Cesc Fàbregas

[Dion 2,476]

So much overreaction after a draw on a strong opponent's home turf, you'd even think we'd lost. Maybe people forgot but I still remember most people predicted Utd finishing top four of the league and that was even before Di Maria was signed. Maybe they're not in a good moment and not playing to their full potential yet but they still have plenty of quality attacking wise and beating them at OT against the ref is not an easy feat. Fabregas didn't have a great game but it happens. Messi and CR7 were some of the worst players on the pitch just yesterday, it happens even to the best of the crop.

[Daniel1980 1,425]

Fabregas is not a big game player, he is a great player who can DOMINATE AGAINST SMALLER TEAMS though. Nothing wrong with that, in fact he was brought in to do that as we struggled against small teams last season. If he was that complete midfielder Barca wouldn't have sold him in the 1st place. He is still one of the best midfield in BPL, just that he isn't up to it in big games for some reason. It was the same at Arsenal and Barca, no idea why anyone can debate against that.

It is a negative though and anything negative against one of our best player= abuse immediately

You're rewriting history here. He was great in many big games at Arsenal, but most of the time Arsenal choked as a team and it was much easier to man-mark Fabregas as the main source of creativity, but he was still great in many big games.

Don't let Barcelona fans' propaganda cloud your memories.

Fucking hell, the overreaction here is amazing. Iniesta, Messi, CR7 all were poor yesterday. They must be bottlers too.

[Sheva. 5,373]

I don't blame him, we had a boring attack with no runners, he's not going to perform any magic.

[Stats 7,060]

Cry. Like you always do.

Stat man.

Says the guy who is constantly crying in the Sterling thread to get other members warning points. You made that comment fully knowing I have Jamaican in me so why would you say it? Out of order and again shows how completely pathetic and immature you are.

[stroey 2,525]

Cry. Like you always do.

Stat man.

Reported.

[Nike 373]

Says the guy who is constantly crying in the Sterling thread to get other members warning points. You made that comment fully knowing I have Jamaican in me so why would you say it? Out of order and again shows how completely pathetic and immature you are.

Ummmm. No.

I got warning points.

Stats all you go for. Keep giving me stats

[Nike 373]

Reported.

No one cares.

Go keep posting oscar should be dropped.

[stroey 2,525]

No one cares.

Go keep posting oscar should be dropped.

Keep posting Thiago is 2014 ballon d'or winner.

[Barbara 15,149]

Didn't he assist for the only goal we scored? He was heavily marked for most of the game, and we played without a traditional runner for him to pass to. What else was he supposed to do?

at some point his passing accuracy was below 50% nothing justifies that.

I agree he didn't have many options to create, but even defensively he's had some terrible moments.

It's been his worst match for us by far, and he wasn't that good against City, but I refuse to label him as a big match bottler. As he and Oscar played bad, the other's terrible performance only made it even worse to the remaining one. It's like Oscar made Cesc worse and Cesc made Oscar worse because they made each other's live worse with their poor presentations.

There's no excuse, even the corners he took in the first half were mostly bad (and a couple of free kicks too).

It wasn't his day... it happens. I can't give him or Oscar any excuses...

[Daniel1980 1,425]

at some point his passing accuracy was below 50% nothing justifies that.

I agree he didn't have many options to create, but even defensively he's had some terrible moments.

It's been his worst match for us by far, and he wasn't that good against City, but I refuse to label him as a big match bottler. As he and Oscar played bad, the other's terrible performance only made it even worse to the remaining one. It's like Oscar made Cesc worse and Cesc made Oscar worse because they made each other's live worse with their poor presentations.

There's no excuse, even the corners he took in the first half were mostly bad (and a couple of free kicks too).

It wasn't his day... it happens. I can't give him or Oscar any excuses...

I agree that he(and Oscar) had a very sub-par performance today. When I heard that Drogba was starting, I knew Cesc wouldn't be very effective in this game, though he and Oscar still obviously could have done better. Cesc's sloppiness in possession is a bit exaggerated, though. He misplaced 8 passes today. It's not a lot, and almost all of them were in United's half. But I agree he was far worse than he usually is.

What I don't agree with is ridiculous overreaction after one poor game. They're all human and all have bad days. Matic's being poor for many games gets excused and ignored(he didn't exactly cover himself with glory today either and was quite sloppy in possession at times). Eden's subpar games are excused because it's Hazard and everyone can have an off-day(which I agree with). But apparently, Cesc is supposed to be good every single game. It's not realistic. It doesn't make him a bottler. He's been incredibly consistent for us, far more consistent than I expected, far more consistent than he ever was for Barcelona. I think people are getting a bit spoiled here. He won't be good in every game. No player in the world is.

[Dion 2,476]

I agree that he(and Oscar) had a very sub-par performance today. When I heard that Drogba was starting, I knew Cesc wouldn't be very effective in this game, though he and Oscar still obviously could have done better. Cesc's sloppiness in possession is a bit exaggerated, though. He misplaced 8 passes today. It's not a lot, and almost all of them were in United's half. But I agree he was far worse than he usually is.

