didierforever

agree with most of it. but i stick to what i said too "nothing flashy. and good link up play" - he keeps it simple plus his positioning and movement are brilliant. also torres of this moment is better than etoo but torres taken over his almost 3 years at chelsea would not make the cut!!!

cech azpi-luiz-JT-bert (if fit) mikel-rambo willian-mata-andre torres basel should go all out for a win. the only way they stay alive in the group is by winning against us. plus they will have nothing to lose too as the 3rd place spot is pretty much decided. we should be able to play on the counters (very much like the match against basel in europa). i expect a win. 3-1 to us.

he might have scored 2 but i feel he was poor (bordering on pathetic today). i seriously cant think of any of the aerial duels that he won, general hold up play was poor too and passing was terrible. that moment when he gave the ball away on a 4 on 2 was just ..... nonetheless, took his goals brilliantly. if your striker can end up putting the ball in the back of the net, thats all u should end up looking at.

great win, good performance. 3 points most importantly. for me the most troubling part is still the start of the game. we are slow to non-existent in our starts which seems to help teams' confidence. until the goal, which was a defensive howler, we were average at best. not at all threatening and i cant remember a decent oppurtunity. our best hope for a goal seemed to be off the ball, hoping for oscar/etoo to nick the ball off a defender. and in some ways, that is exactly what happened. we desperately lack a play to break down a defence. that said, while on the counter, we are phenomenol. absolutely awesome. also, 4-3-3 makes us look far more comfortable with lamps and rambo getting the freedom to move up the pitch while mikel can do the dirty work. this is my player assessment- cech- he made a save at 92:55. so i really dont have anything to rate him on except for his cross handling, which was good and his ball distribution, which was great, i remember one of his kicks on a counter found etoo spot on. 7/10 iva - there is something very wrong when u get outplayed by downing. twice or thrice downing could have posed us a serious problem f only he had some1 to aim at in the center. disappointing performance in the defence though today i felt he was better in possession. but his clearance header almost off jarvis' head was brilliant. 5/10 GC&JT - solid. never looked troubled and dealt with almost everything thrown in the box brilliantly. 8/10 azpi - how the hell did he let demel go like that. not that hazard and FL were faultless but a few times, he seems to show the attacker the wrong side. but overall he was really good. many interceptions and a couple of good clearances when JT-GC missed their men or the ball. 7.5/10 mikel - for people who mindlessly and childishly critisize mikel, this is why he is in the team. he is a brilliant shielder and very calm on the ball. a near to perfect performance - unsung but awesome. 8.5/10 FL - the FL of young. he is at his best when he is playing in the opponent's box. a constant goal threat and having continous pops from long range. we should really try playing 4-3-3 with rambo-mikel-lamps/oscar-mikel-lamps/rambo-mikel-oscar. good to see such a performance. 8/10 rambo - THE BOSS!!! that ball to hazard was so awesome, he should have even got on the scoresheet but thrice (i think) he was ignored on the far post or simply not passed to. 8/10 oscar - MOTM. POTY (so far). just fabulous. full of running, closing down and a constant threat. though he needs to improve on his play with the back to the goal. 9.5/10 hazard - started awesomely, and couple of his flicks were wondorous. he is coming back to his own. but i still cant understand how, how for the sake of god, could he miss the ball rambo played to him to get him clear on the goal. all-in-all, very good. 8/10 etoo - nothing too flashy, good link up play, good couple of shots but not a threat in the box or rather not the threat we would want a PL chasing team to be. 7/10 subs- ba - pretty much the same as etoo. 6/10 schurlle - was a threat on the counter but his decision making let him down. 7/10 essien - would have loved it if he had scored with his first touch.

a point is a point. 1/3rd of the points we would get if we win compared to 0% of the points, in case we lose. every point is valuable.

do not feel good about the match AT ALL. honestly speaking i ll take a point as of this moment if u give me one.

???

would be really interesting to see the team selection for this match. with the brazil hardly having time to train with the team and jet-lag issues, i would start this team cech iva cahill JT azpi (bert -if fit) mikel rambo hazard mata schurrle torres hoping for a good performance but not expecting one. we are definitely goin to struggle tomorrow against whu's physicality.

hahahahahahaha.... funny... azpi, iva, kalas, kane and now lahm... great...

suprisingly wilshere does not seem to be much in hodgson's plans. i mean when u play with a 2 man mid of a 35 year old lamps and a 33 year old gerrard against montenegro and poland, that is a pretty good indication.

to be honest, the midfielders than england HAVE currently are no where near world class. lampard and gerrard are past it. baines/cole and walker/johnson are decent full backs. phile jones/GC/jagielka can make for a decent no.2. what england need is JT's leadership and defensive awesomeness. he might not be THE answer to all of england's problems but would definitely improve them greatly.

to be honest cant see any "youth players" getting a chance this season. we have a 25 man strong squad. players like essien are not going to be getting any chances/matches in PL and he is not even in CL, hence the COC matches. next season would be correct judge of our policies with "youth". mceachran, romeu (though he does not come in that category), pva, kakuta, piazon etc.

kdb takes oscar's spot? i dont wanna get into another "kdb is the next zidane" argument so i ll leave it here. so tell me who would take schurrle and willian's role. cos last time i checked we dint have youth players of that standard. the only point i can actually concede to is chalobah taking mvg's role. except for that everythin is far-fetched. we bought ba cos the sturridge situation was not working. he wanted to leave (or rather play) and we wanted to sell him (or rather stick with torres and start him every game). so ba had to be bought as his replacement. etoo was bought cos jose had seen in training that ba, torres and lukaku were not good enough to win things. hence the etoo buy.

youngsters who are deemed good enough for the first team will get a chance. how many youngsters can we actually say could have made it here matic, sinclair, stoch (not more than a squad role) and this is since 2004. we are taking decisions that are best for the team and for the youngsters. also the problem is not with the youngsters, its with the rotation manager policy that we have going on here. tell me, could RDM have risked playing a match or 2 with the yout, FSW?, AVB?. i dont see any youngsters ,unless he is absolutely exceptional, coming near the first team cos of the manager system we have here.

so let me get this straight. we should throw out the likes of mata, hazard, kdb, oscar, schurlle, willian so that there is place in the team for the likes of piazon, kakuta, boga etc. that seems like a perfectly decent request.

having strikers like sturridge and rooney would be good enough if they actually got anything/something from the mid. when your wingers are townsend/welbeck/lallana compared to muller/schurlle/ozil u know where the problem is. same goes for cleverly. but since england dont have any midfielders to make a significant difference, the only place england can shore up is its defence.

the ballon d'or is for the calender year, right? so out of the 9 playing months so far, (11 months - 2 {june and july}), messi has been injured for almost 4 months, has not done anything much in the last 3 months since the new season started but i can definitely understand him winning this award.

for england to have 0.001% chance of getting even in the semis of WC, JT needs to get out of his retirement.

dude, we play Cl on tuesday and mancs play on wed. hence the difference in the days. no need to take things out of proportion.

again??!!! seriously???

maybe. but cant see them dropping point. 2-1 with a winner after 80 minutes would be the script (as usual).

the worst thing is that united are going to leapfrog us after this week of matches despite being in "crisis" for the start of the season.

for the first time not looking forward to a match.

cabaye!!! hernanes!!! KI!!!!!!!! seriously????

next week is going to be MEGA CRITICAL. everton vs pool city vs spurs arsenal vs southampton cardiff vs united (cardiff is no easy place to go to and will be very testing for united). add to that whu vs chelsea. BIG BIG BIG week. the team has to play this round like a cup final. jose should rally us after the wba debacle.