Options from the Bench..... Obertan?????

Thought we played ok yesterday but City are just that much better than us. But.. Pardew has said that with the multitude of signings this summer he now has the ability to change things around because of the strength of the bench!! So guess how surprised i was to see our favourite player come on in the second half to change the game.. Obertan.. Really!!! If he is what Pardew considers a game changing player then i have that sinking feeling in my gut again. I mean come on.. the lad tries his best but he is just not fit for purpose in the Premier League. How he is still at the club is a sign of how hard it must be to get rid of him to ANYONE!! Perez should have been on 20 mins earlier IMO. We still need more signings but i think that is unlikely until January, when we will probably be hitting the panic buying button again. Thoughts???

 

I honestly would't trust this bloke as a pie runner. He'd probably drop the pie into the wrong seat.

 

The kid played well in preseason.

What I didnt understand more is that he played Dummett at lb when Haidara played in preseason.

I dont get his logic sometimes. TBF Dummett did do ok.

I thought it was Colo who was a yard off the pace yesterday and was at fault for the frist goal. He should have seen that Williamson was across and he should have backed off. For the second goal we where chasing the game, getting tired and where picked off by a class player.

It is concerning that we look weak at the back. But I think going forward we should be ok.

Ryan Shawcross or Ron Vlaar please.

 

I thought Perez frightened man city when he came on, should have been on earlier imo. Aaron's as well. Quite pleased with Colbeck.

Still not Dummets biggest fan though. He's just not good enough.

 

All of this (except Ron Vlaar, still not convinced by him)

 

Hope we get rid hes tripe

 

I know the old saying goes, " you cant make a silk purse out of a sows ear". But what if you have the materials to make a silk purse but the person making the purse(Pardew) is a useless YTS trainee without a clue but you have given him control of your silk purse business for a few years while you nip off to the pub for a few swift ones in your extended lunch break? When you decide to come back to work you will walk into a feckin shambles,he has sold all your best stock and replaced it with less effective but cheaper materials that you will make decent profit on, when all you wanted was to produce good quality purses with good materials.

Having read this back to myself i think i need a good lie down. I think i have gone mad!! LOL

 

Obertan is a pile of old tampons.

 

I think Pardew's painted himself into a corner with Obertan, purely regarding his treatment of Ben Arfa.

What's happened is, Obertan has actually bothered to work and improve his attitude and fitness etc – basically everything Ben Arfa is being punished for not doing.

So he's giving with one hand and taking away with the other and it's probably more about setting an example regarding discipline than truly believing Obertan's got a career here.
Fact is also you won't move these guys on if they just melt away into obscurity.

I should add that if all the above if true, I commend it. I'm not an Obertan fan far from it but it's the way things should work. Give him a chance and rescind when he doesn't take it.

Whether you like Pardew or not the manager sees these guys in training, he observes their attitude, application and performance levels.
Now unless the fella deliberately tries to maximise his chances of losing matches (which is plausible given results) and ultimately we hope his job, he must be employing selection judgements on that basis...

 

Obertan is not good enough but I suppose he is all we had. Really Pards should have had HBA available to him but the fat **** won't be the professional he should be. Days like yesterday really highlight what he thinks of the club and its fans. We can't sign anyone because he won't leave and clubs aren't looking for a twat, but we can't use him because isn't man enough to be professional and apologise. Sickening really.

Only criticism I do have of Pardew is he had Abeid there. Could not have shifted Sissoko given how poor he was centrally and put Abeid in. I suppose Obertan has done well pre season but I was never convinced.

Ideally we'd see the back of Jonas and HBA for differing reasons and that will free up some funds. Same in defence with either Mbiwa or Saylor going. We are not the first club to find ourselves with players you can't ship.

When De Jong, Cisse and Tiote return our bench will get better of course but you always have injuries. Where was Ferreyra?

 

Obertan flattered to deceive ( again ) pre season and just reverted to type on Sunday. Waste of a place on the bench for me.

 

I think it's more the fact he played Obertan through the middle.

He has one use: his pace pulls their wingbacks into tracking back & defending instead of going forward.

once again, Pardew demonstrating tactical ineptitude. Obertan is a useful tool for certain situations, but you can't put a square peg in a round hole.

 

Considering how many touches of the ball he had on Sunday, I can't see how people are saying he was as bad as ever. He hardly got the ball and when he did he didn't do anything stupid with it. Then again he didn't do anything great either, including getting skinned by Kolorov. Of course Kolorov would do most players the way he was playing.

Overran was about as involved as Sissoko was in the game but Sissoko didn't have the excuse of being on for less than half the match. Get him out on the wing as he was doing ok in pre-season and he may do a passable impression of a winger. He's gonna do nothing through the middle so Pardew has to be at fault for his performance this time out.

 

I'm glad Sissokay by me said it first as it's something I've been wondering about.

Exactly what was it that Obertan did that was particularly bad ? He was pretty anonymous as far as I could see.

 

The thread would have made more sense if it attacked Pardew's mentally unstable decision to not only bring on Overran, but play him through the middle. However, it's City, they and Chelsea are the teams where you just have to put your hands up and accept you are more or less not going to win, home or away. Our record against City in particular is dire.

I will however offer the defense that our bench, if fit and professional, could have had anyone from Ben Arfa, Cisse, De Jong, Ferreyra and Tiote on it. As has been pointed out, it was a game that was crying out for a fit Ben Arfa to come on and give it a go. We saw what the debutant Perez did, frightened their back four - imagine if a point-to-prove Benny had that chance, might have been 1-1.

 

As long as Aarons is given time.

 

More than that, the environment has to be right. If we lose vs. Villa, Aarons will disappear for a while because against Palace it may turn toxic. It's this angle I'm not entirely sure Ashley understands, the impact a poor manager can have just through the feelings of the fans. Forget gate money or pie money, it's player development that can suffer. Adam Armstrong a good case in point last year - he should be knocking on the door this year, but because of (more or less) Pardew and the feeling towards him, he couldn't move forward.

 

Adam Armstrong is a child who is nowhere near ready to knock on the first team door.

 

AA should be loaned out as soon as possible for development! Maybe Crewe?

 

Anywhere he can get game time and be toughened up a bit.