Stats

This. The lack of an offensive threat our FB give us is a joke. Azpi has done well in the LB position but really for a top club wanting to compete for the UCL and keep on being a formidable domestic team, we really should be having natural full backs in the RB and LB position. Ivanovic is not a natural RB. Azpi is a right footed RB playing at LB. Everyone goes on about how good of a defensive player he is. Yeah, he is but then what does he give us going forward for majority of season? Not much. I was looking at the Arsenal highlights yesterday and the amount of times Monreal and Bellerin in particular provided natural attacking width was just amazing. They were excellently defensively too. Then you just see what Kolarov and Sagna have been providing City this season. United's game against Liverpool, how many times did Shaw and Darmian get down those flanks as you said. Also, both had excellent defensive games. Having Ivanovic and Azpi as FB should be a short term solution. Not a long term one. When Azpi first started taking over Cole's role there I thought it would be temporary until we get a natural LB. We get Luis and Azpi still keeps playign at LB when Luis is a quality LB. Then we sell him for what? Absolutely ridiculous. Just why did Mourinho buy him to barely play him then get rid off? It is why I was so pissed off to see Bertrand leave. A natural attacking LB who is defensively sound and is from our academy and we let him go. Then to top it off, Shaw who is a fantastic LB when fit and will turn out to be one of the world's best went to United and he is a Chelsea fan. Someone like that should be in our team. Not a right footed player at LB ffs. It worked for us in the league last season but seriously the lack of attacking width from our FB is not only setting us back in the league, it will set us back in the longer stretch in Europe. Teams are figuring us out. They know our offensive play from CB to FB are poor so we give to Hazard to work magic. Literally one-dimensional.

He had a very good game. He caused our defence all sort of problems. He was a key part of their second goal and had fantastic hold up play. He was very unofrtunate not to score. Just look at the player ratings from various sites to see the description about his performance. Constantly got into space and his movement and general play was very good. Just lacked the goal. Had a very good game.

Don't get me wrong, I agree has been out battled in the air a lot this season but I think that is because of his current form. Generally he is quite decent in the air. Last season he scored 2 fantastic headers against Southampton and Aston Villa and also scored a header against Swansea where he used aerial leverage to beat his man. So in general last season he scored a nice range of goals.

Actually useful that we have a game like this. A game where we should win comfortably regardless of our current situation and hopefully that will restore a nice sense of confidence before our big showdown with Arsenal.

A lot of them were penalties tbh. I rate him but he is not in the same league as Costa right now imo. Like Costa, Lacazette has not started the season well too and has not scored a goal so far this season.

Can't believe you had Lacazette up there as a striker who is better than Costa. Are you serious?

Stop looking at stats. Bournemouth, did not watch it but from what I read, he and Benteke were the only ones who stood out in a game where the team was poor.Against Stoke he won that game on his own. Arsenal was the best player on the pitch imo and Cech made a wonder save for him. WHU he had a bad game. He has been good so far. Our players have not been good at all so we should not even go for. Anyway I am done. Don't bring this back up to me please. Doing my head in now.

Yes, I don't think Terry believed Coutinho was POTY. He thought it was Hazard then Sanchez or Kane probably but he did not just say Coutinho for the sake of it. Why not just say Ozil, Henderson, Lukaku ffs. He said a player that would not draw too much controversy if he said it because most people would respect the fact that Coutinho had a good season which is why there was not much people who called id ludicrous. Had he said a player like Henderson, everyone would have ridiculed it. Oscar, you really are having a laugh if you think I am one of the only ones to think he had a very good season. Like I said earlier, I don't know why people keep brining this up. This is Oscar's thread and we are going to have to agree to disagree and nothing you lot say will change my view. Sorely missed by Liverpool today.

You said I am the only one. I disproved you and now you are changing the subject. Don't make bullshit claims and when I prove you wrong you change the subject. Point is I am not the only one who thought Coutinho had a good season like you first said.

Yet actual paid pundits and our OWN CAPTAIN voted Coutinho POTY. So, no I am not the only one.The irony. Think before you speak. LOL.

