Cabaye! Oh and others.

Is he as good as we initially think?

Anyone else think he has been going missing in games. Since the 3-0 hammering of manu we aint played well, our midfield has been overrun. Since hes come back in the team at the expense of Guthrie hes been average at best.

I thought when BA came on we looked much more balanced. I think Santon to start at RB, BA at RW and Taylor at LB.

Finally Cisse looked lost today!

 

yes Cabaye was anonymous in the first half again today

 

Both Cisse and Cabaye were poor today.
Cabaye should have gone off and Guthrie on.

 

Agreed, Cabaye was rubbish, getting concerned about him. Guthrie deserves to start ahead of him.

 

If you bypass the midfield completely your centre mid won't get much of the ball. Didn't see much of him or Tiote for the whole first half. Once we go back to a passing game he'll shine again.

 

Thought the same today, either he isn't fit, carrying an injury or form has gone completely. If our main playmaker isn't performing then we're not likely to create as many chances and have to rely on scraps and mistakes rather than engineer our opportunities.

On a positive HBA looked bright when he came on, bit more match play and his decision making will improve with it.

 

When that will happen concerns me, Pardew tries to make them do it all the time and it never ever works.

 

I just hope hes not one of these players that gets sussed out and teams nulify him. I would be interested to see how many passes Cabaye completed as a ratio.

I thought Tiote carried him today.

HBA was class when he came on.

Think he deserves a start against Arsenal on 12th as tbfh we dont expect to get anything so we may as well play 5 in midfield. I dont want a Spuds performance again.

 

As Colly said, Cabaye has been invisible because the ball is just being hoofed over his head by our defenders for 90 mins. He, and most, if not all of our other players, look far far better in a shorter passing game. I really can't see why Pardew keeps trying to play hoofball.

He does need to work on his aggression though, as he got another stupid yellow card today.

 

Cabaye was my fav player this season

last 2 games , he has been terrible !

I think maybe 5 in midfield for arsenal , At least Guthrie has energy and drives forward

 

Cabaye, alongside the likes of Ben Arfa, Coloccini, Tiote and Ba is one of the most naturally gifted players in our squad. If you saw him play in France you'd realise just how good he is.

Like so many foreign players, he needs to adapt to English football. We'll see him at his best next season.

 

I think a big part is us playing long ball. Pardew needs to get this out of his head pronto. Its not what we're good at and its not what has got us into the position we are. I refuse to believ Krul is taking it upon himself to launch all these long balls. It must be Pardews instructions.

But for me Cabaye is out on his feet anyway. I know he has just had a little break but I think the tank is empty. He had some serious ground covered stats early in the season. That has to take its toll when you are coming from the French league to the PL, the pace difference is unreal. The impact on your body is obvious, just look at how tired all the players who play in England were at the world cup. I'd put Guthrie in and give him some complete rest. I'd do it regardless as it should come down to form how you pick the team. Only fair way in a squad system.

 

Aye, cabaye didn't stamp his influence on the game yesterday, but in fairness, tough game to be playing in. Catts is a nutter, and he did impose himself with that first tackle. I think a lot of how the game played out yesterday was down to the first tackle. We let ourselves get riled up, instead of keeping a cool head and trying to get Catts sent off we were trying to get back at them, Tiote did, Simpson did etc. Cissé I don't think was completely fit yesterday, nor was Shola, so I think Pards was just hoping to swap them for one another, and hope that HBA could provide some spark. It worked out alright. Willo made a hideous mistake for their goal, but i felt we were comfortable apart from that.

What I didn't like yesterday was a lack of maturity from just about everyone involved, bar Shola. Pards..Krul, Simpson, Tiote, Cabaye running around like headless chickens kicking people and trying to score wonder goals from outside the box. I think that is why we did better last year with Nolan in there, he kept cool and funny enough even Barton (for some reason manage to be cool). We weren't cool yesterday. We played the occasion more than we did the match. We could have easily scored more goals but we didn't because everyone was taking ridiculous long range efforts rather than trying to carve out out a shooting opportunity for the strikers in the box. While I understand Hatem having a crack here or there and overplaying it, Tiote took about 4 needless shots that all went into the stands, rather than trying to turn the screws and get a decent ball in.

The tackles were flying in, so you I don't blame some of the players for either losing their head or trying not to get too involved (Cissé). But it definitely could have been better, however I doubt we had anything on the bench to make much of a difference. Maybe Lovenkrands should have been on, he's got a cool head, and possibly Obertan or is he injured? I love Tiote, but I felt he was doing more harm than good in the last 20 minutes and I would have put Obertan on for him just to run at people and fizz one across the box.

As for Guthrie, he's a hothead too, he would have probably seen red, as would have Gosling for sure. That's the problem with having all these young players. In certain situations you just need some experience and some cool minds, because Sunderland were by no means unbeatable, we had the ball, them penned into their own half, but we really didn't produce any quality football apart from one flicked cross that got stabbed home and a pretty silly strikers challenge for a penalty.

But that's the derby for you. Had it not been a different team I think we would have gone out 3-1 winners. Equally it could have been 0-2 to sunderland if they had converted their break away and we'd be holding our heads for the next few weeks. We went into the game too fired up, either that or that first tackle blew too many fuses. It should just been okay, good, lets lightly kick Catts a few times and get him sent off and take it from there.

We started out playing hoofball it seemed...as someone pointed out. The midfield was way too far back and the strikers isolated, even when they won it there was no where to go, and Sunderland were on it, they were running and closing the strkers down well.

I'd quite like to see a 4-3-3 in future with Tiote holding and Cabaye half right, Jonas half left, HBa top right and the strikers figuring themselves out. If Jonas wants to run the line Taylor there to cover, who we know won't get too far forward, and on the other side Cabaye and Simpson/Santon cover for Benny.

The traditional 4-4-2 is making us look pretty disjointed. We looked more of a unit when Besty was in there linking up and running. Of course Cissé has just come into the team but yesterday they both needed more support from midfield and they didn't get it, there were about 40 yards between the two lines. I think it's clear we know who our first team should be, but haven't quite found the system yet to make it all work.

Tactically, yesterday was poor from us. The effort and spirit was good, but the application as they say was very poor. Our shooting was ghastly. Coupled with the poor second half against Wolves, in which we should have been more mature and just seen it out I think the last two matches showed the lack of experience in our squad.

Finally I'm kinda of hoping Taylor will return and recover his form asap, and taking over as captain. Colo's a solid defender but he's not a great captain. While it might be too early for Taylor, had we had a Phil Neville or Danny Murphy on the pitch yesterday I think we would have won.

 

I reckon that Cabaye's probably played too deep to be really effective. Because Pardew insists on 4-4-2, it means that he's stuck with Tiote clearing up all the crap in the middle of the park. He was pretty much Lille's playmaker, and now he's scrapping around trying to win loose balls in the centre circle where there's no space.

I just think that Pardew maybe has too many favourites or feels that he owes it to certain players to play every game (Jonas, Raylor). They do deserve their chance after good games, but the problem is that that's usually done at the expense of adapting our formation to the game in question and lumping it about in a 4-4-2. Most teams regularly rotate players/adapt the squad depending on the opposition, which is what we need to start doing.

Edit - basically a lot of what travelsick said

 

We were a far better team when Taylor was moved from the right and HBA put there. That single change made a heap load of difference. Tiote had been to Africa a few days earlier and has already been said, we're not making the most of what Cabaye can do, who admittedly looks worn out.