I am no fan of 4-3-3, it is a formation of the gods but a formation that is ill suited to mere mortal players. Ba's talents last season were wasted. He is not a winger and certainly is not an auxiliary left full back. Get the guy down the middle, get the ball into the box, and he will score you goals.
Newcastle didn't win yesterday, but Ba looked pretty bloody awesome nevertheless, doing everything but score. He hit the post and, with back to goal and closely marked, forced a brilliant save with an audaciously acrobatic shot. Had Grant used him correctly, we would have stayed up, no question.
I defended Grant, rooting our demise with Zola. However, the more you see Ba, the more you understand how bloody stupid Avram was not to use him as his first choice striker. Grant's loss is Pardew's gain! Who would you rather have, Andy Carroll or Demba Ba? That's looking like a no brainer. So Avram has just replied Carroll!
He does look top class. There was an interview of Pards on MOTD a few weeks ago where when talking about Ba, Pards said he still had links at West Ham and that soon as we got relegated, he got a call about Ba. And Grant wasn't a manager HF, come on.
ReplyDeleteI still remember Pards saying he would return to West Ham because he had 'unfinished business'. I hope he meant as manager and not to nick our players!