CHOULO19

Is he actually taking the piss with that pic he posted on Twitter?!

Actually most of this doom and gloom is because of the manner in which we lost: a goal in the 89th minute and another in the 118th. But for the first 80 minutes, the overall team performances was rather good. Yes, we were just terrible in the final third from the start till the final whistle, but the team was recovering the ball excellently. The front four would press Sunderland's defense and force them to the side of the pitch and then Mikel would step in and cut out the hurried pass to midfield or Luiz would win the long ball to the isolated striker. We did that countless times in the first half. Till the 40th minute, Sunderland never had the ball once in our final third and I remember reading the possession at HT was something 80% to 20%! The issue in the first half is that the front four were very sloppy and dire on the ball and missed all the chances despite often outnumbering the Sunderland defense. In the second half, we started well with Frank forcing and OG with an instinctive run and a great cross from Azpi. After the goal Sunderland crumbled and we had several chances to kill the game off which we are all missed by Eto'o. One of them I started celebrating before he took the shot because I thought there was no way he would miss that, but boy did he prove me wrong. Worse is that he even had Schurrle on his left and could have passed to him to put it in the empty net. After Azpi's injury our attacks started to decrease because we had no width at all. Starting from around the 80th minute, our players felt like the game was already won and our front four just stopped pressing the opposition and we were practically defending 8vs11. Two combined mistakes by Eissien (came on for Azpi at RB) and Cahill and we conceded two goals. Mark kept us alive in the second half of extra time with some excellent saves. There, now you've watched the match and can join in with all the doom and gloom

Put aside that he was probably the main culprit for both goals conceded, I just have one question: How in the world has he picked up 5 YC this season? I didn't even know he's made 5 appearances!

Yeah was sloppy on the ball, but that's what you get for playing him out of position for the past month. But he did offer us a lot going forward and his positioning was always good unlike Essien who made several positioning mistakes when he came on including the ones for both goals.

Yes, yes, blame Mikel whatever happens... He was actually very good yesterday. A bit of different role given to him by Jose as he would join the front four's pressing at the moment that the Sunderland defense gets into trouble and he did it excellently and won the back in the opposition half many times especially in the first half. Our pressing was so good, Sunderland barely completed a few passes in our half. But in the last 10 minutes the front four (bar Willian, tbf) just stopped doing their job and stopped pressing and our whole defense looked clueless because we were practically defending 8vs11.

I know it's become the trend in the past two seasons to blame the pivot, but I actually think Frank was excellent yesterday and so was Obi. The team was playing very well, despite missing some chances, for most of the game until the front four (bar Willian) stopped pressing and stopped doing their job. It was 11vs8 for the last 10 minutes + extra time.

There's no need for a new thread. We have about a dozen strikers thread laying around. Merged.

Deserved loss. Willian was excellent. Nothing more to say.

LOL I was just typing Sunderland will get a winner. They deserve it. Well maybe they don't deserve it but we deserve to lose.

Essien will miss the Arsenal game after picking up his 5th YC of the season. He's made 6 appearances. How is that even possible!!!

That's what you get for not taking your chances..

Name: YellowCanary Reason: Other Punishment: Content moderated permanentlyAbility to create content removed permanently.Suspended permanently Also move to Banned

If this thread doesn't get back on topic, I'm locking it.

Well this is a forum to discuss what we think of players. If we want to go with "trust our scouts" or "trust Jose" we might as well close this whole section.

Yeah, they don't work from Flickr. I usually upload them on http://postimage.org then copy and paste the "direct link" in the image button.

That's in the Serie A where very few teams press in midfield. In the PL you don't get more than one second on the ball in midfield without being pressed. And that's just one of the issues. Again, the fact that most inter fans are happy to see him go should tell you everything about him.

Well Vidal is not exactly known for his dribbling ability. When Vidal or Guarin is playing with two midfielders behind him, he can afford to lose the ball He can't in a 4-2-3-1.

Not even close! He'll run all game, press and chase players and give us physicality but he won't move the ball forward well, he'll shoot a lot and hit row z 99% of the times and he'll lose the ball often which is why I don't think he fits in 4-2-3-1 unless Jose wants to give him Oscar's place.

I got it from watching almost every single game Guarin has played with Inter. I follow the Serie A very closely and my best mate is probably the biggest Inter fan in Lebanon. I watch almost all of Inter's games either with him or alone to later discuss the game with him. His passing below average and his shooting, though very powerful, is just woeful in terms of shot accuracy and his dribble is also pretty bad and he's one of the most dispossessed player in the Serie A, especially this season. Hence, his technical ability on the ball is not good.

Last thing we need is 120 minutes of football when we play Arsenal at the weekend. I think I'd rather we lose!

Here, flip around in this thread: http://forzainterforums.com/showthread.php?10271-Fredy-Guar%EDn/page164

I don't think anyone was questioning the quality of Willian, though. That is the main issue here with Guarin: He's just not good enough. When the fans of a mid-table Italian team are happy to see him gone, then that tells you all you need to know about him.

Who needs a calculator. God/evolution gave you a brain. Use it!

Had a dream that Kalas started at RB and we drew the game and went into extra time. Hope the first comes true and the second doesn't!

Join the group! I have an exam that I can't prepare for because no one knows what's the required material for it because there is no reference for the course.