I see from Wiki that Abedi Ayew has a brother called Kwame. Would that be you by any chance? That would make you Jordan and Andre's uncle...
oh no, and if you ever saw me on the football pitch you would know that we could not share any genes!! Kwame is a very common Ghanaian name, much like an equivalent of John. Great finish from Jordan though, hopefully he can chip in with a few throughout the season, I have a feeling Alfie could reach double figures haha!!
Messa, played very well, Ayew is getting better each game and Mawson is as comfortable as the reclining gravity balans chair I got for Christmas and its always good to get a clean sheet. Good to see the boys sticking together too when Reading got all punchy. Bony still looks unfit but there were glimpses of his old self, he'll improve each game if Clement picks him, might as well as Abraham hasn't set our attack alight. Narsingh and Routledge both spurned opportunities they should have scored which was irritating. Routledge has no excuse but Narsingh is re-learning now Clement wants him to play in the middle as a 10 it seems which could work in time. The Referee was very bad, plain and simple. The Ugly has to be Sanchez. His problem is that we play 5 seconds possession, he doesn't. Midfielders in general has the ball for under 5secs. When Sanchez gets the ball and keeps hold of it, taps it around 3/4/5 times while he's deciding what to do instead of passing the ball. In the time it takes him to ponder a player is on him and the rest of their defence has re-set so he passes the ball back, defusing any pressure we might have been exerting in midfield or he'll panic and run, head down, into a cul de sac where he inevitably gets the ball nicked off him. We cant carry him any more, he should be dusting off his cobwebs and learning how to play in the U23's not the first team. The other problem by selecting him is that better players, our players, are being demoted to the bench or out of the squad to accommodate him. In this future this has to adversely effect moral of those players being pushed out if its not doing so already. And another problem selecting him has is that his poor performances compromise the performances of Clucas, Carroll or whoever plays with him because he stops all go forward in midfield which is effectively a man short when he is selected. The Sanchez experiment isn't working so its time to upgrade the team by selecting Fer or Leon or Messa or soon Ki ahead of this boy because each one is a better player than he is right now. I don't think we should be wasting any more of our time or sacrificing any of our players to train up a boy so he can become a man when he returns to the Bavarians next summer. Same applies but to a lesser extent due to current circumstances to Abraham. If either of them come good they'll be gone in a flash back to their 'bigger' clubs
I can forgive Sanches holding on to the ball because with the exception of one or two players we are not working off the ball to provide passing options. What I can't accept is when he has decided to pass, to a player or into space for a player, the ball ends up with the opposition. No matter what his reputation, what is potential is or what we have promised Bayern he can not be picked to play in the EPL unless he shows he is competent.
We have a manager with less than a year with the team . He has 9 new players with 8 months or less with the team , the majority of those 9 with only a few months with the team . We've played 3 games under a new formation . We've had 4 clean sheets in 7 starts , all competitions . If you leave out the last 12 minutes of the United game , we've allowed 3 goals in 7 starts , all competitions . Sanches , who turned 20 a month ago and has little confidence at this time , had 6 starts with Bayern and 2 with us . Give him , the manager and the new players a chance to build a team together and let Clement work on Sanches , a player he desperately wanted , and I'm pretty sure we won't be disappointed with eventually . Cheers
Give it some time and we will , " GREAT EXPECTATIONS " is a fan problem , not a team or manager one . I'm super excited about the season to unfold . Fernandez is really playing well ( a lot of people wanted to ditch him not that long ago ) , Ayew is coming along nicely ., VDH has slipped into the 3 CB defence nicely , Bony will get fit , Carroll has taken over free kicks and corners nicely , opponents are having problems scoring , Clucas seems to be coming along , but most of all ... I can't wait for Clement to work his magic with Sanches and Mesa . My glass is three quarters full valley , and a lot think we have an empty glass with 9 newish players trying to grasp instruction from Clement
How? We have no pace on the wings and we have no creative players. We're a team full of average midfielders and average wingers now.
Well that's your opinion valley , not mine . Our creativity is " Pending " as far as I'm concerned and our best is coming as each game passes .
Well you'd think the blame would lie purely at the door of the owners. Money had to be realised to bring in talent, after all. So unfortunately, with the time wasted over Siggy & being 'tight' with a few enquiries, we didn't get the players we apparently just missed out on. The fact the defence was not strengthened too, also the selling of Kingsley!! Who 'signed off' on these decisions?? But most baffling for me was the lack of effort to bring in the quality wide players we've so desperately needed for a long time. Who is to blame there?? We were £30m+ in surplus for the close season. Is that the owners, or is it not a style that Clement is bothered with. Does he only like compact, 'Diamonds' & 'defensive 5-3-2' formations , with very little expansive, creative football with no pace & fair?? Haven't quite worked him out. At the moment going to give him the benefit, as he really had to sort us defensively & you have to say, he's certainly getting there. But offensively, the jury is well & truly out for me...
Agree Valley we have no wings and no creativity from midfield and with a trainee we're training up for Bayern Munich to benefit from I doubt things will get any better. Even against 'lower league' opposition we weren't able to create many chances and the golden ones we did create we missed. Both our goals came from opposition errors last night; Mawsons goal deflected in by Gunter and a lucky interception resulted in a break away and a superb finish from Ayew it has to be said, but we didn't make the goal, it came from good play from a Reading cock up in midfield. Imo, we'll be relying heavily on scavenged goals from a few chances that will come our way due to counter attacks, break always and opposition errors because we seem to be incapable of creating our own opportunities to score. With that in mind we need Bony up to speed and quick because, imo, Abraham isn't cutting it. He flatters to deceive imo, he's started 5 games now and you can count the attempts he's had on target on 1 finger. Like the Bayern Munich trainee, Chelsea player Abraham is not good enough to play for us so shouldn't be. We have better options on the bench and in the squad so play them. We are not a charity and its about time Clement stopped acting like a Preacher in a home for waifs and strays.
Jury is still out and leaning towards not good enough and could easily be sacked before xmas if he dont show any creativity and a game plan to win games....Anyone can park the bus and play with 9 defenders... Players like Bony will be wasted playing defensive football all the time as he is so slow to react....We need a more forward thinking game plan if we are going to win games and we need a player on each wing good enough to go past defenders and cross the ball....
