What a stupid comment, the amount wasn't stated, one comment yes, that we know of, other players will have seen it and will be discussing it amongst themelves, I believe this is called dressing room unrest, and thats all I stated.
It doesn't say much for team spirit when you have Gallas as our captain, he has had his time as a player, we now have verts and caulker to be vying for a place next to Kaboul, and also Dawson deserves his chance.
Gallas is a massively experienced player in a team without an abundance of leaders. To make him captain yesterday was totally reasonable in the circumstances - and as he didn't put a foot wrong on the playing side, he can hardly be criticised for being 'past it'. Vert and Caulker will have their chances to establish themselves through the season and despite his great attitude, we all know Daws failings (especially if we are going to be playing the high line). However, I don't see any likely damage done to team spirit as a result of yesterday's team sheet.
I think it says a lot that still no full time captain has been announced. Gallas was there to provide an experienced, calm head alongside Kaboul but I don't expect him to be a permanent feature even if he did do well yesterday.
Glass is 35, does he have experience, thats a new one to me Anyhow, I can perfectly comment on Gallas being past it as his best days are behind him and last season when he was in the team he was constantly found out by the ball over the top, and that is an area which teams will target when we play a high line. AVB is here for the "long term" as we're told and if he is to be a success it will come from building a team his way, with his methods and allowing players to perform in this system and that means allowing defenders such as verts and caulker their chance to start. We don't need to be scared of starting with either and using defenders that are in the decline is not a plus point, regardless of how many years experience they have, as Gallas has no future with the club and it wouldn't surprise me if we tried to offload him in the near future.
I was being sarcastic (bad habit ) as I'm aware of why Gallas started and why he was used for his experience yet I don't agree with it as we don't need his experience to progress, especially when we have talented young players who can gain experience and progress as players.
What we need, as Man City (and Southampton) just demonstrated, is options from the bench that can change games. Two, maybe three, top strikers to come in. (Two, minimum, of Llorente, Adebayor and Damiao and I'd be happy.) A Modric replacement, and cover for his role, so we don't appear clueless, classless or too defensive when he isn't there. It would also help if our players whined less when they are faced with competition for places, i.e. Defoe. You don't hear Aguero or Balotelli talking about moving elsewhere if they don't start all of the time. (I know they have fat wages to keep them happy there, but that is besides the point.) If Defoe gets injured, what will he be saying?, what will he expect the team to do if he is relied upon all of the time to score our goals, and he can't? Better strikers than Defoe would be happier with the strength in depth. Same for defenders too and midfielders. For the fella that said we should refrain from negativity for a month.. Do you realise how many points we could drop in a month??
Lock stock, I've just read in twitter that apparently at the Bilbao game tonight, there are signs saying "die llorente". The fans clearly aren't happy, so I'd say a it's fair one to predict he won't be playing for them next season. However, at 36 mill euros or so, as has been reported, it won't be us.
AVB says we will have a striker by the end of the week and I hope he's right. If I may just comment on the two matches today on this thread. With Chelsea being 0-2 up in seven minutes they would have been expected to thrash Wigan but didn't score again which must be a concern to RDM. City going behind at home will also be a concern to Mancini. Roll on match number two for all of the teams,this season might not be as dull as I first thought.
There are three teams I expect to fight for the title, two of them won today, and without even looking up their fixture I would expect Utd to do the same tomorrow. Those three are different class to us in terms of squad, and also cash backing if things go wrong. After them I fancy Arsenal for fourth, and the rest, including us, trailing some way further down the field. I'd rather we win a Cup and finish 10th than 5th and win **** all again. I know you can't choose these things that simply, but that's my priority if you like.
As I expected nothing but excuses, there was nothing to be positive about, some of you even praising Gallas, he wasn't really tested was he?? he looked ok against a team that offered little overall...forget the venue, we stuffed this bunch 5-0 when they did that last season!
There was 7 changes from our lineup last season to this season and they had 4 changes. Neither had the same team out. In that game they were missing Cabaye, Tiote and Ben Arfa, 3 key players, and in this game we had no Adebayor(4 assists and a goal as I recall) and Modric our two most important players last season. No one's saying Gallas was incredible just that he did his job well and looked assured. Throwing Vertonghen or Caulker straight in the deep end in one of our hardest games on paper would've been a risk. The principles were on show yesterday and they worked quite well for the most part. We still need a striker or two, a Modric replacement and a bit of depth on the wings but we all knew that going into the game. Give it a few more losses in a row and I'll be more critical it's far to early for that when we've shown we can play some good football.
One thing you'll learn about AVB is he isn't a fan of giving younger players from the academy an opportunity. We had the same. He would rather have played Bosingwa out of position than given Ryan Bertrand a chance.
The first goal was a class finish after an error and the second was two attacking players defending like assholes. The difference today was not scoring enough when we had periods of pressure and gifting them a stupid penalty.
It may be simple enough but finishing is what makes the difference most of the time, its a cliche but goals win games, thats why football is such a simple game as its the simple aspects which get success. This is why is criminal to complicate our season by not having the right attacking options as when you dominate games and don't take chances, it causes pressure within the whole team, players get frustrated, make silly challenges and there is also this worry that the opposition will hit on the counter and score against the run of play. Luckily we have two home games coming up so we should be ok, as I refuse to believe we won't sign a top quality striker, even though I don't rate avb and not a fan of Levys way, between them they simply have to sign a top striker, there is no other option.
As good a finish as it was it was woeful defending from G*llas. No player should be able to have his back to goal, turn and then still have a few yards between him and the next defender before he scores.Not in the opponents box anyway. The 2nd goal just came as a result of laziness and lack of match fitness from Lennon
