Post-match thoughts v Chelsea

davidwhitehead said:
I have a very strong hunch that we'll beat Brighton next week. After their momentous victory at Old Trafford yesterday, they now have another massive game on Thursday, their first-ever European match against Athens, in many ways the pinnacle of their history. I imagine this is going to be both a physically and emotionally draining match for them.

Then it's back to bread and butter with Bournemouth, a bit of an anti-climax...we can catch them on an off-day, I'm sure of it.
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I like your theory!
 
KingKieffer said:
I thought it was a pretty pleasing performance overall, the defence in particular was dramatically improved when compared to the Brentford performance.

Ratings:

Neto- 8.5- didn’t put a foot wrong today, impeccable distribution and two impressive saves, that was a lot more like it from him today.

Aarons- 8.5 MOTM- sensational performance, for such an attacking full back he looks so solid defensively. Probably the only Bournemouth full back I’ve ever seen mark Sterling out of the game, he was so aggressive and proactive in his individual duals and coming out on top the majority of the time. He is also a sight to behold when driving forward with the ball, we need to get him overlapping as often as possible because Chelsea really struggled to cope when he was running at them. Could have easily scored from a couple of his cut backs. Looks like the complete full back to me, early signs are very good.

Zabarnyi- 7.5- much better from him today, was a lot more aggressive and dominating than he has been previously. When debating who should start at LCB, I think it really has to be taken into account how much more comfortable Zabarnyi looks when partnered with Kelly. It’s as if he knows that Kelly has the pace to sweep in behind so he has the license to do what he is good at.

Kelly- 8.5- could easily have been MOTM too, I’d go as far to say that with the style of play that we are playing with right now, that he is now the first name on the team sheet. His pace doesn’t just allow him to sweep up in the spaces that are left in behind our back line, it allows him to be more aggressive in his duals and in his positioning as he knows he has the athleticism to get back into position quickly. Our defence looks so much better with him in it, when compared to Senesi. Not to say that Senesi is a bad player, but Kelly simply has to play in this AI side and he clearly agrees.

Kerkez- 7- very busy and competitive as usual, he was exposed down his side on quite a few occasions in the first half but that was more due to the fact that he was being overloaded than anything else. Clearly a very good young player who could go very far in the game.

Cook- 8- very good performance from him today. Similar to the Kelly Vs Senesi debate, although he isn’t necessarily a better player than Rothwell, he is obviously far better suited to this way of playing. His intelligent positioning and constant covering were essential and we even had a couple of glimpses of him driving with the ball like the Cook of old.

Billing- 7- immense work rate and covered a hell of a lot of ground, at times it seemed as though he was having to press but also simultaneously cover a man in space behind him too. Was a victim of systemic failures in the first quarter but after a tactical tweak to drop him a bit deeper he was able to get into the game a bit more. Didn’t do a lot wrong.

Tavernier- 6.5- not a bad showing for his first start back, some good driving runs and non stop work rate. Always looks a threat when cutting in from the right onto his left foot.

Dango- 3- and even that might be generous for that showing. In his defence he never looks comfortable playing on the left hand side, but he still needs to be a lot better than that. I’ve defended him in the past, I recognise that he’s a player who will either produce the sublime or the ridiculous, but he seriously looked as though he had won a competition today to play in the game. He will get goals and assists if persevered with, but when he plays like he did today he really costs the side because the move broke down virtually every time he received the ball. Very very poor.

Christie- 7- immense work rate as usual and some neat and tidy play on the ball, as always he never really looked like scoring or creating though.

Solanke- 6.5- worked hard and looked lovely inside the penalty area, unlucky with one decent strike and should have done better on another occasion when he failed to control a Kluivert cross properly.

Subs-

Senesi- 7- solid enough when he came on and one very good goal saving block. Should not play ahead of Kelly though.

Kluivert- 7.5- I really must be watching a different player to most because I find the number of people who don’t seem to rate him to be very confusing. He has real quality when manipulating the ball in tight areas and a very low centre of gravity and rapid burst of acceleration. For me, from what I have seen this season, he has to play. It wasn’t until he was on the pitch that we really looked like creating anything of note. He won about three free kicks when he came on and must have created two or three chances. Really don’t understand why many seem to have almost written him off already?! Was good Vs Tottenham and Brentford and very good today, on both wings!

