CHOULO19

No, only admins can edit the articles on the main site. What do you want to edit? PS: Great post!

Ashley and Frank again with the least number of contributions. And if I understood you correctly, then all 8 of Frank's contributions were in transition and therefor none in defense? Scary if true. Can you send this to Jose, please? I find this point self-contradictory. You just that he was able to do the transition because he was not marked, why would you want him to move to DM where he will surely be marked? A minor note on the pivot or our pressing in general, on several occasions Frank and Rami tried to press high up the pitch when the front four lose the ball but failed miserably at it and our back four suddenly had 5-6 players running at them. Even when Norwich were in "set-offense" and we had 9 men behind the ball, Norwich always managed to create something when they got the ball centrally in our half because both Frank and Rami were too easily atracted to the ball leaving spaces in "the hole" behind them. In general, our pressing was off, I felt, in this match. Even Cole was too keen to press in numerous occasions in the first half and got beaten by the ball over his head which put the whole defense and JT in particular in trouble.

Yeah, Iniesta is the player that would fit most outside Barcelona because he has the ability to play in any system. His attributes are important in any team.

He's expected to be back for Cardiff, but it's not 100%.

I like his attitude but I'm not sure where he'll get playing time when Cahil can barely get a game.

Not sure if this really happened, but if it did, then Carragher is my new favorite!

Absolutely, but it won't make a HUGE difference, imo. Which was one reason why I was against us spending ridiculous money like 50-60m for Falcao or even Cavani. Last game was an exception because it was practically the first time our striker was the key man in our offensive game plan since DD left. When was the last time before that when a striker of ours got 4 clear cut chances against decent opposition? Torres had one half-chance against Spurs when Mikel played a long for him behind the defense but his control let him down. Even against Steaua who were shit, Eto'o barely had two chances. Yes, getting better strikers will increase our overall goals because obviously they'll (hopefully) take their chances better, but it won't be a huge difference, imo.

Yeah, it was Oscar: http://vimeo.com/76277491

Don't expect our midfield to come up with the same number of goals if we get a striker who will score 20+ league goals. We create a number of chances, and right now the vast majority fall to our midfielders. If they start to fall more to our striker, then the number of goals scored by our midfield will obviously decrease. If you want the team to score more goals, you have to get the team to create more chances.

Maybe, but I doubt that we'd sell Thibaut to Barca. There would surely be plenty of other interested teams who would at least match Barcelona's bid if we decide to sell him.

Forgot about Owen and Shearer. Mostly because I just hit mute whenever I see either of them. I can honestly do a better job than those two. You guys got rid, now we have him on Al Jazeera, and he's the main pundit as well Take him back, NOW!

Bump

He didn't get a single start last season for us. Hence he was obviously not wanted here. Whether or not you and I think he is better than Torres is an entirely different debate, because obviously the manager and board did not want him here anymore. Similarly, Thibaut will stay here if the board and manager don't want to sell him.

Don't think he was counting on getting anything from the game against us, but he is under presure. Norwich have too much quality to be sitting in 17th.

Sturridge was basically a Chelsea reject. And Thibaut has a contract until 2016 IIRC. He can't afford to just run down his contract.

Us sell to Barca? LOL Yeah, right...

I think he had enough time and space to properly clear it if he wanted to, even with his left foot. I think he was either trying to control it or pass it, or he was unsure which to do and ended up doing none. Anyway, we got incredibly lucky in that instance and got the VITAL 3 points.

Zanetti would say LMAO

Yeah, we'll definitely have to rest a few players for Cardiff as the Schalke game is a must win. I'd even throw KDB in there or at least give him 30 mins off the bench.

I think Tetteyw was trying to control the ball instead of clearing it. Hazard deserves a lot of credit, imo, not only for running the length of the field, but also for out smarting Tettey. Because he started the run on Tetteys' left then as Oscar played the ball he slowed down just a little and anticipated that Tettey would control it to his right. The finish was bad, but over all it was brilliant by Eden.

Andy Gray, Townsend and Craig Burley are among my least favorites, although the list can go on forever. Nevin is the most biased to Chelsea so I automatically love him. Garry Neville has been surprisingly good. Actually makes sense and knows his stuff. Can't think of many more I actually like. I actually think Carragher has actually been decent, but that's probably mainly due to the fact that I can't make out half of what he's saying EDIT: Left out Guillit. Hate him as a pundit. Never knows what he's talking about and just repeats what the papers write.

Did he say "wankers" at the end?

Yeah, Frank should definitely start against Cardiff and he'll probably score as well. Mikel will play against Schalke or City.

Tbf there's been a lot of luck involved. Like yesterday when Ba won the aerial duel with Rudy and got the shot away, he was incredibly unlucky that Bassong was in the exact same spot that the shot was aimed at; half a yard left or right and it's a goal. Then there's the purely terrible finishing like the one right at the start of the second half.

Tbf, Jose built the game plan around him yesterday so he was bound to appear as the most important man on the pitch, just like what happened with Schurrle vs Steaua. I'm not taking anything away from either player who both did the job brilliantly, I'm just saying that it's not fair to compare this performance of his to the performance of other strikers in other matches since our game plan played to his strengths.