Out of interest....can you remind me of the occasions when he failed to set up his team mates with chances? From my seat he was the ONLY ONE CREATING ANYTHING ALL GAME!
It's okay Judo, you won't have to take much more. Just Citeh at the Etihad needing a win to secure their first Prem title; and Bolton needing a win at the Britannia... then we can settle down to a quiet Euro finals, Olympics and Paralympics with Team England / Britain odds on to win everything in sight!!
Dunno about never! Adel has obviously learned a lot this season, in particular the requirement for any midfield player to do a lot of defensive work, and now the last few games he is showing a lot of his old creative sparkle again, which seemed reduced when he started working back to stop opponents. There is no reason why he will not also learn to lay off the ball more frequently, when he has sucked in so many opponents as he invariably does!
You're right actually Ozzie, I just get overly frustrated with a hugely talented boy. However, he'd want to start learning now because although hes still young, he ain't no child anymore. Its time for the lad to develop to the next stage. Maybe working with Sparky over the summer will bring that out in him (us being still in the Prem of course ).
Sorry to disagree with some of you but Taarabt was fantastic yesterday. As is rightly pointed out, his defensive work was light years ahead of what he used to do. He also held the ball up very intelligently when we were coming out of defence, making sure it didn't go straight to the opposition, giving us time to re-group. He also picked his times well to surge forward and put Stoke under pressure. He's one of the few players we have who is really comfortable on the ball, demanding it at times, helping us to retain possession, which is something much-needed in the Premier League. It's also correct to say that some of his stuff didn't come off: misplaced passes, tame shots etc. But he's got to try these things because when they do come off, they are game changers. We need someone like him to break down the Stokes of this world and the attention he got would suggest that Stoke knew that. For me, the positives FAR outweigh any negatives. Who amongst our players didn't make any mistakes? He was a prime creative player yesterday and, in my book, he only narrowly lost out to Joey for MOTM. Long may he stay at Loftus Road.
Exactly rodney, Taarabt is being harshly cricicised here imo. His workrate, and the fact that he was a constant threat mean he has totally turned his performances around. His set pieces are also much much better now.
He was brilliant yesterday as you say, but, and maybe I'm being over-critical, they were times when he tried to do too much by himself when he had players unmarked in good positions near him. I remember well one near the end when Cisse was well free on his left and a simple pass would have put him clear on goal but Adel tried to shoot through defenders and past the keeper! When I see that happening a quite a lot as Swords says, it is frustrating!! There's an intersting interview in the link here with Frank McC where he describes how good Stan was at doing just this, releasing other players at the right moment, though I remember our Stanley frustrating the hell out of me too sometimes! http://www.qprnet.com/index.php/int-players/300-interview-mclintock
Paddy, I'd say, but that's cuz he really had nothing to do. but otherwise almost completely agree, although somtimes he'd be better off to pass the ball a bit sooner. But definately has been improving whole spring, and can't wait to see how he does next season, with a good pre-season for the team behind them.
Adel was even doing sliding tackles yesterday. There was one point were he went in for a tackling but the player rode it so he went in harder and slid in and put the ball out of play and all sides of the ground applauded him for doing it. I think hes realised the manager and fans appreciate stopping a goal as much as getting one. The only poor decision all game is at the end where he could have slid Cisse in but chose to shoot from the edge of the box. Bartons decision to shoot instead of cutting it back for an easy tap in for an unmarked Zamora ( who did shout) was much much worse.
Exactly this!! Some people just criticise Taarabt out of habit I believe. It's like some of you haven't noticed the change in him. He was excellent yesterday. Flair players lose the ball and things don't always come off. Whenever I watch Silva or Mata etc they often give the ball away by trying things. He's our best and most creative player by a long country mile, but people like Swords just don't like him....period!!
Its not that I don't like him, I just don't like players who give the ball away or don't pass when they should. It drives me insane. Why can't he just learn to do simple things well? Is he an idiot or something?
Finally saw the full match this evening. Totall agree with you Rodney. I say again what i said last August. If Adel works as hard as everybody else then he MUST start. He is our most creative player. In the last 3 months he has proven WITHOUT doubt that he can run the hard yards. MH does deserve credit here, but so does Adel. Our midfield without him looks very very pedestrian. How much would it cost to replace him? He is an east target when things do not go our way. I have to admit that i hate the way we are playing. It's very negative. I will accept it if we stay up but not long-term. Its very defensive orientated. Not very easy on the eye.All our players including our Captain have really increased their work rate lately. Adel has not been allowed to show his full range of skills. He is under very strick orders and it affects his creativity. We have not seen the best of him yet.
No question in my mind that Taarabt has developed certain areas of his play; tracking back and tackling in particular. I think in the last couple of months we've started to see glimpses of the Adel we'd always hoped would grace the Premier League. I think he underestimated the step-up in calibre of opposition and possibly thought he'd ghost past guys like he did in the Champs. Now that it's dawned on him that this isn't the case - and his talent isn't perhaps as exceptional as he'd believed at this level - he's realised that to stay in the team he's going to have to involve those around him more. He's still doing the little stepovers and drag-backs, but generally looking up more and bringing others in, where earlier in the year he thought he was a worldbeater and invariably lost the ball. I want him to stay because he will only get better. I've said it before, but he has reminded me of a young Cristiano Ronaldo in that he always tried the 'solo fantastic' when the 'team simple' would suffice. He's getting there. It would be a sorry day for the Rs if his dissenters had their way and he was sold just as his ugly duckling was becoming a swan.
No...but you must be!! You clearly never liked Stan either or Rodney. And I'm sure you hate Messi cos he tries things and doesn't always play it simple. For ****'s sake man....what do you want to watch? A team of hard working, boring robots with no skill or flair? Obviously you do!!
