Newcastle succumbed to defeat yesterday losing 1-0 to West Ham United at St James’ Park, with old boy Kevin Nolan on hand to do the damage.
A defeat is always hard to take, especially at home, but when you suffer defeat in the manner we did then questions have to be asked.
A lack of urgency, composure, goal threat and many other things combined ensured yet another abject display was on offer, with West ham seldom looking like losing the lead once Nolan had put the away side into a 37th minute lead. Something needs to change and it needs to change sooner rather than later.
In a first half devoid of any real goal threat the best Newcastle could muster was a shot from Papiss Cisse which went well wide. Hatem Ben Arfa tried to create something with the ball at is his feet but alas everything he tried he failed. At least he was trying though…
It feels odd writing this but it wasn’t until Kevin Nolan was in the right place at the right time to turn a wayward shot into the back of Tim Krul’s net to give the away side the lead eight minutes before half time.
In truth you would be hard pushed to deny West Ham didn’t deserve to be in front.
Half-time: Newcastle 0-1 West Ham
I’d like to say the second half improved for Newcastle, but it didn’t. Demba Ba thought he had equalised but the officials judged that his header hadn’t crossed the line and that Jussi Jaaskelainen had done enough to deny Demba against his former club.
Mike Williamson almost bundled the ball over the line before Hatem Ben Arfa went close direct from a corner, but there really wasn’t a lot to shout about from a black and white perspective. Indeed Andy Carrol could have wrapped up the point for West Ham but for a smart save from Tim Krul, who nearly connected with a header at the other end on a last ditch foray up front.
It wasn’t to be though and that was that.
Full-time: Newcastle 0-1 West Ham
So where do we start? The players need to take some of the blame for being woeful again. The only player I’d give any real credit to is Davide Santon who did alright. Ben Arfa tried also so I’ll give him that. The rest need to sort themselves out and get going again before this season drifts into obscurity.
Alan Pardew also needs to take some of the blame. He is paid to keep players happy, it’s part of his job, but he is mainly paid to get results and whether that means dropping out of form players or playing players in positions they perhaps would prefer not to be played in the he has to make the call. He can’t keep trying 4-4-2 hoping it clicks, he needs to be proactive in trying to make things click. In fairness he didn’t try the tired excuse after Europe post match, which is what I thought he’d try…
Of course he hasn’t been helped by chubby and his not-so-able sidekick Derek, who seem to believe that one first team player per position is enough leaving Pardew with little or no options when it comes to trying to drop players or shuffle the pack.
Next up, Swansea… A must win.
Howay the lads!
Newcastle: Tim Krul, Danny Simpson, Steven Taylor, Mike Williamson, Davide Santon, Hatem Ben Arfa, Yohan Cabaye, Jonas Gutierrez, Shane Ferguson, Papiss Cisse, Demba Ba
Subs: Rob Elliot, Vurnon Anita, Gael Bigirimana, Romain Amalfitano, Sylvain Marveux, Gabriel Obertan, Shola Ameobi
West Ham: Jussi Jaaskelainen, Joey O’Brien, Winston Reid, James Tomkins, George McCartney, Mark Noble, Mohamed Diame, Kevin Nolan, Matt Jarvis, Yossi Benayoun, Andy Carroll
Subs: Raphael Speigel, Carton Cole, Modibo Maiga, James Collins, Guy Demel, Gary O’Neil, Robert Hall
Attendance: 51,855
(THIS IS A GOVERNMENT HEALTH WARNING. THIS POSTER IS LIABLE TO DISAGREE WITH YOUR POINT OF VIEW. ONLY ENGAGE IF YOU AREN’T SENSITIVE AND DON’T TAKE HISSY FITS)
I won’t accept this theory that its solely the players fault. When a team aren’t motivated then it stems from the management. You can’t give the manager praise for success without giving it for failure.
For me, the players and manager should take an equal share of the blame.
Troy Stavers(Quote)
Newkie have you picked all them toys up yet 😆 I thought Toonsy made a mess with the toys 😀
Big Dave(Quote)
Mr Stavers I agree 😉
Big Dave(Quote)
G2 – you make a good point about pardew running a country club 😕
Correct me if I’m wrong, but we dont seem to have a kick *** gob shyte in the team. Certainly I’m not seeing any leadership on the pitch. Even Stevie Tayls is much quieter.
