The No. 10.

[Park Life 70]

He isn't a winger, he's never been a winger.

 

You ought to revisit Hatems background a bit, prior to him coming here, to say the least.

 

 

Happy to be corrected as my knowledge of French football is worse than CT, but from what I've read he's only ever played on the outside of a 3 man midfield/attack, never 4 or 5 as an out and out winger.

 

Have you seen him do that?

 

When he played wide right he tended to drift inside and switch wings on occasion. His managers will have been happy for him to do that then, but Pardew appears to favour rigidity and discipline. He actually looks more effective cutting in from the right and has scored some spectacular goals (similar to his last one) doing that.

 

If Tiote and Cab are both playing then as you say I'd have him start on the right with a license to cut inside (wherever he can find space basically). Half the team are donkeys anyway (not his fault).

[Park Life 70]

Irrespective of formations/systems/flaws to his game etc etc, the other irrefutably good thing about his goal the other day aside from us progressing in the cup is that if he starts again he's in goalscoring form and that's massively important going into our first league game without Ba. Not from a confidence point of view, (because he's not a confidence player, he's an arrogance player and will try the same things whether they're working or he's been dispossessed 10 times in a row), but from the point of view of goals begetting goals. A burst of form in front of goal is exactly what we need in Ba's absence basically.

 

Pards should clean his boots after each match.

[Baggio 0]

Baggio getting bogged down in a Stalingradesque debate as winter moves in...

 

 

 

 

"I think he's a very talented player that can have a big role for us, you may be surprised to hear that with the strawman arguments his fans have attempted to build up but if you read back through at no time have I ever said he isn't any good.

 

The doubts I have are as follows...

 

He will improve the current team: People seem to think all we have to do is select him over Best and we will become an even better side which I don't see as being the case.

 

One of the main reasons we are where we are in the league is down to the amount of work our players put in when we don't have the ball, we're not playing teams off the park by any stretch of the imagination but we are putting a ridiculous amount of effort in closing down and tracking back when we don't have the ball, a good example of this is when I posted on Saturday about Ba not having the best of games but he still put the work in and that is the same for all of our midfield and attack recently, we've seen with Cabaye that he hasn't been up to his high standards lately that he set at the beginning of the season but he's still putting plenty of work in covering the pitch and the same goes for Ba, Best, Tiote and Jonas.

 

Ben Arfa is different in that he's not going to graft but he's technically more gifted than anyone else in our attack, that's great when he's up to speed and if he settles into the team but at the moment he isn't which makes me think he could end up being a passenger which we can't afford to have, this opinion is backed up by people who watched the Blackburn game that he started and was anonymous for large parts of it apparently.

 

People bring up how long Coloccini and Enrique took to settle in before finding their best form but the difference now is that we have a very good alternative in Best and Ba that have formed a good partnership, back then if we didn't play Colo we had Taylor who was equally poor and N'Zogbia to cover Enrique, I would hate to throw away our current position by attempting to get a player that isn't up to speed and might not be any time soon.

 

Partnership with Ba: The second problem I have is the potential partnership with Ba, I think people presume that Ba is a target man type but I don't see this as being the case and at West Ham and before coming to England he's played in more a withdrawn role, a role he continues to play here with great success (15 goals in 22 Premiership games) so how do him and Ben Arfa play in a withdrawn position unless we're going with 3 up top? People have suggested that Ba could play more of a target man role but when he's been as successful as all but a few in front of goal playing this role why should he change to accommodate someone?

 

So not only do I think he lacks the work ethic for this current team but I think him playing in a number 10 role with Ba could leave the whole attack imbalanced, all this while he' clearly not up to speed anyway.

 

Team player?: In the 10 appearances he's made since he's been here for me he's looked anything but a team player which I think is important for anyone playing in the number 10 role, we've heard people compliment him on his dribbling skills and such but how many occasions can you say he was an important factor in making something happen for someone else since he's been here? That's not having a go at the lad but it's a pretty obvious thing to notice and something that he can get away with more out wide than when he's relied on to be the heartbeat of the team.