What I don't agree with is ridiculous overreaction after one poor game. They're all human and all have bad days. Matic's being poor for many games gets excused and ignored(he didn't exactly cover himself with glory today either and was quite sloppy in possession). Eden's subpar games are excused because it's Hazard and everyone can have an off-day(which I agree with). But apparently, Cesc is supposed to be good every single game. It's not realistic. It doesn't make him a bottler. He's been incredibly consistent for us, far more consistent than I expected, far more consistent than he ever was for Barcelona. I think people are getting a bit spoiled here. He won't be good in every game. No player in the world is.

It's just that he started the first half in horrible fashion. I distinctively remember ESPN narrators saying in the first couple of minutes he had 33% of pass completion and then when the game progressed to about 15-20 minutes I guess they said he still had 44ish%. He got a bit better as time went by but the first half was horrendous. Nervousness and sloppiness from him and Oscar all the freakin' time. Second half both of them did slightly better and it showed, we started to contest possession and dominate Utd. Until Jose decided to try to maintain the 1-0 at least.

[Shakez 755]

I didn't expect anything amazing, but still... his passing was unusually bad.

[Daniel1980 1,425]

It's just that he started the first half in horrible fashion. I distinctively remember ESPN narrators saying in the first couple of minutes he had 33% of pass completion and then when the game progressed to about 15-20 minutes I guess they said he still had 44ish%. He got a bit better as time went by but the first half was horrendous. Nervousness and sloppiness from him and Oscar all the freakin' time. Second half both of them did slightly better and it showed, we started to contest possession and dominate Utd. Until Jose decided to try to maintain the 1-0 at least.

Yes, he didn't start well, but I think it's also the case of the narrators influencing the public's opinion. I watched the game with no commentary and while I noticed that Cesc and Oscar misplaced quite a few passes, it wasn't as terrible as those stats make it look. Both Cesc and Oscar misplaced 6 passes each in the first half and 2 passes each in the second. Most of those passes were in the attacking third. That amount of misplaced passes is pretty normal for Cesc, actually. He just didn't make many passes today, that's why the passing accuracy is lower than usual.

They both got a lot better in the second half and IMO, it was a big mistake to bring in Mikel.

[CHOULO19 24,332]

Don't cry mr stat man. Just smoke some ganja.

That is completely uncalled for. You're really testing our patience here. This is the very last time you'll get away with any racial/race-related comments.

If the petty fighting on here and the of those fights into other threads won't stop you'll be forcing our hands into dramatic measures to restore order here. This cannot and will not long last much longer one or the other.

I hope I have the staff's position on all this very clear.

[CHOULO19 24,332]

On Cesc. I think he should have been the one to come off and not Oscar who can actually chase down and press people. Overall he had a below average match even if he did end up getting yet another assist. 63% passing accuracy in the first half is just unacceptable for someone in his position.

[Dion 2,476]

Yes, he didn't start well, but I think it's also the case of the narrators influencing the public's opinion. I watched the game with no commentary and while I noticed that Cesc and Oscar misplaced quite a few passes, it wasn't as terrible as those stats make it look. Both Cesc and Oscar misplaced 6 passes each in the first half and 2 passes each in the second. Most of those passes were in the attacking third. That amount of misplaced passes is pretty normal for Cesc, actually. He just didn't make many passes today, that's why the passing accuracy is lower than usual.

They both got a lot better in the second half and IMO, it was a big mistake to bring in Mikel.

I didn't like Mikel either but I understand the reasoning behind it. It was not only because he wanted to improve us defensively but because of yellow cards. Pretty much everyone was booked in our midfield on that point (we had 6 yellow cards IIRC by that point) and I guess Jose thought having someone who could stop a dangerous counter attack (or just about any attack in general) without being sent off on top of his defensive contribution was an important asset at the time.

[Daniel1980 1,425]

I didn't like Mikel either but I understand the reasoning behind it. It was not only because he wanted to improve us defensively but because of yellow cards. Pretty much everyone was booked in our midfield on that point (we had 6 yellow cards IIRC by that point) and I guess Jose thought having someone who could stop a dangerous counter attack (or just about any attack in general) without being sent off on top of his defensive contribution was an important asset at the time.

Yeah, the yellow cards fucked everything up and I guess Jose really was forced to take one of the booked midfielders off, but still, I think we would have had a better chance of winning this if we didn't decide to sit deep and kept playing as we did. To be fair to Jose though, Oscar didn't contribute much defensively in this game and his pressing was unusually poor, so I can understand why Jose decided to take him off.

[CHOULO19 24,332]

I didn't like Mikel either but I understand the reasoning behind it. It was not only because he wanted to improve us defensively but because of yellow cards. Pretty much everyone was booked in our midfield on that point (we had 6 yellow cards IIRC by that point) and I guess Jose thought having someone who could stop a dangerous counter attack (or just about any attack in general) without being sent off on top of his defensive contribution was an important asset at the time.

I think had Mikel not come on and we went on to draw/lose people would be all over Jose for closing the game down.

Managers just don't win with fans because everyone is just so sure that the hypothetical outcomes of his/her conclusions are facts.