Beardsleys Boots(Quote)
🙄 meant to add that the players should have more pride in themselfs and the shirt and atleast give it their all and apart from a few I don’t think the players can have pride in most of their displays this season.
As I have said there just seems to be something not right as we look like a totally different side so far
Big Dave(Quote)
Dave, you really are desperate to talk to me aren’t ya, there will be times I’m away from the laptop and you’ll have to be patient for me 😆
What I meant about Fergie, is that he’s not really the player to skin and run into the box, he doesn’t seem to fancy it. He’s got pace and a bit of trickery, but I don’t think he’s got the best acceleration to take it past a man. And he doesn’t drift inside naturally, he clearly likes to stay out wide and whip the crosses in. I’m glad he finally got a match, but ffs Pards why didn’t you try it out against a team who aren’t as organised and aerially proficient as a Big Sam side 😕
Santon cuts in, but like you said, he’d usually just run into 5 defenders and generally had nobody to pass to.
Newkie(Quote)
well imo its not as complex as some are saying,yes pardew is to blame for some of the **** served up and the end of the day the buck stops at the managers door imo in some cases he is trying to fit square pegs in round holes i know with injurys he can only go so far but at the same time players are not putting a shift in hes trying to keep Ba happy up front with cissie it doesnt work it never worked for Senagal if Ba doesnt like playing left tough **** imo the team comes first,we can all be managers and say benny should play here,cabaye should play there ect ect at the end of the day the players need to put 100% in no matter what position they play and they are not, weather its because they dont like where they are playing it then comes down to pardew to “sort”it,at the moment he isnt
icedog(Quote)
BB on Saylor tbh I don’t really blame him as he has seen the armband handed about to others this yr and he probably believes that he should have been handed it atleast once when Colo is injured or off, I go back to what I said above it just seems as if there is something not right 😕
Big Dave(Quote)
I think Pardew is getting his reality check now. The club is nowhere near as strong as he claims it is. The poor starts are a regular event now and it is hurting us badly. A shame we don’t have the quality in the squad to bench some of the players. When Cisse is a flop that usually means Shola comes on and he just isn’t consistent enough. It looks like Jonas is injured now so Anita will get his chance. Tiote will be back but can he stay under control? Big questions for a team lacking in confidence now. Ben Arfa is talented enough to play on the wing but it is not getting the best out of him. Surely Pardew will try moving him into a central position slightly behind Ba and leave Cisse out against Swansea? Santon didn’t benefit when he was switched to right back. Ferguson needs time to develop his game, as does Sammy. Keep playing them in Europe Pardew they have been quite good there.
GeordieTwo(Quote)
Ice @ 82 good points and just proves that your not totally senile yet no matter what Richie says 😆
Newkie @ 81 I think I will cope 😉
Big Dave(Quote)
yeah BD I agree. And that funny feeling that somethings not right has been there since day 1 of the season.
Beardsleys Boots(Quote)
I was surprised Staylor didn’t get the armband to be honest. Obviously I’ve been sticking up for Ba, but him as captain? A forward is bad enough (big al being the exception) but it seemed a strange choice…that being said, Saylor obviously still has growing up to do and I guess there’s not really anyone else in the side with balls.. 😕
Newkie(Quote)
DAVE dont run poor richie down just feel a bit sorry for him hes been senile since he was 18yr and 70yrs like that must be hard 😆 :lol:.
santon and taylor at least put a shift in along with krul its the other 8 i worry about 😐
icedog(Quote)
It will be interesting to see how Pardew responds to this. Surely not more of the same 4-4-2 with Ba and Cisse starting up front? Let’s see something different from last season’s manager of the year. Swansea will play better football than West Ham but they don’t have a goal poacher like Nolan. To me Carroll looked nothing special again. Surely we are not going to pursue him with big money? We are now 11 points behind last year’s pace which was the amazing undefeated run admittedly but we need to pick up a lot of points in November because December is going to be very difficult. Just not sure who will provide the fighting spirit at the moment.
