Topic: Hatem Ben Arfa makes final French squad for Euro 2012

[Unbelievable!]

These would be detailed in the series of posts that were made several pages back before this degenerated into childishness.

Checked before I posted, couldn't find anything. Care to point me in the right direction?

[Tooj]

New Order - Fine Time

f***ing tune.

[VaVaVoom]

Was no suprise AP dropped him today but i am suprised he didnt feature off the bench.

For me...He can make RM his natural position. He has the pace and trickery for a world class winger and the few times i have seen him cross from open play he has looked like he has a quality ball on him. He can cut inside onto his left and weave his way into the box or have a go from distance or can be alternated with Jonas throughout a game.

Pardew needs to have a good hard think about this situation. Obertan and Raylor can do a job but Ben Arfa should be starting week in week out and allowed the time to settle into the position.

I also think the backroom staff should be compiling videos of Cristiano Ronaldo and how he played on the wing yet still scored s*** loads of goals and created for others too. They are similar talents.

[hatem garrincha]

Ben Arfa is not a first choice for Pardew.
The results speak for Pardew.
Hatem will leave in the summer
End of the story.

[Dave]

Will you lot leave as well?

[hatem garrincha]

Will you lot leave as well?

No, we'll stay of course.

[Amir_9]

He's not used to the league yet, I think we'll see the best of him next season.

[hatem garrincha]

Finally, I think he'll do the Euro, even with the few chances given by Pardew.

[M4]

Still plenty of time for him to shine this season. As others mentioned, hopefully his omission today was mainly because there was neither Cabs nor Tioté, and basically only Ba for him link up with.

Once they'll be back, surely we'll see him start again.

[Yorkie]

Have to admit that today i was all "wtf as if he's no starting *grunt, snarl*". But knew full well it was probably the correct decision.

I've preached as much as any about being patient with him, but i can't deny that i'm gagging for him to be amazing right away. The Blackburn cup game f***ed with my head, cos he was just ridiculously good.

[Cabaye]

I can't see this ending well, to not start is one thing but to be 3rd choice to Obertan is another.

If he's sub against Wolves with Taylor out then he's a step closer to leaving in the summer imo.

[bowlingcrofty]

I don't think he's behind Obertan per se - he's a different option for different times.

When we need to stretch the game then Obertan is key - his pace is petrifying for knackered full backs. If we're a goal up and need to make sure we don't get stuck too deep, Obertan comes into his own.

HBA should be coming on in tight games where we need some creativity from the centre.

[Anderson]

Still got hope. Think we'll revisit the 4-3-3/4-5-1 formation once everyone's available. That said, I do think he's perfectly capable of producing at right wing in a 4-4-2, unfortunately Pardew seems to think otherwise.

[Cajun]

I think Dave/Crumpy have this situation spot on tbh.

That said I have full faith in the manager if he doesn't HBA when the big guns come back, he is by far exceeding any expectations we had at the start of the season, is getting he best out of players long written off so until he gives me reason for concern (genuine reason, not him choosing players/formations I wouldn't etc..) then I will trust his decisions.

There is more to football than 'this player is better than this player so should definitely start' imo.

[Ian W]

I think HBA will understand why he didn't come on today. I'm sure it was in Pardew's plans to use him, but then the injury to Taylor forced him to bring someone on earlier. When it happened he probably wanted to ensure we remained solid and the game stayed tight at that point.

I personally think HBA is our most exciting player and I wish he was starting every game, but Pardew is managing like a pragmatist and not a fan.

I just hope that the Ben Arfa story at Newcastle turns out well, which I think it still can do.

[Cajun]

Definitely think we would have seen him if it wasn't for the injuries.

[Skirge]

Definitely think we would have seen him if it wasn't for the injuries.

I think as it looked like a broken leg for Tayls and seeing him leave the field in that state no way was Pards going to put him on.

[Crumpy Gunt]

I can't see this ending well, to not start is one thing but to be 3rd choice to Obertan is another.

If he's sub against Wolves with Taylor out then he's a step closer to leaving in the summer imo.

HBA was never going to see much game time today. He's not had a good run of late - maybe not all his own fault and likely due to the loss of Tiote and Cabaye.