Sinistera- 5- looked poor to be honest, he’s had no training with the team and it was his first outing so I will cut him some slack, but offered very little when coming on.

Brooks- NA- not really on long enough but produced one very classy turn.
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Dango was awful today.
 
AmericanAFCB said:
We didn't though and tbh yes quite happy with that, but yes I know this is just you taking another shot at them.
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It’s not taking a shot. I’m just pointing out that while everyone is correctly pointing out how useless he is nobody is mentioning that had he passed a medical he’d have been sat here
probably in the bench with Traore, Dango and various other players demolishing our FFP rating and our future as we’d never recoup the money.
 
Monmouthred said:
Its not hard is it Rob?

Player X should do this, player Yshould do that etc. We do this wrong, we do that wrong, grudgingly acknowledging some good play occasionally

**************** me people are so parochial. Look at the £1BILLION pound team we just played today. Imagine if all these self professed experts, supported that lot. Now, that would be something to moan about.

Just this last couple of weeks Tottenham have binned off what was their record signing, Arsenal same with Pepe and now Sancho at Man Utd looks a massive failure, to name but 3. Still apparently our recruitment team, don't know what they're doing, and are unprofessional.

I'm very happy with the first five games, and think we were excellent today.

Kelly was superb, Aarons and Cook close seconds for MotM.

I'm also liking the look of Solanke this season, he will score double figures, without penalties I have no doubt.
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So many great points there.
 
Neil Dawson said:
I’ve just said it in the paragraph I wrote to you Rob. I don’t think we have a squad or squad balance to warrant the 270m spent. Apparently that’s childish.
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I'm confused about the 270m is that euro, yen or pound and how long back are we going for that?
only because in earlier posts it was 200m
 
Neil Dawson said:
I’ve just said it in the paragraph I wrote to you Rob. I don’t think we have a squad or squad balance to warrant the 270m spent. Apparently that’s childish.
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It is. And knee-jerk.

We've got a new manager whos trying to reshape the team in his style. I think theres been an improvement already, but you still complain.
 
RobTrent said:
It is. And knee-jerk.
;)
We've got a new manager whos trying to reshape the team in his style. I think theres been an improvement already, but you still complain.
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It’s childish to say I don’t think we have got our worth for the money we’ve spent?

God knows what you’d think if I called you a stinky poo bum
 
AFCB_Liam said:
As you asked nicely, I'll explain it to you.

Every week you come on here and you proclaim we will lose. Every single week. You make it sound like you're disappointed by that, and as if you're the only person who's ever had the insight to think that a club who's spent over a billion on transfers might just have the edge on us.

When you're wrong, you don't hold your hands up and admit it, you deflect on to something else and predict doom in another area. You're an absolute buffoon and you've got no credibility left. Any of us could come on here and predict a loss each week. Chris Sutton does it every week.

For some reason you think that by being the prophet of doom you know more than others on here but I've yet to read one single bit of insight from you on here other than "we've got some injuries so we will lose".

This board was a better place before you were here and it'll be a better place when you get bored and run back to the echo site again.
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I put the tw@t on ignore, the moment it became obvious that Shminto/Cherrybright had re-invented itself and migrated from the Echo site. I was criticised by some for putting anyone on ignore, but it has never written anything informative for as long as I can remember. It can only be compared to taking downers, I guess, and states the obvious more regularly than Sybil Fawlty did, in a completely condescending manner, believing itself to be the only individual intelligent enough to realise that issue. Don't let the bellend get you down!
 
A thought the game was quite enthralling. I never for a moment felt it wasn't on a knife edge. Both teams players flaked out at the end having worked really hard. I thought our guys to a man really gave it a go, even Outarra who was coming back off quite a while out.

Loved listening to 606 on the way home with whining Chelsea fans wringing their hands over not beating a cannon fodder team. That's an exact quote. They miss the point. We aren't a cannon fodder team! We matched them and damped out a very competent and powerful opposition. Well done AI and the team. Up the Chez!
 
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