Even my Chelsea loving mate here agreed that pen was soft!. Also agree Vargas need not have made that challenge with Isla covering Hazard.
Beth, I agree with you. Dunne is playing better than Rio and over the last couple of games he seems to have rolled back the years. I don't know if he can keep that up, but he should definitely start ahead of Rio, regardless of the 3 match ban. That is a separate point to me thinking that Rio is still a better player than many on here believe him to be. I suspect that, when he gets the chance, he may prove a few wrong. Time will tell.
That is a separate point to me thinking that Rio is still a better player than many on here believe him to be. I suspect that, when he gets the chance, he may prove a few wrong. Time will tell.[/QUOTE] Regardless of his off-pitch and often moronic behaviour, we all know that Rio has been the stand out Prem CB for the last decade. At his best, he was majestic. I was delighted when we got him, as I thought he would be perfect in the sweeping role in a back 3. His performances to date have been questionable at best. He played with an almost cavalier approach. For Me this is simple, Harry has to pick players who will give 100% effort for the team. No egos , no individuals, no bullsh•te. A 100% Rio would deffo be in our team.
I agree with that. What I don't really understand if Niko is not fit Is why is he on the Bench. If he's fit why isn't he playing - we are really missing having even 1 creative player on the park, and Niko's free kicks. It was smart of Harry to keep Charley on when he brought on OBZ, but taking off Hoilett reduced our attacking threat from some speed on the flanks, and hopeful punts up the park, to just the latter. I thought we needed Niko on for 1 of Hoilett or Fer.
Ozzie ain't you ever heard of not 100% fit? Bobby Zamora for example. Kranjcar has a problem with his toe and there's not 90 minutes in him yet. Unfortunately due to FIFA rules you're not allowed have 12 players on the pitch. That's not Harry's fault
What? Thought it was 22! What I meant was if he was so keen to bring on OBZ it would have been more obvious to take off Charlie, which thankfully he didn't, but I thought the better first substitution to have made would have been Niko for 30/40 minutes or so for 1 of Hoillet or Fer, if he is fit enough for that, like as you say BZ is. But Harry didn't do it, so I wonder how much playing time Niko can do now, perhaps not very much - he got what 3 minutes last game..
I'm really looking forward to next week. City were clinging on today against 10-man United and they have a must-win European game in the week. Silva is out, Adel could be back, and LR will be rocking. We can do them.
Why wasn't he Saturday then, SWP was!. I heard Harry say if Adel trained as hard that day (Thursday I believe) as he had done all week, maybe he would be in the squad for Chelsea, (he was muttering about the many who looked unavailable then). As he wasn't, I wondered if Adel was a sicko note again.
Ozzie, it takes more than a couple of days to go from fat to fit! If he keeps training hard this week then he might be up for 20 minutes or so on Saturday evening. If he's not on the bench against City then we'll know he's not been working on his fitness.
It wasn't mate. Harry has said that Taarabt has knuckled down. If that continues I wouldn't be surprised to see him in the squad against City. I agree with Stroller. With the 5.30pm KO and our lot having been on the juice all afternoon, the ground will be absolutely rocking. I really fancy us to turn them over, or at least get a point. (The lad thinks I'm insane!)
I have never really been a huge Dunne fan - yet yesterday I was really screaming for him - he beat Costa to the ball on a 1:1 challenge at least twice - did some really excellent well timed tackled. No comparison to Rio performances this year.
Good points - I thought so much of yesterday and vs Villa was about confidence - crazy that Yun needs games to build confidence - not fitness and this has been denied him,