Just stop LOL. Swansea aren't going to bring in Bamford on loan as an AM even if Bamford was to return here. And regardless of Siggs not performing to his usual standards, he is not going there to compete with him, LOL. Stop this imaginative dreaming and hypothesis you are coming up with.

What do you mean? Bamford is a CF, not an AM? Where does Pardew have him as an AM? If he does that is further reason why his loan should just be terminated. Was never fond of this move when I saw all the strikers he was up against.

He is a CF. Not an AM.

Ivanovic was bad today again but let's not hide the fact that the whole defence were beyond poor. IMO Azpi was as bad as Ivan. Terry and Kompany have switched again. 2 seasons ago Kompany had the role of best CB in the league. Last season he faltered and Terry played his best ever season.This time round now, Kompany is back to his best and Terry looks a shadow of the CB we saw last season.

Another pointless loan. Seriously, do we just chuck out players on loan for the sake of it? Watford bought probably around 15 players this season and already have players who are more experienced than Ake in their squad yet we sent him out loan to them. He played in one COC game which they were knocked out in and has not appeared in any of their PL matchday squads. It is because they have too many players in every position. Why did we loan him there? Pointless and just another wasted loan it will be.

There phsyical but they can't dominate the game physically in the way the likes of Toure do. Terry and Zouma were poor against Lukaku, Kone and Naismith. Did not match them up physically at all. Zouma has a lot to learn really. People overrate him. If he was good technically and improved his positioning he would be good but right now he lacks that. The thing that helps him with his poor positioning sometimes is his pace but right now I would have Cahill over him for sure.

Where do I start? Just awful. So many people got their wish of seeing a Zouma and Terry pairing and both were shocking. Terry could not deal with Lukaku's hold up play. Zouma's positioning was poor and technically is a joke. A couple times in the first half, a more composed defender like Cahill or Stones would have kept possession. What did he do? Boot it in the stands. He has a good leap but he really needs to learn to position himself as a CB. Where was he for the first goal? No where. was absolutely poor. Second half, when Kone tried to play in Lukaku I think it was but then we got away with it, his positioning was poor as picked up on the commentators. He showed nothing to convince me that he should take Cahill's place in the team. Azpi was poor as well. Kone constantly bullied him in the first half and second half he was done time and time out again with pace and battled out physically. He got forward once in the game where he shot and was deflected and that is about it. The lack of offensive play from our FB is just poor and it sets us back. Terry had no dominance in the game at all. We were second best to every ball. Stones and Jagielka had a field day up against Costa who was awful again and preferred to get into petty fights and squabbles once again. He lost every ball in the air and every one on one he tried he failed. Fabregas was invisible once again. Hazard just is not himself. Pedro did a few nice turns and tricks but not enough cutting edge. We were outplayed. Barkley just ran through our team and dominated the game. We lack someone who has the physical presence that he does and that is why we are bullied throughout the game. It is like we are emulating Arsenal. No real physical players. Can't believe we have 4 points from 5 games. If I was Wenger I would literall play Sanchez, Ozil, Chamberlain and Walcott lining up against us. Our defence just cannot handle movement and pace and boy I am worried. I feel like a lot of the players, Mourinho is losing his passion as well. Probably will be 11 points behind City and what are fighting for? Top 4. Too much shame for Mourinho. Matic was the only one who comes in for credit. Not for the goal but he was the only one who got stuck in, won some tackles and showed a physical presence. Everyone else was awful. Oh and for Stones, what a top defender. Can see what the hype is about and why Everton were so resistent to sell. Totally dominant in the air and on the ball. Brilliant defender.

Azpi has been worse than Ivanovic today but no one will pick up on it. He has been awful. Physically poor and so many players got past him with ease.

Zouma's positioning at times is so awful.

Not even in the squad today plus Palace aren't even playing with a natural CF.....