GeordieTwo(Quote)
<<<<<<<<<<< read a post about ba earlier claiming hes demanding 100k a week if thats the case i think its time to wave him bye bye
TOONARMYELITE(Quote)
BB @79 at the moment Pardew seems unwilling to lay down the law and get more out of the players. This is what happens when a team finish 5th. More is expected of them and they have to be professional enough to fight hard every game. Right now I’m not seeing it from many of the team. This should be a wakeup call for Llambias and Ashley that the honeymoon is over and fifth place isn’t going to drop into our laps every season. Pardew’s talk of a Champions League spot this season is sounding hilarious now.
GeordieTwo(Quote)
Michael
“Any day of the week I would take a Kevin Nolan over a Cabaye. Someone who can get us 12 league goals a season.
In 12 games Nolan has 5 goals 3 assists
Cabaye 13 games has 2 goals 1 assist
HBA 12 games 2 goals 2 assists.
Where people get this idea Cabaye is world class is in fantasy land. Nolan is not world class and yet is vastly superior to Cabaye.”
Don’t think I have ever read so much tosh in my life. Ever! This kind of basic argument would see Nolan placed above the likes of Luka Modric, Xavi and Xabi Alonso. Utter, utter nonsense.
Cabaye makes almost TWICE as many key passes(Chance creation) per game as Nolan at around 1.8. Nolan produces an average of 1 per game. Simply measuring goals and assists is the type of analysis I hate. It’s so basic.
This argument would also suggest that France’s faith in Cabaye is misplaced and they should instead just look for a goalscoring midfielder with little to no technical ability a la Super Kev. Will they?…Doubt it.
The Kid(Quote)
Ice your right again 😀 ,
Newkie I felt for Saylor as I have always believed that part of being a real good captain is having a very close tie to the club and imo Saylor has that along with all the other attributes required,
But I do feel that the armband being handed to Ba yesterday is yet another appeasement to Ba in a carrot and stick type thing to keep him happy but thats just my opinion
BB @ 86 I agree 100% and I think there could be a few factors
Big Dave(Quote)
off the top of me head we lost at least 5 1st teamers last season with 1 1st teamer brought in the rest kids so 4th place is out of our reach we ganna be lucky to finish 7 th or 8 th this year
TOONARMYELITE(Quote)
I would have to say you are right Big Dave. There are some cracks appearing in our team spirit. I suppose we will find out in January whether or not we can hang on to Ba. My feeling is he will go as Carroll did for a much higher wage than we will pay. Then what for us? Try to play with Cisse and Shola as our main strikers? The Ashley method depends on getting huge performances from players that weren’t rated by other teams not on paying good money for value. Will this continue to work? It doesn’t appear it will and we will end up a mid-table team with no ownership ambition. I hope I’m wrong.
GeordieTwo(Quote)
if mr Pardew was really serious about 4th place he would of signed Douglas
TOONARMYELITE(Quote)
Also, I just read some more tosh from I can’t remember who, which said Cabaye does’t do enough defensively to be a DM. Eh?!
This guy makes an average of 3.5 tackles per game! This is roughly the same as Tottenham’s Sandro, West Ham’s Daime and significantly more than Chelsea’s Mikel, who the press are raving about currently as he is apparently having a “great season”. Add to this that none of the above create anywhere near as much chances per game and you realise just how KEY Cabaye is. Honestly, Cabaye would walk into the majority of teams in the league. He isn’t in his best form at the moment and that’s partly due to our shocking tactics, but he is a quality player.
The Kid(Quote)
TAE how do you know Mr Pardew didn’t want to sign Douglas, and just maybe Mr Lambastad didn’t get the deal done ?
Another wee stat we are 11 pts short on last years total after 11 games 😯
Big Dave(Quote)
For anyone who wants to PROPERLY analyse and compare Cabaye’s performances at a more granular level, see below:
http://www.whoscored.com/Players/12376/
He is a quality player out of form. Also, he needs to keep coming deep to get the ball, when he is most dangerous in the final third. I think a lot of people on here would be surprised at just how much we would improve if we signed a quality, ball playing CB to play alongside Colo and a competent RB who doesn’t get a nosebleed every time he receives the ball.
The Kid(Quote)
Pardew signed Anita to get the best out of Cabaye. He would have seen how much he had to come deep to get the ball last season and wanted to prevent that this season. Problem is that Anita is taking a while to adjust to the league. However, once he does, Anita will be the one to pick the ball up from the CB and work the ball forward calmly and efficiently.
