Demba Ba

[didierforever 7,349]

Sure, Jose is the manager now. However, Roman as the owner sets the long-term vision for the club and if Jose does not deliver, he will find someone who can. Jose himself said that there will be a transition period a couple of weeks ago; that he cannot deliver the change of style because we've been playing the same way for so long - according to him, since he last left.

yeah definitely a valid strategy in certain occasions. The irony of it though is that it did not work! We've managed to still only scored one goal missing a number of chances some with Ba himself. We won the game with Eto and a bunch of mobile players on the pitch applying pressure in every corner and playing short quick passes.

As a target man, I see Lukaku (for example) win far more headers and actually scoring with a header than Ba ever did.

so roman will fire jose if he plays long ball? i dont get the point u r trying to make. jose is using the players we have which (which have changed for the strong and bullish of the likes of ballack to mazacar). he is accomadating them the best he feels. and yes, that will take some time. but in the meantime he has to deliver the right results. because i dont think a trophy less year, but good football year would guarantee jose's job next year. but the vice-versa almost certainly does.

there was not much irony. ba was our biggest threat when norwich were defending deep. the 2 chances he had when he hustles ruddy, the mata thru ball that he could not convert, the rambo low cross. u cant say it dint work because in the end, even our first goal came from a long ball, which ba won and put it in the path of oscar.

as for the goal no.2 and 3, i can see why jose did that. norwich were no longer the defendors, in fact they were the aggresors. the game had become very open and more sutied to etoo/torres' style of play than ba's. so it was not much of a suprise with what happened.

again, i am in no longer saying that ba is good enough. i would have preferred lukaku myself. i mean watch his hold-up play for everton, its just brilliant. but with the options we have, ba is the best for it.

[robsblubot 3,464]

so roman will fire jose if he plays long ball? i dont get the point u r trying to make. jose is using the players we have which (which have changed for the strong and bullish of the likes of ballack to mazacar). he is accomadating them the best he feels. and yes, that will take some time. but in the meantime he has to deliver the right results. because i dont think a trophy less year, but good football year would guarantee jose's job next year. but the vice-versa almost certainly does.

there was not much irony. ba was our biggest threat when norwich were defending deep. the 2 chances he had when he hustles ruddy, the mata thru ball that he could not convert, the rambo low cross. u cant say it dint work because in the end, even our first goal came from a long ball, which ba won and put it in the path of oscar.

as for the goal no.2 and 3, i can see why jose did that. norwich were no longer the defendors, in fact they were the aggresors. the game had become very open and more sutied to etoo/torres' style of play than ba's. so it was not much of a suprise with what happened.

again, i am in no longer saying that ba is good enough. i would have preferred lukaku myself. i mean watch his hold-up play for everton, its just brilliant. but with the options we have, ba is the best for it.

The game had not become very open, Jose made the game very open with the changes. I stand with my opinion the strategy did not work in the first half. in

Yes, if we are playing like Stoke a year from now Jose will be replaced as he should.

[Special Juan 27,388]

Ba maybe not good enough but he's here and we have to utilise him, simple as that. I didn't think he was bad at all on Saturday, he held it up and did a lot of good things. Again, we need to give him credit, he has been patient and he took his opputunity to lay his card on the table well on Saturday.

[didierforever 7,349]

The game had not become very open, Jose made the game very open with the changes. I stand with my opinion the strategy did not work in the first half. in

Yes, if we are playing like Stoke a year from now Jose will be replaced as he should.

an assist, two decent chances (by rudy mistakes), one chance misses by ba on mata-thru and one on rambo low cross. i would say the strat was very fine but the execution was not.

that is true. jose made the game open with bringing hazard and etoo on for cole and ba. thus enticing norwich to go for the kill. but just for the sake of it, etoo had no role for the goals. even for the 3rd one, he should have passed the ball wide to willian rather than trying to take 3 men on.

[robsblubot 3,464]

an assist, two decent chances (by rudy mistakes), one chance misses by ba on mata-thru and one on rambo low cross. i would say the strat was very fine but the execution was not.

that is true. jose made the game open with bringing hazard and etoo on for cole and ba. thus enticing norwich to go for the kill. but just for the sake of it, etoo had no role for the goals. even for the 3rd one, he should have passed the ball wide to willian rather than trying to take 3 men on.

well agree to disagree.

BTW, blatant handball by Ba before the assist. His first touch looked fantastic at first, but he actually used his arm to control the football. Without the first touch, the assist was not that great.

[didierforever 7,349]

well agree to disagree.

fair enough.

BTW, blatant handball by Ba before the assist. His first touch looked fantastic at first, but he actually used his arm to control the football. Without the first touch, the assist was not that great.

so?

