Damning assessment from jose,about the team's performance vs Shrewsbury. It was quite sloppy and slow at times but perhaps a bit harsh on salah?could've had 2 assists easily,if not for schurrle inexplicably putting Salah's perfect cross for him across goal .

Apart from his wayward shooting in the first half,i think for a bit part player he did quite okay. His lay-off for drogs to finish was perfectly weighted too. Now as for schurrle, I'm running out of excuses for him and i'm not sure why Salah was subbed instead of the german.

Yes it might've been to regain some fitness but it looks like willian is close to becoming one of jose's untouchables,and schurrle won't have anyone but himself to blame. That pinpoint cross which lead to the own goal was hands down willian's most crucial contribution and puts to shame andre's running around without much end product for 90 minutes.

Overall it was a good workout actually,and keeps the players in check,particularly regarding the importance of consistent top quality performances. A 4 or 5 goal trashing might only lead to complacency,and a hard fought match like this is welcome every once in awhile. It's basically an important reminder after the man utd game that there's no such thing as an easy match and the players will have to battle in every game.

A perfect 'introduction' so to speak before the QPR match ,which will be tricky but I can't wait to see costa back in blue to strike fear in their defenders

they'll be giving it 200% just like Shrewsbury, so the boys should know what to expect!

Hasn't been properly tested,but from what he's exhibited so far,he has a good ground game and (from the looks of it) upper body strength which means it isn't easy for opponents to dribble past him.

However he has to work a lot on his positioning and the timing of his jumps on setpieces and crosses. Zouma has a superb leap on him,but he has a habit of jumping too early and this means although he wins a good number of aerial battles,his headed clearances often don't get enough distance.

Lots of potential,but we need to be patient with this one. I actually agree with you and yinchet, kalas is ahead of him. Of course i'm being slightly biased based on the latter's solid performance vs liverpool at anfield last season against the mercurial suarez

This post has been edited by Kerplunk: Oct 31 2014, 08:00 AM

Go for a third please!defense is looking extremely shaky.

United down to 10 men already. Haiihh. That red card should've been shown for those headlocks on Jt and Iva.Like I said..we're going to rue the draw at old trafford.

Perhaps we can loan them a bus at HT?

£15 million loan fee + option to purchase for £40 million sounds about right

Kucing,i missed that last tackle by roho. Last man?Highly unlikely city are going to get a pen after being a man up though. That's just how refs work

In the end they didn't need a penalty.hmm.Was only a matter of time i guess.

Yep city going for the killer blow,but it seems they're leaving quite a lot of space at the back as well. Utd not out of it yet. They should just throw men forward and rely on last ditch defending since they're basically immune to penalties in this game

We had our chances. Oh man we had our chances. Nobody brought their shooting boots today and i think Didier in particular looked really2 off. A lot of our attacking moves ended with his mistakes, and it's a small wonder he managed to stay on.

Again i don't understand the fascination with starting schurrle instead of taking a chance on salah.willian wasn't effective but i'd rather he stayed on instead of the drog. Rami on the right was a bit confusing too as I think a back three of luis,iva and JT/ Zouma would suffice,and instead of rami,another attacking player should've remained a viable last minute addition.

Hazard really needs to take more shots and work on his one on one finishing.could've won the game for us with a couple of goals,which were both easy chances for a player of his stature. Needs to up his game by about 50% if we wish to get anything from anfield.

We're slowly becoming reliant on the belgian wizard to settle scrappy games,and that's not good. Other players need to step up too!

Yep at the moment he really looks like the proverbial square peg in a round hole with spain. Doesn't look like del Bosque knows how to utilise him at all. The sooner he takes a liking to valencia's paco alcacer,the better.


True. I guess sometimes the 'favourites' tag can actually have a detrimental effect on players,making them overconfident and such. As we can see,the goals are slowly starting to dry up too,but i hope this is due to costa's absence and lack of fitness more than anything else.

Jose has been speaking about coming to anfield to win,but i think the players are 'polishing the bus' in training as we speak it paid off big time last season,so i don't think the boss will deviate too far from that strategy this time around. I have no problems with it,as long as we take our chances when they come along.

Ramires has done surprisingly well actually,but i think he can do better when he breaks through the middle. Apart from that unnecessary forearm smack across sterling's face,he's been very good. Good to see him apologising right after, but he really lost his marbles for a second there,and we're lucky sterling fouled him first

Hazard needs to improve his shooting. It's good that he's taking them first time and putting his foot through it,but if he just puts in a little finesse and fakes to shoot before actually taking it,he would've taken out the defenders in front of him on both occasions. We know he's more than capable of doing that and i'd like to see him try it in the second half!

This post has been edited by Kerplunk: Nov 8 2014, 09:45 PM

Diegoaaaaaalllllll!!!go for the third please.our bus has been out of order lately,so we need that cushion.

Starting to drop off the pace now..when will we ever learn?

Looked suspiciously like a handball from cahill. But our play since taking the lead has been pathetic. Sheesh. The game can't end soon enough.

That seems to be the theme at the moment. Liverpool will feel hard done by,just as we did when we were denied a clear penalty at Old trafford.

To put it lightly, we're discovering our 'winning ugly' form at a perfect time,but like u said better teams will punish us for sure. Could've easily conceded another last minute equaliser and the mood in this thread will be vastly different.

Perfect result,but if we're going to go on like this we may as well ensure zouma gets as many minutes as possible so he can improve the team's defensive capability, while challenging JT and cahill for a spot in the first 11. We got the rub of the green in this match, and it's an important confidence booster after that drab draw in the CL.

Azpilicueta's my MOTM,especially for that barn-storming run which lead to costa's goal. matic was quite sloppy today imo.

Good job by our neighbours. Southampton are on fine form though. Can't wait for us to play them

Hmm..everything is a bit too choreographed today. Not enough one touch footie to breakthrough. Hazard and oscar both missing

Ahh our lead potentially being trimmed even more this week isn't a pleasant feeling.

First of all, the player i was most impressed with was actually MIKEL,of all people . he slotted in really nicely alongside cesc,and kept our midfield solid and neat. Those pinpoint raking passes which dropped right onto didier's head late in the game were also extremely 'fabregas-like,' believe it or not!

Sadly, having a DM as your MOTM just goes to show how awfully below par our attacking players were. Oscar and hazard in particular look jaded and short of ideas,and cesc's radar seemed to be malfunctioning.

Turning point was our missed open headers from both cahill and mikel (the only blot in his report card,imho). Particularly the one from cahill when he was totally unmarked from a corner and the match was scoreless.

Unfortunately we only decided to add urgency to our game after going a couple of goals down,and the drog's neat header wasn't quite enough for us to stage a spectacular comeback. I have to say i enjoyed watching our fighting spirit when we absolutely pummeled Newcastle as we desperately seeked an equaliser but as the cliché goes,it was too little too late.

I guess this is the main problem when you more or less stick to a first 11. Fatigue is clearly setting into hazard,oscar and cesc which would partially explain their woeful performance. At least schurrle looked fairly lively i guess.

Time to mix things up a little in the next match?

P.s: in the meantime if the club have really lost faith in salah,just ship him out and get someone to challenge willian / schurrle in January. I think a sneaky bid for palace's bolasie or better yet stoke's bojan krkic (who somehow ended up at the britannia ) would represent some smart business.

This post has been edited by Kerplunk: Dec 7 2014, 02:14 AM