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Hatem Ben Arfa


Rich

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"Hatem was absolutely terrific, we've got him coming alive – and his work-rate was fantastic," said Pardew, forgetting, temporarily, all those moments which explain why he routinely describes Ben Arfa as "high maintenance".

 

So why not name him in the starting lineup? "I was tempted," said Newcastle's manager. "But I felt that, by putting Ryan Taylor wide on the right, the balance of the team would be better. As things turned out it wasn't working and the injury to Yohan pre-empted what I was going to do anyway."

 

I hope he's being sincere there. :thup:

 

Hugely encouraging to hear that, particularly the latter part. Good Pards.

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Guest mimifrench

Why did you change the thread title ? :huff:  :lol:

 

Do you know with what player in the squad does he seem to play/link up well ?

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Why did you change the thread title ? :huff:  :lol:

 

Do you know with what player in the squad does he seem to play/link up well ?

 

He seems to have an understanding with Ba whenever the two played together as the main attacking force.

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He played well today without being anything special which is probably what Pardew wants to see more of. That said, he was clearly in two minds many a time on the ball and that is down to Pardew's thus far poor man management of this player for me and it could have quite a negative impact on his game and indeed our performances. If you are a player with his ability you need to be given confidence, you do not need negativity in your game, especially when you've just come back from a year out with a serious injury.

 

Pardew praises his blue chip men like Shola and Obertan despite in the main performing extremely poorly yet he has sly digs at Ben Arfa. That needs to change. He should be filling his head with positive thoughts and telling him to get at his man, take him on etc. Too often today he could be heard shouting "hold it" to Ben Arfa. On the wing? He should be instructed to either give and go or to take his man on. Anyway he needs games and a good run, either wide or in a free role. Centrally or 'in the hole' he doesn't have the wherewithall for me, not fully anyway, but we are a better side with him than without him, so select him Alan.

without being anything special ? his technique and vision were a class above anything else on show, get players looking for space or taking up dangerous positions when he has the ball, (only santon seemed to do this when HBA was drifting inside). also, her has the wherewithall to play central just it's bloody hard when the lack of any movement means whoever plays there see's one attacker, 6 or 7 defensive players and everyone else on our team jogging (if that) 40yds from goal.
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Btw there were a number of times when he quite literally had chalk on his boots, he was that wide. The ball didn't always make it to him though.

aye, there were quite a few times when it seemed like he was playing very wide right in a middle 3 and jonas was playing very wide right in a forward 3. took a while for the movement to come through (mainly jonas, ben arfa seeming scared to come in at times...well done pardew, you're wrong on this occasion)) but hope for the future that movement,fluidity and players using their eyes may be incorporated into the game plan.
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"Hatem was absolutely terrific, we've got him coming alive – and his work-rate was fantastic," said Pardew, forgetting, temporarily, all those moments which explain why he routinely describes Ben Arfa as "high maintenance".

 

So why not name him in the starting lineup? "I was tempted," said Newcastle's manager. "But I felt that, by putting Ryan Taylor wide on the right, the balance of the team would be better. As things turned out it wasn't working and the injury to Yohan pre-empted what I was going to do anyway."

 

I hope he's being sincere there. :thup:

 

Yeah that's good to see

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Incredible f***ing player his talent is out of this world. Imagine him playing in Bobbys team with Shearer, Bellamy, Robert, and Solano.

Bobby would have played him every game and told everybody how good he was, they would have loved each other.
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Incredible f***ing player his talent is out of this world. Imagine him playing in Bobbys team with Shearer, Bellamy, Robert, and Solano.

Bobby would have played him every game and told everybody how good he was, they would have loved each other.

Anal Oliver would have gave him a 2 when he played badly and HBA would have kicked the cunt in his cunt.

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Easily the most gifted player to wear the shirt in the last fifteen years imho. It remains to be seen if he ends up contributing what his talent level should by the time his days here are done. We shall see.

 

But what about his traccckkinnng baaaaaaaccck?

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Hasn't HBA been a bit part player at most of the clubs he has played at? Hence kicking off?

 

I might have made that up, just seem to remember the HBA fan club saying he will love it and be settled here because he hasn't been given a proper chance elsewhere :dontknow:

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Hasn't HBA been a bit part player at most of the clubs he has played at? Hence kicking off?

 

I might have made that up, just seem to remember the HBA fan club saying he will love it and be settled here because he hasn't been given a proper chance elsewhere :dontknow:

 

Just had a quick research on that , found these stats over his career from ESPN (inc Newcastle):

 

Number of Apps (Starting)- 100

 

Number of Apps (coming on as sub)- 88

 

So pretty frustrating career so far, for someone so talented.

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Incredibly gifted player. He will lose the ball a few times a game but he'll also set up chances week in week out. I thought he made a good effort to track back yesterday, if that was your first time seeing him you would wonder what all this work rate fuss is about.

 

He made the wrong decision a couple of times, but so did everyone else out there. So long as he loses the ball in the final third and doesn't consistently give it away then I'll take it. In a game of so few chances he created our best chance with a through ball to Best. In games like this he is key to creating chances when no one else can. I can see an argument for leaving him out against the big teams when we want to play the percentages, work our bollocks off and shut up shop but even there I think you need to have a counter-attacking threat otherwise the big teams will just keep you on the back foot all game and wear you down.

 

Given his lack of chances it's safe to assume we haven't seen the best of him and that bodes well. We're in for a tough few weeks without Tiote and Ba and we could do with his quality. He came on and we changed the game - it was as much to do with the change of team shape I suspect but he played a big part.

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Incredible f***ing player his talent is out of this world. Imagine him playing in Bobbys team with Shearer, Bellamy, Robert, and Solano.

Bobby would have played him every game and told everybody how good he was, they would have loved each other.

 

Its times like this that makes me really miss Bobby and demonstrates the gulf of difference between Bobby and wannabes like Pards. Apart from his preference for Bowyer over Solano towards the end, Bobby was always spot on in the way he managed flair players. He would have gotten the best out of HBA and let him play his natural game, Pardew's constant negative sound bytes is just going to inhibit his game and at can be demotivating

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