Just been on the Ardenal board, NotPC is laughing at the fact you have got through to the QF Strange boy.
Well I thought we were good. I like the style, we moved the ball quickly, took risks in possession and closed down really well for the most part. Obviously you have to take the level of opposition into account but it was a good game and we made it exciting imo. The negtatives are still there though, any opposition will create chances against you at somepoint during the game but we make it too easy and the defence are only dominant when we sit back and defend in numbers. In attack we still aren't getting it right when it comes to that final pass or clinical finish. Still, it's not far off clicking, we just need to make sure we're putting in the effort to make it happen and that comes back to a problem I've had with this team for awhile. We don't kill teams off, as sson as we go 2 goals up or think we're dominating players keep getting selfish and making poor decisions to try and get themselves some personal glory. I really hate that we keep doing this. Clattenburg ,mught be on the naughty step with the PL at the moment but I thought he reffed the game very well. He wasn't giving soft decisions just because some threw themselves to ground and he set a high bar for what is a penalty(as it should be) and stuck to it.
I'm always encouraged when someone likes what we're doing. I said earlier I'm trying not to forget about what seemed the priority last year, which was playing better football. Well, the Newcastle game, coming after Sunderland and West Brom, made me do so. Better football? Yes. Winning football? No. There's no doubt we're less toothless than under AVB, but also none that we're not scoring nearly as much as under Sherwood. It just seems so obvious to me that we need to get the ball wide and quickly to score more. We are creating some chances, as we did in the first half. But all the pressing we do leaves us likely to get torched on a regular basis by a runner or two slipping through our high line. I'd rather see us press defenders in their own box, then press again once the other team enters our half, in the third quarter of the field, if you understand me. These are the areas where their slip ups will cost them more than our slip ups will cost us. So I'm not a believer in what Pochettino is trying to do, but I'm still hopeful he'll find a way to make things work, as he's seemed pragmatic and willing to try new approaches. So: get the ball wide, quickly, and either cross to runners in the box or dribble into the side of the box and cut the ball back. Please. On the bright side, Lamela has become a match winner, in cups at least, and created two goals from he left, where he's best. Stambouli and Dembele were good ball winners, even if Dembele contributed to a buildup that was often too leisurely. There is a good player hiding somewhere in Townsend, who comes out occasionally to dribble defenders. Now if he could just learn to pass. Naughton's back, which is certainly good news. Now if we could just get players to stretch the field...
Good game last night, we were really efficient in what we done and Vorm had a nice easy night. Glad we beat them too, the Brighton fans were escorted in to WHL () and started chanting "Ars-en-al" to which a few of us had choice words with, so it was nice to send them home having been dominated throughout and made to look like a pub side defending for their lives. Thought everyone had a good game, with the exception of Vorm who may as well have just sat in the crowd with us. Was good seeing Naughton back, thought he looked good, didn't seem rusty. Kyle Walker was involved in the half time entertainment, a few kids dressed in Halloween gear came out and he followed wearing the same mask he wore last year when he done the video of scaring the players, Paul Coyte asked how he was doing after he gave out goody bags to the kids and mentioned things are going well, didn't say when he'd be back but fingers crossed it won't be too long.
I didn't get to see the game last night. Is it worth watching back? Will I enjoy the game, or will it be a waste of my time? Full game stream: http://www.footballorgin.com/2014/10/capital-one-league-cup-2014-2015-round_30.html?m=1
The football was pretty entertaining, Inda. They didn't really trouble us, Vorm could've had a cuppa and a snooze for 90% of the game. Our goals weren't breath-taking but seeing us win 2-0 is worth watching I'd say mate.
First 15 minutes were decent, then the team lost their way a bit until half-time. Lamela's introduction helped, but we still looked a bit dodgy at times. It wasn't a classic and I was getting very pissed off with it towards the end of the first half, but bits of it were worth watching. Kane and Soldado seem to be reading each other better as they play more games together, but the service to them has been poor.
This is something that baffles me: Soldado was developing a good understanding with Lamela in pre-season, and as you say he's starting to develop an understanding with Kane - yet this is never properly exploited in the Premier League as Ade starts every game.
Soldado was the first player to make a really good pass for us yesterday, a ball just too far for two defenders that Lamela was able to take in stride and knock in. We had a lot of promising chances ending in a poor pass or bad shot. Townsend was the most egregious (as usual...) dribbling the whole team and then knocking the last pass past the end line when it was easier to hit Soldado in acres of space.
Soldado set up Lamela excellently and he was unlucky not to score. Brighton in the cup was a very tricky fixture which we came through well. I was hoping for three but two's good.
It might surprise some on here but Soldado would be my first name on the team sheet. He is clearly a class player with some very deft touches and IMO has some potential great moves in the making. It's about time we gave him a run in the PL to see if he can get the front line going.
...IF he has either a strike partner or other players round him. I would love to see him paired with either Adebayor or Kane (probably Kane ATM) as part of a front two. He's clever, competetive, has a very good eye for a pass, not to mention ability on the ball to make the pass. I'm sure Harry or Ade would love to play next to him. I think we've seen glimpses of his partnership with Kane that have looked promising (I missed the second half yesterday). As I said in another thread you get the feeling that Bobby could just "click" whereas with Lamela I get the impression that the problem is a little more deep and will need more time. And as for Chadli, Paulinho and Chiriches - let's hope we kept the receipts. (And whilst on the topic of Paulinho I just want to be blatantly wise after the event here but I think back to when we signed him and he'd just scored against England in a game I didn't watch and won third-best player in a tournament I didn't watch. So I looked up some videos of him and have to say that his control and skill-levels looked way dodgy - even in the clips when he scored or set one up. I assumed that these clips must have been unrepresentative though the continual use of the phrase "box-to-box" did worry me. It sounds like a player who's neither one thing or the other but sort of has quite a good engine - not what you're looking for in a Brazilian record buy. Aside from his decent performance against Man Utd and excellent showing against Stoke (til he got Adamed) that vision of seeing the ball bounce of his shin fortuitously a couple of times as he bustled into the box in a YouTube video has never left me).