The Kid(Quote)
DAVE on the same token if we take 13points from next 6 games we are on par,some bloody hope of that like 🙁
icedog(Quote)
The Kid-agree with all that. He just needs to start ticking to get the doubters to shut up. He’s a vital player, but has been one of the poorest so far 😕
Dave-I agree, it’s always good to have a local captain as they should be able to motivate the team more, not just for derby games but in general. I don’t think he did himself any favours for the captaincy with his trash talk pre the scum game though, it seemed like Pards was punishing him for that, and not giving him the captaincy might be a part of that. Still, Ba was a strange one. It could have been appeasement, but Ba is a regular and one of the older lads, I’d say only Benny and Santon have played better so far and neither of them would get the nod over Ba…. 😕 Cabaye would be a good choice, but again, with him in and out of games so often I can see why he didn’t get the nod..
Newkie(Quote)
Ice I just can’t see that happening 😥
Big Dave(Quote)
Newkie@87 ,I don’t understand it either ,why Ba 😕 I think there has been far too much pandering to him and now with talk of high wage demands too 🙄 . We’ve had all the histrionics from his brother and agent which I know he apologised for that , but there was his little post match rant and the couple of snubs to pards when subbed previously. I’m just tired of us seemingly keeping one guy happy no matter how many goals he scores. I find it strange how unconfident Cisse seems from last season too and worry that this Ba situation is connected somehow . I have to ask myself if there is ill feeling amongst the players as something is really not right ,mark my words.
KIMTOON(Quote)
Maybe Pards should have insisted on a top quality CB instead
Big Dave(Quote)
THE KID
we have a fair few players that can play rightback so why would we need another
BIG DAVE
if they were serious about douglas they would of made it happen in my opion just the sort of player we really needed
TOONARMYELITE(Quote)
Ice-we can only hope this is the kick up the **** everyone involved needed and that we can go on a run from here, because if not then we won’t get much from this season.
Newkie(Quote)
Newkie
It’s the truth mate and the granular stats back it up. Yohan Cabaye is our very own Mikel Arteta(…Ignore his last game, ha). Very, very similar players that can play deep, but are far better advanced.
The Kid(Quote)
Toonarmyelite
Who are these players?
Anita will make that position in midfield his own in time, so please rule him out. Santon has become a force of a LB. Who else is there? We needed Debuchy, but we didn’t get him.
Hopefully he arrives in Jan.
The Kid(Quote)
ryan taylor steve taylor simpson anita
TOONARMYELITE(Quote)
Kim-Yeah, it is a strange one 😕 But like I said at 102, I’m hoping it was just because of our limited options. Nobody on here would want Willo as captain, Staylor is still quite childish and was probably being punished. Other than that there is only Cabaye, who is out of form. Simmo, Benny, Santon, Fergie, Krul-all of them are too young or not captain material imo…
Newkie(Quote)
<<<<<<<<<< cant see anita displacing cabeye or tiote
TOONARMYELITE(Quote)
Steven Taylor
Ryan Taylor
Simpson
…I’m sorry, but none of the above fix our problem as all are **** poor going forward. Raylor can put a lovely delivery into the box, but he has to get their first.
We need the Santon equivalent at RB and that is someone like Debuchy.
The Kid(Quote)
TAE I think Pards would have been serious over Douglas and Debuchy but it’s not him that makes the deals, as he has clearly spelled out many times before that he tells them and it is then up to Lambastad and Charnley to make it happen, but I think it’s Lambastad that stops it from happening
Big Dave(Quote)
ToonArmyElite
Anita doesn’t need to displace either. I think we will go to three central midfielders eventually and that is Pardew’s plan. He’s not an idiot and would have seen how well we played with it last season, but it just seems like his hands are tied at the moment. Ba is scoring all our goals and he doesn’t want to play Wide left. At the same tome Pardew wants to play Cisse through his current bad spell. It’s a trick situation.
Also, I personally don’t think Tiote will be here beyond next summer. Everything is pointing to Moussa Sissoko being brought in on a pre-contract in Jan, which will set us up to flog Tiote in the summer.
The Kid(Quote)
Big Dave
Exactly. Douglas and Debuchy turns our defence into one that can pass and play under pressure. This would make a massive difference to us and we wouldn’t need to hoof it long every minute or so.
