Magic Lamps

brace yourself mad mario has come on. really have to make more of our chances

second epic hand ball by henderson. chose the wrong sport by the rules of the game this is a red

liverpool are so unbelievably lucky today

if we can't score against a liverpool XI with ONE centreback, we are truly fucked

most of our players underperforming today but at least they try really hard.

what a frustrating match.we are slow on the counter and unprecise in attack

the ref is such a disgrace. misses handball and foul by liverpool but blows for a touch on sterlings shoulder

maaan zouma ivanovic willian trio infernalis today.

sakho looks like a guy with wooden plates in the ear and a splitted tongue you'd expect in a documentary about the tropical rainforest

that was the clearest penalty i have ever seen not given.

pace is not the problem with our defence, Sterling is Liverpool's only really pacy player anyway (apart from Sturridge who is not yet match fit). Cahill, Azpi, Iva. Luis, Zouma all have decent pace. Cahill was not skipped past by Sterling, he even kept up with him running backwards. The problem which was exposed by liverpool, Newcastle and Tottenham is a combination of individual deficiencies (Iva positional play, Cahill tackling), tactics (low block) and a lack of balance in the team. First things first, Fabregas is great, he is everyhwere, in defense, midfield block, right wing left wing, works so hard and even his defensive play is excellent for a DLP. But when the ball gets shifted quickly away from him and the opposition attacks with pace, he has not time to revert into the center which leaves a hole next to matic just in front of the defence. (different in the liverpool game where mikel, matic and cahill all failed to tackle sterling and got their positioning wrong -> hole ) This happens to every team playing with a DP from time to time. Usually you would expect a proactive CB to step up and fill that hole. The fullback (in case the winger has tracked back) or the goalkeeper has to cover thespace the CB has left behind. Unfortunately we don't play with a proactive CB which is why this dysbalance in the team will get exposed increasingly. IMO that deficiency is even more detrimental to our title bids than the right wing problem or the lack of squad depth. Certainly Mourinho has spotted that himself so I am surprised that so little has been done to remedy. I'd really like to discuss this tactical issue and how to solve it further, but this is not the right thread. On a different note, I can't tell you guys how pumped I am for the game today. This is the game where the team will show what it is made of. Pressure is on, everyone wants us to lose. Now it is stand or fall. No excuses.

On his day he is a prime essien but so inconsistent. For a decent fee worth the gamble. But if we sign him it will be cos mikel and rami are out of form and not a right wing solution. Our starting formation s ok. He would add something of a physical presence replacing either of cesc or os when rotated in

He is aso stronger and more combative. Reminds me of Alexis, just with more pace and worse finish.

Actually the opposite is te case. Khedira is a classic DM. He is built like Mikel and has the exact same athletic characteristics. He is the defensive part of a dp mostly. Has a wider range of movement and tackles and is a bit more adventurous than obi. In short not even worth half of the salary he gets. If we sign him for a good 60 k PW he would be nice and tidy backup to magic.

Lolz.Courtois Azpi zouma jt Luis Matic cesc William Oscar hazard Costa Should do. IMO our best possible lineup

We won't solve our problems by throwing money at them. But replacing players in order to change our approach might be a step in the right direction. Getting players like Willian, Ivanovic, Cahill out of the starting lineup and replacing them with people like Cuadrado who really fit our team and give us something extra without losing balance might just be worth those huge sums.

yup defo was. Zola moment. Was clearly at fault for the 4th goal but did not really matter. Also Christensen was just ball-watching. The other were collective mistakes, everyone of our team completely out of position and missing the 2nd goal. Zouma , surprisingly, was not the saviour himslef as

had a promising first half for milan vs lazio today. Very combative. Switched off for tactical reasons after they conceded 2 goals in 4 mins.

Natural born goalscorer. Has some pace and decent height. But also Borini is a natural born goalscorer and never was good enough. We will see. This Bamford lad scores a goal every 150 minutes (10 in 24) playing half the time on the wing. Definitely deserves a place in the squad, can't be worse than the Drog,really, does not shy away to take on big name defenders. Absolutely sniffed that goal , anticipated the situation and made Fernando look like a fool. Probably will not make it here, we know why. Though I am sure he will become a decent premier league striker.

Nothing to do with youth or rotation. Just pathetic tactics, a pathetic performance and a pathetic result. No excuse. We have some quality that papers over the cracks but some of the tactics Mou has applied, the motivation, the attitude of some players just are flawed.

yeah we are back to being shit.

over and out. good luck bradford. deserved their win today.

A first distraction out of the way.

would be of more use if he was here to play against Bradford so we don't have to tire a first teamer.

I have not seen more of him than the odds CL game but it strikes me that those Shaktor players also only work in Donezk. Yes they beat us and dominated us at the bridge but that was a Chelsea side with Victor Moses, Fernando Torres and a Mikel/over the hill Lampard/Ramires pivot. IMO this douglas costa is as overrated and vastly overpriced as Willian whose purchase I considered unnecessary in the first place, too.