defining moments that he tends to make with his own ability in the first place. As yesterday where he performed a sublime turn on halfway to beat a man and then scampered past another couple before overhitting the pass. He should've done better, but there is no other player in our team (nor many in the league) who could've created that opportunity at all.

 

He's the last person people should be on at.

 

This. 

 

He was hit and miss against Liverpool and he tried to do too much at times yesterday.  Despite this, he was still one of our best players over the two games.

 

The fact he's the only player that can breathe attacking life into this moribund (classic Partridge) team is a huge worry.  As you point out, we have nobody else that creates, beats a man or looks to run with the ball.

 

I can't quite believe he is getting stick, when there are so many other players performing terribly on a consistent basis.  Baffling.

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He's the smallest part of the problem lunchbox, he's created a lot of opportunities for others this year and did so last year too. I don't recall him having many passing options at all today and with the way we've been playing he should be encouraged to do something different because the 'simple game' for us has been tragically bad so far and created nothing.

 

I thought he had a good first half but a poorer second one.

 

really?

 

Do you? Or are you going to continue to highlight a very vague Cabaye incident? The movement around the lad is horrendous.

 

To clarify I'm not on the HBA is s***/not a team player side of the argument, but how about when we broke and he had Demba Ba to his right (movement around him) for a relatively easy set up and he overhit it towards the corner flag?

But he did actually try to pass in this incident which surely supports the "he passes when he has options" argument? ???

 

I didn't say he doesn't pass. The counter argument was there was no movement around him, which there evidently was in this case. He did pass to his credit, but the move broke down as the pass was so bad. As I said, even on a bad day like yesterday he's still one of our better players, but with his quality you would expect him to be able to play in the striker in an instance like that, just like last week with Cisse, and he failed to do it. Those are match defining moments where he should do better, especially with his quality.

 

There might be the occasional moment but on the whole we are unbelievably static, our movement is shocking, surely you must see that? It's just even more infuriating when Ben Arfa's on the ball because he actually regularly creates space for others but we never capitalise or even gamble on it.

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Should be shifted over to the left side of midfield. Why? Because our left defender, leftback and left sided midfielders are all better passers and attackminded then the right side of our team. They will get into better positions for one-twos. They will get the ball to HBA in better positions. And tbf, hba can do whatever he wants with the ball, he has proven he can cut inside and fire a shot with his right.

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He's the smallest part of the problem lunchbox, he's created a lot of opportunities for others this year and did so last year too. I don't recall him having many passing options at all today and with the way we've been playing he should be encouraged to do something different because the 'simple game' for us has been tragically bad so far and created nothing.

 

I thought he had a good first half but a poorer second one.

 

really?

 

Do you? Or are you going to continue to highlight a very vague Cabaye incident? The movement around the lad is horrendous.

 

To clarify I'm not on the HBA is s***/not a team player side of the argument, but how about when we broke and he had Demba Ba to his right (movement around him) for a relatively easy set up and he overhit it towards the corner flag?

But he did actually try to pass in this incident which surely supports the "he passes when he has options" argument? ???

 

I didn't say he doesn't pass. The counter argument was there was no movement around him, which there evidently was in this case. He did pass to his credit, but the move broke down as the pass was so bad. As I said, even on a bad day like yesterday he's still one of our better players, but with his quality you would expect him to be able to play in the striker in an instance like that, just like last week with Cisse, and he failed to do it. Those are match defining moments where he should do better, especially with his quality.

 

There might be the occasional moment but on the whole we are unbelievably static, our movement is shocking, surely you must see that? It's just even more infuriating when Ben Arfa's on the ball because he actually regularly creates space for others but we never capitalise or even gamble on it.

 

Oh I agree our movement is shocking, especially in the box. People often criticise Obertan's end product for example, but he put in a decent ball at the near post yesterday late in the game, where both Shola and Ba were completely immobile. I can't figure out why we apparently don't work on having one striker sit back on the penalty spot in space and one attacking the near post, to give people options to pass to.

 

As I've said before I'm not having a go at Ben Arfa specifically; he is without a doubt one of our best players and the most likely to make anything happen, but he's not beyond critisism either. The whole team has been underperforming this season so far, and it's affected Ben Arfa too, as he's notably less effective than earlier in the season.

