Daniel1980

I'm glad for him.

I never mentioned anything about the greatness of a player. The thing is, some people claimed back in the summer that Di Maria is the better dribbler than Hazard. That's what I was addressing. Being a better dribbler has nothing to do with being a better player(though, in this case, Hazard is really a better player than Di Maria). Actually, I think it's pretty unfair that fast footballers with great dribbling skills get more praise than intelligent passmasters and tactically brilliant DMs. Talent isn't just the ability to take on players. Talent can be different. And being a great dribbler doesn't necessarily make the footballer a great player--or a better player than someone who doesn't possess great dribbling skills.

53% dribble success, 67 completed dribbles in total.

Here's a funny stat: Hazard has 62% dribble success and completed 99 dribbles this season. Di Maria "a better dribbler than Hazard" has 37% dribble success and completed 22 dribbles this season. LOL Comparing incomparable.Hell, even Cesc, who's much slower than Di Maria and doesn't dribble much, has 68% dribble success. A smart footballer knows his limits and wouldn't needlessly lose the ball. Poor decision-making from Di Maria.

He's been very poor for a while. Honestly, sometimes his decision-making makes Willian look like a genius.

Relatively, Stoke was a very good away performance, but don't you remember how shaky we started looking before the second goal? Stoke became much more aggressive in attack and people here started talking that it smells of a draw. There was a nerve-wracking period when they looked better than us and were all over us before the second goal.

No idea. But we had some great away games against Schalke and even against Sporting (we were just extremely wasteful). So it's not like we can't do it. I think part of the problem is that we lost some of the confidence we had at the beginning of the season, and after our recent results, other teams know they can get something when we play away. We've lost the fear factor.

I'm hoping for Alexis to pull something out of his arse. City aren't unbeatable and Arsenal need their 4th place.

Yeah, beyond poor. Even against Stoke until Fabregas's goal we looked like we were about to concede and draw with them 1-1.

I'm not sure about that. Wasn't he playing "slightly injured" from the beginning of the season? I seem to remember Jose saying in November that Costa was fully fit now. If it's true, he was more intimidating when he was injured. I don't know, maybe it's the fatigue, though Costa has played less minutes than most of our first team players this season.

He was very good in the second half, but And that's not the first time. At the beginning of the season he seemed to make a lot more effort off the ball than he does now. He's not as intimidating now.

I know it's a city. That was exactly my point.

I have to agree. There's no question about JT's leadership and organization skills, but we're badly exposed on every counterattack. Because of our slow CBs, we can't play high line effectively and keep the initiative without risking to concede every time we lose the ball.

What's wrong with being a tyre manufacturer from Japan? Would you say no to Bridgestone too only because they're a tyre manufacturer from Japan?

Yeah, I didn't like how slow our defenders looked today, so Ramires's legs would help, but I'm not sure Jose would choose him over Mikel. Though the fact that Ramires made an appearance today is pretty encouraging for him.

I don't know about Ramires, but I think Oscar will be dropped next game, Cesc will be moved up and Mikel will start, like against Stoke.

Pretty sure you're right, except for the last sentence.

I don't remember the exact stats after the first half. I remember Matic having 56 or 57 touches and everyone else having much less. My point is, even Cesc, as a CM, didn't see as much of the ball as he normally does in the first half, so that shouldn't be the reason to excuse only Eden. I'm not saying he was good defensively(though he was more than decent). I'm saying that because we were getting mauled there, he had to do a lot of defensive work that a playmaker normally isn't supposed to do and couldn't contribute much in attack and help Oscar. Just compare Matic, Cesc, Oscar and Eden's defensive stats: Matic: 4 tackles, 3 interceptions, 4 clearances, 0 blocked shots. Cesc: 4 tackles, 3 interceptions, 2 clearances, 1 blocked shot. Oscar: 3 tackles, 1 interception, 4 clearances, 0 blocked shots. Eden: 1 tackles, 0 interceptions, 0 clearances, 0 blocked shots. Eden certainly had it easier and had more freedom to create than Cesc and Oscar, so it's pretty unfair not to take it into consideration. Not saying they had a very good game--they didn't, especially Oscar--but Eden was far from good either, considering he was our only attacking midfielder who doesn't have to do much of a defensive work.

First of all, that's just wrong. Eden had most touches of the ball than anyone on the pitch except our CMs. I love Eden, he's my favourite player, but he can't be the only one who gets excused for being invisible for the large part of the game. If Willian had the sort of game Eden had, he'd be crucified for his lack of contribution in the final third. Eden made mistakes too. He lost the ball too. He made bad passes too. He had bad touches too. He wasn't more isolated in the first half than Cesc was --actually, considering he's a CM, Cesc might have been more isolated than him, since our defenders kept playing through Matic in the first half. And unlike Oscar and Cesc, Eden didn't have the burden of defending, so it's pretty unfair, since both of them(especially Cesc) put on a defensive shift that almost matched Matic's. Yes, Oscar and Cesc are supposed to be the main link up men, but Cesc couldn't help Oscar link up attack because in the first half our defence looked shaky, Matic looked shaky, and Cesc had to spend most of the time in our own half, defending. That's why I'm against playing the playmaker of the team in the pivot - he can't do much of creating if he has to spend most of the time worrying about defending. Cesc was ineffective in the first half and improved in the second half. As did Oscar. As did Eden. No more, no less. Eden makes the impression of being more dangerous because he's a flair player. But to be honest, he was pretty ineffective in attack today bar a few good moments. But even Willian had a few good moments in attack. As did Cesc. As did Oscar.

Damn it, I predicted 2:0 with two midfielders scoring. Costa spoiled it. After the loss, the lads were clearly unsettled and were nervous in the first half and everyone kept making mistakes. Good second half - everyone stepped up. Good to see Oscar doing what the #10 is supposed to do, though he had a meh game overall.

Yeah, definitely a serious investment, but maybe their profit is better now. 2010 was 5 years ago (weird).

I've always thought Yokohama is a city. Had no idea there was a company with that name. Anyway, the logo looks much cooler than Turkish Airways.

Never heard of it either, but it looks good.

So to sum it up, a Japanese company with the revenue of $5 billion, in a very specific industry, but they're far from being market leaders. Hmm.

At least tell us what they do/make? Maybe we'll guess then.