It wasn't one of Winks' better performances but he really wasn't shockingly bad. Covered a lot of ground and was always available. I think Winks and Sissoko have started together 13 times and we have won 11 and drawn one if those.
He was shocking. Gave away and lost possession too many times while Chelsea were also getting through him with his. We need Dier back ASAP, yesterday was a game where it shows just how important he is.
I wouldn’t say Sarri got his tactics spot on, ultimately they lost. They were the better team but if Sarri had played a striker from the start, chances are they may have grabbed a goal. You’ll even notice a lot of Chelsea fans saying that for as fantastic a player as Hazard is (and he was superb last night), false 9 isn’t his best position. I have no problem being lightweight in CM but we’ve got to move the ball better, we lost possession far too many times yesterday and a lot of those times it was unforced situations (ie poor passing). Eriksen was so below par while Winks was Winks. Chelsea are hardly heavyweights in CM, they have Kante (we have Sissoko) while Jorginho and Barkley aren’t anything special. Our CM just didn’t turn up. On another day, Eriksen could ruin those with his creativity and if Dier is back by then, happy days.
I thought that he had a bad night but when the players in front of you are also having bad nights, it's hard to know whether it's down to him or having limited options. Christian Eriksen, Sonny and (when played 'up top') Dele all had bad 'uns. HK was trying manfully to make up for a lot of failings around him. Did those players suffer from a lack of service or did he suffer from a lack of open options? I don't know, but if all the non-defensive players, HK and Moussa Sissoko excepted, had been substituted at 60 minutes, they could have had no cause for complaint. Dele perked up when dropped deeper and played very well. Bringing on Skippy and Coco earlier would have helped. Oh well, on to United. We have a pretty good idea how they're gonna play. They can't defend and will come at us. Game on!
Dele was a lot better in the second half, it seems he was tasked to be Jorginho’s shadow again as he was in the league game, a thankless job to run around after someone for 90 minutes but it shows the type of guy Dele is to do so. He sacrificed personal glory for the sake of the team, another reason why he’s such a special player. Eriksen was piss poor, as was Son. As was most of the players except for the defence. Problem for me is, Winks is often one of those piss poor players in a game. I can forgive the likes of Eriksen/ Son because for so often they’re key players for us putting in great performances. Whereas Winks, I’m tired of watching him hold us back, the more I have to watch the more annoyed I get. As I said to the toon lad last night, feels like I’m being punished after having been able to witness Modric and Dembele for many years as our main CMs.
Sarri moaning about Harry being offside before Kepa clattered him means he becomes the first Premier League manager to claim that VAR has it in for his team Crap, I had a fiver on Norbert breaking the duck...
Bloody helps though. Sort of seems void if tactics are spot on yet you’ve lost. Doesn’t really bode well.
Next season will be his make or break season. Skippy's only going to get better and we'll replace Mousa and Big Vic. Hopefully, he'll get a pre-season and some rotation and then we should know. He's not a leader but a water carrier who joins up play. That's easier to play and look good in a midfield 3. When we play a 2 against a 3, he looks too easily overrun but he's only got about 30 odd PL starts and shouldn't be a front line choice with no rotation. However, currently Skippy's ceiling does look higher, so certainly, he'll need to 'up his game'. I think that he can.
**** happens. You can get everything right and lose and everything wrong and win. If Kane had been offside last night and one of Chelsea's chances had gone in that wouldn't have made the tactics any better. Who wins a match between two equal teams is more down to luck than anything else.
You could still lose due to bad luck. Sarri is saying exactly that on the Kane/VAR stuff. But I would not want Spurs to again play the same way when Chelsky are playing the same way, and think the result will be exactly the same at worst.
I take your point but slightly disagree about the luck, although last night might tend to prove the opposite. Often, it's about taking your chances. If clubs like Wolves or Palace had Harry Kane and we had one of their strikers, we'd not be in the CL. Top strikers win titles because they change losses into draws or wins. Last night, Chelsea had a lot of the ball and territory. However, we had their number defensively. We didn't give them the chance to dive, holding them up and getting back in numbers. That was definitely a tactic and it worked. Morata's a busted flush and we nullified him and made Willian, Pedro and Hazard play into congested areas. Unlike many big games under MP, we didn't play great but looked ready for the opponent to outplay us at times. It was an interesting, novel and slightly scary development but it will improve us. If we do it again in the return leg, we'll most probably go out.