 

People have said that it's because of a lack of options in front of him but if he is going to play that role then it's only going to be Ba there the majority of the time anyway, he's going to find himself in plenty of similar situations like he did against Everton but is he going to continue to play for himself instead of others like a VDV would?

 

I know people think I'm being harsh on the lad as he's been out injured so long but I don't think I am, if people were not demanding him being in the starting line up up top now then I'd happily give him his cameo's to get up to speed like I am with Gosling, however if he is going to have a starting place for us then I expect better than what we've seen so far and I don't care how long he's been out either, like I said if he's not performing he's a luxury that I don't think we can carry and maintain our current form at the same time.

 

Long term I think he's going to struggle to get in up top, not because of Best as I don't think Pardew rates him that highly but I see whichever striker he buys if it's Maiga or whoever I see it with a view of linking up with Ba, our biggest goal threat by some distance, so what I'd like to see is HBA played out on the right which will give him his chance to get his fitness back and then for us to buy a solid right back (OMG Santon is a right back etc) that is happy to sit and cover leaving HBA to have a more free role out wide, someone like Onuoha would be great for the role.

 

So to summarise I don't think Ben Arfa is s****, I also don't think him having one good game, scoring a great goal like he did against Everton or getting an assist would have proven me wrong which some are building their straw men to mean, it's about looking at the bigger picture and seeing if the form of the team improves or drops off over a longer period than that."

 

I still stand by these comments and they are looking more and more accurate with every passing week, the fact I was labelled a troll for these views rather than jumping on the Ben Arfa bandwagon says more about the standard of poster over the road.

 

I've always held the view that something has been said between Pardew and Ben Arfa about him only wanting to play through the middle, this was as good as confirmed by comments by Pardew over the weekend about him not wanting to play out wide when he joined but if he wants to be a success here he has to play there IMO.

[Lake Bells tits 1]

Look at the company he is in:

 

Ryan Taylor, Gabriel Obertan, Leon Best, Peter Lovenkrants, Shola Ameobi, Hatem Ben Arfa.

 

They are all donkeys and he still struggles to get games. Wasting his time with pards I`m afraid, go find a team where the manager hands you a shirt and tells you to go have fun, lad.

[Guest alex]

Look at the company he is in:

 

Ryan Taylor, Gabriel Obertan, Leon Best, Peter Lovenkrants, Shola Ameobi, Hatem Ben Arfa.

 

They are all donkeys and he still struggles to get games. Wasting his time with pards I`m afraid, go find a team where the manager hands you a shirt and tells you to go have fun, lad.

Here man! Shut the fuck up

[Gemmill 34413]

I know, what a fucking whinging fanboy you're coming across as LBT. He played the last game, wait and see what happens in the next one, and stop going on like a fucking Belieber about the kid.

[ChezGiven 0]

Sharp intake of breath, 'did alex just tell someone off?'

 

The fjords may be frozen over in January but the ice is very thin.

[Kevin S. Assilleekunt 1]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2012/jan/15/hatem-ben-arfa-newcastle-united

 

 

Hatem Ben Arfa is the sort of footballer fans adore and managers describe as challenging. In no particular order he has, variously, scored the best goal Alan Pardew has ever seen, flown to Tunis instead of playing for the reserves and announced that he does not quite share the same philosophy as his manager.

The France international believes Pardew should construct the entire team around his mercurial talents but, muttering darkly about Ben Arfa's need to "work harder", Newcastle United's manager regards him more as an "impact" substitute.

Whether he begins on the bench, the right wing or in the hole, there can be little doubt that a former Marseille player Alan Shearer infamously told a Match of the Day audience he had never heard of is a game changer.

