City will mash the spuds but I'm hoping Daddy Mourinho can park the bus for long enough to cause City to drop a couple points.
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City will mash the spuds but I'm hoping Daddy Mourinho can park the bus for long enough to cause City to drop a couple points.
Great performances by Santi and Gnarby.
Ozil is a good player, and i'm very thankful for what his signing has meant to this team. But he is becoming Hleb, he just doesn't try to have a go at the goal at all, when he's in a good position to do something. Unless it's a clear cut chance, he's passing it up.
Santi when he is on it. :cloud9:
So good to watch.
Oh and Poldi's left foot. :wacko:
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Originally Posted by Master Splinter
The defence did not concede so credit to the guy who was covering and protecting ( Flamini ) . He still has my vote over Arteta while I also rate the latter highly .
The thing is it is the team work . Everyone must do their bit properly . The culprits are the lads at the other end of the pitch . They kept losing the ball easily and unnecessarily . They couldn't even make some combinations which is the basic of our game . At some stage , Fulham looked like " Old Arsenal " with their passes and we looked like Stoke or Wigan . That put too much pressure on our midfield and defence and made Flamini looked "average" . But he was doing a very good job protecting and organising his teammates who started to panic under pressure .
Our midfield weren't pressing. You could see that and you need to press as a unit to win the ball back. Flam only won 1 tackle out of 3 attempts. Cazorla didn't attempt a tackle, whilst Ozil, Wilshere and Gnarby all had 1/1 each. Kos and our wingbacks won the most tackles.
Flam and Cazorla won 4 interceptions each but no other midfield player won the ball. That's pretty bad. Not enough hustle from a lot of players.
He's going for the easy option all the time. We're not seeing a great team performance where he's dictating the flow, making space for others consistently and we're not seeing great solo performances where he's trying to make things happen when we're looking for that vital goal.Quote:
Originally Posted by IBK
Despite his errors, I liked Gnarby's approach of trying to drive forwards and get cracks in goal even if the shots were well wide. Always thought Cazorla and Ozil should take that approach because players with their skill and experience would have more luck with a crack on goal or taking on their man. Cazorla stepped it up in the second half and did what I was hoping he'd do as an experienced player.
If anything I think Mesut Hleb is making it harder for himself rather than easy. The guy will look to pass no matter how difficult the option is, rather than take on some responsibility and shoot. He's completely selfless and it's easy to see why selfish players like Ronaldo loved him for it.
Unfortunately for us we have a lot of players like him already so it can be frustrating at times when he does this, as you expect a little bit more from a guy of his undoubted ability.
He said recently he knows he isn't playing at his best and his sub reaction tells it all. He'll get there eventually. What I'd like to see from him is more aggression. More take ons and attempts to dance pass his man instead of a lay off. Someone also mentioned that he linked up better with Ramsey on another forum. It also sounds like he likes when Rosicky is playing. He gave him a lot of praise last week.
Szczesny - 6 - Off his line quickly to deal to get to ball before Kacaniklic (who the stadium announcer got tongued tied with) smart save from Steve Sidwell but almost spilled a ball from a free kick and got mugged by Darren Bent in stoppage time.
Monreal - 5 Every time he cleared the danger the ball seemed to land straight back at the feet of a Fulham player.
Koscielny - 8 Wasn't at all frightened to get stuck in to crunching tackles
Mertesacker - 6 - Calm and measured most of the game but had a few iffy moments from set pieces
Sagna - 6 - Defended reasonably well but a lot of his ball distribution was poor in setting up counter attacks and his crossing left something to be desired.
Flamini - 6 - Guilty of giving the ball away too much, although in the second half he was winning back possession more after ceding it.
Wilshere - 7 - Drove the attack forward through the middle of the park, some of his passes were a little too cute but good link up with Cazorla for the opening goal.
Cazorla - 8 - Looked isolated at times on the flanks in the first half, moved into the middle in the second half and took his goals very well.
Ozil - 5 - Was put through on goal by Wilshere in the opening five minutes but fluffed the chance, after that was constantly miscontrolling passes with a heavy touch....not a good afternoon for him.
Gnabry - 6 - A couple of wayward shots in the first half, linked up well in the attacks in the second half....drew good save from Steklenberg.
Giroud - 5 - Held up the ball well for others a few times just outside the Fulham Box, but really offered very little in the way of goal threat himself.
Subs:
Podolski - 7 - Looked dangerous as soon as he came on and was unlucky not to be on the scoresheet
Oxlade Chamberlain - 6 - Fairly anonymous but came close to scoring in the closing stages of the game.