I don’t feel a water carrier is what we need though. Water carriers may have been ok in the first season or two under Poch or in AVB’s era but we’re a different outfit now. We need more from our CM, we’re a top side carrying an average player. We need someone who’s gonna get the balls forward to the AMs whilst also holding it down defensively. In the few appearances Skipp has made, he’s done just that. Skipp is already looking like a player we need and there’s a four or five year age gap between the two.
Not sure how you can make that conclusion. If for instance you’ve got everything wrong and yet won a game, surely that means you’ve done at least one thing right? And that’s scoring more than your opposition. Likewise if you’ve done everything right and lost. How does that happen? If everything is done right yet you’ve conceded a goal whilst failing to score, then everything hasn’t been done right...
We're not going to sell him. He's a talent. He's home grown. He may not be our best player but for me, he's seldom our worst. I want us to buy 2 central midfielders this transfer window or next. I'd keep Moussa Sissoko, Winksy and Oliver Skipp. Eric Dier may move back to take Toby's place (although he's yet to sign a new contract and will be down to 2 years this summer) but is a utility player who offers us some squad flexibility. I'd let that lot scrap it out, best man wins. If Winksy or Skippy come up short and we can up our home grown quota, they'll be rotation options and then gone. If we had 2016 Big Vic and Mousa, they'd be that right now....but we don't. Given our financial position and current injuries, there's little option but to give Winksy and Skippy game time. If we can buy better, that'll dry up next season. It's the natural order of things and is what happened to Ryan Mason and Andros Townsend. Adapt, improve or leave.
Luck can always play a part but ultimately if Sarri’s tactics were spot on, Kane wouldn’t have been able to make that run through on goal. I’d agree that on the basis of play, Chelsea looked the better side but ultimately I don’t agree that the tactics were spot on because if that were the case, they would’ve at least drawn the game. I also agree, I wouldn’t want us playing like that in the second leg. I just hope Dier is fit for that. For me it’s not a coincidence that Dier and Sissoko bossed the midfield in the Prem game yet we failed to do so without him in the Cup game.
He’s the worst player to be playing regularly. Unfortunately we’ve not had much choice but to play him though due to being limited with options (which would then result back to asking why we never strengthened in the summer). I also want two CMs but would keep Dier as the DM. Prefer him there to CB. Dave takes over from Toby but a solid backup would be needed, ideally someone near the end of their career so that it doesn’t disrupt Foyth’s progression too badly. I’d like to see Skipp given more chances this season. He’s looking far beyond his years and is doing more of what I like in terms of getting the ball forward.
Great analysis, much has been made in the media (well Sky) about them bossing possesion and having 3 times as many attempts at goal. But for all of that Gazza had to make fewer actual saves than Kepa. Harry worked their GK more than the entire Chelsea team worked Gazza, one excellent save from a deflected cross and a save you would expect him to make from Kante's drive and that was it.Christiansen had their best chance and missed by a distance maybe we were lucky that chance fell to him. But they mainly resorted to shooting from distance and in the main thats because we defended well, sometimes against good teams you have to. I expect the 2nd leg to be similar we will need to be clinical again and a bit better on the counter, but its in our hands to a certain extent now.
The worst player to be playing regularly? Hmmm, I reckon that Hugo and pretty much all of our full backs would be in that fight. All of them have put in sufficient 'duff games' to be front runners. However, they've been rotated pretty heavily and Hugo had an injury break. They're all senior pro's, so I'm less (more, I meant more - **** me! I'm Trump!) inclined to judge them although, Rose, Trippier and Hugo had very busy summers. I'm a huge Skippy fan and I'd be inclined to give him some more game time sooner rather than later. I think that Winksy looks like he needs some time out and possibly this Sunday. Please Great Spirit, don't let Moussa Sissoko get injured. .