Ben Arfa certainly changed this one following his first‑half introduction as a replacement for the injured Yohan Cabaye. Although this was far from a vintage Newcastle performance, Ben Arfa's decision to pledge international loyalty to France rather than Tunisia means he needs to be making headlines; here he altered a freezing afternoon for the better.

"Hatem was absolutely terrific, we've got him coming alive – and his work-rate was fantastic," said Pardew, forgetting, temporarily, all those moments which explain why he routinely describes Ben Arfa as "high maintenance".

So why not name him in the starting lineup? "I was tempted," said Newcastle's manager. "But I felt that, by putting Ryan Taylor wide on the right, the balance of the team would be better. As things turned out it wasn't working and the injury to Yohan pre-empted what I was going to do anyway."

Ben Arfa's advent coincided with Newastle switching from 4-4-2 to 4-3-3 with the newcomer deployed to the right of Shola Ameobi and Leon Best. "Hatem Ben Arfa looks a very skilful player," said Mark Hughes, the QPR manager. "Very accomplished."

Displaying exquisite touch, adhesive control, superior vision, perfect balance and elusive movement, Ben Arfa's arrival also prefaced Newcastle reverting to something resembling more of a subtle pass-and-move game rather than the overly direct approach they had initially adopted.

During the game's opening stages it looked as if some of Pardew's players had not only swallowed the – almost certainly false – stories that the striker Andy Carroll could soon be on his way back to Tyneside from Liverpool but seemed to believe that he had already been restored to the attack.

A man of strong convictions, Ben Arfa is not only noted for a disdain of reserve football – his bodyswerving of the second string in favour of attending to vital family business in Tunis came during his recovery from the badly broken leg which sidelined him for more than a year – but his loathing of the long ball.

Although Pardew is, by British standards at any rate, something of a purist who bought Cabaye in order to get his team playing more of a thoughtful possession game, Ben Arfa has said he would much prefer it if the manager took things further and emulated Swansea City.

While the reality of the positional discipline and team shape imposed by Brendan Rodgers might come as a bit of a shock, Ben Arfa's demand to receive the ball at grass height, coupled with an enthusiasm for playing short passes and dispatching low crosses, made things appreciably easier on the eye on Sunday.

The problem is that sometimes he reminds you of the less fabulous downside of Middlesbrough's Juninho. Superb as the former Brazil player was Juninho had a tendency to either not release the ball sufficiently quickly or attempt to sashay beyond one marker too many.

Following last weekend's wondrous slalom run and sublime goal (the best Pardew has seen) against Blackburn Rovers in the FA Cup here, Ben Arfa occasionally fell into a similar trap.

Such moments, though, were far outweighed by the glorious cameo when, courtesy of an impeccable touch and impudent feint he nonchalantly bisected two markers before unleashing a through ball Pardew's strikers proved unequal to. Then there was the low cross too clever for Ryan Taylor to read.

Such incidents highlight another similarity between Juninho and the Frenchman; their ability to spy openings others cannot dictates that there is also a danger of them operating on an entirely different wavelength from certain team-mates.

"For a lot of players defending and being diligent is 90% of their game," said Pardew. "For Hatem it's different, flair and making things happen is 80% of his game." Small wonder Newcastle fans – now given to chanting Ben Arfa's name louder and longer than anyone else's – invariably forgive him for the odd less than assiduous off-the-ball interlude. Pardew could do far worse than build his team's European challenge around Newcastle's game-changer.

 

I know Louise Taylor gets a lot of vitriol on here, but she is capable of writing more than one coherent sentence in a row, which is far more than Lee Ryder can manage.

[Dr Gloom 19808]

Interesting comments from Pardew. I wonder if this means we'll see him starting finally.

[Besty 4]

Looked like he had a point to prove today and seems like he has. Hopefully a turning point.

[Howay 12452]

He HAS to start him now, if he doesn't then I'd really start to doubt if he'll ever make him a starter.

