Hatem Ben Arfa

[Henry_IB]

Lmao, +1.

 

[Hatem Ben Arfa]

He was awesome at short periods of the game, for example when he managed to get both CM of tottenham a yellow in a window of like 7 min and the penalty of course. Although the penalty was more due to lennon fucking up than Ben Arta's skill, Lennon slipped which gave HBA the room to go through, lennon stupidly enough tried to recover after slipping.

But yes, he had a good game.

perhaps it was Ben Arfa's skill that caused Lennon to slip in the first. that or his fear/panic of what he could do.

 

[Henry_IB]

perhaps it was Ben Arfa's skill that caused Lennon to skip in the first. that or his fear/panic of what he could do.

Or perhaps at that very exact moment Mars aligned perfectly with Jupiter and the grass spot Lennon was standing on.

 

[Tembbi]

...right. I'm sure if a Barca player like Pique (any barca player in general) was doing the same thing we'd post it too.

Considering it's Barca Forum that would make quite a lot more sense than posting Ben Arfa boxing, but whatever...
If we posted every players badminton, boxing, tennis and golf practice we wouldn't have much else here you know.

 

[Tembbi]

Ben Arfa has so much to learn. Even his own teammates showed frustration yesterday when he could not just pass the ball.
Excellent fishing of the penalty though, and a fine kick as well!! Calmly watched where Friedel was moving.

But... seriously he held on to the ball way too much and only tried to pass when he had no other options left.
At least he got a couple of guys booked.

Newcastle was quite crap yesterday, but so was Tottenham. Tottenham clearly lacked all creativity from the midfield when
Modric was missing and even Van Der Vaart didn't start.

Tiote was the only player on the field, who actually played a good game.

 

[Hatem Ben Arfa]

Ben Arfa has so much to learn. Even his own teammates showed frustration yesterday when he could not just pass the ball.
Excellent fishing of the penalty though, and a fine kick as well!! Calmly watched where Friedel was moving.

But... seriously he held on to the ball way too much and only tried to pass when he had no other options left.
At least he got a couple of guys booked.

Newcastle was quite crap yesterday, but so was Tottenham. Tottenham clearly lacked all creativity from the midfield when
Modric was missing and even Van Der Vaart didn't start.

Tiote was the only player on the field, who actually played a good game.

and yet according to his teammates and manager post match he was fantastic and the best player on the pitch. so frustrating eh?

 

[Tembbi]

and yet according to his teammates and manager post match he was fantastic and the best player on the pitch. so frustrating eh?

No. If that's what they want from him then the coach is an idiot that doesn't realise the guy could do so much more than do circles with the ball for 6 minutes
until someone trips him and gets booked.

Edit: Besides, of course he's appreciated by his team mates! He single-handedly, alone, scored the winner. Any team would praise any player who did that.

 

[Hatem Ben Arfa]

what circles was he running in? he ran past player after player for fun all day when his teammates eventually got the ball to him. Take away winning the penalty and scoring it, he was still the best player on the pitch.

Circles? he ran right past them and they fouled him cynically because they know he can run past them all and put it in the back of the net.

If Newcastle were not so cheap with possession yesterday you would have seen even more from him and Cisse & Ba.

 

[Tembbi]

Circles? he ran right past them and they fouled him cynically because they know he can run past them all and put it in the back of the net.

I didn't mean circles literally fella. It's irrelevant whether he runs past people when he knows he's going to get fouled or does circles when the option is to start a fast counter
attack by passing the ball forward! For example, once he was helping the defense and did an amazing job and finally got the ball to his feet. What did he do then? Started running
forward and dribble through 2 guys, when he couldn't get past them, he tried a desperate pass that went straight out. Even if he finally managed to get the ball to his own guys,
he would've wasted 10 seconds of time, during what the Spurs defenders have had time to organise themselves.

What I'm trying to say here is that he could be a lot better if he had some brains. If the coach is praising him, then the coach is obviously an idiot instructing him to play idiotic
football. Playing so that every counter attack stops at Ben Arfa won't take the Magpies far this season. I told you already he did some nice things, I'm not saying he sucked
yesterday, come on he kind of won the game for Newcastle. I'm just saying it's frustrating to watch players with good technical abilities play idiotic football just because they
think too much of themselves.

I won't rate Ben Arfa high at all before he learns the basics of the game. No matter how good he's individually.

 

[Hatem Ben Arfa]

I didn't mean circles literally fella. It's irrelevant whether he runs past people when he knows he's going to get fouled or does circles when the option is to start a fast counter
attack by passing the ball forward! For example, once he was helping the defense and did an amazing job and finally got the ball to his feet. What did he do then? Started running
forward and dribble through 2 guys, when he couldn't get past them, he tried a desperate pass that went straight out. Even if he finally managed to get the ball to his own guys,
he would've wasted 10 seconds of time, during what the Spurs defenders have had time to organise themselves.

What I'm trying to say here is that he could be a lot better if he had some brains. If the coach is praising him, then the coach is obviously an idiot instructing him to play idiotic
football. Playing so that every counter attack stops at Ben Arfa won't take the Magpies far this season. I told you already he did some nice things, I'm not saying he sucked
yesterday, come on he kind of won the game for Newcastle. I'm just saying it's frustrating to watch players with good technical abilities play idiotic football just because they
think too much of themselves.

I won't rate Ben Arfa high at all before he learns the basics of the game. No matter how good he's individually.

he knows the basics of the game. he loves to play one-two's all the time. Newcastle midfield just could not keep the ball on the deck enough for that to happen. Tiote was guilty of playing long balls to Ba/Cisse.

Ben Arfa knows the basics of the game fine.

The ability to run past 4 or 5 players like they are not there is one of the rarest skills in football. It wins you games having someone with that ability in your team. Once 2 central midfielders are both on yellow cards, they won't dare touch him and the whole teams attacks will be much more effective because of it.

The counter attack doesn't stop with Ben Arfa, it begins with him. The second the ball arrives at his feet the whole stadium explodes in a roar knowing the counter attack is on before he has even taken a single stride forward.

You don't complain when Messi decides to run past players and gets inevitably fouled or claiming he's wasted 10 seconds even if he eventually gets the ball to his teammates.

And my goodness he made a mistake in the game where he should have immediately crossed it and lost the ball with a pass. He should be dropped as everything else he did on the pitch is not worth those 2 mistakes.

 

[Tembbi]

You don't complain when Messi decides to run past players and gets inevitably fouled or claiming he's wasted 10 seconds even if he eventually gets the ball to his teammates.

Actually I would if he played for pretty much any other team in the world. It's Barca's tactic to play a game where only keeping the ball matters.
It's the only team in the world that stops their fast counter attacks and still wins most of the games. Simply because they are that good.

 

[Hatem Ben Arfa]

Actually I would if he played for pretty much any other team in the world. It's Barca's tactic to play a game where only keeping the ball matters.
It's the only team in the world that stops their fast counter attacks and still wins most of the games. Simply because they are that good.

I highly doubt you would give Messi the same criticism you are giving HBA if he played for any other team in the world.

 

[GSalimBarca7]

Hatem Ben Arfa is the Tunisian/French Messi.

 

[Hatem Ben Arfa]

Hatem Ben Arfa is the Tunisian/French Messi.

not a bad comparison in terms of technique, control and ability.

 

[zanela]

not a bad comparison in terms of technique, control and ability.

hba, you joker!