CHOULO19

Do you know where Hormuz, where this 'harassment' happened, is?

No offence but the FA can fuck right off after the disgraceful manner they treated him more than once.

How did he do last night? I didn't watch the match but from the highlights he looked like he had a good first half and decent assist for Mitchy's second.

If we start both Kante and Matic and keep Cesc on the bench at home against Burnley, it's going to be another tough match, and deservedly so.

'Train-Gate'.....I REALLY don't get British politics...

Deja hors de la porte!

Don't think there is any. I checked a bit today and it doesn't look to be broadcast (at least live) anywhere.

I hope that work on that statue has already begun. Should fit in well right next to the statue of Djiloboji.

Only watched the highlights for the bronze medal game, but he's always so influential for Nigeria. I think he feels like he has more responsibility when playing for Nigeria as everyone looks to him due to his experience at the highest level.

Surprised no one mentioned this, but he won a Bronze medal with Nigeria in Rio. Great achievement considering they nearly didn't make it there.

How is subbing Moses and Cesc on for Matic and Pedro 'injecting pace'? Anyway, pace certainly wasn't what turned the match around. By far the biggest factor was getting an extra striker on and changing the formation. We could have played another 90 minutes with 4-1-4-1 and would not have scored except from a big mistake like the penalty vs West Ham or a moment of personal brilliance, most likely from Hazard. I actually thought Watford were average at best. They played high , certainly much higher than we were playing off the ball, but their pressing wasn't very effective. I think we'll probably face a tougher test in almost every game we play this season. No disrespect to Conte, but he's still some way from building that strong foundation. Aside from the obvious lack of numbers in defense, we don't seem to have the players who suit any of the formations. In 4-1-4-1 we look relatively solid in defense (though still conceding) but can't create anything on offense; we switch to 4-4-2 and we create chances but our weak back four seems to get exposed in every opposition attack. We're REALLY late in the market to start dealing with those issues.

I've no issues at all with him being given a shot, after all we are actually playing Pedro! But Conte seems to rank both Moses and Pedro ahead of him not to mention Eden and Willian. So if he's going to be fifth choice, it's probably best for everyone he spends his season elsewhere.

Yeah, Juve are pretty confident of getting him back on loan, or at least that is what the talk around the club is. Honestly, I don't see what the board could do differently. Our best hope of minimizing the loss on his purchase is loaning him out and hoping he has a better season than last so his market value would go up because, as I've been saying from the start of the summer, it is incredibly unlikely that Juve pay anything more than 12-15 at most for him right now.

Absolutely criminal that Pedro is starting ahead of him.

How would a defender stop a header on goal if he is goal side of an attacker on the near post and the cross is played in front of him? In that scenario, and here we're talking about a totally different case, defenders are usually told to do the opposite and stand between the attacker and the crosser and not goal-side.

You don't give a goal scoring opportunity because someone SHOULD be there to pick up Capoue. He made a run from central midfield with no one picking him up and ran behind the fullback with the winger no where to help cover. You definitely do need 3 players to defend a cross into the center of the box against 2 attackers. Regardless of how good your defenders are in the air. Because the attacker can either attack the ball from in front of the man marking him or from behind so the defender has to take a risk and stand either in front of the attacker and risk the ball being played above him or behind the attacker and risk the ball being played in front of him. Hence a 50-50 chance. But if you have 3 defenders like you should, if the ball looks to be hitting the near post a defender will stand either side of the attacker there and the third will move in front of the attacker on the far post side and if the ball hits the far post a defender will stand either side of the attacker there with the third standing between the second attacker and the far post. That's literally how coaches coach defending against those situations. Most defenders would do exactly as Iva did.

What's going on? Am I high??

When I was writing that I knew that someone would pick out the word outnumbered. I didn't mean that there were more Watford players, I said outnumbered because you need 3 players to mark 2 in the box. I know it's a stupid use of the word but I didn't want to complicate the sentence. Yeah, he needed to to tuck in to help in 2vs2 because you can have man marking in corners and set pieces when the box is packed, but when you only have 2 attackers, having just 2 defend is basically giving your defender a 50% chance of getting the ball. Actually even less as it's harder to defender the cross than to attack it..

Honestly, and I'm not one to defend Ivanovic, but the goal is not his fault, neither is it Cahill's for that matter! He did the right thing in tucking in because Cahill and JT were outnumbered in the middle and would have had trouble dealing with the cross alone. The fault is on Oscar/Matic (can't remember who) who failed to track the run of Capoue from central midfield and from Pedro who was MILES away from his fullback when we did not have the ball.

The criticism for Matic is way too harsh, imo. He just does not have any role in our current formation. It's not his fault that he simply does not have the abilities to offer the team anything in the position he is being played in. He lacks the mobility to press high up the pitch like Oscar does, he doesn't have the technique to pick passes from deep or even to simply move the along quickly. The place where he would be able to defend well without having to cover great distances and be able to receive the ball and pass it forward with little pressure is already being the superior player in Kante. My opinion of him has not changed since the title winning season: Matic is a good player who can be excellent in a certain role that mask his limitations.

He didn't 'have' time and space. He intercepted the ball so he created the space for himself. Also, I know that 'time and space' are always used together, but in the case of Fabregas the argument that he needs time is just nonsensical when he more often than not plays his passes first time. I mean our other option in midfield usually takes about 5 seconds and 2 or 3 touches to set the ball onto his left foot before he could make a 10 yard pass! JT can give you world class long passes with enough time and space on the ball, but Cesc Fabregas is probably the best in the world at it because he can see and execute the long pass faster than anyone else. And that's not to say that he does not struggle when he is given little space.

Wait, wait, wait. Bristol Rovers are not the same as Bristol City?! How did I just now figure this out?!!

What are you talking about?! This isn't about Matic's performance and certainly not about his last season. We were specifically talking about his ROLE THIS season. He has had no tactical role so far. That's not criticism of him, that is criticism of the manager.

Yes, absolutely. I reckon we had a better preseason than any other team in the league which couldn't be more of a contrast to last season's preseason!