Ayatollah Hermione

Echo Mancy's thoughts. I was going to give the kid a well-reasoned decent reply as well but since he's a cunt I won't bother.

Aye, they're a reet bunch of fannies. Someone needs to tell them trendy doesn't equal stylish. My favourite worst trend is definitely those jeans that are too short with deck shoes or toms, especially if it's a big fat lad. Went into the sales looking for clothes yesterday. Christ alive.

Canny jealous of Monkey's meal, sounds lush. I'm working but working for me means playing drums and having free drinks all night. Sorry, Fish.

I don't support the inclusion of James Perch and Leon Best as starters and this is where you're struggling to grasp the finer points of the arguments. You're taking very specfic circumstances regarding team selection and adding your broader preferences to it. I'd love it if Kadar was going to be a fine centre-half but really, it all points to him not being one. Perch is at least a player who has played fairly often and when he came in, he did a job tbh to the bloke and he was at least in tune with the challenge on offer in the PL. Kadar is obviously not good enough or not applying himself in training. As for Best, I don't know what he's done that's so wrong this season other than not be named Hatem Ben Arfa. Scored a few goals (especially goals when Ba wasn't scoring) and like it or not, he's a right pain in the arse for defenders to deal with, on workrate and application alone. Ben Arfa is clearly the stronger player but again, you would rather see him play simply because he's Ben Arfa with no consideration of opposition and fitness and how the two can affect each other, and his recovery. He looks to be fit now so aye, start him but the lack of patience is pathetic from the fanbase atm. Best's been a part of our excellent and very pleasantly surprising start, especially in the early stages against Fulham and Villa and who's to credit for getting players like Ryan Taylor and Leon Best to be good components of this start? You can take your time with that one.

Also, defensive frailities at Swansea were due to having to play two full-backs at centre-half. An unfit (and untested) Kadar wouldn't have aided that. Any sort of physical presence would have improved it substantially. If you had even less height in the team in that game, it would have been a write-off from the start. A point was the best we could have hoped for out of that game with the problems we had and we still scored twice. With even Williamson there to step in, I imagine we might have got something. Who else was supposed to play against Norwich like? Don't say Kadar because that would have been daft.

I give up. Kadar's not played a first team game since 2009 and had a bad injury since then and you want him starting straight away. Put Football Manager down. Battered was wrong word for Swansea but to suggest we were anything other than the clearly superior team in that match is revisionism to suit your argument.

We should put Guti on the right against Enrique. It'll be like when people have to fight their evil twin in films and they know what their twin is going to do before they do. They'll cancel each other out and make the right side into a singularity.

Jordan Henderson to be subbed after 65 minutes after being reduced to tears when Ben Arfa keeps skinning him.

When talking football tactics, people are forgetting that tactically sound and players performances are not mutually exclusive. At West Brom, there was not a lot wrong with our system (except a high line when chasing the win) but Coloccini had a poor game in that system and it cost us. Norwich away, we NEEDED more height through the team in an attempt to defend their corners, that's why Shola had to be on the pitch. And shock horror, he played well. Pardew was tactically sound, I thought, he did the best he could knowing that Norwich were going to exploit our deficincies. They played well, we didn't play terribly, personnel let us down. Swansea at home, we fucking BATTERED them for 90 minutes. They were chasing shadows for much of it but our midfield personnel didn't create enough chances and there wasn't enough space in the game for Ben Arfa to exploit; going direct seemed the best option and after the success it (really should have) had at Chelsea, Shola came on but didn't play well but the likes of Gutierrez and Cabaye didn't play well either in terms of creating chances and giving service to Ba. We weren't set up poorly there at all, they had one shot all game. Bolton away, first half we played right into their hands but Pardew saw the space in and around their box, brought Ben Arfa on and we took the lead by exploiting that space. Then, he made Obertan get more direct at the weak Robinson and he set up the second. Sound away performance and exactly what we needed, 3 points, good win, back on the bus. No point in those three games can you dismiss the drop in form as tactical cowardice or any other ridiculous term. He's struggled with injuries and suspensions but the way he set up the sides in their abscences was perfectly fine. Tactical cowardice would have been getting the equaliser against West Brom and shutting up shop. Tactical cowardice would have been setting us up at Old Trafford to try and escape with as few goals conceded as possible, likewise at Man City. There isn't one successful great tactic that you can plug players into, regardless of quality, fitness and opposition, that will always yield results. He's been tactically poor once this season and that was against QPR, which tbh, was a game in quite extraordinary circumstances (QPR's brand new, fairly exciting starting 11 had them on a real high). After a good start, yes, losing games is always disappointing but the only teams that don't lose a few on the bounce over the course of a season are the top 2/3 and we're not there yet. We're 7th precisely because we've been set up remarkably well and played to our key strengths. Compare us tactically this year to Allardyce's reign for example, we were a shambles and that WAS tactical cowardice (playing for a draw at home to Derby). This is the best NUFC team in years because of Pardew's tactics.

Genius man management recently from Pardew with HBA tbh

Thought Cahill was shite for them, shades of John Terry with his dirty kick at Ba so he'll fit in nicely at Chelsea. As for Jonas, he's the best option we have on the wings atm. Capable of getting at his man and worrying majority of full-backs and excellent in possession. Sturridge's free reign of the wing against Chelsea shows what happens when he's not there to do a lot of the marking for Ryan Taylor, especially when teams are trying to break down our left.

Loony Toon is basically watching games froma a padded cell so I wouldn't invest too much time in him.

Needed that badly like. Thought Obertan shone for a while after his assist, it's amazing what it can do to you. Difference in philosophy and comfort playing that style when Ben Arfa came on was excellent. Best's purple patch is done, time for Ben Arfa to start.

I'd probably work on Christmas Day if I could like. I get bored shitless after about 2 hours of being awake. Might as well be paid for it. Glad to hear your mam's on the mend, Tom, mate.

Usually how my christmas' go

I've got a couple but they're largely textbooks for my uni work, rather than anything like Forgotten Voices, still interesting but not really something worth reading in big chunks. If you're not bothered, I can recommend a couple though.

Yous should both enjoy Driver, like. It's similar in a sense to the first two, just updated with a new mechanic that works really well. I loved it.

Hope all your families can recover quickly, lads. Sorry to hear it.

All the best, Andrew. Hope it all gans smoothly. You have to save him some dinner, mind.

Not technically cooking like but went to the Mon Sun on Low Fell last night for a curry and it was lush. Well recommended if you live that way.

Merry christmas to the lot of you. You're all alright by me.

Aeris, can you stop posting about football? It's ruining Christmas

The stars were aligned in that second half to the point where he could have headed that towards goal and it would have found its way in.

Becoming a bit of a bogey side these like. Not beat them since we went down. How many times have we hit the bar/post in this last run of games as well?

How'd you go about doing that? Always been interested in it.