aimaad22

Toure making unhappy noises at City. Might be worth a shot, although he does go off to the Cup of Nations in January.

This. We've played Man C, Man U and Chelsea in the last three games and he's contributed in two of the three. And he's not fit. This is one player we really need to stick with untill he is fully recovered psychologically and phsically. It's been a while since we've had such a pure footballer. And despite the lengthy lay off he looks tons more dangerous than Obertan, Lovelyhands or Sammy. That subbing decision really had me wondering........ never saw him give us any quality like lova's gorgeous through ball for the Luiz red card foul or like Sammy's volley that got cleared off the line. Course he deserves time and has shown great quality, just saying its sporadically, and it does him no favours to build him up, even on his off days. If two moments in the whole game from those two are enough for you then HBA's performance against City ought to merit a a starting position for a year. Like others have said, we needed a moment of brilliance in that game, and it wasn't going to come from Lovelyhands. Got nothing against the man, just think the odd great pass in a game is just about what he can give us now. Not sure why we needed that much more brilliance than we had. We hit the woodwork 62 times, not to mention the saves and goalline clearances. Seems to me we just needed that bit of the luck we've ridden superbly up until this twot of a referee decided to balance it out. Ben Arfa is clearly our most gifted player. Daft arguing comparisons with Lova or Sammy...or Best whose position he's taken, all I'm saying is it's frustrating I go to SJP excited every time he's playing, but i leave frustrated by him, having only youtube clips of away day exploits to masturbate to. Yeah it just wasnt meant to be our day was it? I think we're also expecting way too much from HBA too soon. Its still almost like his first season here thanks to De Jong, frustrating but its true. It took the likes of Nasri a good while to show their best. HBA seems to be that kind of player to me, needs to play regularly and needs confidence from his team mates. Its encouraging to me that Pardew seems to have given him the freedom to play the way he likes(though after Saturday Im not sure). Telling him to be solid like Cabaye for instance would never work. We've played the 3 best teams in the league, against City he was our best player and he got us a point against Utd. I for one am satisfied with that. Give him some games, we play some lesser teams now and he will thrive when we play more freely. Again it seems to me we're getting a bit too carried away with our expectations from him but haven't had a player like this in a while so we should be forgiven

This. We've played Man C, Man U and Chelsea in the last three games and he's contributed in two of the three. And he's not fit. This is one player we really need to stick with untill he is fully recovered psychologically and phsically. It's been a while since we've had such a pure footballer. And despite the lengthy lay off he looks tons more dangerous than Obertan, Lovelyhands or Sammy. That subbing decision really had me wondering........ never saw him give us any quality like lova's gorgeous through ball for the Luiz red card foul or like Sammy's volley that got cleared off the line. Course he deserves time and has shown great quality, just saying its sporadically, and it does him no favours to build him up, even on his off days. If two moments in the whole game from those two are enough for you then HBA's performance against City ought to merit a a starting position for a year. Like others have said, we needed a moment of brilliance in that game, and it wasn't going to come from Lovelyhands. Got nothing against the man, just think the odd great pass in a game is just about what he can give us now.

This. We've played Man C, Man U and Chelsea in the last three games and he's contributed in two of the three. And he's not fit. This is one player we really need to stick with untill he is fully recovered psychologically and phsically. It's been a while since we've had such a pure footballer. And despite the lengthy lay off he looks tons more dangerous than Obertan, Lovelyhands or Sammy. That subbing decision really had me wondering........

Absolutely shite again, give Sammy some playing time maybe at least he isn't afraid to take on people.

Horrible horrible day, more so because of the injuries than the game. We're really in for it now with the defensive crisis, time for Pardew to show just how good he really us. Why the frick didnt Luiz get sent off? The refs in this league really are incredibly incompetent. We just didnt have any luck, Krul was brilliant, sad he ended up conceding three. Thought Guthrie and Cabaye did quite well. Obertan was shite again, he just doesnt know where to go with the ball. For all his pace he seems afraid to take on players to me and we all know about the delivery.I was shocked by the decision to take off HBA, we needed him when chasing the game and he looked so much more livelier than Obertan or lovelyhands. Must mention Raylor again though. Its getting quite embarrassing to be honest. We've all listened to the arguments about not changing a winning team and all that but we aren't a winning team anymore and the team getting changed already anyway due to injuries. So much for that. And anyway, this guy is so incredibly bad he should have been replaced anyway. Fair enough not replacing him because of one bad game, but its painfully obvious he isnt even close to being premiership standard. The manager should be strong enough to make the call in such a situation. Not that it matters anymore, seems we are going to be seeing a lot more of him and Perch in the future. Lucky us!!

