Dion

People talk about goal poachers as if it is something inherently wrong or bad. Poachers usually have an amazing positional sense and superb finishing. Sometimes they will score goals that look easy because they will be at the right place in the right time to begin with. Some of the greatest players in the world were or could be considered goal poachers. Romario, Gerd Müller and Puskás come to mind. It doesn't mean their overall game has to be bad either, it just mean it is hardly outstanding or it is overshadowed by their goal scoring prowess. Chicharito has average link up and passing skills but he's clever in his runs, has good positioning, pace and finishing. I'd be happy to have him as our second striker, he's miles better than Torres and offers something different from Drogba. Saying he can only score tap-ins is very simplistic and bigoted. If he's willing to play under the shadow of Costa and price is right I don't see why not.

There you go. Rebound on the post. The angle doesn't help much though. It may have been deflect but the goal wouldn't have happened if not for Iva, and that's what matters.

Don't forget Costa's goal came from a rebound of Iva's shot iirc.

You probably can't do it now, since it has been a while. And it is enabled by default. But try it right now - start writing anything, wait to see the message that it has been auto saved. Then leave the page and return. When you start typing again it will appear under the box, like this: That inception though...

You should try using the auto save feature then. It saves everything automatically. You could have retrieved your post. It happened to me a couple of times before one of the staff members told me that. You just have to click "View Auto Saved Content" under the box where you type everything. It would have been there when you returned to this page.

We'll do it (watch the games talking on skype) when I'm back to João Pessoa, which should be next week Of course he doesn't shy away when he's on the ball 100% of the time, but it's been happening too often. It gets on my nerves especially when they pass to him, he passes the ball back, they pass it to him and he passes it back AGAIN. Grow a pair for fuck sake. Sometimes he isn't even being THAT pressured, just take the ball to the side with your first touch, giving you time to look around and explore the passing possibilities. Honestly I wish I could talk to Oscar showing him some tapes of his games and show him what he should be doing. He needs guidance and someone like Luiz to tell him he's got it, he's a quality player, there's no need to be afraid. Holding on to the ball isn't even that difficult, I do it all the time playing against people taller and stronger than me. Dribbling can be more tricky, you need footwork, acceleration, flair helps... but holding possession should be pretty basic for a pro player, it's just a matter of having your body in the space between your opponent and the ball which doesn't even require that much ball control, although the more the better. If he's afraid to move around with the ball it will be difficult to set up plays and help dictating the tempo, this is especially true when he receives the ball with his back faced towards the opposing side, he's not as bad when he's already running towards their goal, but it still could use some improvement. And also the midfield is usually the place where I focus more attention, I'm always observing the positioning and plays from Oscar, Cesc and Matic. And I can also relate to the problem I'm describing because when I'm not feeling confident in my play I usually tend to have the same patterns as Oscar is showing. You just want to avoid screwing up so you minimize the time you have the ball on your feet, your passing also suffers because not only you won't be in the best position to make them (for not roaming around in possession) but also because you will give it second thoughts, and sometimes that half a second of uncertainty is the difference between a pass going through or being intercepted.

The problem is Oscar has been mediocre on the ball. He has been absolutely fine off the ball, more like superb actually, his positional sense is very good, he covers for other players, especially Fabregas, he tracks back, he regain possession often. But all that is his work when he doesn't have the ball. When he's in possession he's been mediocre or bad. I wouldn't have a problem with that if I didn't know he could do better. Believe me, he can. I think it is clear to anyone if you compare his confidence on the ball for Brazil compared to that for us. It seems he's scared to be in possession, like he doesn't believe he can carry the ball around. This has been annoying me especially now that we have Cesc. Sometimes you will see Fabregas maintain possession against 3 or 4 players and make a pass. Heck, even Costa is doing that. But Oscar tries to release the ball to anyone as soon as he can. When he doesn't do that, he will often stay in place looking for a pass and will end up doing the easy option. I'm sorry Oscar, but you will never be a great player if you play like a coward. There are uncountable times when he'll receive a pass just to pass it back to whoever found him the moment the ball touches his foot. It's like he's telling that player not to pass it to him because he doesn't know what to do with it, hence he doesn't want it. I don't know what has got to him but he needs to fix it asap. Right now fucking Ramires and Mikel are better players ON THE BALL than Oscar and that is worrisome.

