Cabaye

Anyone of the midfielders could have done with being subbed I thought, Barton looked like he was going to be sent off at the time.

 

Aye he usually does but I did think he looked the fittest along with Jonas. Those two got through some serious graft I thought. Joey is lively but I just think he adds exactly what we need on the right side. You knew Cheick was tired when he started to give the ball away. He gave it away more in one half than he did the whole of last season. But I think we have to remember he missed a huge chunk of the back end of pre season with that visa lark. He will destroy the mackem midfield hopefully after a full week of fine tuning. As I say I'm more confident than ever about Cabaye even if he didn't have a spellbinding game.

 

Tiote was poor especially in the first half and gave the ball away a lot, probably because he was in a way more advanced position than normally. He should just be sitting in front of the back four in the Makelele role - he was having to thread the ball through the eye of a needle at times and just wasn't up to it. That's not a sleight on him, it's just not his game. We looked far better when Cabaye played more advanced in the second half, then again Cabaye was everywhere. He put in a brilliant shift and I already like him.