Just saw this article concerning life without Cabaye according to Pardew. In his eyes Obertan can provide the flair needed to balance the creativity lost with the sale of Yohan. Pardew is clearly smoking wacky baccy. http://www.themag.co.uk/the-mag-wire/alan-pardew-obertan-can-help-make-cabaye-loss-gabriel-obertan/
Must be a Mackem wind-up. Please! Did he actually say Obertan? I saw another version of the same piece and he just mentioned Benni, Sammy and Marv. But I've not heard it, just seen what the journos have printed. Hope this version is inaccurate.
I cant believe no one has mentioned Dan Gosling, seems to be the forgotten man. I know he hasn't pulled up any trees since arriving or even been close to becoming a first team regular but I still think he deserves his chance (as back up for the second half of the season) but people seem to have written him off fans, coaching staff and the club. I appreciate he is out of contract in the summer but personally I'd give him as much chance to shine off the bench until one of our CM's picks up an injury or suspension and see how he gets on. If he does well we can offer him a new contract, though I doubt he would sign it as he has been shunned by the club, and if not he can leave on a free at the end of the season. I just think we haven't seen anywhere near the best of him and he is still only a youngster really, touted as a future England regular and even captain and yeah I know about the City guy in the same position is now unemployed fat f**k who has wasted his chance but Gosling has had to come through some bad bad injuries and has kept himself on track which is why i think he will be a very good player in the future.
Cabaye would not have made one bit of difference today. You might as well say we missed Andy Carroll cos we had no target man to aim for....absolute bollocks. If we had any inkling of a decent squad, both ameobi's wouldn't have been anywhere near the starting 11, let alone the bench.
Pardew just heard about all the Cabaye lurve comments and took pity on us. 'I'll replace sexy with sexier' he thought to himself '...Obertan'.
I just don't think you can say that, I really don't. Personally I believe Cabaye has been over-hyped and certainly isn't amongst NUFC's best ever midfielders as some have speculated. However, he has been a vital cog in our team this season and much of our attacking play has gone through him â the statistics prove it and hence why PSG paid £20m for him now. The comparisons with missing Carroll don't apply because Andy (or any striker bar Rooney perhaps) would never have seen as much of the ball as a midfielder like Cabaye. You've also got to bear in mind the playing staff have been rocked by his sale without replacement. Put in the shift they have for the first half of the season and then be weakened without additions in January and they'll be angry. I bloody would be! We've had an injustice with the Remy appeal (with Johnson's ban recinded) and this feeling of doom has built up through the week. It's no excuse but it is the backdrop to this derby match, that's undisputed. We've got a fan base so against the ownership and toxic that there was a sense we were almost willing a defeat to unleash the scenes at the end. People can agree or disagree and they will, but if Cabaye stays pledging allegiance and Remy's available the whole match would have been a different prospect.
I think Remy may have made the difference regardless of Cabaye. If Ameobi had not been playing we would have stuck with our infinitely more successful passing game. It's like Pardew doesn't realise that the long ball nonsense actually renders almost all of our players ineffectual. It's a lesson that he must have missed over the previous entire season. Not impressed.
I usually defend Pardew but he got today all wrong. And even if we had players who could cope with a long ball game (we don't), on a windy day like today even long ball teams keep the ball on the ground. Its basic stuff.
If I'm honest I think Remy's been a bit off the boil lately, no doubt though he'd have offered so much more and helped today. As soon as he got the red card at Norwich I thought only of the impact it would have on the derby. We simply should not be relying so heavily on a striker we don't even own. The club tried as best it could to ditch Cisse in the week so he's unlikely to have the motivation to come back and do us any favours. What's more, we've brought in a target man striker ON LOAN who will more than likely dictate a more 'direct' style of play – aka hoofball. There's just no sense of cohesive direction as to where we're going, no long-term vision – or short-term vision for that matter. But yeah, you take the top scoring pair of players out of any side on the eve of a big match and they will suffer. Any type of loss today would've been met with venom so the scoreline makes no real difference tbh...
I would love to know what is done by our coaching team as there is very little evidence of any co-hessian on the field.
