ninjamonkey
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- 5 Jun 2009
- Messages
- 18,445
Every single one of our players had a fantastic game. Sagna at the back was brilliant defensively, I think he's been told the shirt is now his to lose, Zabs going to have to wait if he continues to put in performances like that. mangala was monster, Vinnie looked assured and commanding and kolarov looked steady and was superb going forward.
Fernandinho is so key to our game, his energy and quality combined is almost unrivalled, please don't start needlessly "resting" him Manuel. yaya looked up for it both with and without the ball.
Navas had one of his best games in a blue shirt, i'm still not a fan of his due to his reluctance to take a man on but he was very impressive last night and added good balance and variety. Sterling looked dangerous, didn't really do much with the ball but the beauty of having somebody like him in the team with other world class players is he doesn't have to produce an individual moment of brilliance simply being on the pitch threatening to make the runs often occupied 2 defender which gave Silva even more room to work his magic in.
I thought Bony's hold up playing and linking was exceptional, everything Dzeko lacked and will be a real asset to us this season, he's better than just being able to stick it in the net. As for Silva, i simply can't produce the words to explain how good he is so i'm not even going to try, we all know.
I don't see how people can be annoyed at not bringing the kids on. The team is more important than any player. The last 10 minutes we were noticeably tired and West Brom had more room in our half, we needed MDM to come on and sit infront of the defence and just see the game out. Bringing Kelechi on would of meant either playing him out of position which is pointless or completely changing the system and going 4-4-2. That would of just been potentially making the last 10 minutes needlessly difficult for ourselves. Similarly with Denayer, he either comes on completely out of position or we change a back 4 that had been solid and up to that point had kept a clean sheet just to give him some minutes? How many people moan about not changing the back 4 every game? Yet some want to change it mid match just for the sake of giving a player a competitive debut? They'll both get their chance eventually, there's no need to force it.
We can't get too carried away with this result though as good as it was. Pullis made a huge error playing 4-4-2, we probably won't play against another team all season that do that and Chelsea will certainly be a lot better than they were this weekend. Whilst every player had an impressive game, there was still causes for concern with the overall system. We did on occasions look vulnerable and seemed far too easy to get at our back four, and set pieces there was still so many free men in the box at times. A better delivery could of seen us punished.
The away end was rocking all game last night. We always seem louder the season after we've just lost the title just like the players seem hungrier. We'll suit not being anybody's favourites both on and off the pitch this season. Big chance on sunday to really set a marker down. I don't think it's an exaggeration to say it's the going to prove to be the biggest game of the season. Get a win and we could go 5 points ahead of the champions already. That's a big lead and it could deal an either bigger blow to Chelsea psychologically, we could very well see them implode if we give them a pasting.
Fernandinho is so key to our game, his energy and quality combined is almost unrivalled, please don't start needlessly "resting" him Manuel. yaya looked up for it both with and without the ball.
Navas had one of his best games in a blue shirt, i'm still not a fan of his due to his reluctance to take a man on but he was very impressive last night and added good balance and variety. Sterling looked dangerous, didn't really do much with the ball but the beauty of having somebody like him in the team with other world class players is he doesn't have to produce an individual moment of brilliance simply being on the pitch threatening to make the runs often occupied 2 defender which gave Silva even more room to work his magic in.
I thought Bony's hold up playing and linking was exceptional, everything Dzeko lacked and will be a real asset to us this season, he's better than just being able to stick it in the net. As for Silva, i simply can't produce the words to explain how good he is so i'm not even going to try, we all know.
I don't see how people can be annoyed at not bringing the kids on. The team is more important than any player. The last 10 minutes we were noticeably tired and West Brom had more room in our half, we needed MDM to come on and sit infront of the defence and just see the game out. Bringing Kelechi on would of meant either playing him out of position which is pointless or completely changing the system and going 4-4-2. That would of just been potentially making the last 10 minutes needlessly difficult for ourselves. Similarly with Denayer, he either comes on completely out of position or we change a back 4 that had been solid and up to that point had kept a clean sheet just to give him some minutes? How many people moan about not changing the back 4 every game? Yet some want to change it mid match just for the sake of giving a player a competitive debut? They'll both get their chance eventually, there's no need to force it.
We can't get too carried away with this result though as good as it was. Pullis made a huge error playing 4-4-2, we probably won't play against another team all season that do that and Chelsea will certainly be a lot better than they were this weekend. Whilst every player had an impressive game, there was still causes for concern with the overall system. We did on occasions look vulnerable and seemed far too easy to get at our back four, and set pieces there was still so many free men in the box at times. A better delivery could of seen us punished.
The away end was rocking all game last night. We always seem louder the season after we've just lost the title just like the players seem hungrier. We'll suit not being anybody's favourites both on and off the pitch this season. Big chance on sunday to really set a marker down. I don't think it's an exaggeration to say it's the going to prove to be the biggest game of the season. Get a win and we could go 5 points ahead of the champions already. That's a big lead and it could deal an either bigger blow to Chelsea psychologically, we could very well see them implode if we give them a pasting.