Is Hatem trying too hard?

I've noticed Hatem is, most of the time, trying to skin everyone and do it all himself. He does well, he skins like 2-3 players, but eventually gets tackled.

Should Pardew just tell him to skin a couple, then pass the ball?

I don't mind him trying all his skills if we're 2 or more goals to the good, but when we're drawing 0-0 at 80 mins, he should try and work with the team more.

I'm probably being a bit too hard on him, because it was one of his fantastic runs that started the move for our equalizer vs Spurs, but all the same, he should skin 2-3 players and then just play a simple pass to a team mate and try and move into a good position. He did this in his first game back vs Blackburn and almost got an assist with 20 seconds of being on the pitch. He made a good run, played a pass to a team mate, and then got into a fantastic position and was almost the beating heart of a fantastic move that would have resulted in our 4th goal vs Blackburn.

One thing I've noticed for a while now is that he has excellent balance on the ball. He isn't easy to shrug off the ball, which is another great aspect of Hatem. Most of the time the opposition players need to put in a slide tackle to dispossess him, does anyone else notice that? They either can't deal with his agility or can't push him off the ball, so in the end they are forced to put in a challenge, a lot of the times in critical areas. I predict he could win us quite a few free kicks and pens.

Back on topic, he seems to do really well, and then miss his chance to pass it because he tries to go for it himself most of the time. I'm sure Pardew will discuss this with him. He doesn't need to do it all himself, and we don't expect him to be ****ing Messi. We all know he has talent and is probably the most gifted player in the squad technically.

Jonas used to be like this, and since Pardew came along, Jonas' decision making has been spot on most of the time. He knows when to use his pace and dribbling to skin players, and also when it's right to go to the wing and play in a ball. He's always had the ability, but it was his decision making that let him down. Now, he has become smarter, and i know that it's unfair to compare Jonas and Ben Arfa in this way because Jonas has been here 3 years, and Ben Arfa has hardly played.

Ben Arfa has the ability, he just needs to develop his decision making skills, and learn that his ego will not help him if he really wants to help the team.

 

i think some of it is trying to make up for lost time.

 

In all honesty it will be a while before he gets his head right and we need to allow perhaps a season or 2 before he gets back to his best. You can see he pulls out of tackles.

 

As you said Tash, he has very good agility

 

Yes and no I feel when he first gets on the pitch he is like a kid in a sweet shop and just kinda gets way ahead of himself and wants to show why he should start but when he settles in to the game we works wonders especially quick passing along the left wing with Jonas

 

I knew you'd pick up on that you fat ****er!

 

I think he may just be trying to see if he still has it in him. But yeah I agree that he needs to pass but as you said Pardew will tell him this.

If he grabs a couple of goals and assists vs Blackburn then the confidence will start to return which is good for us and scary for the opposistion. Give him time, maybe 2 or 3 games to get used match sharpness.

 

If he just went past two players then passed he wouldnt be Ben Arfa. He's going to try and take on the world every time and sometimes he'll score a wonder goal or set one up. That's just who he is and what we have, but I agree he needs to realise when an attacking move is a lost cause and pass the ball to someone behind him.

 

He's doing just fine.

One year out of football with a serious broken leg and he's getting back to what he does best which is taking on players in the centre of the pitch, getting the ball forward and I'm sure soon that he'll start finding passes frequently to his team mates in dangerous positions.

Give him time.

He's a talented player and will get better.

 

I think he probably is. I would rather he tried too hard than not trying at all like Michael Owen used to do

 

Tash....good points.....when we signed him I checked him out on You-Tube and his skills before injury were sublime.

 

Yes he's trying to do too much like that bit of skill in the Spurs game.