Perch.

Was great today. Stepped in extremely well and won nearly everything against Drogba in the air and on the ground and the lad deserves some credit for todays performance, I was going wild in my seat when he came on but he really stepped up today and surprised me.

Anyone who is saying that he had a bad game needs to look again as he only looked shaky when Taylor went off and we were down to 3 at the back (which Pardew didnt cover properly)

Not sure about him taking over while Taylor is out for the season but I think he will do ok in the short term (tempting fate here)

What do we think?

 

He did OK and that makeshift defence after Taylor went off was never going to survive against Chelsea. Very surprised with how well he dealt with Drogba.

 

He's just not good enough, however I agree he did ok today. The fact is we might have to put up with him for a long time now. Pardew has started his ludicrous player rating like at West Ham.

 

His work rate was good but those last two goals could have been avoided if Colo was on the pitch IMO.

 

He was okay, not bad, I wouldn't say great but he made some important tackles and surprised me many a time. Fair play to him.

 

How? We had 3 in defence against Chelsea at this point, leaking goals like that was inevitable.

 

We were going for an equaliser and ended up with only 3 defenders so the last 2 goals are irrelevant, they are not anyone's fault

 

I think he had to deal with a very out-of-form striker who hadn't scored a single goal in 9 apps up until today against us. Don't be fooled. Drogba has been nowhere near his best lately and I'm not surprised that Perch won everything. At least he tries whereas Drogba doesn't seem to lately.

 

Bit harsh , give the guy a break!

 

He's been like it ever since the match finished.

 

It's all Mike Deans fault this time but I'd have to say Santons got to be a better option. The more you look at our defensive injuries the more I can see Santon and Perch playing games for the next few. Not great but well see who's better between them over that period and once again I'll be proved right.

 

Pardew stated clearly that Santon still has to learn to deal with the "physicality" of the league ... So playing him as a CB against Drogba wouldn't be a good idea imo... Just look at Vermealen at Arsenal: he plays well when he's against a passing team but ****s in his pants when he's playing a hoofballing team ...

 

A load of bollocks this settle in stuff it's a game of ****ing football. I'd also suggest the next few games are ideal for him to learn. Pardew did this with Tevez and Macherano ffs. I mean are you saying Perch is better ? serious I like Pardew but sometimes he's proved he doesn't play world class foreign players for championship English turd.

 

You know what you're right. You know so much more than Pardew. I wish you were the manager...

 

Are you suggesting Pardews right about everything? are you saying James Perch is a better defender than Santon? are you saying the next few games are not the perfect opportunity for him to start learning about this Physicality bollocks? the lads not going to learn about anything other than depression, loss in confidence and hemorrhoids at this rate.

 

Soooo, at what point do we blame Perch for Taylor and Colo getting injured?

 

****ing harsh brudda.. how could you say this? Yes Drogba may be out of form he's still a class striker and was quite decent today. Even a out of form Drogba can be a handful for some CB's.. especially someone who hasn't played in that position since the League Cup and someone who's 4th choice when everyone is fit.. even 5th choice if you count Kadar but he seems to be out of favour. Anyways end of rant.. basically what I'm saying is give Perch credit because yes he isn't a PL standard defender but he's decent COVER and made some good tackles/blocks/clearances today.

 

The problem with you sometimes Chappaz is that although you do seem to know your stuff at times you see things in black and white too much and unfortunately football is not black and white (predictable) it defies logic, just because Drogba isn't scoring goals he could have run Perch ragged today and and assisted a goal, or played a big part in some build up play, but predominantly Perch didn't let him get a sniff.

Perch kept Drogba quiet today yes, not only that though his positioning was mostly spot on, even when he was covering for the frailties of Raylor he managed to get back into position very quickly so the team could continue to hold the line, his dedication to staying tight to the players was very impressive and I was genuinely surprised because I didnt think he had that in him.

Not convinced by him completely of course, but credit is certainly due.

 

I'm not saying Pardew is always right and I'm not saying Perch is better than Santon, but what I DO know is that Pardew will always make a better informed decision than you ever could.

 

Look Perch is **** but we had a better choice in Santon in my opinion. Forgetting that were stuck with the Perch for the next 3 games perhaps more. Pardew doesn't think Santon can handle the premier league yet so were ****ed. We might aswel just get behind Perch and hope Colo is back. Otherwise I know he'll play Simpson and Perch at CB because he's done it before. WERE ****ED. Once again we get unlucky with injuries and if we brought in an ****ing defender in the summer we would have been ok.