[Baggio 0]

The formation change today definitely changed the game and throws up some options for the future, we have the option of going from 4-4-2 to 4-3-3 without making subs if we field a front 6 of Tiote, Cabaye, Jonas, Ben Arfa, Ba and Best.

 

I still think he's told Pardew he doesn't want to play right wing, which is why he hasn't played there apart from a brief cameo against Blackburn.

[Howay 12452]

http://www.newcastleunited.us/2012/01/ben-arfa-spills-on-very-difficult-situation-at-newcastle.html

[Monroe Transfer 0]

Don't subscribe to this idea that Pardew always wants direct football. It's not been the case since he joined us - yes we've utilised it, but we've mixed it up as well. Using both systems to suit the situation.

[toonotl 2408]

The long ball game isn't the only strategy he uses by any stretch. But he has used it too often and against teams it should never have been considered against.

[@yourservice 67]

The unsettling has started. He'll be away in the summer.

[Dr Gloom 19808]

aye, it's looking that way isn't it. it would be a shame to lose such a talented player but he doesn't strike me as the sort of player happy to sit on the bench. i hope pardew starts him and makes him feel loved again. we could massively regret letting him go if it comes to that.

[Monroe Transfer 0]

I get the impression that we'll be seeing a lot of Ben Arfa in the coming weeks.

 

Pardew was quick to point out that Ben Arfa did the things Pardew has been complaining about him not doing. Progression has definitely been made if you ask me. The Ben Arfa situation is a complex one as we all know..

[Brock Manson 0]

The recent Abeid interview indicated that Bafra is still not 100% fit after 2 bad injuries too.

 

As you say, he'll get a few games and hopefully will commit to the cause and stay in the side as he's such an attacking threat at times.

[MattM4 0]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQrVUrQ05b4

[acrossthepond 703]

Some very classy touches and passes in there. He can light up a dull game, but he does need to work on his passing. Sad that he and Ba have played together so rarely this season - Ba could've done a lot with some of the half chances HBA created in the last game, especially the through ball to Best. (Not that Best didn't do a good job with it.)

[Brock Manson 0]

Some very classy touches and passes in there. He can light up a dull game, but he does need to work on his passing. Sad that he and Ba have played together so rarely this season - Ba could've done a lot with some of the half chances HBA created in the last game, especially the through ball to Best. (Not that Best didn't do a good job with it.)

 

Towards the end of that clip he passes it to Best for him to go 1-on-1 with Kenny. Best doesn't even get remotely near shooting on goal. If that had been Ba you're looking at a goal.

 

We need another striker desperately.

[Andrew 4212]

bit of scrambling there to get a videos worth of clips of him doing things

[tinofbeans 86]

http://www.guardian....ewcastle-united

 

 

Hatem Ben Arfa is the sort of footballer fans adore and managers describe as challenging. In no particular order he has, variously, scored the best goal Alan Pardew has ever seen, flown to Tunis instead of playing for the reserves and announced that he does not quite share the same philosophy as his manager.

The France international believes Pardew should construct the entire team around his mercurial talents but, muttering darkly about Ben Arfa's need to "work harder", Newcastle United's manager regards him more as an "impact" substitute.

Whether he begins on the bench, the right wing or in the hole, there can be little doubt that a former Marseille player Alan Shearer infamously told a Match of the Day audience he had never heard of is a game changer.

Ben Arfa certainly changed this one following his first‑half introduction as a replacement for the injured Yohan Cabaye. Although this was far from a vintage Newcastle performance, Ben Arfa's decision to pledge international loyalty to France rather than Tunisia means he needs to be making headlines; here he altered a freezing afternoon for the better.

"Hatem was absolutely terrific, we've got him coming alive – and his work-rate was fantastic," said Pardew, forgetting, temporarily, all those moments which explain why he routinely describes Ben Arfa as "high maintenance".