[Tomo 21,730]

What? Torres yes can be variable, but there is a chance of a goal on a good day, these two don't look like getting a goal between them. I would rather have Torres than either of them, not because I fancy him or any other stupid reason. If he could continue the promise he showed at the start of the season, he could finally starting actually getting some goals.

Promise? we are talking about a 29 year old, not a teenager just out of the academy.

Torres is just crap, the fact he is getting praised to the hilt for the WHL performance is the problem, if Torres was at his best, this would have been one of his quieter performances and he would have actually got criticized for missing a 1 on 1 not praised for getting in that position in the first place.

Ba was an asset to us Sunday because he gave us another option to go route 1, his presence should have won a penalty straight away then assisted a goal, then caused Ruddy to panic which luckily the defender tracked behind him to cover.

Eto'o even if not scoring is good for keeping play going if nothing else, the amount of turnovers from him in a game is very low, compared to Torres who's turnover count in games last season entered the early 30's.

I atleast feel we actually have 11 men when Ba and Eto'o are playing, not the same feeling i get with Torres. None of them are a long term solution but personally Torres is my numero tres out of the forwards we have.

[robsblubot 3,464]

fair enough.

so?

my point was that without the cheating there wouldn't have been an assist to begin with.

We can't have it both ways: bash the likes of Suarez and then praise when our players get away with it.

[The_Flash 1,144]

Promise? we are talking about a 29 year old, not a teenager just out of the academy.

Torres is just crap, the fact he is getting praised to the hilt for the WHL performance is the problem, if Torres was at his best, this would have been one of his quieter performances and he would have actually got criticized for missing a 1 on 1 not praised for getting in that position in the first place.

Ba was an asset to us Sunday because he gave us another option to go route 1, his presence should have won a penalty straight away then assisted a goal, then caused Ruddy to panic which luckily the defender tracked behind him to cover.

Eto'o even if not scoring is good for keeping play going if nothing else, the amount of turnovers from him in a game is very low, compared to Torres who's turnover count in games last season entered the early 30's.

I atleast feel we actually have 11 men when Ba and Eto'o are playing, not the same feeling i get with Torres. None of them are a long term solution but personally Torres is my numero tres out of the forwards we have.

Whatever you say :/

Ba was not an asset? Eto'o keep playing going? They are both terrible

[didierforever 7,349]

my point was that without the cheating there wouldn't have been an assist to begin with.

We can't have it both ways: bash the likes of Suarez and then praise when our players get away with it.

biting a player, delibrately diving , calling a person racist names is equivalent to getting one decision?

so are norwich defenders cheats when ba dint get the penalty? or is chicha a cheat for not saying that he was offside when he scored the winner against us in 3-2 defeat.

what happened on saturday is a part and parcel of the game. some "decisions" go your way, others dont. but getting a decision is one thing and doing things like suarez does is completely different. how can you even compare these two things? i mean what did ba "get away with"? one favourable decision is very different when compared to simulating, and thats what suarez does.

[Jase 43,479]

well agree to disagree.

BTW, blatant handball by Ba before the assist. His first touch looked fantastic at first, but he actually used his arm to control the football. Without the first touch, the assist was not that great.

Blatant handball? No, it wasn't. It was an accidental one. He controlled Lampard's pass with his right foot and as he did that, the ball just bounced off his right hand.

[Tomo 21,730]

Whatever you say :/

Ba was not an asset? Eto'o keep playing going? They are both terrible

And Torres isn't?

[The_Flash 1,144]

Yes he is, they are all terrible

[Kish9 50]

Sometimes i don't understand any of the hype about strikers on this forum, yes Ba played well against Norwich but what if we were attacking the other way? So Ruddy wouldn't have had sun in his eyes. Would we still have played all the long balls? No. Even if we had played long balls he would have managed to catch all the long balls and Ba would not have a sniff at all. The best chance to score came early in the second half and instead of us going 2-0 and killing of the game Ba missed from 2 yards out. Even Mikel could have scored that FFS! And as soon as the long balls stopped Ba was nowhere to be seen and didn't do anything that came close to a chance for us. Yes he is a good squad player but nothing more. 2 goals in 16 league games is dismal and even when he is on the pitch he cant pull defenders away for our AMs like Etoo or even Torres.

[rohitmohanihm 39]

Is it just me or does every striker we buy stop scoring soon after the transfer?

[Kish9 50]

Is it just me or does every striker we buy stop scoring soon after the transfer?

Our team is built around the midfield, they score more goals than the strikers whereas strikers score more goals than the midfield with pretty much every other team

[The_Flash 1,144]

STRIKERS ARE SUPPOSED TO SCORE

[Kish9 50]

STRIKERS ARE SUPPOSED TO SCORE

Sorry that does not apply to CFC