The Kid(Quote)
The Kid-agreed. I think he can do a great job as DM don’t get me wrong, but he is best as attacking mid. That’s why I thought our formation would be 4-2-3-1 or 4-2-1-1-2, get Anita in to challenge Jonas for the role and play alongside Tiote, rather than replace him and get Cabaye up the pitch. But because of injuries, suspensions, and Anita’s relatively slow start it’s not been tested yet.
Newkie(Quote)
You and I are on the same page with this one. Anita needs to step up now and displace Jonas. Now is his opportunity. He didn’t play badly against West Ham, but was just out-muscled on a few occasions. He actually passed and moved the ball far better than Jonas ever could.
The Kid(Quote)
Yeah, I do like Simmo but he was a player, similar to Raylor I suppose, where we won our matches with solid defending, clean sheets and the odd goal nicked up front. To become a properly flowing football side, we need more than Santon and Colo. It’s not a coincidence that when 4-3-3 the teams with a heavy work rate-Everton and Wigan-caused us real trouble and we could never really “get going.” I would have liked Simmo to stay as I think he’d be good cover, but it would be nice to tie up Debuchy in Jan..
Newkie(Quote)
<<<<<<<<<< BIG DAVE to be honest wernt to fussed at missing out on Debuchy but was really gutted when we missed Douglas that boys got fire in his belly thats inbreed in most winners
TOONARMYELITE(Quote)
Yeah, Anita did okay-I think what most people remember was when he tried to dribble it past Diame and just got out muscled pure and simple. Hopefully he can learn from that, because it will probably happen a fair amount to him if he’s not careful. But yeah, big opportunity for him in the next few matches..
Newkie(Quote)
Newkie
I am trying my hardest to be patient. I can see we have made the right moves in the transfer window thus far in terms of the types of player we have signed under Pardew, but it’s a slow process and we need the likes of Jonas, Williamson, Simpson etc to slowly fade away into the background, or away from the club completely before we progress.
The Kid(Quote)
Even Obertan, who I am not the biggest fan of, can play some great one touch football at times. Marveaux, who hasn’t impressed many on here, has a great footballing brain and technical ability. I was happy to hear Pardew describing him as “intelligent” recently, because that’s exactly what he is. He very rarely loses the ball, but just doesn’t have enough bite for a lot on here, which is fair enough. I am just happy to see Pardew recognises intelligent footballers.
The Kid(Quote)
The Kid-Agreed-Jonas was needed for Raylor last season, but since then, whilst not as bad as he’s been this season, I think he was still the first team player I would have replaced first. Then it would have been Simmo, and to be fair I’d be happy with Willo as 4th choice, although I would have liked it if we’d got someone fairly young rather than as young as someone like Good. We needed someone to grow into the Colo mould, rather than another classic english CB, but right now i’ll take whatever we get 😕
Newkie(Quote)
THE KID @142 agree with ya somewhat on we made the right moves but most of them right moves were kids who aint for the here and now,Douglas would of made us look a look better defensives wise but we parted with a fair few 1st teamers last summer and only brought in 1 player i would class as for the now which was anita.The rest of the moves wont really make an impact til next season at least
TOONARMYELITE(Quote)
I honestly believe that we would have been far stronger even without Anita if we had off got the defence sorted in the summer ie Douglas and Debuchy, because I believe with them and Colo/Staylor and Santon we could have let Cabaye get forward where imo he is top class, leaving Tiote to help the back 4 which is his best job. I just don’t believe we’ll get them in Jan and even if we do will we be too far behind to get into Europe next year, I really do think that was a massive gamble the regime took that won’t pay off this time round.
Big Dave(Quote)
I had high hopes for Marv and was really happy when we got him, but when he’s played this season he’s never really looked interested 😕 Which annoys me as I know he has the quality to get in the first team, but it doesn’t seem like it will happen. Unless he gets loaned out or something…
Obertan should only be played on the left I think, or maybe in a 4-3-3. He just lacks conviction, when really you’d hope it would be instinct, he just doesn’t do it.
Newkie(Quote)
Newkie I thought Marv was going to be a cracker even in pre season he played well, then the next thing we hear was that he went awol one night before the game and from that I haven’t seen too much from him 😕
Big Dave(Quote)
so are we all agreed then that its all Llambastads fault for not getting the players Pardew needed, in the summer.
