Nolan / Barton

At the time of them leaving, we thought it was baffling. Nolan was scoring goals to be fair and Barton battled well.

But do we really miss them? I personally think we are so much better without, Nolan in my opinion would ruin our style of play.

Opinions?

 

Nolan would never of got a game. Guthrie would probably also start ahead of him.

 

When they left they were both very much 'fan-favourites' and I personally was gutted to see them both leave.

It has however, turned out to be more of a blessing if I'm perfectly honest. Cabaye and Tiote are as good as any other central midfield pairing on in the league (Bar Citeh) And everyone seems to be working for each other.

I do sometimes wonder though - is the dressing room team spirit as good as it was when we were in the CC for example?

 

Nolan ruined our style LAST season, without his leadership or goals he was a hinderance, however he served us welll and i wish him the best im just glad hes gone hes got the engine of a 35 year old

 

i bet its far more relaxed, and less intimidating for new foriegn players

 

Probably not as good no, I'd imagine there are separate groups within the team.

The French lads together, Gutierrez and Coloccini will be best mates. I reckon they will all have mates but they'll all get on.

 

Didnt think we'd miss nolan as it seemed pretty obvious cabaye was gonna be his replacement and nolan was only really effective when pushed on in the supprtin role for me, also his fitness looked pretty poor to say the least and because of this for me too often he looked like a passenger when played in a central midfield role, though sayin that thought he would of still been useful to have as a back up option.

Barton on the other hand I thought was definately worth keepin for footballin reasons. But whether deliberately or not he ensured that he couldnt be kept by actin like a tit all summer off the pitch. Remember watchin the lap of honour at the end of last season where the 2 of them were like 30/40 yards behind the rest of the squad all the way round (fair enough nolan was on crutches) and just havin a horrible feelin neither of them would be here come the current season. Turns out there was no need obviously was we've done better without them, goin off purely football terms would still much rather have barton on the right than obertan though

 

Yet another double post and dont know how or even if I can delete altogether

 

Both were thriving in a long ball team, this was proved by how badly they both played after Carroll left, as that tactic was built around a good target man. Nolan scored 2 goals all season after that and Barton never hit the good form he was in the first half of the season.

They could motivate themselves and the rest of the team for big games (taking 4 points off Arsenal, unbeaten against Chelsea, the 5-1) but struggled in comparatively easy games that we should have been taking points from (Blackburn, Stoke, Wigan and Blackpool, all at home, none won).

 

When we hit a bad patch and lose against 4 or 5 bottom half teams, or lose to the mackems for example, we will miss their personalities. Other than that, no. Wouldn't have minded seeing Barton whip some crosses in for Demba though.

 

how is nolan doing down the road anyway? ive not really had my eye on the championship this year and i hate FSA to the point that i would just refuse to watch west ham. this is also the reason that i have no clue about james tomkins.

 

Honestly, as soon as I saw we had Cabaye, I wasn't overly bothered about Nolan's departure. Many of us were struggling to see how our captain would even fit into our starting line up: he was a slow, often invisible player and would be keeping great players out of the team. The media and a thus a lot of other fans turned Nolan into our 'best player' because of his goals but we knew he was far from it.

As for Barton, I was gutted we lost him as a player but he was getting more and more on my nerves as the end of last season and the preseason went on. Eventually I was pretty much just glad the whole thing was over and done with.

Before the season started there seemed to be two camps of us, one lot thought we were screwed and saw a lot of draws a la Birmingham last season and the other lot were excited and could see us pushing on from last. I was certainly in the latter camp because I was chuffed we had Ba; but there was a hint of worry in the back of my mind - especially at the start during Ramadan when Ba and Tiote weren't looking too great.

 

We could have used Barton as a right mid because he was an awesome crosser. However there would have been a chance neither got a game seeing as Nolan isnt as good as any of our 3 CM's and Pardew ****s over Obertan.

Both are too "big" to be used as cover.

 

You'd like your post count right now .

 

I certainly don't miss either. As soon as Cabaye rumours started creeping about I knew Nolan wouldn't get a game and that was good news for me. He only suits one style of football and is anonymous in the majority of games. He had a great season and a half with us though.

As for Barton, I was onthe fence with him but the guy is bad news. He'd not be happy with just a squad place either. I see Ryan Taylor being able to do his job on the right with a cooler head. I prefer an actual winger anyways though. I'm glad all the bad press has gone either way.

Upwards and onwards.

 

I was gutted about nolan leaving but no matter how many goals he scored I just didn't like his style of play but he was a leader of the dressing room so I was more worried about the squad harmony at the time.Barton he had no pace a good crosser of the ball but he played you were worried if we were going to have 10 men at the end of the match IMO I wasn't happy at the time but now time has passed I couldn't be happier

 

I wouldnt have actually minded Barton staying if we'd used him as a CM, he's different to our others and between injuries/suspensions/ACON, we could have done with another good CM, but his attitude and problems with the board meant he was never going to get his contract renewed, longest he could have stayed would be for this season.

 

I wasn't the least bit worried about Nolan. Considering we got our money back on a 29 year old who had the engine of a 39 year old. He also wanted increased wages and contact extension- i think not! He's been replaced in goals and our style of play is much more attractive.

Barton was my favourite player but i'm glad he went. Way too much bad press, he just couldn't help himself at times. It's a shame really because he was such a great influential player the majority of the time last season...

 

Not one bit, quite the opposite. Thank both of them for getting us to the Premier League & keeping us there, but imo we're better off without them.

 

I was happy when both went, especially when Barton went. Barton is a good CM, but Guthrie this season has been a class above him in the absence of Tiote and Cabaye in for Nolan, nothing else needs to be said really.