He'll be lucky to get a game v Spurs aswell.

[hatem garrincha]

I can't see this ending well, to not start is one thing but to be 3rd choice to Obertan is another.

If he's sub against Wolves with Taylor out then he's a step closer to leaving in the summer imo.

HBA was never going to see much game time today. He's not had a good run of late - maybe not all his own fault and likely due to the loss of Tiote and Cabaye.

He'll be lucky to get a game v Spurs aswell.

Agree but is it a rule avalaible for all the others players aswell (historically speaking, this season) ?

[Cabaye]

Definitely think we would have seen him if it wasn't for the injuries.

How?

The person who is playing in his position gets stretched off. He still doesn't come on.

The second position he plays gets injured freeing up a slot to come on for Ba/Cisse late in the game but he's still behind Shola and probabaly Lovenkrands.

[Ian W]

Definitely think we would have seen him if it wasn't for the injuries.

How?

The person who is playing in his position gets stretched off. He still doesn't come on.

The second position he plays gets injured freeing up a slot to come on for Ba/Cisse late in the game but he's still behind Shola and probabaly Lovenkrands.

Not that simple though, in both of those situations a professional manager might choose to keep the game tight by bringing on more conservative players. I think he would have come on under normal circumstances, maybe with Cisse on about 65 minutes.

[Sifu]

Pretty confident that the lad has a future here. I'll trust Pardew to handle the situation correctly (I know, I know, Alan hasn't really managed it properly in the past).

I hope Pardew is giving him reasons for why he didn't start today and that Ben Arfa is taking it on the chin and ultimately learning. These days, the lad knows that he has to work hard if he's going to get anywhere near Pardew's first-choice lineup (we saw in recent games that he does do quite a bit of tracking back). I'm not worried as such about Hatem.

With players such as Cabaye and Tiote around him, he'll be more of an influence as Yohan and Cheik do offer a lot more movement and look for the ball more than Guthrie (maybe a bit harsh on Danny here, his overall stamina has improved this year but it's not as good as Cabaye's) and Perch (no disrespect to these lads like, they've been solid recently).

[ATB]

Absolutely right decision to not play him in the Villa game and not sub him in when Raylor went out.

[biggs]

Will you lot leave as well?

No, we'll stay of course.

Have you multiple personalities like 

[Nath]

Reading between the lines, Pardew STILL doesn't see him as a winger.  He's being a stubborn t*** about it and it's one of my main gripes with him TBH.  There has been loads of games where he could have come on out wide, or even started there and AP hasn't used him.

You hear him in interviews when he is talking about the strikers, he always mentions Ben Arfa.  We changed formation to that 4-2-3-1 to accomodate HBA.  Whilst I actually quite like the formation, we didn't have the players to do it and I wasn't sure why we didn't just play 4-4-2 with him out wide? 

The only thing I can think of, is we were missing Cheik and Ba, yesterday we were missing Cheik and Cabaye.  Perhaps because of us missing two key players, AP thinks of Ben Arfa as a luxury player and doesn't want to risk him.

If he still can't get in the side for the Wolves game, with Cheik and Cabaye back and hopefully available, then the writing is on the wall, he'll leave in the summer.  Starting to sound like your typical knee jerk fan, but he's too talented to sit on our bench and I doubt his ego will allow it. 

I feel a little sorry for him, he has played as a no.10 in some the toughest games of the season (Man U, Man City, Chelsea) and then got dropped.  Played in this new system without Ba or Tiote, had a couple of poor games and back to the bench again.  I just feel like we haven't actually seen enough of him to even make a fair assessment, we only see him off the bench when we're chasing games and he's not had a run in the side in a fixed position.

I thought bringing Obertan on yesterday was the right decision, but Obertan and R.Taylor are not better options out wide in the long term.  Would understand if HBA left to be honest, so far I think his talent has been totally wasted by Pardew.

Might just be being massively paranoid, but I don't think AP is particularly keen on him.  Usually the first to get hauled, often left sat on the bench and seems to get praise, followed by 3 slight put downs or critiscisms, which doesn't seem PArdew's style with any other players