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Time to step up


Guest BooBoo

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I'm gonna keep a close eye on the papers this week re the build up to Sunday as no doubt we'll be inundated with the usual hot air about how the players being up for it and knowing how much it means etc.

 

Talk however is very cheap and it's time for the management and some of the players to step up and deliver. Sunday's not a game where excuses should be offered and its about time this season some of our lot earned their corn.

 

Pardew firstly. I'm a fan and after last season his stock couldn't be higher. It's dropped though this year and a defeat on Sunday could be a significant blow. I'm not going to go over the endless debate on 442/433. Virtually everyone on here agrees the latter is the more exciting expansive brand. I don't think the derby is a game for overly analysing tactics, it's often about who wants it more. This season, watching us you might as well not bother turning up for the first 15 minutes. Our starts have been consistently lazy and often it's taken us to fall behind before waking up. We can't afford that this week, we have to be at them from the first whistle like they did at SJP in March. Pardew has to have his squad looking like they give a shit rather than shambling onto the pitch. I just hope it's not another game where we have to tiresomely reshuffle as the plan a is not working. I think every PL game this season we've had to change it; it couldn't be more obvious that plan a is failing us.

 

Pardew though has been let down though by some of his senior pros. Specifically Tiote, Cabaye, Jonas and Cisse. I think it's fair to say we haven't seen any of them deliver more than a 6/10 show this season and that's 4 seniors who have proven themselves to be good players- all of them have let us down so far but it's ideal opportunity to kick start their individual seasons. I don't want more excuses about how the set up doesn't allow them to perform at their best- all 4 have shown themselves to be capable of quality in a 442 anyway. It's high time they took responsibility and decided to put in a performance that we all know they can produce.

 

Enough with the waffle and bullshit, just produce a performance that we can be proud of. A win over this lot and everyone will have their tails up allowing us to push on into a season that is really yet to yield a convincing performance.

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Cisse needs to be dropped if this is how we are going to play.

 

We need someone who can make the ball stick and neither Cisse or Ba can do that and i don't just mean for the derby i mean the majority of games going forward.

 

Seems ridiculous it has got to this but Shola plays well with both Ba and Cisse but Ba and Cisse can't play well together.

 

Rotate Ba and Cisse alongside Shola as he can actually hold the ball up and bring the midfield into play.

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Cisse needs to be dropped if this is how we are going to play.

 

We need someone who can make the ball stick and neither Cisse or Ba can do that and i don't just mean for the derby i mean the majority of games going forward.

 

Seems ridiculous it has got to this but Shola plays well with both Ba and Cisse but Ba and Cisse can't play well together.

 

Rotate Ba and Cisse alongside Shola as he can actually hold the ball up and bring the midfield into play.

 

Ludicrous post.

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Cisse needs to be dropped if this is how we are going to play.

 

We need someone who can make the ball stick and neither Cisse or Ba can do that and i don't just mean for the derby i mean the majority of games going forward.

 

Seems ridiculous it has got to this but Shola plays well with both Ba and Cisse but Ba and Cisse can't play well together.

 

Rotate Ba and Cisse alongside Shola as he can actually hold the ball up and bring the midfield into play.

 

Ludicrous post.

 

He's useless with the style we are using atm though, i realise it seems ludicrous.

 

But what's the point of lumping it up to Cisse?  if we are going to lump it then he might as well not play at all.

 

It's not what i want to see but that's the style of play we are playing atm and it would be much more effective with Shola upfront with Ba or Cisse than Ba and Cisse and no Shola.

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Pardew and some of players are all equally responsible for our poor start.

 

In fact only HBA, Santon and Ba have delivered this season so far. It's woefully not good enough.

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Cisse needs to be dropped if this is how we are going to play.

 

We need someone who can make the ball stick and neither Cisse or Ba can do that and i don't just mean for the derby i mean the majority of games going forward.

 

Seems ridiculous it has got to this but Shola plays well with both Ba and Cisse but Ba and Cisse can't play well together.

 

Rotate Ba and Cisse alongside Shola as he can actually hold the ball up and bring the midfield into play.

 

Ludicrous post.

 

He's useless with the style we are using atm though, i realise it seems ludicrous.

 

But what's the point of lumping it up to Cisse?  if we are going to lump it then he might as well not play at all.

