Cheick Tiote

Tiote only seemed to get into a match frame of mind in the last 10 mins. That was the form he showed all last season.

 

Tiote had a few poor turns and giving the ball away, but at least he did try to get involved. Cabaye on the other hand was just not present all game. I only saw him on the ball about 4 times and never trying to do anything with it. Pardew should have reacted sooner nad brought on Gosling or someone, then again, might have been risky and backfired. Our team needs some work. Only positive is the clean sheet given how poorly we played. But other teams will put their chances to bed and beat us 3-4 nil if we play like we did last night. No question. ManU or city would have put 8 past us.

 

He has been poor in every game so far this season. Pardew needs to get him told or he's going to have to drop him. He looks like playing us into trouble every time he touches the ball.

 

Agreed. Losing possession in dangerous areas, he needs to learn to release the ball earlier. I'd take him out of it for a game. He'll get back to his best, just need Pardew to handle it correctly in the mean time.

 

He's part of the reason we lack the cutting edge going forward, we need quicker balls to the flanks. He needs to watch how Huddlestone plays at Spuds, as soon as he wins the ball he gets it wide straight away, thats what we should be doing with the pace we have on the wings. If he keeps this form up I reckon we should get Guthrie in to give us a bit more creativity in there, Cabaye can handle the defensive duties *braces self for abuse from Guthrie hate crew*

 

I'm not a fan of Guthrie at all, he's a lazy little sod who loves giving the ball away. And those petty free kicks around our box are not helpful. But if Cheick doesn't pick up soon he is the next cab off the rank with Gosling. I love Cheick and I'm happy to give him time to find his level but it needs to be soon. You can't carry players. Its all happening too quickly for Cheick at present. I think we need to consider Abeid too, he looked a fine footballer in pre season.

 

I like Guthrie, he is the best passer we have apart from Cabaye. I know we're all hoping Benny will come in and pull up trees but until then we need more creativity in the centre and Guthrie is the only player who can give us that. Gosling is too slow.

 

I think we can get it out of Cabaye but only if Cheick turns up to release him. I'd like the third man in front of them to release our wingers. Marveaux could drop in the hole off Best. This would give us some movement, which would create space for Cabaye to start to manouver the ball. As I say not a massive Guthrie fan (everyone to their own) and I want to give Cheick a couple more games because this is his pre season. Failing that if you give me the choice between Guthrie, Gosling and Smith, I'd have to go with Guthrie at this stage. But he'll need to work and not go missing like he usually does. He's great when you are well on top in games, but he just doesn't fancy it when you're up against it. Smith is a liability, and Gosling still has to convince and actually goes missing more than Guthrie from what I've seen so far. He'll probably score because he always seems to find himself in good positions!

 

This. And if Ben Arfa does come in and isn't what we expect or he gets injured again, Guthrie can play a big role.

 

I always worry when teams rely heavily on one player. If Benny can get a run of games fit and Pardew can find the best way of using him then great but don't you feel that with that many additions across the middle of the park it's going to take time to find the best combination. Hopefully we'll get there sooner rather than later. Until that time I hope we can keep on picking up as many points as possible, even when we don't deserve any. Lets just say it's a work in progress.

 

What's he matter with the guy? "Cheick" the yellow cards he gets, I bet he's planning a weekend away with the family when he gets banned! He might be a solid player but he's no good sitting it out doing nowt - get some discipline into him Pardew before we end up playing matches with 10 men again.

 

Compared to last season he's been total sh1t so far.

 

We must forgive his performance due to Barton's latest tweet:

Joey7Barton Joseph Barton
Got up this morning, bruised (shins) and dead leg. Thanks Chiek, I expected nothing else from my good mate Tiote.....ha


Can't be mad at that can we? lol

 

He didn't seem himself last night, and certainly gave away possession cheaply which is unlike him and worrying, especially in dangerous areas.

However, did no-one else notice why Taarabt was so much quieter in the second half? - To me it was obvious Pardew had asked Tiote to man mark him a bit and it worked a treat.

 

Barton is a top fella. I actually felt sorry for him last night. As much as he had a cracking game, you could still tell he is absolutely gutted to not be in black and white. The lads aren't just former teammates, they're his best mates. All the rubbish about him being disruptive in the squad has proved to be a complete falicy. The rubbish about the new players and the captaincy is absolute bollocks. Colo has bigged him up and said he was a big help to him as captain, Cabaye has and said he really helped him settle. The way he conducted himself last night was first class, even when Cheick wiped him. Nice to see them sharing a joke post game, as with Sammi.

Bastard I wish he was still here.

 

Tiote was ****, I was at QPR, never seen him play like that

 

he hasn't played well so far this season someone i know reckons it's because him and cabaye go for the same ball/run into the same space do similar jobs in the same areas and bunch up sometimes but reckons when they start getting an understanding with each other they'll be cracking.not my views just thought i'd share someone else's views which happen to be a bit different to what has been said.

 

marv has played the majority of his games in France in the role pardew wants ben arfa to play so we have other options other than guthrie

 

I reckon part of it may be due to him fasting, the fact Ba - a fellow Muslim - has been ****e would support this theory. Saying that, Anelka, Nasri and co haven't exactly struggled and they're in the same boat.