 

It appears to me that Pardew and the coaching staff are not really working on our forward play, expecting the quality of the players to always give us a chance, whilst they work on being defensively solid as the main priority. In their defense (no pun intended), we haven't had a settled back 5 so far this season due to injuries and suspensions, so it's probably understandable that a lot of work between matches goes into preparing an unsettled back 5 for the upcoming task of defending a specific opponent. Last season in the first half of the season, where we laid the foundations of our excellent campaign, we had the benefit of having a settled if unspectacular back 5 and could concentrate on automatisms in going forward. This season it appears our midfield and attack haven't got a clue on where to move in which situation, and we often see a lack of imaginative movement, people going for the same ball, no width to our play, etc.

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He's got too much going for him to keep suffering. I think he loves playing for a club where he's loved like he's never been before. He knows that things can easily turn sour at other places.

 

However, any remotely talented and ambitious player would be fucking livid with the way we approach games and our footballing philosophy.

 

Pardew's decision to revert to Shola rather than go with three in the middle speaks volumes.

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Guest firetotheworks

We rely on him for absolutely everything going forward. He's a fucking fantastic player and can do remarkable things with a football, but he can't do it all, all the time.

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Guest VanBarduck

              Perch        Williamson    Taylor

 

                                Cabaye

 

    Santon        Tioté              Bigirimana        Ferguson

 

 

                                  Ben Arfa

                                      Ba

 

I've been dreaming for a long time of this formation , similar to juventus tactic's , three man defence  , cabaye in as a quaterback controlling the midfield a la pirlo  , protected by the two tioté , Ferguson and Santon very high in the pitch , providing good crosses , and ben arfa near demba ba , in a false 9 role , what do you think ?  :D

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Would be interesting if our players were fairly disciplined in their positions. If Santon/Ferguson decide to wander there would be epic gaps. Also, not sure about having Cabaye so deep. Tiote is decent in that sort of role and he's not too bad on the ball as well as being a destroyer. He's an idiot, though.

 

 

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Guest firetotheworks

Why bother? We had 2 months of good football and great results with our best system last season.

 

Exactly. The wall is fucking made out of the writing.

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Guest VanBarduck

Would be interesting if our players were fairly disciplined in their positions. If Santon/Ferguson decide to wander there would be epic gaps. Also, not sure about having Cabaye so deep. Tiote is decent in that sort of role and he's not too bad on the ball as well as being a destroyer. He's an idiot, though.

 

having the most technically gifted midfielder in a deep position  seems disturbing , but when you look at busquets , pirlo , verratti , arteta , allen , schweinsteiger, Miguel veloso etc.. It´s becoming a new rule of modern football , cabaye have more "football IQ" than tioté  , cabaye vs Spain in second half as a n°6

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Would be interesting if our players were fairly disciplined in their positions. If Santon/Ferguson decide to wander there would be epic gaps. Also, not sure about having Cabaye so deep. Tiote is decent in that sort of role and he's not too bad on the ball as well as being a destroyer. He's an idiot, though.

 

having the most technically gifted midfielder in a deep position  seems disturbing , but when you look at busquets , pirlo , verratti , arteta , allen , schweinsteiger, Miguel veloso etc.. It´s becoming a new rule of modern football , cabaye have more "football IQ" than tioté  , cabaye vs Spain in second half as a n°6

 

That's fine and dandy for them but unlike those teams we don't have playing like Iniesta, Ozil and Moutinho ahead of Cabaye.

 

If we had an AM who was creative and could pitch in with some goals then fair enough but players Cabaye deeper than Tiote is ridiculous.

 

Everyone knows what we need to do anyway except for Pardew apparently.

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Anita was made for that role. Can't ever see us playing 3 at the back though, so it's a non-starter and rightfully so if you ask me. Also, Perch and Williams ahead of Colo?

 

Agree we just don't have the squad for 3 at the back.. no matter how try it it just looks unbalanced.

Best we could do is this

----------------Krul

 

-------Tayls---Colo-----Perch-----

Santon-------------------------Fergie

---------Cab---------Tiote--

---------------Benny

--------Ba--------------Cisse

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I'm pretty sure he (Cabaye) used to whip them in flat right on the keeper when he first came here too and it caused problems. Fuck knows what is happening now but I'm starting to think that Pardew is just taking the piss.

 

It's just one of many things that clearly isn't working yet we are still persisting with.

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