aimaad22

Thanks for the tip, mate. Is it really the first? Any objections? I think they've been made already! Im not happy with him playing Obertan either but to say he needs sacking..........

'All those wanting to apply for a waste management position, raise your hand!'

Bloody hell they put that sort of things in contracts now? Even if so wouldn't he prefer to play out wide rather than not at all? Anyway the next three games are the type we should be a lot more adventurous in, so he'll probably play a part. At least I hope so. Because we've been doing so well I've been trying to convince myself Pards knows what he's doing as regards selection but its getting a weee bit worrying now because Obertan is playing as bad as could as not getting replaced. Just wish HBA gets a fair chance with us before his time here comes to an end.

When did this become the sack Pardew thread? And does it officially count as the first? There are bound to be some sooner or later

The finishing from Ba yesterday was world class, what in the world are we going to do when he goes off in January?

I dont get the logic of justifying Obertan's inclusion because as a whole we've done well overall this season. That does not mean that a couple of players have not been utter shite. It means others have been making up for it, for instance the Jonas Raylor situation. Suppose we stick with Obertan, get our defensive act together and start winning games again, but that still wont change the fact we're using a player who cant do crap. If we've been doing well before, and do so again, its been and will be despite of him rather than because of him. Why not give someone else a chance, even if its not their best position. Suppose HBA or Sammy come in and do absolutely nothing the whole game, we still wont be any worse off then when playing Obertan.

As if his football wasn't horrible enough, I've started to get images from Alice in wonderland in my head every time I see us play thanks to him

Since the Chelsea game its obvious Raylor has to play for the time being, was speaking in general up to the season so far as regards him. Still no excuse for playing Ubertwat though imo........

There's little other options for those positions though. Even with a fully fit squad. I think a lot of us here agreed Santon, even out of position, needed to get in for Taylor because he could hardly be any worse. Same for Ubertwat. Ben Arfa or even Sammy are a lot more likely to contribute to the game than he is. Its getting a bit frustrating because it seems to me Pards is just unwilling to accept he's put his faith in some wrong players. I mean, its so painfully obvious those two are shite, we've been thinking of so many reasons as to why he's kept going with them but each game it becomes more and more obvious its just donkey headedness.

Im saying I would consider it if I were him. I mean, come on, Obertan is really really really shite

Would love to go with the 'he sees the guys in the training ground everyday and thus knows them best' but when you see people like Ryan Taylor and Obertan playing week in week out .....

Very very disappointing decision by Pardew, wouldn't blame HBA one bit if he did put in a transfer request, having someone like Obertan start in front of you must be really embarrassing.

Yeah he'll be off for the ANC, though we do need another CB long term anyway so it would be a bit silly perhaps to rule him out just for that. And if he wants to leave City he'll have to take a pay cut most probably no matter where he goes. Anyway I know its a long shot, and bigger clubs might come calling because he is great player at his best. Wont hurt us to make inquiries though, especially for loan.

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