Player Ratings

Marveaux, Ben Arfa and Santon should be starting imo. I'm all for a strong squad as Pardew keeps referring to it as, but those three players make our starting line up stronger which is more important

 

Leazes corner - Marveaux 5?! Changed the game.

 

Krul 7- Great save in the first half but terrible kicking throughout.

Simpson 6- Out of position constantly and still scared of getting stuck into players, OK going forward.

Coloccini 7- Decent performance but certainly not his best, let Rodallega get goalside a few too many times.

Saylor 8- Great again today, got right into the thick of everything and saved us with last gap attempts a couple of times.

Raylor- 7- Surprisingly solid defensively and going forward, who'd have thunk it?

Obertan 4- Awful, literally awful, incapable of having a run at defenders and every cross was either too hard or to the keeper, time for Marveaux to come in...please? Pardew????

Tiote 6- Decent getting forward at times but lost the ball more times than I can count on my hands, his turn and swerve method is getting old and other PL managers and players are becoming wise to it.

Cabaye 7- Lovely strike, I was very impressed but still thought he was quite anonymous throughout the game, good passing but didnt get himself involved enough for my liking. Sorry folks. Still shag him though.

Gutierrez 7- Slightly worse than he has been in recent weeks but still a very decent performance, got back and helped Raylor well and got forward well was just lacking his final ball once again today and sometimes wants to do EVERYTHING himself and it cost us at times, still a decent game though.

Best 6- Not impressed at all today by his half time performance, gave the ball away cheaply, to be fair he ran for every ball but just wasn't getting the luck today, Pardew made the right choice at half time.

Ba- 7- Movement was special at times today got into all the right positions and still helped out the midfield in a great manner, and was perhaps unlucky not to score from a header in the 49th minute, still impressive and still 5 goals in 4 games.

Subs:

Ben Arfa 7- Looked class when he came on, nearly scored and caused havoc creatively, oddly enough seemed reluctant to shoot when he was in some pretty great positions. You can just tell when he touches the ball that he's a quality player and the man of the match performances are all to come IMO.

Marveaux 7- Was massively impressed with him today, came on and got stuck in straight away, his close control, passing and vision seem excellent, got the assist for the goal and could have got a couple of assists by the end, he was a breath of fresh air when he came on and Pardew needs to make the big decision and start him instead of Obertan who is getting on my ****ing tits.

Ameobi 6- After last weeks heroics looked disntinctly average again this week, dived around a lot and won us some free kicks though, which was nice.

 

He did ok, but wasn't on long enough imo. Still really like him.

 

Obertan needs dropped, Ben Arfa or Marveaux should get the chance.

 

Some players/performances I'd just like to pick out;

Obertan- very one dimensional, doesn't seem to have the confidence to really take players on. I think he's most effective when he comes on as a sub and makes runs at fatigued players. He's not a good crosser but could encourage opposition to concede free kicks/penalties from taking them on the latter half of the game.

Simpson- made a few good strong tackles today but I can see him being knocked off his perch (not by Perch) as first choice right back once Santon gets a run in the side. I say this because I just don't think he's that good, he's always hoofing the ball and seems vulnerable when players take him on. I'd prefer Raylor in at right back (or Santon vice versa) because he offers us much more going forward with his free kick conversion and at least when he hoofs or crosses his deliveries often reach their intended recipient.

Ben Arfa- I think people are quick to praise him today. He seemed a little off in this fixture, he got caught in possession too often, but I'm willing to forgive as it was a pretty poor performance from the team in general today. On a brighter note he did seem to open up the gap behind their midfield which I think we struggled to do in the first half

That's all I can think of for now.

 

View from the East Stand:

Krul 7
Simo 7
Colo 8
Saylor 6.5
Raylor 6
Obertan 5
Cabaye 7.5
Tiote 7
Jonas 7.5
Ba 6.5
Best 6

Ben Arfa 5
Shola 6.5
Marveaux 7

 

After watching it on Football First this is my ratings:

Krul - 8 - Didn't have too much to do, but did a worldy of a save

Simpson - 7 - Pretty solid
S Taylor - 7 - Usual solid self
Coloccini - 8 - Probably the star centre back in the league this season
R Taylor - 7 - Solid, did nothing wrong

Obertan - 5 - Final ball very poor, is very quick though and did a good tackle
Tiote - 7 - Not a great game, but a solid one
Cabaye - 8 - Solid all game, then a worldy of a goal
Jonas - 7 - Poor first half, second was quality

Best - 7 - Worked hard
Ba - 6 - Not his best day at the office

SUBS
Ben Arfa - 6 - Not too bad, but lost the ball quite a lot
Ameobi - 6 - Didn't do much
Marveaux - 7 - Set up the goal and looked lively

 

Swap Ba and Best around, and I pretty much agree with you.

After watching the game again, I would be tempted to knock another mark of HBA as well.

Do people think he will get quicker? He seems to be lacking that half yard of pace, although the skill is obviously there to see!

 

Ben Arfa will only get better with time. He was sloppy at times today but he was also better at times today than he was in any other game we've seen him this season. Shouldn't take too long!

 

I think when he starts to play regular games he will pick up the pace. Seems to be getting slowly put back into the games.

 

I hope so, I'd like to see him have a higher success rate of getting past his man and not losing the ball!

 

He will do in time. He is a genius of a player when he gets going

Although, I am surprised to see he has only got 8 French caps. Just looked at his wiki page and thought he would have more

 

So, Obertan needs to be dropped, from a tall building.

 

Agree that Obertan has been poor for the most part, but I don't like having too much of a go at players who put in effort. He does put in effort but he just doesn't seem good enough. If he stops trying and plays like ****, then I'd see him dropped from a building.

 

I had a strong feeling he'd be an awful signing. And as much as hard work is a brilliant thing, he tries kind of. Jonas is a hard worker as was Milner for us.

Milner is possibly the best comparison. Milner was technically limited and not the quickest, yet his hard work and determination made him a quality player for us. Obertan apparently has bags of pace and skill, yet is an awful player, he can't be putting in that much effort or it would work heavily in his favour like it did for Milner.

 

I dunno, I'd say Obertan has bags of pace and can do a few consecutive step overs but I would hold back from saying he supposedly has bags of skill. He always seems to run ****loads and want to try be part of every attack, but ****s it up a lot unfortunately. He knows this is his one chance to prove he isn't worthless - finally getting first team Premier League football after being let go by Man United, lots of people needing winning over and Marv breathing down his neck. If he didn't put in any effort he'd be a total idiot.

 

I think he's trying, but I have no idea what goes through his head. He must have worked out he ends more attacks than helps. So confidence will be a huge issue for him, and he'll be under pressure. I can't see him ever making the grade though. I don't think he is that quick and I don't think he is at all skillful to be honest, I was just going by what he was supposed to be good at when we signed him.

 

Yeah, I agree. I was all for giving him time to prove his worth, I figured with plenty of first team performances his confidence would grow and we'd start to see flashes of brilliance, but Marveaux has shown he is ten times the player in just a few sub appearances so I'd rather we just keep Obertan for cup games or something.

 

He reminds me of a worse Routledge to be honest. I'd just like to see him sold, never wanted him in the first place. Think he'd be alright in the Championship.