I think we should drop Nolan

I want to see goals from the strikers, and fantastic creativity from midfield, if we dont invest in decent strikers, then we should play Nolan up top, because IMO thats all he really excels in, apart from his leadership of course.

 

We will Tom. We will! A quality striker is essential & we all know how hard Carr & co are putting in the work to find THAT striker who can lead us to glory!

 

I can see your point but that good passing could equal even more goals. If it doesn't then prehaps Nolan is the way to go but IMO we should rotate at the start of the season to find our best set up

 

These lads get it

 

I still don't see why Cabaye should just walk into the team. Who's to say that it won't take him a year to adapt to the Prem? Or even be able to adapt at all?
You can't just say, 'Cabaye is twice the player Nolan will ever be' because they play in different leagues, with different styles of play.

 

Could someone post our record when Nolan wasn't playing please? I'm on my phone.

 

I haven't seen enough of Cabaye yet to make an informed decision on this. But what i've read about him leads me to think that he will be the preferred player, assuming that he takes well to the premier league. Nolan I think will play fewer games than he has this season. But that is just my opinion.

The thing is though that it probably won't be that simple. They will probably both be competing for the position and will each have to take turns on the bench, possibly as a result of tactical decisions by Pardew based on home/away or who we are playing.

We also have to take into account that there may be more player movements yet, in or out, which will effect this situation. Also what about Ben Arfa? If he is played in the hole behind the strikers both Nolan and Cabaye may not figure in some games. All in all it is too early yet to predict.

 

I couldnt have put it better, i have the exact same opinion...

 

IMO he shouldn't, but if he shows he is better then he should go in the team

 

And, without watching YouTube videos, who actually knows a lot about Cabaye? I knew jack **** when I heard he was coming here, and I know I wasn't the only one. So to compare him to Nolan is daft. Having watched him for France, he was poor. I believe he is a good player and will bring us a lot, but can I say that for sure? No, because none of us actually know a lot about him.

 

Agree, other midfielders offer more but he leadership is second to none, a bit of a catch 22

 

Don't get me wrong, if it turns out that Cabaye settles easily and we function much better as a team with him playing instead of Nolan then of course he should keep his place. It's just the idea that he should walk into the team that I have a problem with.

 

Even though he may not be part of our strongest starting 11, i'll bet he'll still make around 30+ appearances next season and score around 10+ goals.

 

Well I did watch a few(about 5) Lille games where he played & was influecial to the technical style of football they played with Hazard and Gervinho!

Just saying so you know Tom..

 

Personally I would rather have a midfield of Ben Arfa Tiote Barton Guti, on ability even if we hadnt signed Cabaye.

 

Fair do's, but you will be amongst a minority. I hope Cabaye does well, he clearly deserves a chance to prove it but if he isn't doing the business, Nolan must come back in.

 

Of course we could have lots of good players with no leadership and be perennial underachievers again. We haven't won a trophy in 42 years - before we went to the moon (allegedly!) Richard Nixon had just been elected. The average income was around £6000 a year.

So few teams win when they have no leadership. Seriously it is the most underrated 'talent' in football. Is it a coincidence that Arsenal haven't won a trophy since Vieira's last season and Man City won their first for 40 years this year? Of course, if you can take playing like Arsenal do now and collapsing from 4-0 up because you have no Vieira's (but have a Nasri) then great. I can't handle that.

 

Of course, Cabaye will have to earn his place! Atleast with this debate about who should be in the team or not, it shows that we are making progress as a team because now we have competition for places & ''strength in depth'' is always important if we want to estabilsh ourselfs as a top 10 side.

 

Very true

 

Depends how many strikers we have on the field, i personally wouldn't mine this line up -

---------New striker------

---Ben Arfa------Cabaye--

Jonas------Tiote-------Barton

Or

------------New striker-----------

Ben Arfa------Cabaye----Jonas/new winger

------Tiote-----------Barton--------