Wait, is he implying Torres can't?! I'm appalled

It's tragicomic. I can't deny I kinda feel sad for them but I also can't avoid finding it funny. The fact that this has happened so many times but they still have this kind of reaction only adds up to everything.

I wonder if they're quoting Term-X and laughing about his posts regarding Lampard's move on a City forum somewhere, HAHAHAHAHA. I'd like to see that.

What about this one? They're forced to see every one of their best players being champions for other teams. "That 10/11 team was so talented (though I agree with bingobob that it lacked steel) and the 3 main architects were Cesc, Nasri and RvP. We've seen Nasri and RvP lift the PL with City and Utd and the chances are we will now watch Cesc lift it for Chelsea. There is only so much fans can take tbh. Unlike the Nasri and RvP situations we could've prevented the Cesc one and bought home the fan favourite."

Reading Arsenal Mania forum is almost better than watching Fabregas do his magic: "This hurts so much! I didn't want him back but man, this feels wrong, plain wrong to see him doing that kind of play for Mourinho" "Sell Wilshere, Podolski and Cazorla. Buy Cesc, make a 30m profit on the basis of Wilshere being English. But no, let's pass up the best player we could get this window and persist with our average players. **** business. And no Wilshere will never be good enough to lick Cesc's ballsack" "Years of watching Cesc dominate games for us, despite playing in some pretty sh*t line ups. I know how good he is, tonight isn't the first time I've seen him play. He is better than Özil. Don't get me wrong, I love Özil, but Cesc is the superior player in my opinion and it's not a knee jerk reaction. I've said it before." There was even this pic flying across there: I imagine each spear represents an assist by Cesc Damn @Barbara!

Those were my thoughts exactly. We probably wouldn't have scored the two first goals last season. We would probably have taken a draw here. And it wouldn't matter to have Cesc there if we didn't have Schürrle making the run. Those three players that we didn't have last season or didn't use much were the difference between winning or tying.

Fabregas and Costa were the missing pieces we needed to unlock the toughest defenses and there you have it. The victory almost looked too easy.

Fabregas, Costa and Schürrle made the difference today. This would probably be a hard fought draw or loss otherwise, if this was last season for example. This season looks good. "Fabergas" my MOTM.

I still don't like how uncomfortable Oscar feels on the ball for us. Every time it seems like he wants to get rid of the ball as soon as he can because he's afraid of being dispossessed, also he's too ponderous on the ball just to make simple passes in the end. Still disappointed. He still gotta do a lot better to keep his place.

I agree. Like you said, Azpi was one of the new shiny toys, he's young, has tons of potential. And the fact the he was playing so well as a fullback on the left when he's a right fullback also add to the perception that he was really good.

Willian and Oscar, yeah, they get both praise and stick. But that's because IMO defensive players usually get less praise. A defender will only be as praised as an attacking player if he makes some sort of miracle, like saving a clear goal on top of a marvelous performance. You don't usually notice that they're playing really well unless you're paying attention but it's easy to notice when they aren't because we will concede goals or come close to it, which is easy to notice. If a defender is playing well it is just another day. If he plays poorly he will get stick, it's a tough life.

I always thought Torres, Mikel, Ramires, Willian and Oscar were ahead of him in that list, granted not all of them are regulars.

But does anyone give him the stick though? I mean, people say Ivanobeast's crosses are usually bad and that's a fair assessment, but other than that he's a solid player and performs very well both as centre-back and fullback.

And how about taking it from the OFFICIAL PREMIER LEAGUE SITE instead of some random website that considers penalties and fouls as assists? Now I say. Try harder. You don't know anything about me, don't act like you do. And just follow my advice and don't talk to me again.

Now fuck off. I followed Oscar before he was a pro. Before you had even heard about him, I'm such a hater. Don't bother talking to me again.

Yes. He had only 2 assists on EPL 2013/2014.

Just to put in perspective. Fabregas already had the same numbers of assists in 30 minutes as Oscar in the whole previous season. LMAO.

Wow, that Fabregas perfect pass with the ball falling from that height. Just wow.