So why not name him in the starting lineup? "I was tempted," said Newcastle's manager. "But I felt that, by putting Ryan Taylor wide on the right, the balance of the team would be better. As things turned out it wasn't working and the injury to Yohan pre-empted what I was going to do anyway."

Ben Arfa's advent coincided with Newastle switching from 4-4-2 to 4-3-3 with the newcomer deployed to the right of Shola Ameobi and Leon Best. "Hatem Ben Arfa looks a very skilful player," said Mark Hughes, the QPR manager. "Very accomplished."

Displaying exquisite touch, adhesive control, superior vision, perfect balance and elusive movement, Ben Arfa's arrival also prefaced Newcastle reverting to something resembling more of a subtle pass-and-move game rather than the overly direct approach they had initially adopted.

During the game's opening stages it looked as if some of Pardew's players had not only swallowed the – almost certainly false – stories that the striker Andy Carroll could soon be on his way back to Tyneside from Liverpool but seemed to believe that he had already been restored to the attack.

A man of strong convictions, Ben Arfa is not only noted for a disdain of reserve football – his bodyswerving of the second string in favour of attending to vital family business in Tunis came during his recovery from the badly broken leg which sidelined him for more than a year – but his loathing of the long ball.

Although Pardew is, by British standards at any rate, something of a purist who bought Cabaye in order to get his team playing more of a thoughtful possession game, Ben Arfa has said he would much prefer it if the manager took things further and emulated Swansea City.

While the reality of the positional discipline and team shape imposed by Brendan Rodgers might come as a bit of a shock, Ben Arfa's demand to receive the ball at grass height, coupled with an enthusiasm for playing short passes and dispatching low crosses, made things appreciably easier on the eye on Sunday.

The problem is that sometimes he reminds you of the less fabulous downside of Middlesbrough's Juninho. Superb as the former Brazil player was Juninho had a tendency to either not release the ball sufficiently quickly or attempt to sashay beyond one marker too many.

Following last weekend's wondrous slalom run and sublime goal (the best Pardew has seen) against Blackburn Rovers in the FA Cup here, Ben Arfa occasionally fell into a similar trap.

Such moments, though, were far outweighed by the glorious cameo when, courtesy of an impeccable touch and impudent feint he nonchalantly bisected two markers before unleashing a through ball Pardew's strikers proved unequal to. Then there was the low cross too clever for Ryan Taylor to read.

Such incidents highlight another similarity between Juninho and the Frenchman; their ability to spy openings others cannot dictates that there is also a danger of them operating on an entirely different wavelength from certain team-mates.

"For a lot of players defending and being diligent is 90% of their game," said Pardew. "For Hatem it's different, flair and making things happen is 80% of his game." Small wonder Newcastle fans – now given to chanting Ben Arfa's name louder and longer than anyone else's – invariably forgive him for the odd less than assiduous off-the-ball interlude. Pardew could do far worse than build his team's European challenge around Newcastle's game-changer.

 

I know Louise Taylor gets a lot of vitriol on here, but she is capable of writing more than one coherent sentence in a row, which is far more than Lee Ryder can manage.

think lee ryder struggles to get more than 3 words out correctly..... on a good day.

[NJS 3977]

Some very classy touches and passes in there. He can light up a dull game, but he does need to work on his passing. Sad that he and Ba have played together so rarely this season - Ba could've done a lot with some of the half chances HBA created in the last game, especially the through ball to Best. (Not that Best didn't do a good job with it.)

 

Towards the end of that clip he passes it to Best for him to go 1-on-1 with Kenny. Best doesn't even get remotely near shooting on goal. If that had been Ba you're looking at a goal.

 

We need another striker desperately.

 

The thing about getting footballers into the team is that it will show up the dross even more. I hate seeing nice, subtle play which should produce the goods hit the fucking brick wall that is either of the two useless cunts we had up front on Sunday.

 

I just hope he's still being picked when we get Ba back.

Edited January 16, 2012 by NJS