Mata plays through the middle. Yep but you see him floating down the wings quite often, and he has played there a fair bit. I'd be surprised if Chelsea dont identify LB as our weakness and have Mata run at him. Anyway like someone said its possible they'll revert to the 4-3-3 and in that case it wont be Mata through the middle. Agree though that in the end we shouldn't worry about it too much, Raylor will struggle against anybody and Chelsea have got their own problems which we are well equipped to exploit.

Yup but he'd give Raylor the defensive cover we cant expect from HBA or Sammy, thats the only reason I'd go for him. Sad that our left wing is mostly about protecting the LB these days.

Sammy's not up to the mark to start a game like this at the moment imo, though I'd have him over lovelyhands anyday.

Not liking the Idea of Raylor up against someone like Mata with no Jonas to save his arse. He's such a big liability its ridiculous, wonder who Pardoo's going to play instead of Jonas and what role that guy will be expected to play because we dont have another winger who does the same amount of work. One possibility is Guthrie on the wing, HBA in centre midfield and Best comes back in. I'd be more tempted to put give Santon a try and put Raylor in front of him with HBA in the floating role behind Ba and Best on the bench. Their defence is shaken and lacking confidence, the last thing you need at a time like this is someone like HBA having freedom to go at you. Cole has been below par too so perhaps some joy on the wing for Obertan as well.

Ive always thought Hughes was a nice solid player for us, nothing special but consistent and dependable which was a real rarity with our defenders at the time. Or maybe the likes of Bramble and Babayaro made him seem solid. Im among those favouring Bernard over Enrique, Enrique no doubt the more talented of the two but I think Bernard just did a little bit more for us. And he had a few memorable moments too, those class goals against Arsenal and Chelski and that ball on the head from Robert Hard not to like him

I think thats the one I posted above, cant be sure though.

just noticed it wont play in their flash player, but the download should work fine and its a small enough file

Here's a nice compilation I found, cant remember who made it but must have been either Pedro or Jonny's work. Shows his best moments at Newcastle and brings back a ton of memories, thought it'd be worth sharing. Didnt work on youtube etc, so here's a direct link, (cant figure out how to embed it ) Gary Speed Farewell.wmv - 26.01MB

How bloody similar was that game to ours last night

Possible, but they spent so many years together, don't know how Shay's found the strength to play today. Tough situation. Game really should have been put off imo....

I was annoyed at him at the time too, but watching the incident later again Rooney's second kick at Colo was shocking and I cant help but like HBA for going up there and calling the guy mental to his face.

I'd guess/hope they've asked all the players involved and they've said they think its right to play as they have good reason not to. Totally agree about princess Di, it was an absolute joke that it was even thought to cancel any sporting events nevermind do it, who the fuck were these players who couldn't play football because a woman who is no relation or connected to them in anyway has died, it was farcical. Given seemed distraught

Top player and a great professional. Last person I would have marked down for suicide. Shocking.

Super performance. Needs to work on his kicking a bit mind, but has got all the attributes to be world class keeper.

Great bloody Odin's bloody raven!! I never thought I'd ever see us defend like that! That was an incredible performance, defensively at least! S.Taylor's last second interception, the clearance of the line by Simpson, and Coloccini generally immense overall. Raylor was all over the place at times, he's completely out of his league to be honest, and it sad to see the effect its having on Jonas' games. He's been poor going forward recently because he has to put in an intense defensive shift to help out his LB. Anyway dont want to get on anybody's case too much after this performance. First half was so good! We were confident and passing the ball around and creating spaces. Horrible luck on their goal but bless that linesman for the penalty decision Another thing never thought I'd see, a penalty like that given at Old Trafford! Silly tackle from Jonas and would have cost us any other day, but the lad worked his socks off again. Rooney really is a prick, kicking out like that at Colo. Ben Arfa showed flashed of quality again though overall was not as much in the game as at City. Would love to see how he does at SJP now with us playing a bit more freely. Immensely proud overall

Im just glad Scholes is gone...... Hopefully it will be Obertan in for Sammy and HBA supporting Ba upfront, if we cut out any individual errors we have a real chance. Or like some others have said the ref will probably give away a shite penalty

In a season's time it'll be Liverpool's attacking play. Thats always the bottom line now isnt it, cant really look to the future with optimism because you know anything special we get going will be converted into cash and we'll be back in mediocre land in no time. No doubt if HBA gets anywhere near his potential we wont be able to hold on to him, that is, we wont even try to.

The piece of skill at 1:57 , class! How many people in this league can do that? Really really hope he starts on Saturday....

Didn't have to. Deal suited both parties just fine iyam. Thats the reason the club gave us though, Pards' statement shows it was the money though. We all agreed the money was too good to turn down, just doesnt make for a good outlook though when you are selling your best players. If Tiote went for 30M I'd still be pretty pissed because we are not going to get as lucky every time with our replacements.