Ben Arfa - not an easy fit

Watching Ben Arfa, has anyone else been a bit unconvinced about his winger role? Great at trying to secure that scoring opportunity for himself and sometimes guilty of taking on too many players just to get that chance for himself. Yes he runs back when dispossessed, but with the new attacking force of two up front, I think he's just lost his best role.......playing behind a lone striker ( I still think with Ba gone he should have played in that hole behind Best ).

Do we still play him out wide to accomodate him ( and I am a fan of his) or put him somewhere attacking midfield?

 

Is it a good thing or a bad thing that your most technical player might not get in the starting 11 every week?

 

Bad when the 2 players ahead of him are Obertan and Shola!

 

still play him out wide...we need that creative side, i mean if he doesnt play obertan would and we dont want that do we...

when everyone is fit...

i would like to see...

Krul
Raylor Saylor Colo Santon
HBA Tiote Cabaye Gutz
Cisse Ba

I think Simpson is OK but rates him self higher than he is and is terrible going forward....

 

Lets just continue to play HBA, I would love to keep him, but I think Pardew has the 4-4-2 plan stuck in his head and I think he may be looking for a new winger in the summer, one that can beat players on the wing and cross with real pace, as we will have two big black men in the box and we need to aim for them

With HBA and Jonas on the wingers we have two big threats, both have skill, and both can provide a goal threat, but HBA is more of a cutting in player than a crosser and Jonas' crossing is average.

 

Very bad.

 

If Lover was playing would you say small white man???

 

Nope, but I don't see what's so wrong about saying we have two big black men up front.

Is it not a fact?

Just a laugh mate, no malice in it

 

I

I know. They are big and black . Fact.

 

Impact player maybe?

 

quite simply i don't think we've seen the best of barfa. he has rarely passed to his team mates on this run of starts he is having, other than jonas and cabaye. however, i seem to remember him linking up well with ba.

this got me thinking - maybe barfa doesn't want to give the ball to players he doesn't trust with it, unless they've made an obviously great run a la simpson the other night. so, maybe with ba and cisse up front barfa will be more inclined to slot balls through, pull them back, maybe even cross?

 

Pardew has basically been prepping this approach:

Usual keepr/defence plus:
------Tiote---Cabaye
----------Jonas
HBA------------------Ba
---------Cisse

I thnk this will actually work pretty well, bearing in mind we then have a reserve midfield of Abeid (for Tiote), Vuckic (for Jonas) and Guthire (for Cabaye).

Although people have been critical of the 4-3-3 / 4-5-1 but I think with better quality for the front 3 it could work pretty well, we certainly seem to control games in that formation but with no real threat thanks to shola/best being poor.

It also allows for Ba to push up as a second striker when the attacks go down the right hand side.

Also, I saw analysis of Senegal's ACN tactics recently, and it said that Ba was playing as an out and out striker with Cisse in more of a wing role - which they implied was the wrong way round given their strengths and abilities, though you would think Ba would be the more natural target man - he;s much better on the floor with the ball running from deep than Cisse, as we've seen in games like Norwich/Man U etc.

 

I don't think Jonas has been great in this position. Yes he runs about a lot, but he doesn't really acheive anything. However, with Ba and / or Cisse up front rather than Shola I think he could have more success.

 

He was **** against Brighton, maybe he'd be a better striker.

 

------Krul------
Sim-Wil-Col-San
HBA-Cab-Tio-Jon
----Ba-Cisse----

Best team. Best formation. Best players. Simple.

 

Agreed

 

Well, simple to the attack minded.....

Pard's wont play it.

 

I think he possibly would - basically what we've been playing, but with different (better) strikers