I always said he was a fooking ****. 👿
Beardsleys Boots(Quote)
Newkie .I have always said Sir Alex wouldn’t of sold him to us if he was going to become a special player ,he’s no fool he would of worked out the brain don’t match the pace . 😉 I keep hopeing he’ll come good but fear I’m waiting in vain. He reminds me of my old dad who works hard to get to the next room on his zimmer then forgets what he went there for 🙄 .
KIMTOON(Quote)
Dave-Yeah, wasn’t he sulking he wasn’t in the starting line up? Or something? So annoying, he’s a tidy player 😕
Kim- 😆 to be fair, I don’t think anyone thought he was going to be special. I was a bit disappointed/surprised with the buy, but I thought he might prove value for money given enough time and a run in the first team. Really though, apart from a handfull of games and most of those in Europe, he’s not really shown much improvement.
Newkie(Quote)
<<<<<<<<<, is not impressed with Marv
TOONARMYELITE(Quote)
Newkie yeah it was reported he stormed out, but that takes me back to what I was saying earlier about things not being right with the club, Maybe he was playing brill in training and then always seeing Jonas ( who as you know is one of my favs) getting picked week in week out while not turning up for some games ❓ could that be something to do with it .
Same as Cabaye I have said from the start that he just doesn’t look like the same player ? could the fact that he went out on a limb to convince his mate to come here and all the fiasco that surrounded that have made him question the club and in the process disillusioned him ❓ because I know it would with me.
BB I have always believed that Lambastad was the worse of 2 evils between him and Jabba, I think Jabba trust him too much and whilst his attitude was ok for a casino, when it comes to multi millionaire players you just can’t treat them the same as some poor ***** that has run up a large tab in the casino 😀
Big Dave(Quote)
going missing on the eve of a game is very unproffesinal he can carry on jogging right out of toon as far as im concerned
TOONARMYELITE(Quote)
TAE who went missing on the eve of a game ❓
Big Dave(Quote)
Watch Ben Arfa’s performance against West Ham and then ask yourself how a player so far above everyone else on the pitch is on the losing side?
It sounds terrible, but he really is wasting his career with us. He should be playing for a leading European club. He is undoubtedly the most naturally talented of the 87 generation, yet is playing for the least successful club.
Baffling.
The Kid(Quote)
Here’s the link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=IBz4UXHIHGA
The Kid(Quote)
Alreet all, probably missed all the crack having been at graft all day and unable to get on, but thought I’d through my 10 pence in as well.
I agree that it was a poor performance overall, and yet I still think we were unlucky to get nothing from the game.
I actually thought with Fergie on the left we looked a lot more balanced and there were times he created some good opening for us. The problem we had was that our 2 CFs were too similar and posed little to no threat at all unfortunately. Annoying as I thought Fergie could have made a big difference.
Ba and Cisse both play with their back to goal wanting the ball into feet or come looking for it in midfield and what we needed yesterday was a CF who wanted to get in behind their defence.
Our passing and crossing was really poor again yesterday and we just don’t seem to be able to keep the ball when we need to.
Cisse was so poor again yesterday but when you look at our bench you could really see anyone coming on to change the game at all.
We need to spend in Jan and in my opinion we need 5 players in. We need Debuchy, a CB, an attacking midfielder, a versatile winger and a CF.
Forget injuries, even at full strength this squad simply isn’t strong enough, and Pardew seems out of ideas. He doesn’t seem to know what formation to go with or how to get the best out of our best players.
I said this week that I didn’t expect much from WH but we need 6 points and 2 good performances against Swansea and Southampton. It isn’t gonna fix our season but if we can get to 25-30 points by Jan we will have done well and hope that the board will cough up.
