It's only a twitter rumour but...

Have to say I agree with this - also I also found cabaye to have less impact on the games where Tiote was absent. Tiote is just so important for protecting the back four, I can't imagine a player doing as good a job as him.

I do think Cabaye will improve this year though now he is a bit more used to the prem league - needs some match fitness though - looked off the pace on Sat.

 

To be fair I don't think Cabaye was being utilised properly for most of the season when we played 4-4-2 he wasn't able to get forward into the Attacking midfield role which is his best position which is why we never saw the best of him until the end of the season when we went 4-3-3, and he was absolutely unplayable, just off the top of my head I think he must have made around 5-6 assists and scored about 2-3 goals when pushed further forward with Tiote and Gutierrez in the supporting 2 man anchor role behind him.

Cabaye is one of those players who would be impossible to replace IMO, someone with his passing range and footballing brain (the pass he picked out for Demba against Norwich and the through ball for Cisse against Stoke as examples) While Tiote is a fine player and would also be hard to replace I think replacing Cabaye would be nigh on impossible for a team like us with limited funds for sanctioning transfers. We've got a real coup in Cabaye and is probably already worth 5 times what we paid for him.

 

If some muppet offers £30m each then either Cabs or Tiote can go with my blessing. Recent history has shown we move on and upwards. Plus Carr will already know their replacements.

 

I guess QPR are preparing bids as we speak... Lol.

 

QPRpool will walk the league this year.

 

This 120%. 4-3-3 with Tiote/Destroyer ..Anita as Link and Cabs in the forward AMF role..fantastic.

He would be next to impossible to replace

(slightly off topic: Cabs, Krul, Ben Arfa are to me the hard to replace ones)

 

Cabaye will be the harder than Tiote to replace personally. Think we already have people to do his job if he does leave, but for Cabaye we will need another Carr gem if we are lucky or if not have to spend a lot of the fee received back on replacing him.

 

Yep I agree with that too about Ben Arfa and Krul.

Ben Arfa has a natural talent that is very rare, he can make something happen out of absolutely nothing and is the most naturally talented player in the side, not to mention his dribbling ability is probably one of the best I've seen at the club, it certainly ranks right up there with Beardsley.

Krul at the age of 23, is already just as good as Given was in his prime, we really landed on our feet in this respect when Given ****ed off because although Harper is a canny keeper, he just doesn't quite match up or have that extra touch of class.

We really do have a lot of players to be proud of at the moment.

 

Come to think of it Anita seems to be the perfect foil midfielder for Cabaye... He's a neat passer with technique, he can play the role that Sami Khedira plays for Real Madrid, the box to box midfielder who covers ground together with Tiote, and then strings passes together in attack... A midfield trio of Tiote Anita Cabaye would leave our front three salivating at the opportunities they'll be creating for them..

 

Whilst I agree with the above, Pardew has said on a few occasions during pre season that Ba will play 90% of his games as a CF, which to me suggests 4-4-2 will be his preferred formation as I can't see Cisse being shifted wide. If this is the case and we'll have just two players in the middle of the park, to me Tiote becomes the more important player for us. I do love the idea of a 3 man midfield consisting of Tiote, Anita & Cabaye. Although I'd still want Jonas to see a lot of game time as he does plenty of great work that can sometimes go unnoticed.

 

Agreed, especially with respect to Jonas, but the shift to 4-3-3 agin the Spuds did the trick on saturday, So maybe the announced intention to play 442 with Ba and Cisse will get...'reconsidered', especially as Ba's contract clause has now run out.

I really like the formation flexibility we have within the squad, so can see us playing a mix of 4-4-2/ 4-3-3 and 4-5-1, throughout the season, and hopefully after we qaulify for Europe there will be plenty of games to go around for all.

That said,from march-ish last year 4-3-3 worked so well for us at all levels, the football was great, the flow, pace, etc etc I Hope this will become our..main/default.. formation. (with Tiote ..Anita/Jonas....Cabs as the core set up)

 

Spot on. One game that sticks out from me was the game away at WBA, for me we looked a top four team in that game. Our play on the counter during that game was as good as anything I'd seen from anyone last season. We looked like scoring from every attack.

Most of the top teams play a variation of 4-3-3/4-2-3-1 in the big games as it's the midfield battle that normally wins the big matches for you. I think at home against teams in the bottom half you could still see enough possession playing 4-4-2 to get the win/create chances.

I personally think Pardew has a much tougher job this season, as last season will still lacked options in midfield at times. However now we have Anita he has to find the right balance/team for each game and if he gets it wrong people will criticise more than they did last season (not saying he's under pressure in terms of keeping his job, far from it) due to the greater number of options we now have.