Where to improve..

This is how I rated today:
Krul 7
Simmo 5
Willo 4
Colo 7
Santon 5
Jonas 5
Cabaye 5
Tiote 6
Raylor 5
Ba 5
Cisse 4

Have to say that IMO there are 2 who should definitely be replaced at the end of the season:
Simmo & Willo

Jonas - needs to buck his ideas up - his final ball is ****e or non-existant.
Cabaye - needs a warning - our midfield simply does not have the control it had earlier in the season. Santon - should be played in his natural RB spot.
Benni - should now be given a prolonged starting position - he has the talent, its his confidence that needs the work and that will come from the manager believing in him.

 

Williamson is a poor replacement for Steven Taylor, that is for sure.

But it was the swapping of Ryan Taylor to the left and the intro of HBA on the rght that really made a big difference.

I'd hope that Pardew doesn't use the same starting line-up as today again. There is nothing happening down the right. So I'd agree with you to start HBA, but to leave Ryan Taylor in the team as left back - Santon gives us little going forward at his stage of development.

Cisse was over-awed by the derby, but he'll once again start banging the goals in - if he gets any service, so que HBA.

 

Give Cisse time, he is still 2 in 4, which isn't bad especially considering I don't think he's played a full game yet?

As much as I like Jonas, there isn't really any pressure on his place, we need some quality to at least compete with him for it.

Ben Arfa looked better today but he has been poor for a while lately, still nice to see improvement. The only way I could see fitting him in at the moment is putting Raylor in at left/right back with Santon on the other side, dropping Simpson.

Willo is a strange one for me. We do need more CB cover, Taylor & Colo are obviously our #1 pairing, and Willo used to look at a lot more steady, but he seems low on confidence for some reason lately, maybe he's taken some of our losses badly and not recovered?

Tiote is looking like he is getting better again, his form had dropped off, unfortunately Dreamboat does seem to be a little off the pace since the ban.

My hope in Summer is to keep our key players, especially Ba, Cisse, Colo, Krul, Tiote & Cabs, essetially our middle core and strengthen our wide players. Santon looks good, Raylor is decent, but as I said Gutierrez is not consistent enough, nor are our other wingers. If we could sign Pieters it should strengthen our defense, but Santon RB and Pieters LB. Then get some CB cover.

It seems we have some long term plans in place to strengthen our youth, which I like, but we do need some better supply to our front two - who I doubt we could strengthen afford-ably for a while to come.

 

We need better service to the front two.
Raylor on the right doesnt work, so it's a toss up between HBA and Obertan.
HBA when he came on looked a better option and listening to Pardrew interview, think he might get a start against Arsenal.
Also I would like to see Cabaye taking corners and free kicks not leaving them up to Raylor.

 

Id say put Raylor at LB, Santon at RB and Benni at RM

 

I'm going to defend Simpson here. He was canny solid today. Admittedly McClean didn't test him much, but he did what he had to do well