Really disagree with the ratings for Flamini and Monreal. Flams got a 98% pass completion rate so he wasn't reckless in possession. I only recall that miscontrolled pass from the keeper that ended up with a shot on goal but I have no idea why Chesney played it short anyway.
Monreal set up Cazorla and was very positive on attack. Won all his tackles, covered well and didn't leave us exposed....5 is very harsh for him.
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Originally Posted by Herbert_Chapman's_Zombie
Unrealistic ratings .
Ox didn't do anything to deserve a 6 . 5 for Monreal is a joke . All the back four were fantastic that 's why we did not concede . Flamini did his usual job superbly . Ozil was not up to his standard which is very high due to his quality but he was not that bad to get a 5 .
Flamini was brilliant. There's no doubting that.Quote:
Originally Posted by Alpha
Having not seen the match at all, not even goal highlights, I have to disagree with all the ratings.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk
Are you on work placement for the mainstream media?Quote:
Originally Posted by Steve French
no uQuote:
Originally Posted by Niall_Quinn
Another average performances coupled with a 10 minute spell where we get a couple and kill the game off.
Its funny that these Mourinho loving whores in the media keep reminding us that Chelsea keep picking up points wihtout really playing well and that shows they are title favourites but we do the same and we "win but not convincingly".
top of the league! have that you journo ****s and haha Man ure and RVC.
I agree with your post but the only difference for me is that we don't set up to pub results. We have so much possesion in mdfield area & try to break teams down, whereas Maureen teams will sit back, soak it up & then hit you on the break. Apart from Flamini we don't have a natural defensive midfielder so its not a way we should play. Unfortunatley, starting at Man Ure & then again at home to Everton, Chelsea & away to Napoli, Wumger decided he wanted us to play on the counter just because we had beaten Dormund using these tactics. Dortmund should have been 2-0 up at half time & it would have been game over. Many of us are questioning what Ozil has brought to the team for 42 mill but in fairness to him asking him to be so defensive is not his game.Quote:
Originally Posted by AFC Leveller
We will always have more posession than the other team because of the players we have but its clear to everyone that we seem to sit back everytime we go ahead and try to kill the game off. Maureen's teams have always been about sititng back and socking up pressure but i think this current chelsea side have less of that about them and they look like they are trying to play differently so i dont think their pub wins have been down to Maureens tactical genius anymore than it has been about luck.Quote:
Originally Posted by Dein-machine
I do worry about us because in the big games we have been either outplayed (City, Everton) or outwitted (Chelsea, Man u) and when you look at our run in March then you have to concede we will drop points.
Ozil, for me anyway, hasnt yet produced anything close to his best and thats down to many things but the main thing for me is the lack of movement from his team mates. Giroud is and will always be static and Theo is injured so who is he gonna pick out? We saw at real Madrid what he could do with runners infront of him.
I do however think he needs to shoot more.
Yeah i largely agree with this, though I don't necessarily agree that Man U or Chelsea outwitted us. I think if anything we outwitted ourselves, we mentally lost that game against Man U, we were beaten before kick off. The Chelsea game again IMHO was more a mental thing, we seemed more concerned about not losing, though should have actually beat them as we had some great chances in the 2nd half.Quote:
Originally Posted by AFC Leveller
I still believe this team has a "mental" issue in as much as not believing it is capable of beating any of the big 3 (city, chelsea or man u) or what we would have called big 3 at the start of the season. We need to address that because if we don't I see us ending up trophyless this season.
Yeah i agree about Man u beting us before kick off but i also think we played into their hands a bit and looked a bit scared o them (the manager even admitted he was surprised). Chelsea for me was there for the taking but because we hadnt beaten them in a long time (maureen) and we'd lost that CL game to dortmund a few weeks earlier, we semed happy enough with a point.
And the team had flu or some sexually transmitted disease or whatever it was. Let's hope we can put out a strong and fit team against them at home and we'll give them a pasting.
Eboue is not here anymore. And you need to stop being so racist.Quote:
Originally Posted by Niall_Quinn
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Originally Posted by Niall_Quinn
:gp: They're not gypos they're pikeys :good:Quote:
Originally Posted by She Wore A Red Ribbon
100% agree om Ozil - due to Theo's earier injury & then Rambo's, Ozil has had virtually no movement ahead of him. He is having to play sideways or balls into Girouds feet which means he's got a 50% chance of getting it back. A fit Theo & Rambo would have given him a little more of what he craves & if we had a mobile striker we would see the best of him. He had the likes of Ronaldo, Di Maria, Higuin & Benzema at Madrid, all of whom wanted to get past defenders - we are far too static for him.Quote:
Originally Posted by AFC Leveller
They all smell the same to me.Quote:
Originally Posted by PGFC
