No eye see la

Some unexpected results this week though. AM lost 3-2, really shocking. Ajax managed to hold PSG.

No point la, if just because of one fella you troll back in AST thread end up drama level Gaban.

As it is AST already talking about us more than enough (no idea why, thought their main bitter rivals would be other London clubs).

Ini benar.

On a more positive note, dayum the wait time between games is excruciating.

Good reads!

+1 Let them be ler, no point going over since nothing interesting to see anyway.

That's where Herrera comes into the picture (he also has a good passing range). Worst case means add Carrick into the mix (i.e. Blind, Carrick, Herrera in a 3 man CM).

As zenix mentioned, if their strikers are busy marking our midfielder(s) then the defense should have a bit less pressure on it and can also be more proactive in building up attacks.

Blackett and his long passes is one example. Others can also do the same, all about reacting and adapting as a team.

nice wallpaper

total loss, fixing it would be an expensive and painful nightmare.

Looks good!

Different players playing different positions, imho.

Herrera is a CM that can attack. Tackling, passing range, attacking from deep, etc.

Ozil is an AM or even #10 type of player. More towards attacking himself and orchestrating attacking with his through balls. He's taking a lot of flak lately for his body language and energy levels, but when Walcott, Sanchez, and Ramsey are all playing with him long enough his play-making will shine since they can all make bursting runs from deep to give him multiple options to pick a pass with. Imho his problem now is the team lacks a good defensive base (i.e. issues regarding the solidity of the back 4 and a good DM/CM to protect them). Cos of that the team is suffering, and he is an easy scapegoat. Reminds me a bit of our situation with Kagawa, talented AM / #10, but needs a solid defensive team setup behind him and fluid options in front to be at his best.

His form from the 2nd half of the WC (QF onwards) and the beginning of this season for us has been below his usual standards.

He is 31, had a busy few months preparing for the WC and playing in the WC, which he himself admitted left him totally drained after the WC.

Better to let him work on his fitness and play as a super sub for now. Then he can be fresh in a few months time and hit form mid-late season.

Still recovering from injury, probably another 2 weeks or so before he plays?

Yea exactly my thought, didn't expect him to hammer in 2 long range missiles like that

If he keeps this up maybe LVG will bring him back, but it seems more likely his future is elsewhere.

Carrick just started training on grass. LVG said a few more weeks before he is ready to play.

First goal was a huge boost to Leicester, if we had kept it tight at 2-0 instead of instant equalizer then the chance to beat their confidence levels would be there. Blame the dodgy ref decision not to whistle it out, but at the same time the defending of Rojo and Evans didn't help at all.

Second goal honestly I have no idea how that is a penalty. Saw the replays, heard the commentators blaming Rafael (which is why I was wondering wtf is he thinking at first), but looking at replays 2x I really don't see how it is one.

Third goal so many players in the box but still conceded. Defense fail.

Fourth goal again the defense..........sighhhhhhhhhhhh

Fifth goal Blackett should not have made that tackle, inexperience or anxiety from the game score? Can't blame the ref when our own guy takes a risk like that and gives the ref a obvious chance to make a decision of his choice.

Our goals were all beauties, the 2nd one in particular omgSOGOOD!

Players:


DDG = blameless for all the goals, but been awhile seen he made an OMGWOW save that we didn't expect. Decent form instead of his ninja mode form.

di Maria is obviously our new talisman. So much skill, so much ability. Incredibly his fitness isn't enough to last 90mins?! When he was subbed off my heart sank, altho if it is a fitness thing then better than him getting injured due to muscle fatigue.

RVP = Goal and solid work-rate, but it still looks like his overall form is iffy. Some poor touches and he didn't do anything to make us melt. Was actually surprised he started today, was expecting Falcao to push him to the bench. Maybe LVG wants him to improve his match fitness and is hoping that he will hit form over time.

Falcao = a bit wasted playing wider? Beauty of an assist tho. Taken off cos his fitness also needs work, maybe him and RVP should be rotated for now cos playing both looks like it tilts us too much forward. Need balance!

Rooney = got an assist and did okay in the #10, but I'd rather have Mata at #10 and Rooney in front with Falcao or RVP. His energy is better spent harassing opposing defenders, his speed is not as it once was so the closer he is to opp goal the less running he has to do to get into a scary position.

Herrera = actually aside from his goal, he had a pretty meh game. A few off target shots, no sublime through balls, tackling was soso.

Blind = as expected opponents putting someone on him so he has less time to influence the game. He needs more help, either from Herrera or Carrick (when recovered from injury).

Defense = Evans injured (time to warm the bench due to his iffy form anyway), Blackett red card (he actually did ok aside from that, but him playing so far up at that point was a dangerous choice anyway). If Jones is still injured next week that means Smalling and Rojo in CB, Shaw at LB and Rafael at RB. Rojo looks uninspiring at LB, he has the energy to run but his crossing and consistency looks very iffy. Kinda like playing Smalling at RB, rather they both play at CB once Shaw is fit enough to start =_=

For me the biggest issue yesterday is our defensive organization looks wtf, and our midfield was titled so heavily forward that there was not enough help to cover the defenders. Nugent sitting on Blind, my thought was we missed having Carrick available. At 3-1 up could have taken off a striker and put Carrick beside Blind to steady the ship and see the game out. Hopefully Shaw can impress at LB, whatever we feel about the refs decisions, fact is we need to do better defensively too or else there is a lot of pain ahead.

Seems to be reluctant to play Shaw so far. Maybe being cautious and easing him in.

Well Blackett has been playing since the pre-season. Shaw had an injury, so guess it's a fitness concern more than anything. No point rushing him in and then he picks up another injury?

45mins in a reserve game = then no wonder he is reluctant to rush him back to PL action.

Smalling is more experienced than Shaw. Maybe it was also a case of not wanting to move Rojo to CB yet. We don't know the full picture

2 penalty kicks, 1 bullet header where the defense did nothing, another goalmouth melee where rooney got the ball but didn't clear, and another one where the defense got opened up like a packet of chips.

he didn't make any mistakes himself, just that he didn't do any super saves either.

He has his supercharged moments @ ninja mode. But nobody can do it all the time. Main thing is he didn't make any obvious mistakes i.e. even when Super mode is not activated he is not causing us to leak goals. The defenders are the ones who need to have detention to work on their organization and game more.


Nothing new la. Years ago SAF did it by using Park to man-mark Pirlo vs Milan. We also had Welbeck mark Alonso vs RM 2 seasons ago.

Teams have been putting a player on Gerrard since the end of last season as well, once they realized that he was the one building up play for them.

If you don't do that, the midfielder will have time and space to control the game and spray passes (much like Blind did vs QPR). So you put someone on him to harass to try and make sure his impact is reduced.

For us to counter it, need to either have CBs build up play instead (hard, cos it will take plenty of time to learn the finer details and not everyone can do it well) or you need a 2nd midfielder beside Blind to help him by being another option to control the game (just like RM brought on Modric to help out Alonso). Our simplest option would be Carrick with Blind (which is why I said we missed Carrick when we were 3-1 up). Alternative would be to get Herrera to play deeper instead of joining the others up front.