Hatem Ben Arfa

[Beren]

Failing to respond twice. Fucking footballers, man.

 

There's a fucking great niche business opportunity to be had with thick footballers who don't know how to handle having multiple cars without going to court. Clearly not in the remit of their agents/personal managers/PAs.

[Kanj]

Failing to respond twice. f***ing footballers, man.

 

There's a f***ing great niche business opportunity to be had with thick footballers who don't know how to handle having multiple cars without going to court. Clearly not in the remit of their agents/personal managers/PAs.

 

Agreed - assistants to footballers. Take care of all of their personal things.

[Wilson]

Banned from driving today

 

What about tomorrow?

 

[Benwell Lad]

Been too long now like.

Really need to see this footballing god tearing someone's defence to shreds again.

[Dr.Spaceman]

He won't care that he's been banned - he's likely to be off soon anyway.

[Mistle17]

Been too long now like.

Really need to see this footballing god tearing someone's defence to shreds again.

 

Yes. Yes, yes, yes.

[AyeDubbleYoo]

Been too long now like.

Really need to see this footballing god tearing someone's defence to shreds again.

 

Yes. Yes, yes, yes.

 

And yes.

[The College Dropout]

Footballing God you know.

[Skirge]

Unleash him tomorrow and lets see if he has learnt from his time o the bench.

[Ronaldo]

What could he have learnt on the bench?

[DJ_NUFC]

He won't care that he's been banned - he's likely to be off soon anyway.

 

That's right. If there's one characteristic HBA has shown in his time here it's that he doesn't care.

[Skirge]

He will want to be playing as much as he can, France in The World Cup and he will be desperate to be part of it.

It will have been made very clear to him that he must improve his play when we don't have the ball, not tracking back once or twice but every time, Gouff is a shinning example pf work rate and commitment if Benny can add that to his game along with his flare and be consistent then no reason why he cannot be a starting 11 player again.

[Jordan]

Time to just play him now,  we've lost, we can change the formation. I'd like to see Siss/Anita/cabs  and anyone of gouff/HBA/Remy/Papiss up front

Don't want Cisse anywhere near first 11. Gouff in middle, Remy on the left and HBA on right.

[SEMTEX]

I understand the theory of throwing HBA in now, but in the last 5 games we went with 2 blocks of 4 behind the ball, make sure they dont score, hope you nick a goal.

 

I severely doubt away to Manchester United will be the game where Pards decides to try and "take it to them".

[Beren]

Agree, he'll use Everton and WBA as a blueprint to nick a one-goal win.

[Skirge]

I understand the theory of throwing HBA in now, but in the last 5 games we went with 2 blocks of 4 behind the ball, make sure they dont score, hope you nick a goal.

 

I severely doubt away to Manchester United will be the game where Pards decides to try and "take it to them".

 

I think Pards may play him wide right of a midfield 5 with Remy up top alone, we can still keep it tough and hit them on the break.

[SEMTEX]

I understand the theory of throwing HBA in now, but in the last 5 games we went with 2 blocks of 4 behind the ball, make sure they dont score, hope you nick a goal.

 

I severely doubt away to Manchester United will be the game where Pards decides to try and "take it to them".

 

I think Pards may play him wide right of a midfield 5 with Remy up top alone, we can still keep it tough and hit them on the break.

 

I doubt we'll see much of Ben Arfa on the wing again personally. He doesn't "work hard" enough for Pardew.

 

Pardew needs his wingers to defend, his central midfielders to defend, and his defence to defend. HBA will end up upfront/no10, else, bench. And I think the Shola target man role is far more tempting than having HBA and no real outlet. (Outlet = someone to lump it to from within your own box). And tbh, he's right to play Shola ahead of HBA while he insists on playing this delightful brand of "football".

 

IF we did go 4-5-1, and drop Shola, I'd imagine it'd be in favor of another central midfielder, or a "hard working" winger. (http://i.imgur.com/yQj8LgL.gifbertan)

[Crumpy Gunt]

HBA wont be getting a start anytime soon

 

(unless injuries mount)

[Mick]

He will want to be playing as much as he can, France in The World Cup and he will be desperate to be part of it.

It will have been made very clear to him that he must improve his play when we don't have the ball, not tracking back once or twice but every time, Gouff is a shinning example pf work rate and commitment if Benny can add that to his game along with his flare and be consistent then no reason why he cannot be a starting 11 player again.

 

Ben Arfa shouldn't have to keep tracking back, he should do his stuff at the other end where he can win us games, he's unlikely to win us games in our half.  We don't need to play with 11 men behind the ball, that just invited teams onto us.  We need an outlet, something we didn't have on Wednesday and look what happened.

[Guest]

He still has a duty to keep an eye on the full-back though. Look at Hull at home...twice.

[mrmojorisin75]

(http://i.imgur.com/yQj8LgL.gifbertan)

 

[CPL]

He will want to be playing as much as he can, France in The World Cup and he will be desperate to be part of it.

It will have been made very clear to him that he must improve his play when we don't have the ball, not tracking back once or twice but every time, Gouff is a shinning example pf work rate and commitment if Benny can add that to his game along with his flare and be consistent then no reason why he cannot be a starting 11 player again.

 

Ben Arfa shouldn't have to keep tracking back, he should do his stuff at the other end where he can win us games, he's unlikely to win us games in our half.  We don't need to play with 11 men behind the ball, that just invited teams onto us.  We need an outlet, something we didn't have on Wednesday and look what happened.

 

Disagree look at Aguero's work rate in the man city team. Must be a dream to play alongside similar to Bellamy but obviously a lot better player.

[AyeDubbleYoo]

However much he works, he's never going to be more hard working than Gouffran or Sissoko. They're just naturally more solid players. Therefore IMO it's down to the manager deciding which option he wants to go for. Hatem will never be more solid than the alternatives, if solidity is the criteria that's used.

[Mick]

 

Disagree look at Aguero's work rate in the man city team. Must be a dream to play alongside similar to Bellamy but obviously a lot better player.

 

I didn't say that he shouldn't work hard, he should.  What I want to see from him though is him playing his football in the opponents half.  I do realise that today might not be the best game for him to do that as Man U as home can kill you if they get it right.

 

I'm sick of seeing us sitting back so often and the 2 players we have who can hurt the opposition are Remy and Ben Arfa.  Optimistic Nut mentioned how Ben Arfa didn't track back against Hull and he's right to a point.  What I don't agree with is that we had to play the way we did against them.  We destroyed them for 15 to 20 minutes then like a Tortoise, we retreated into our shell and we allowed Hull to get at us. 

[Mick]

However much he works, he's never going to be more hard working than Gouffran or Sissoko. They're just naturally more solid players. Therefore IMO it's down to the manager deciding which option he wants to go for. Hatem will never be more solid than the alternatives, if solidity is the criteria that's used.

 

Ben Arfa probably doesn't work as hard as Sissoko or Goufran and he doesn't have to.  Sissoko and Goufran have to work harder because they don't have the quality of Ben Arfa who can at times walk around players as if they weren't even on the pitch.  I'm still convinced that if we are to get the best out of him we need to work on our movement as a team and give him options when he can't do everything on his own.  He'll still make the wrong decision at times just like every other footballer, when he get's it right it is spectacular and massively effective.  How many times have you or others shouted for him to do something and he hasn't and it's worked?  He has scored some brilliant goals for us and I bet people were screaming at him to do something different.