didierforever

i am not one to defend luiz and his on the field antics but our defensive "crisis" is not his fault. selling him and buying another CB would not solve the problem but would actually compond on the problem. luiz had a poor match and that was not cos he came to play after some weeks or something, he was great against bucuresti and i dint see any rustiness there. he was bad today, any defender who gets nug-megged twice in a match by jerome would have been poor. but as i was saying, our defensive problems lies in our midfielders. the cover provided by our DMs specially without oscar's workrate is shambolic. hence we have GC and DL having a hard time. while one defender keeps backing off, the other simply can help himself from trying to steal the ball off the STs foot. we require a DM more than a CB to change our fortunes.

why would u want to keep essien but sell mikel? buying shaw while we have 2 fine LBs? luiz is fine in my opinion, only problem is our DM who simply provide good enough cover. as for ST, i am still on the fence. even if we do sell ba/torres, who do we buy? is there a good enough ST left in the market. hence for me out - essien, BA in - sven bender/witsel.

half the "world cup year" is already over. cant see us selling him cos he could play 10 more games for some other team in the remaining 3 months. bundesliga already has lesser games than PL, kdb will be cup-tied for the CL and u have to say that he will take sometime to settle into bvb/leverkusen. so what exactly is gong there for? december/jan is the busiest of the months in PL, while the bundesliga has holidays, also idont think we would sacrifice our squad strength so easily.

how did he not even get a card for that???

jose's team selection was poor, but the criticism he is getting here is OTT. are we not 2nd in the league, 2 points off the top only with the chance of being a point up and top of the table in 10 day's time. we topped the group in CL and have should get relatively easy teams to face, and are in the QFs of the COC.

with the way mata and jose acted towards each other, cant see him being our player next season. so i cant see how we will let go off both mata and kdb. kdb will probably have to take a back seat this season but he ll get his chances in the nest season.

dint know that. but this guy has one of the worst lucks.

or had won against wba at the bridge after being a goal up.

i dont think so. i feel both the teams are going to be very wary of each other. arsenal after dropping points to everton, losing to napoli and getting thumped by city would simply not want to lose and on the other hand we know how we are playing and so would go defensive. expect a hopelessly cagey match with a moment of magic separating the teams.

has looked so off the pace in the last 2 matches. should start the sunderland match to get back to his best.

thank god iva is suspended. if bertrand does not play then he should put in a transfer request. schwarzer azpi GC kalas bert mikel lamps schurrle oscar kdb ba.

keep on barking, puppy!!!

this match shows that the problem is not our defence but the fact that our mid so easily allow the opposition forwards to run at our back 4. simple as that.

crystal palace probably dint have a good move or barely one or 2. it was the set-pieces that were threatening us, we failed to take any oppurtunities that came our way. our finishing was horrendous, i mean how can u say that we were not sloppy when even one aspect of our game was not average.

willian and JT

double post.

hopeless performance.awful finishing, hopeless defending. i mean u know how bad u are when u have a "A GREAT ESCAPE" feeling after a home match against palace. nonetheless, 3 points, 2 nd position and i have no doubt that we ll be top of the table come christmas (after this performance, how could it be possible!!!) cech - think he was poor today. was very nervous and should have come from his line twice or thrice to get a ball but just stood on the line. 6/10 iva - poor first half. gave the ball away so easily and sometimes in very dangerous positions but more than made it up with his 2 blocks late in the match (one O KEEFE shot and another a thru ball) 6/10 DL - u know u were poor when u get nut-megged twice by jerome. has to take his share of blame for the goal for yet again abondaning his position and trying to win the ball and in the end was hopelessly out of position. DL vs GC debate would again get red-hot but the main problem is the consistency with which the opposition is being let run at our defence with no cover from the mid. 6/10 JT - kept us in the game. saved luiz's asses both the times he got nut-megged by jerome, a brilliant on the line save and in general was brilliant. 8/10 azpi - dint he know delaney was on the pitch? twice he let delaney win a header at the far post. a similar thing happened in the start of the match though with a different player. except for that, he was good in defence and joined well in attack too. 7/10 essien - laughable first half but to give credit where its due, he imposed himself the 2nd. he is worse than mikel and the only reason he is here is cos of his affiliantion with jose. should be sold in the winter. 6/10 rambo - very poor performance from his standard. passing was wayward, challenges were poor (like the one which led to the goal). his match was summed up by the chance that he fucked up. 6/10 willian - awesome workrate, brilliant dynamism, was great on the ball but simply got lost in the 2nd half. finishing was poor and again some of his decision making almost cost us. 8/10 hazard - lost the ball about 10-15 times in the match. never tracked back, got into brilliant positions just to slow the game down and then make some awful decisions/passes. playing him and mata on the wings is a mistake for me as they play best when they combine. right now, the only way we are making chances is by hazard running and beating his man or willian running and beating his man. there is no actual play going on.7/10 mata - a couple of brilliant touches, a couple of brilliant passes, but except for that could not impose. his substitution and no shaking of hands with jose was the only eye-brow raising part of the performance. no doubt that he leaves in summer, if not in winter. 7/10 torres - got a goal but tried toooo hard. came too deep to recieve the ball and more often than not lost it. but was great when running at the defenders. some of his runs off the ball were questionable (for eg - when hazard stole the ball on the by line, torres should have made a run to the near post for a tap-in). 7/10 subs - oscar - so completely off the pace. lost the ball most of the times he touched it. absolutely uninfluential. also he does not strike me as the super-sub type. 6/10 schurrle - covered azpi well, should have scored and simply cant think of one fair reason why mata should play on the wing while he sits on the bench. 7/10 ba - held the ball well, should have scored too. dint have much else to do. jose - pathetic decision making today. starting essien? kdb not on the bench! schurrle!!! cole!!! iva!!! hopeless team selection. 3/10

WTF!!!! how??? essien on yellow continues to fuck up on the pitch but mata gets subbed. seriously poor.

we are fucking up chances!!! again!!!

precisely!!! but the way people are acting, u would think iva fucked up and let the striker go thru on the goal.

as there is no mikel , lamps and GC today plus torres has scored so iva has become the scape-goat today. torres comes deep, loses the ball rambo tries to tackle but fails. luiz comes out of position to get the ball but fails iva could not stop the cross which i would say was the least of the "mistakes" JT is ball watching and not taking his man. essien should have been covering for DL but is no where in the picture but somehow, IVA is to blame. this forum is HILARIOUS!!!!

does not the barca match come to head or almost half the season under FSW come to your mind when he was simply immense when DL was imployed as a DM. but yes, the only thing that comes to mind is the swansea match in which he made 2 personal mistakes which actually has nothing to do with playing CB/RB, it was just a bad day for him.

this goal was iva's fault!!!! seriuosly???

dont think it was willian's fault. the ball from hazard was a bit weak. but the run from torres was horrendous. make a bloody near post run and score for heaven's sake!!!

we are sending CMs like josh, romeu and nat on loans while essein is still playing!!!