The lack of phsyical presence over the pitch is so worrying. Kone has caused Azpi few problems too. The only commanding figure in the team is Matic. It is a reason why so many teams are walking through us easily. 5 games gone and we have conceded the most PL goals. Reall worrying. That goal might just be a turning point but I worry every time Everton attack.

No way we are title contenders. Even if somehow turn this miracly around, just too vulnerable. Compare City's dominance here few weeks ago compared to how open we are. Joke. Really worried.

WOW. This is actually a crisis!

You really are too biased sometimes. You overrate a lot of our players and are dismissal of others. It is clear we are not going to agree on this point but you state to me that playing with Balo is a ridiculous point. No it is not. If he had Sturridge with him last season, it would have worked. Balo looked uninterested and of course when you play with average strikers it does not help. But your excuse for Costa is that they do not play to his strengths. Yeah, I agree but going 8 or 9 games and only scoring 1 against Luxembourg of all countries is poor. No excuses there. Stop making these excuses to suit your agenda then dismissing others. You can't even rate Coutinho as a good player which just shows how oblivious you are sometimes. I even saw you say Costa is more complete than Aguero and I don't know how you formed that conclusion since Aguero has everything. You also said the same about Benzema and while I am not saying Benzema is better you state Costa is more complete as a fact and it is not. Then the way you talk about Oscar, you would think he has been player of the season when in reality he has not been. He has been inconsistent. I think he will turn out to have a quality season when he gets fit but he needs to perform on a consistent basis. While I think Costa is an excellent striker, I don't think he is better than Aguero tbh. As for Sterling, he has been impressive for City. Pellegrini is happy with his form anyway. Like I said WBA he missed chances but his pace caused problems and all the others he has been very effective. He has not been average at all. Going to leave it at that because we are not going to agree with each other.

That influenced there decision, yeah but he has improved them. He is a permanent starter. I knew it before the season started that he was going to walk in their team. City are the best team in the league right now and they look complete but it is ironic that he would not have walked into ours or Arsenal's team. You made a point of saying he would struggle to get in to better teams. So I used Douglas Costa as an example who is not German and before the season started, many people would have said he is inferior to Coutinho and look he starts regularly for arguably the best team in the world. Believe me, you only have to look at the comments on Douglas Costa when he was linked with us to see what people thought of him. I don't look at goals and assists only. I look at general performance. Same reason why I value Willian. Coutinho was their best player by far last season. You are one of a few who think he is a average player and was poor last season. Look at what other pundits had to say of him. Lambert was an example of the type of players he was playing with. Sturridge could not keep fit, Suarez was gone, Balotelli is Balotelli and then they had the likes of Borini, LOL. Sterling and even Coutinho a couple times IIRC had to be used as a striker because the fellow strikers were so poor. If Coutinho was so poor for the majority of the season like you make out why was he in the team of the season? Even some of the choices may have been debatable I think it is obvious to see from that, that he had an excellent spell at some point last season. Was better than Oscar, that is for sure. Once again you look at goals and assists too much. Sterling has improved City a lot. You are just looking at stats. His movement and pace has allowed Silva to excel even more as he gets much more time on the ball. If they get too close to Silva, then Sterling is given more space to roam and vice versa they get too close to Sterling, Silva is given more space to roam in to. Sterling has a goal and assist to his name but he has been effective.Not brilliant. West Brom, he caused them all sort of problems but just did not score. Against us, caused Ivanovic problems after problems and against Everton I thought he was one of their best players. Against Watford, he was given MOTM. His injection of pace is a huge reason they are wiping teams off the floor so far. Coutinho has not even been given the same amount of time Oscar has been given for Brazil so that is not even fair. You are actually coming across hypocritical mate. You ignored Costa's international form and stated he was the second best striker in the world (not that I ridiculed your point as I believe he is in top 5) yet you use Coutinho's form for Brazil to say he is a bad player. Hypocrisy at it's best. Especially as Costa has had more starts than Coutinho for his country yet has only managed 1 goal and Spain have played some really average teams. So Costa's form at international is not great but that is excused however because Coutinho does not perform at international stage that makes him a bad player? Come on, that is really hypocritical.