IndianMag

The only players who ability wise could have hurt us today were Sess and Johnson, who have had really poor seasons. Di Canio seems to have really fired them up. Sess especially looked like the Sess of last season. Graham had a decent game as well. Am I the only one getting increasingly p!ssed at Cabaye? Ability wise, he is world class, but for some reason he just doesn't show up enough for the big games. I'm not blaming him for today. It's just that you'd expect your best players to come out and show what they are made off in games like these.

I don't even feel like watching the other games today after this result. Really gutted!

A big mistake we made was going all guns blazing right at the start. We should have slowed the game down, shown some composure on the ball, passed it around. Scumderland would have been knackered in the second half with all the pressing and running and then we could have really had a go at them in the second half. We have more athletic and fitter players than they do. The goal gave them a real impetus and they sat back till the end of the game needing us to chase the game.

I don't think our run in is the best to be honest. WBA, QPR and West Sham Away and Liverpool, Arse at home. We'll be safe, but it's a shame that this is going right to the end.

He's not a leftback. He might have had a few good outings as a makeshift left back, but if Haidara is fit, he should play especially againt someone with the abilities of Johnson.

Yes, they were great strikes but the closing down wasn't great for each of the goals

I don't know why Haidara didn't play, but if he was matchfit, then I'm afraid it's been a terrible decision by Pardew,

Cabaye really needs to start becoming more consistent. Can't believe how a player of his quality has so many poor games. Gouffran looking quite poor as well. Taylor hasn't looked comfortable at all. Hope it's not going to be one of those games where the goalkeeper has a blinder against us, again. Feel we're trying to be too quick in our attacks. Let's slow the game down when we have the ball, show some patience and create a clear cut chance instead of just lumping the ball into the box or taking shots from 30 yards.

I think we can be proud of our performance and especially proud of the fact that we almost beat one of the most in-form teams in Europe over 2 legs. Just a little disappointed by how we played in the first half to be honest. Not the way we were set up but the way we played. \ I know Pard's tactics was to keep it tight early on, but we were struggling to keep the ball and there were a lot of long hopeful balls being played into the box with only Cisse to aim at. Lots of positives to take. I felt our defence, Cisse, Marveaux, Fatem, Jonas were impressive. Quite disappointed by Cabaye's performance. I'm not too convinced about his deep-lying playmaker role. Would really like to see him further up the pitch. Having said that, onwards and upwards from here. We play anything like this against the Scum and we'll rip them a new @rsehole!

Would love it if he is on the bench on Thursday, obviously not at the expense of his fitness though.

CISSSSSEEEEE!!!!!

have a bad feeling about Rodallega

can we get some decisions to go our way for a change?

oh no! not shola, anyone but shola!

it's not going to happen today, is it?

FFS Man!

This isn't looking good! What is wrong with the lads? It doesn't look like they give a rat's @rse!

Carroll is a good 3rd option to have, nothing better. His game has really gone downhill since his move to Liverpool. Obviously all the injuries and the pressure to justify his price tag haven't helped.

The only thing that scares me about the Ben Arfa situation is the fact that he has only 2 years left on his contract. Will we be willing to offer him a new contract? I sure hope we do. A talent like Ben Arfa does not come along very often and even if he is injury prone, I reckon he's a risk worth taking. If we're not ready to offer him a new contract, it goes without saying that he'll be shipped off this summer or the next. I personally think, we will wait and see how he copes this season. If he doesn't come back as strong or is on the treatment table for the majority of the season, I reckon you might be correct.

Absolutely. I don't think Marv is the long-term answer by any stretch of the imagination. I just feel given our current resources, he can do a good job for us. Cabaye unfortunately sits too deep these days to have much of an impact in the final third. I think Gouffran can play the Gutierrez role well, which is why I'd expect Pards to start only one of them next season onwards.

Along with another striker, I feel we most definitely need to buy a creative wide player as well. We can't rely on Ben Arfa to be fit for an entire season and we can't depend on the likes of Jonas, Gouffran, Obertan and Marv to win us games against good teams. We really lack flair when Ben Arfa doesn't play. Would personally love it if we signed a Coutinho kind of player.

Fair enough, but I still feel we don't create too many chances with Jonas and Gouffran out wide. A lot of clear chances we've created off late have been on the break. We struggle to carve open defences, and Marv has the ability to do so, even if he does it only a few times in a game.

I can't believe a rumour like this is even doing the rounds. No chance of this happening.

Some of the stick that Marveaux gets here all because CT loves him is astounding. Yes, he is a luxury player. Yes, he can be a lazy tw@t at times. Still, he's the only real creative outlet we have and even though he doesn't do it on a regular basis during matches, he still creates a couple of golden chances every game, something that noone else in our team is capable of doing. Pardew needs to give him a bit of a kick up his @rse to work harder and to be honest, he has been putting in better shifts of late, compared to the start of the season. With Cabaye playing in a deep role and Sissoko, Jonas & Gouffran playing further forward, I can't really see where the chances will come from, unless we're on the break.

Can't blame luck to be honest. There have been several occasions where luck favoured us last season and a few times this season as well. Fact of the matter is that we shouldn't have given away those sloppy goals.