Thanks, YV! Watching us scrape that goal I was so pleased to think I would feel happy for a while, and when the doom and gloom hit I was just a wee bit annoyed. I understand some terrible disaster(s) will overtake us but I don't like it when the pain is self-inflicted. There's lots of fun to be had rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic!
Hey! With two goals he's only six behind our top scorer Defoe! JD - 8 Soldado - 6 Gylfi - 3 Paulinho - 3 Townsend - 2 Chadli - 2 Pretty much makes him a superstar really.
Chadli is a superstar, in his own head. I can picture him having a mirrored room, doing tricks while glimpsing at himself in the mirror. Posters of himself around the house! He's a crap Nani! ....... That's me setting myself up if Chadli proves you right but I'll happily sell him now and give Obika his contract!
To be honest I don't actually think Chadli has been that bad. He's done more than Lamela so far and yet come in for more stick despite costing a fraction of the price (though I think everyone appreciates Lamela is going to need a lot of time). He does look a bit too laid back but certain players are like that. Look at Berbatov (not that I'm comparing the two), if the guy was anymore laid back he'd be horizontal. I reckon Chadli can become a really good player, he's only started 3 league games (I think), scored two goals in cups and has got a couple of assists when he came on against Tbilisi (though Towsend looked like Messi against them to be fair). His form at Twente was really impressive and so I'm hoping he can bring that form to us once he settles.
Just jesting, honestly not seen enough of him to say either way with confidence. I know he's part of the Belgium team and when he does play he looks to have vision. Although when I googled him, '' injury prone '' was mentioned. But jokes aside, his posing and tricks are an annoyance, I'm sure they worked in Holland but I don't believe we have a place for a player that is laid back and struts around, unless like you say we had someone as good as Berba.
Yeah time will tell I suppose. Was surprised he weren't on the bench on Sunday though, either he picked up another knock or looks to be one of the first high-profile casualties of a big squad.
To be fair, I think the "doom and gloom" only really materialized during the Hull game, when the home support realised that we were not going to trounce Hull 7-0. If some of our supporters could reign-in about 90% of their expectation the cheer-factor would come surging back.
There's no similarity at all. That team under Mourinho had the perfect balance and was a cohesive unit. Goals came from everywhere. It was streets ahead of the side we have now never mind Spurs. We also had a much tougher start (on paper) facing United on the opening day. I have no view on the league table until a minimum of 10 games have been played but I do have a view on results/performances.
In fairness if we had played Palace, Cardiff and Villa away + Norwich & West Ham at home and you had played Everton, United and Chelsea away + City at home it would be interesting to see where both clubs would be at. It's why I never really read buy into the league table so early on. Months like November and December tend to be the biggest indicator in shaping seasons for April/May.
OK - here's me being positive: I really appreciate how much more solid we are nowadays. We have a situation where it would seem that the management/board are all pulling in the same direction - what I mean by this is that Levy always wanted this set-up with a DOF and AVB wanted it too and Levy wanted AVB etc. It surely must mean more confident backing in the transfer market. This team is surely nowhere near as good as it's gonna get either individually or as a team. I think AVB handles the transition of new players into the team well. Ade might be awesome when he gets back. Townsend really has hugely surpassed my expectations - I never saw anything special there in all those years of cameo appearances for us. Sandro's fit. I've been down on Dembele occassionally in the past but right now we really do have excellent options in CM: Sandro, Capoue, Dembele and Paulinho is really pretty good. Wasn't long ago that we were all waiting for Palacios to become good again. Or that Zokora was a regular. Just wish we also had Huddlestone and some more creativity there but I should keep it positive... If anything that we believe is true about AVB is correct then he has the capacity to look intelligently at problems and solve them.
Rubbish Tottenham isn't the issue, it's obvious that we have some classy players. Boring Tottenham is the issue. If I'm going to pay £60 -£80 for a ticket and another £50 on train ticket and refreshments I expect to be entertained. If they want a happier crowd then knock £500 off the cost of 10,000 season tickets, it would cost £5M a year which is somewhere close to what we are paying Ade to do ****-all.
"here's me being positive" 1. That the gods have gifted us with : - an easy Europa group - lesser League Cup opponents for AVB to have the chance of winning at the same time as sorting out his players/formations for the PL campaign 2. That if the silly errors in basic play are cut out, the PL campaign will take off.
As has been said before, how did City do away to Cardiff? How did Arsenal do away to Villa? You bring up those games as if they are gimmes but 2 of your title rivals have already lost to them
I've never said they were gimmes but we haven't dropped a single point against teams of that ilk so far. We had to go Everton (who are unbeaten at home this calendar year), United on a Monday Night (with a final against Bayern to prepare for on Friday) and Spurs away (with 10 men for the final 10-15 minutes). Those are the only points we have dropped thus far. On paper we should be nowhere near Arsenal or Spurs given the fixtures played.
I don't think even holte legends would try and use these 1nil stats! So Chelsea had a number of them, a close result doesn't describe a game though does it, there are 1nil's and 1nils, entertaining games separated by one moment of brilliance, scrappy games heading for 0-0 separated by a bit of good fortune, games won with ease with the other team never really looking like scoring, or games dominated but lost, nicked against the run of play with a suckerpunch. I don't think too many of Chelseas followed description 2. Tottenham this season can be described as follows. Dominate possession in the middle of the pitch, mostly across it, deciding what to do with it mainly, we venture to the final 3rd, lose it with the final ball round the 18yd box. Dembele,Paulinho and Sandro brilliantly retrieve the ball before the opponents get past the centre circle. They drop off back into position, we go across the pitch again, and so the cycle repeats itself...bor-****in-ring! Our goals in open play, were they well worked goals through the intended style of play through the middle, or from wide areas, or were they set pieces, shots from outside the area. I don't think you'll be describing too many as description 1. I'll take the points and move onto the next game like everyone else, but nobodys silly enough here to think we can go through a whole season like this, decent counter attacking will and already has pull us apart, how we haven't conceded more I do not know and I'm not the first person to say this. I don't like the persistance of style of play that doesn't suit the whole team, only a few imo. I do see plenty of plus's, just not playing this way with this group. I could do a lets slate the optimists thread...don't see the point though. I don't see why the negatives, perfectly ok to talk about in all the match threads, are not able to be discussed out here in a bit more detail, just like the positives.
