I felt he was the pick of the bunch up top. Worked harder than anyone and looked more confident than anyone too. Alli and Eriksen were guilty of some appalling decision making in and around the Boro box.
Son had a lot of the ball but that does not give him the right to be wasteful. There were times he had the easy lay off on and instead he killed the move because in his own head he saw glory and tried to dribble past the 3 Boro players his hesitency had allowed back onto goal side. Not saying he can't have a pop but some of his decision making is annoying and I think our possession, attacking and dynamic football deserves a better outcome than a 1-0 to Boro via a penalty. Same goes for Eriksen as you mentioned but for me, Son is a serial offender and we can't trounce teams due to that lack of thought at critical stages in attack.
Son could've scored 4 or 5 today easily, but wasted or dilli dalli'ed and wasted too many chances trying to be Lionel Messi during that second half.
I agree with much of this. He at least looked like he constantly wanted to make things happen. I'd rather that than watch Eriksen or Alli receive the ball in great positions, take 5 seconds to make a decision, and lose momentum as a result. I spent most of today thinking about how Lamela perfects the balance of the '3'. Since his absence (aside from the times we played 3 at the back and pushed Eriksen/Alli closer to Kane), things haven't been right in the final 3rd. If we can nick 3 points next week, his return after the trio of cup games will be like a new signing.
He doesn't look to be on the same wavelength as the rest of the team. So whilst there's effort and a strong run or two, he needs to link up much better. He's played enough by now to be making a far greater impression.
He definitely gets defences on the back foot and sets attacking tempos for us...its the bit beyond that more times than not that annoys me. Having said that Son also has the ability to get a goal out of nothing...I believe he could and should be better thus we can be better. Another 6 pointer next week COYS
A whole load of players decided that they'd done enough to win 3 games and knocked off early. Unfortunately, nobody told Boro who kept going to the end. Well done them. Some of ours need to look at that ending and ask themselves how players who had spent the entire game chasing our shadows still had enough to scare us all silly? A lesson that still has to be learned. Nobody's out of it until the final whistle.
A bit like my old girl sitting in bed with a jar of pickled onions. Sink or swim , do you go up or down. Wasteful once again but we got over the line . The result is everything against a park a bus Borough. Easy quick dinner tonight , a piece of Rump with a homemade easy Terraki sauce . Just soya, brown sugar ( Mick s favourite ) a little white wine as l have no rice wine , fresh ginger ( not Larry Grayson type ) and garlic. Added a little red current jelly for a little body . Recipe courtesy of my old China Billericay Dickie. Keep it up Sid
He was good...pushed them backwards and defended well. Never had a doubt Hope he continues to show what he is capable of...I really wanna be wrong about him (cos it'll be good for us) and in fairness, since Pochettino bollocked him after the chelsea match he has definitely improved!
Evening, people. Does not seem like there will be much for me to see on MoTD tonight, but 3 crucial pts nonetheless in the context of the results today.
Thought we fully deserved the 3 points. We created lots of half-chances but decision making was off for many of the front 4 today, and we dithered a bit too much around the Boro box. Still, hit the post twice and had a goal chalked off for offside. But we could and probably should have created more. I thought Son did well. Vic and Dembele were very good in the middle of the park. We really missed Rose, Davies isn't bad but he's not the same, back 4 or back 3. I thought some of his positioning was odd (came far too central at times) and there were occasions where he needed to get on the overlap but either wasn't quick enough to do so or just didn't see the opportunity. Still, a good 3 points in the context of other games and good to put the disappointment of the Sunderland game behind us ahead of our trip to Anfield.
Wasn't our most fluid performance with some wasteful possession but the win is all that history will remember. These are games we may have lost or drawn a few years back, so we must be doing something right if we still win when we're not at our best. Still can't see Chelsea slipping up and I feel we lack one or two options going forward but we'll be in the mix for sure. Next week at 'Pool will be a good test for us.
I thought it was a really good performance across the pitch but Son's finishing and some of the final balls from all the team were really lacking. In terms of the number and quality of chances we created, it really wasn't that different to some of our best performances lately where we've smashed 3/4/5 against sides and never looked in danger. Switching to 4 at the back seemed to send us back to the first half of the season when we missed good chances frequently. One element that really pleased me was how disciplined our fullbacks were once we went a goal up, they stayed deep and helped us see the game out. I think we need to revert back to 3 centrebacks and stick with it for the rest of the season though, we looked so much better with it and whilst I still think 4231 should be the long term gameplan, lets just go with what we know works as chopping and changing seems to be harming us. The main issue, though, is who plays on the left when Rose is out. I'd like to see N'Koudou tried there but I think he's better off higher up the pitch, whilst Davies doesn't have the quality. If Sissoko was left footed I think it would be ideal. Once again I felt like we were given a much tougher task by all the shirt pulling and niggly fouls. The stats never show the true amount of fouls as we continue playing on but there was so many occasions today where there was players pulled back, tripped off the ball and otherwise impeded that it made things very difficult for us to attack quickly and fluidly. I really feel like refs need to start clamping down on it and handing out earlier bookings because it really affects sides that want to play it on the floor. Sides like Chelsea that like to go long and are happy to go down for freekicks aren't really affected whilst sides like ours really suffer. Still, it was nice to have a proper referee in charge today, even when I have gripes with Clattenburg he's still well above most of the referees in the league. Ah well, aside from the Chavs winning it was a very good day
The only analysis after the game was of their only chance, which wasn't even on target. Who edits and produces this crap? Wenger together with Hazard and Fabregas?