Sharpy17(Quote)
BIG DAVE
did marv not go missing the night before a game
TOONARMYELITE(Quote)
Dave-I think it probably may have in regards to Marv, I seem to remember talking about this with you back then, seems a long time now 😆 I can understand Marv’s frustration as I think he definitely carries more attacking threat and he probably should have played a bit more, but at the same time he’d been out so long Pards probably thought he could manage him like he did Benny, but he was wrong there…I’ve not lost hope, but if he’s not even playing in Europe much, where will the chances come 😕
As for Cabaye and debuchy, it may well have had an effect, but he’s never said it did so we can’t be sure. I can appreciate he’s disappointed that his mate didn’t come, but is it really that big a deal? I mean, he did leave all of Lille only a year ago…I guess it could be linked in with the lack of transfers in general…I hope it’s not the reason, but I don’t really know what else it could be…
Newkie(Quote)
Ben Arfa is world class to be fair, even if you don’t see the bad bits in that video 😆
Newkie(Quote)
Not sure the Cabaye/Debuchy thing is a factor. It it were, then the wide reports of Cabaye convincing his other mate, Sissoko, to come must be well wide of the mark.
However, it wouldn’t surprise me if Cabaye was struggling to properly motivate himself to play for us. This is a guy who is held in very high regard for his national team and could be playing at a higher level than Newcastle United. However, he is here and probably wanted to see some ambition in the summer, which is fair enough. We ALL did!
Also, when he joined he said that Pardew’s plans to play proper football were part of his decision. However, with this 442 formation we just cant do it as we’re overrun in midfield.
My perfect window would be a CB, Debuchy and pacey striker coming in with Ba leaving. Would hurt us short term, but benefit us in the long run.
The Kid(Quote)
TAE no he went missing just before the game.
Sharpy I agree with some of that but I really can’t see why anyone wouldn’t expect something from the Hammers at home but expect something from the Swans ❓
As for 25 – 30 pts in janyou will think we’ve done well ? well we had 25 pts after 11 games last season, so I wouldn’t class it as doing well sorry 😐
Big Dave(Quote)
Newkie
😆
True, but with better players around him I don’t think he would force the issue as much. He must look around and think, “f**k me, I’m gonna have to do this all by meself!” 😆
The Kid(Quote)
The Kid but bringing in his mate would have showed the ambition, and you can bet your life that there was no way in this world that Cabaye would have basically publicily tapped up his mate from Lille unless he had the go ahead and was assured by the regime that they would then take him, and they didn’t which made him look rather silly.
I would agree with your perfect window part 😉 but I honestly can’t see it happening
Big Dave(Quote)
Bid Dave
Me either, unfortunately. Maybe the RB coming in, but nothing more.
The Kid(Quote)
@142-Good point about Sissoko, and considering Debuchy himself seems to blame Lille, I can’t see Cabaye blaming us. But it could well be the ambition in general, he expected more, as we all did.
Said a wingforward/pace striker was what we needed then rather than some lump like AC, but will we see one? I’d still rather us get one and keep Ba and just try and work out wtf the problem with him and Cisse is. Or get Ba on a normal contract and then tell him where to play, and if he doesn’t like it sell him for real money and not a bloody pittance 😕
@144-To be fair, I think most of the players are like us and just gawp at him when he’s running, rather than actually helping 😆 It’s true enough though, with an attacking full back it would be interesting what he could do..We need to go back to 4-3-3 just for the sake that he’s not wasted defending and can cause the opposition more trouble..
Newkie(Quote)
…Arsenal are likely to sell Walcott in Jan, with Liverpool looking a likely destination. Wenger has said he will resolve it by Christmas, which basically means sign before then or you’re off in the new year.
If this happens I wouldn’t be surprised to see them offer decent money for Ben Arfa. To me he is worth around the £18million mark, but the club will probably sell for less, which puts Arsenal right in the frame.
Hope I’m just being paranoid. 🙁
The Kid(Quote)
I think Benny could do a lot better than Arsenal and I think he sees himself higher as well…after this season we’ve only got him for 2 more years I think, and you’d have to think unless he signs up again he’d be gone before long 🙁
Newkie(Quote)
Dave – both points are based off how we have performed so far this season. Last season I would have seen us beating WH at home comfortably, but this season we are not playing well mate. I don’t see Swansea as being as big a threat as WH. They don’t look as strong as they did last season, defensively they look weaker without Caulker and Taylor and Vorm injured. Their midfield looks weaker without Joe Allen and Scott Sinclair. I really do believe we can take 3 points from them.
I agree that based on our points tally of last season that 25-30 points will be a step back, but based on our performances so far this season it would be half decent.
Sharpy17(Quote)