How bad was he? I couldn't really tell and wasn't even aware it was him that scored, from where I was I thought it was Vertonghen. G*llas seems hit and miss. Outstanding v United but from what I'm told atrocious today
how would you have played it today Boss? this is not an arsey retort by me...im genuinly intrested in what you think we should have maybe done....442? i think we play well with 442 and maybe should have started ADE? instead of Gilfy who is having a slow start with us it seems.
Gallas can still have days when he looks world class, like when at chelsea but he is a liability so when we have verts and caulker as a partnership, its a risk we simply dont need to take.
Evening Spurlock But we lost the 2nd half 3-2 !! This was our 5th home league game and not for the first time, we were played off the park for a 45 minute spell. We were lucky to go in at only a goal down when Chelsea had outpassed us throughout. AVB may well be a work in progress but for me if a team plays well, in the long run it will get points. But if a team only plays well in short spells in games as we have seen this season, then soon the luck will run out and we'll be getting beat more often.
we did lose the second half..as we did against united 2-1. you have a point..i think our defence runs out of legs and it costs us. would you say Brad could have got to the 3rd one before Mata did?
I would have gone 4 5 1 or a 433 and used lennon, defoe and ade as the 3. I dont see the point in using siggy as he simply looks lost on the wing or through the middle. Also what about townsend. Bales out so why not put in left winger for left winger? I understand we dont have anyone to replace dembele so why dont we have a real backup plan for when he is missing. Playing 4231 with hudd & siggy is like playing with 9 men at times and i dont mean to harsh on these two as they both have talent yet today exposed our lack of quality backups. Avbs high pressing game neds someone in the muddle to keep the ball and move it and we need pace on the wing which is why i think he is a one trick pony with his selection today
I wouldn't say they played us off the park in the first half, we were breaking up some of their attacks okay and other than Mata's chance where our closing down was poor I don't think they ever tore us apart. They hit us with some quick counters but we recovered them well. Basically whilst it wasn't really that difficult for them to get some good play going in our half and we were also able to get some passing going although we didn't create any quantity going or any prolonged spells in the half. For me that's a long way off being played off the park.
Their passing was slick, their movement was quick and for me they looked a damn good footballing side throughout the first half. In front of me, in the east stand I saw 6 diiferent players pick the ball up in a 20 yard area because they were interchanging and working quick triangles in our half. Whereas we were laboured, lacked any real shape and at least 3 players who were off the pace of their game. They were fluent, we were not. Maybe 'played off the park' is an exaggeration,but for us to be fortunate to go in at half time only a goal down , is not an exaggeration.
I guess we saw it a bit differently then, whilst we didn't impress in midfield I think the fact that we didn't take a hammering was down to good defending. As we did that without sticking 11 behind the ball and setting up on our 6 yard area I think that's a plus point to our game, just as there defending in their area for the first half was a great credit to them and they prevented us having several clearcut chances.
Our most recent wins have been laboured Spurcat. However I'm not going to start blasting at AVB because I think he can put things right. We still need another striker and a decision about lloris or Brad.
I think we have moved in the right direction...the simple truth is that chelsea are currently outstanding. If we'd got a draw it would have been an injustice and that's with Bale, Dembele, BAE, Parker and Kaboul missing - I am beginning to warm to AVB and I was very against having him at the lane
As I posted on here 12 days ago, it was always the intention to bring back Friedel for todays game. I would have willingly put a huge wager on him starting today because I knew both Lloris and Brad were told this when AVB picked his team for the Aston Villa game. I m not sure where todays happenings leave this situation. To concede 4 at home is not good news whatever division the football is played. As a goalkeeper man, I always look to see where the ball hits the back of the net. Whatever the angle, whatever the distance of the strike, if the ball hits the centre/middle of the back of the net, then questions must always be asked of the keeper. For this reason I would look at Friedel on the 1st goal and I suspect he should be looked at on their 3rd (as Spurlock has rightly hinted at earlier).
We leaked three against Chelsea after a break a couple of years ago but we came back. It was a London derby and anything can happen so I'm not too concerned about the 4 goals. But this defeat might open the way permanently for Lloris and maybe get Ade starting. So it's to Maribor on Thursday. On the back of a defeat it isn't good to go into Europe and Norwich will be heartened by their win today as we play them soon in the whatever it's called these days cup. Toughish times ahead unless we can get back to winning ways very soon. But we are back to conceding late.
Well I've calmed down a bit, a ridiculous decision to drop one of the best keepers in the world for an inferior 41 year old keeper. I bet the French cannot believe how their captain is being treated, an absolute disgrace, and one that I'll take a long time to get over. I just wonder how much damage AVB had done to Lloris and squad morale with this retrograde decision. I said I thought Dempsey might be tired after his travels, some disagreed, we'll never know probably, but he played like he was tired JD justified AVB's decision to play him, but we could have played Ade instead of Dempsey if indeed he was knackered. Hard to call with Ade exactly what is going on, I just hope this the end of all this Friedel nonsense. He is nowhere near the quality of Lloris, and I just hope Lloris doesn't let this get to him when presumably he finally takes his rightful place as No.1 from Thursday onwards. The idea that the man who defied Spain in Spain couldn't deal with Chelsea at the Lane, ludicrous and laughable - All IMHO of course
You can't call a keeper who had over 300 non stop first team appearances inferior GHoddle,come on for goodness sake.
Perhaps if you showed a bit more respect for the main principle of a debating site which is to exchange views, you might have learned more about the logic behind picking Lloris for the Villa game, knowing he would later get game time for his country, so that when needed to step in for Brad, he would be sharper than the level he showed in the Europa game. That is what it was all about, but you don't know this because you make your own mind up, get on your high horse and trot off into your own little world and then come back and ignore what has happened and go off into one of your wild incoherent rants again saying the same old, same old. AVB picked Brad as he always intended to. Live with it. You're quickly becoming a bore.
**** me, I've been away a week and still the same tedious **** from GH10. Mods, aren't you getting pissed of reading the same garbage, does every thread have to turn into a potshot at Brad. I'm off.
Defoe proved a lot of us wrong but having 2 upfront left us wide open as we saw in the second half and as the game starts at 0-0 not with us chasing the game I think it'd have been silly against such a quality attack. In hindsight, with Dempsey having a stinker it'd have been nice to see Townsend given a start but going with experience would've made the most sense at the time. As for the Lloris stuff, AVB's explained this and I'm sure he understands the situation whether you do or not.
Friedel wasn't at fault for any of the goals. Can't believe I'm sticking up for AVB here but after Friedel's performance against United, AVB had every right not to drop him. Goalkeepers very rarely cost you matches, it's usually the players in front of them
