Let it go mate! I know you love an argument, but you worded the sentence wrong which confused people. I would of course have "got" what you meant if you hadn't said...."who pulled and Ephraim". It was all the more confusing as Hazard was one of the few Chelsea players who looked good.
You were the one going on about English not being my 1st language, it was easy to understand even with a typo.
I agree Col. I think Faurlin and Granero looked a very established pairing, you wouldn't have known they hadnt played together
Diakite is every bit as promising as Faurlin in my opinion. Once he's at full fitness, we'll have the option to play all three in a five man midfield that's the quality of a top 8 team i believe. It's only at the back and front that we have any issues, but based on nelson and bosingwas performances today; plus the promise of Mbia breaking into the team soon, things could be looking very rosy indeed!
We were great today, particularly defensively and in midfield. We reduced the European champions to very few chances and largely dictated the game. Faulin and grenaro were great together and bossed the middle of the pitch, Park was excellent, Nelson, composed and fully in control, as I thought was Ferdinand. Big performance from Bosingwa, Johnson looked bloody good on the ball and fought hard when not in possession and Ceasar's first touch for QPR was a match changing save. I thought SWP played well, that's the most successful attacking football I've personally seen from him (for us) and no one can deny his defensive work is important and productive. Someone above didn't rate Onuoha, but I thought he was decent at RB. Yep, I'm made up with today's performance, don't think it's necessary to find a worst player. They were all up for it mentally and up to it physically. If we'd have been more of a threat to their goal, I'd say that was one of the most complete Rangers performances I've ever seen.
The City and Chelsea games seem to show Hughes has found a shape/style to stifle the so called "bigger teams" whilst still being potent at one end of the field. If he can find a different formation against the others and it works I think you'll be fine. It was always going to take time given the number of new signings
Cheers Raving. As I could not get to game (to the good fortune of son who did!!), it was great to catch the excitement in your post. Having read all the comments it is clear we were a class act, matching the European Champions in most areas and more than matching in mid field. I sincerely hope this momentum / gelling etc continues with forward momentum. We need to win much more at home than last year and aim to draw and even win more away.
0-0 with the champions of Europe is a great result for any team. I only watched online but i saw a great game and a tactically sound performance. Mackie substitution made sense to me. His work rate up front is second to none of our other strikers. His form for Scotland and the attack being the first line of defence made Hughes decision simple and correct in my view. Faurlin looked class and i didn't think anyone had a bad game really.
I thought we were excellent in the second half. From my seat near the back of the upper loft Granero, Faurlin and Park all sort of merge into one when we attack the School End but I thought we retained the ball really well, defended brilliantly and they all put in a good shift. Wright-Phillips did well going backwards but, overall, I don't see any argument for him getting a game over Mackie if you want someone there who will do their job defensively. I thought Johnson was our best player before he went off but Park gets man of the match for me. Our midfield's job was definitely made easier by Mikel and particularly Lampard spending 90 minutes plodding around slowly. No amount of pointing to the sky and getting away with blatant yellow card challenges for being an England player (aka Scott Parker syndrome) will cover for him not being good enough any more for a team aspiring to win titles. Torres did one outrageous piece of skill to get a shot away in the first half but was largely anonymous so credit to Nelsen and Ferdinand for that. Hazard seemed a bit miffed at not getting a decision every time someone breathed near him and gradually lost interest. I thought we looked more solid with Onuoha than Fabio and if we're going to leave Traore out and play a right footer there then I'd rather it be Bosingwa. As for the support from both teams it was decent. You rarely hear any away team from my seat but I heard the odd 'Terry and Ashley Cole' chant so they were presumably louder than most. There was nowhere near the level of noise and abuse from our lot as last season but it was still very good. Walking back to White City, there seemed to be very few 'lads' from the away end and it seemed to be predominantly families and fat women in ill-fitting 'Champions of Europe' replica shirts, which is a step up from 3000 Jason Marriner wannabes.
Great summary. Team completely impressed throughout. Stepped up to the game just as we all wanted them to. A lot of players impressed today, which is so good to be talking about. Mouthwatering performance from Faurlin and Granero today - they looked like they wanted the ball. Our defence looked transformed, much less defending our area - much more like commanding it, with Nelsen adding some steel and direction. Well done to the coaching team and players - signs of better times to come if we can keep playing like this and continuing to gel and build on this performance. A new and exciting standard has been laid down by the performance. Onwards and upwards now.
I was Upper Loft (close to the front) nearer to Ellerslie side. Thought we shaded the first half, but QPR controlled the 2nd and won the midfield battle. I'm not too bothered about the penalty decisions, you win some and lose some, Sturridges last year wasn't and we got it so oh well. The worst decisions of the day were the Stoke goal and United pen, scandalous but not surprising
Funny how every dive is given for them. You can point to the pens, Id point to our pen in the 2nd min and the possible red card which wasnt even shown on MOTD.
I might be called bitter but I do not believe Crouch's goal yesterday would have been allowed to stand if it had been against United. Being Chelsea we obviously get our fair share of decisions, but not near the same scale as United. I'm still struggling to get over the 3 penalties they got against us last season when all were dives.
United are on a different level when it comes to decisions, they get 90% of dives. It never even looked a penalty. Its one thing to dive under minimal contact but a disgrace to dive under no contact. Speaking of which I was sure Sturridge was going to do it at one point but he stayed on his feet. maybe the refs previous decisions had some influence. The trouble is with Chelsea, theyve got a bad reputation for diving, Sturridge and Hazard are blatant divers and Torres spent the whole game throwing himself to the ground and whining to the ref. The ref is then not going to give you any debatable pens as the natural reaction is to think its a dive and you dont want to get conned.
Get your Flyerism of the week votes in now. I'm going for "he pulled and Ephraim". I'm sure "SWP was awful" will poll well too. Come on, polling station closes as 10pm sharp tonight.
That's the trade off though mate. If you leave Cisse, Hoilett and Taarabt on the bench you get a very hard working team, but lack a goal threat imo.