 

It's not what i want to see but that's the style of play we are playing atm and it would be much more effective with Shola upfront with Ba or Cisse than Ba and Cisse and no Shola.

 

It doesn't matter what style you play, history has consistently shown us that as soon as Shola starts three games on the spin, his performances get worse and worse very quickly until we're back at the stage where you just utterly detest him, and I don't think any of us want to be back there again. He's doing well in that bench/European role and that is where he should stay regardless.

 

I'd start looking at other options in the squad like Campbell or moving Ben Arfa before I started putting Shola's name on the teamsheet regularly.

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I'm not advocating starting Shola regularly but for a one off I'd be tempted in this one. When it comes to being physical, we're weak as piss up front. At least Shola won't get knocked around so easily.

 

Fucking hell though, when Cisse was scoring for fun last year I would never have thought a few short months later, I'd be seriously considering starting Shola ahead of him.

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I'm so convinced all Papiss needs is a goal. He's also not really that blameworthy, we aren't creating enough chances for him.

 

My fear is that Pardew prepares us negatively to nick a point. Man for man we're better than that lot (if our first XI is fit...) and we should play as such.

 

I would say, in Pardew's defence, Coloccini's been out all year and I think he gets us going a little bit by spraying it around from the back. I also think he inspires a lot of confidence in the midfield - could the reason that Cabaye and Tiote have looked poor be that they are worried there is nobody who can mop up if they fuck up? It might not even be totally conscious, but I know if I was in our midfield and Colo was behind me, I'd feel a lot more confident about tryingg something different or bombing forward. They may even have been instructed to hang back a little bit by Pardew himself, we don't really know. When you have Coloccini playing I think you're more confident that being caught going forward isn't such a dangerous siuation, because you know Coloccini will either mop up himself or instruct the other defenders in what they have to do.

 

I think the above also appleis in relation to Krul. I think confidence in those behind you to help you out is something that's never really mentioned in analysis but is actually really, really crucial. Certainly we've looked a much worse side without Krul and Colo, just so much more average. It may also be why we survived without Steven Taylor most of the year last year; while he's a decent player, those two are good enough to make Williamson get on well enough.

 

Alternatively that could be utter bollocks and we just played above our station last year.

 

Either way, we have to play our best players, which means Cisse and Ba both play, because however much Shola is a hero in these games, Cisse and Ba are in a different talent league to him, and have proved they are more likely to score. Shola will get on the pitch at some stage for his token Mackem-bashing, fear not.

 

This is such a hard game to predict. If Coloccini/Krul aren't fit I don't see us winning. I think they're going to be so, so up for it, because they haven't won against us in ages, actually won a game recently and Fletcher's playing out of his skin. By comparison there's no confidence in our side at the minute (which I also attribute to not having Coloccini and Krul), and the only person we, and the team, know to be playing well is Demba Ba.

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NWOAT

 

RTG-esque

Pretty sure it's an ironic post about the fact that Otter always says not worthy of a thread whenever a new one is started which could be put elsewhere but could also deserve it's own thread

 

Aye. Got no love though :lol: . Also not sure whether unbelievable's post was aimed at me or the OP.

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NWOAT

 

RTG-esque

Pretty sure it's an ironic post about the fact that Otter always says not worthy of a thread whenever a new one is started which could be put elsewhere but could also deserve it's own thread

 

Aye. Got no love though :lol: . Also not sure whether unbelievable's post was aimed at me or the OP.

 

OP of course.. It's pretty embarrassing..

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I'm concerned that there's going to be numerous occasions throughout the season where we're saying "right, this is it, big chance to kick-start our season".

 

We've had a couple already, the most recent one being the Bordeaux/ManU double-header. We made a good start to that little 'kick-starter', but failed miserably in the end and it's done nothing for momentum.

 

A win on Sunday would be absolutely enormous, but we've got to follow it up with two equally difficult-but-winnable games (Brugges and WBA). We need some momentum and it's entirely down to the players and manager.

 

I can't disagree with the OP's summary, but if you're going to mention-and-dismiss the '442/433' argument, then you've got to mention-and-dismiss the 'our players are injured, we should've improved the squad!' argument too. Because, those two points (concerns over formation and lack of spending) are the catalysts for just about every problem we've faced this season, including players looking demotivated.

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