Monroe Transfer

Shit, am I chief Ben Arfa hater now or something? And why are you dodging his question?

Exactly. He gets a small cameo and THATS the reason we lose. Nevermind the complete shite that happened in the second half. We didn't lose... ... and I don't think anyone has blamed him in particular when we have lost either.

You've managed to sum Ben Arfa's failings up in the same post where you seek to defend him. At the moment, we're only seeing glimpses of his talent. It's like hie has a highlight reel quota to fill. Once he's done that he's back to losing possession 9 times out of 10 when there's a pass on. You could point out that with more starts his confidence would grow, and you'd be right, but he's still got to prove himself worthy when he's on as a sub too. At the moment, I can't blame Pardew for not trusting Ben Arfa. You can tell how much he frustrates Pardew - knowing he's got a player of such ability, but one who is yet to consistently harness it.

Will he? They're not all going to go on his past reputation.

Quite easily, actually.

This.

I don't understand why he stands off so much. It's not a skill few can learn or anything. You either do it or you don't. Surely the manager and staff can see this, but clearly don't make a point of telling him to do it. He's got some good attributes does Simpson, but he needs to sort himself out in some areas.

With that said, Cardiff only have themselves to blame. Missing 3 out of 5 pens is really poor.

Horrible club. No way am I watching them celebrate.

FUCKING GET IN!

Noooooo Sigh.

Are we writing these blog articles for you or something?

Enjoy the West Brom game, Rhys?

Ben Arfa gets away with his non-performances because he "adds spark" to the team, it's other player's faults for not moving around him enough, and he keeps the ball on the ground. Shame he actually doesn't do much with it. Really needs to up his game. Definitely lacking confidence and could do with a full 90, but if he's not worthy of a start according to his manager then that is what it is.

You're just doing the anti-Jonas thing for attention now aren't you?

Doesn't matter, he keeps on losing the ball, or kicking it out of touch. I'd rather he passed it back to Simpson than did that.

1. Guthrie isn't a wnger. 2. Don't think he left it too late. 3. To change the formation to 451 I presume. 4. Tired after ACoN? Conflicts with the above though, as he was replaced by... 5. ... Shola, so we ended up going back to 442 anyway. I assumed once we went to a 5 man midfield - temporarily - it'd stop them having so much possession and allow us to play it along the ground. But we never did that, far too many aimless balls into the box. Cabaye was anonymous, Guthrie appalling, Jonas lacked concentration, Ben Arfa lacked concentration, Taylor wasn't at his best etc.

Well if ever there was a game to determine our season, this is it.

We haven't played particularly well since the Man Utd game. We were excellent that night, but have gotten progressively worse since. Maybe some of the plaudits are going to players/Pardew's head or something. We have the players to be better than this.

There is just so much wrong with us at the moment.

I've said this before and I'll say it again - we never kill games off. Our biggest win this season was 3-0 against Man Utd, and the third goal in that game was a complete fluke so you could say that our performance in that game was only worthy of 2-0. This time last season, we'd won 6-0, 5-1, 5-0 and were about to beat today's opponents 4-1. Never have we looked close to doing that this season. I said during the match that I don't ever feel comfortable at 2-0 and today was a prime example as to why I feel that way. Serious question marks over Pardew now tbh.

Blame the players as well, genius. Pardew wasn't out there making countless mistakes.

5 minutes i-t.