aoijdsp[aijdo[asidjasias[oaidj[aoidjsa[jids - My thoughts on the Anzi game

FFS. I can never make a spontaneous celebration for a Cisse goal because I always have to look at the linesman in case it's offside XD.

I always give delayed reactions when Cisse scores. LOL typical Cisse. Does **** all all game then scores a last minute winner.

I'm so happy for him. Since around Christmas when we started playing football on the ground, his goals to games ratio is around 1 in 2 in all competitions, so he may not return to the beasty form he was late last season, but he may well become a solid 15+ goals a season striker in the future, and that's ok.

I'm really at the end of my rectum when it comes to Tiote. I'm sick of defending him. The whole thing about form is temporary and class is permanent is a good stance to have, but there's limits. He hasn't shown any consistency in the last two years. He's a liability.

Our passing was dreadful for most of the game. The likes of Sissoko, Marv and Anita couldn't link up together.

Ratings -

Elliot - 7 - Didn't have to make a save, but good distribution that started attacks.

Santon - 7 - Got us forward and defended quite well.

Saylor - 10 - Immense. Two critical blocks early on, and brilliant performance. If he wasn't so injury prone he'd be a legend. He was hugging all the handicapped fans and I'm giving him a 10, not just because of his technical performance, but by the way he communicates with the ground throughout the game. He was jigging everyone up all the time, and he loves the place.

MYM - 9 - Fantastic again. Superbly timed stand tackles and touches, brilliant defender. IMO he should not be dropped for Colo if Colo ever returns. He's a better all round defender, and a perfect replacement. Hopefully him and Saylor will make a good long term partnership. They're solid together.

Haidara - 8 - Solid defending, good runs and aided attacks. He can't cross consistently, but who the **** can in our team besides Marveaux and Raylor?

Tiote - 4 - Liability

Anita - 7 - Great aggression and breaking up of play at times. I really like this kid and always have, and him and Perch would do a great job together IMO.

Marv - 8 - Great performance. Another fantastic assist, and did very well on the ball, especially in the first half.

Jonas - 6 - **** passing, good work rate. Same as usual.

Cabaye - n/a - Some good play, but had to come off. Shame. Hope he's not seriously injured, and it was just precautionary.

Sissoko - 6.5 - Having a bit of afterburn after his burst on the scenes. Remember he was only 1.8m. He can't put in 180 minutes of MOTM stuff every week. Made some great runs and did ok at times.

Cisse - 7 - Didn't do much in the match, but two games, two chances, two winning goals. Can't argue with that.

Campbell - n/a - Great little cameo IMO. Got into some good positions with his pace, but no one picked him out. He worked hard on the wing, got on the ball and made some decent passes. I really don't understand why the other players don't bother passing to him. The lad has done nothing wrong. He can't help that he's only 3ft 6.

MOTM - Saylor, but MYM was also amazing.

OVERALL - Rode our luck, Anzi could have had 3 goals easy, but we stuck at it, and were pressured them late on.

HTL

 

Sore hands Tash?

 

Is Sore Hand Tash the title of his autobiography?

 

The follow up is 'how I got my stumps'

 

Come again?

 

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Taylor was great but I'm giving my motm vote to Marveaux. Our most positive player, I like how he always seems to look for the forward pass rather than do what most of our team do and go sideways or backwards! It'll be hard to drop him for the next game after 2 crucial assists, well pleased for him!

On a side note, does Krul come straight back in our team? Elliot hasn't done much wrong at all, and his distribution is way better. There was that beast of a throw-out in the 2nd half that only just got intercepted, it was almost Pepe Reina-esque, maybe Elliot could be a useful asset when it comes to building our attacks quickly and effectively...

 

Think that's called, "The Sea of Jizz".

 

It reached the half way line. Some people couldn't throw a cricket ball that far.

 

Awesome win.

Elliot made an all-important save on Etoo's shot from a narrow angle, and did well.
Saylor HAS to be called up to the England squad now after this performance or it's going to be an absolute travesty...
MYM took that short goal kick and coughed the ball up dangerously, and we had our lucky stars to thank when their player blasted it into the side netting, but otherwise I've always thought MYM will eventually overtake Saylor as our best defender.
Haidara is young, and made some mistakes hope he'll learn from them, but he did well as well
Agree on Tiote, he's starting to make us miss Perch.
I was quite unhappy with the way the team played after Campbell was brought on in the 60-odd minute.
I mean, what's the point of bringing Campbell on when the team doesn't pass the ball to him when he's open? Pardew needs to get into his players when they look at the tape as that's totally unacceptable.
If he isn't brought on for a cameo in a blowout win or a loss, then there should be no reason why him in acres of space doesn't get the ball.

 

Saylor was comfortably MOTM for me. Lad was pumped last night and had a cracker. I thought Mbiwa was good and bad. Couple of suicide balls went unpunished. Santon did well for the first time in a while and looked more comfortable on the right. Haidara was ok but crossing let him down. Tiote was suicidal. Anita quiet but effective. Sissoko was poor, easily his weakest game but still had chances such is his class. Jonas was very good when he came on, superb workrate. Marveaux was infuriating as **** again but that ball was an absolute pearler. Cisse tried but was pretty average in truth. When a real chance came though, bang! Elliot was solid but had little to do. We weren't great and could have been punished first half but we were solid overall. We lacked creativity after Cabaye went. Jonas had a good game but he is not a creator.

Young Campbell made great runs but they simply did not trust him enough. Give him the ball!

Eliot 7
Santon 7
Haidara 6
Mbiwa 8
Saylor 10
Tiote 5
Cabaye N/A
Anita 7
Sissoko 6
Marveaux 7
Cisse 7

Jonas 8
Campbell 6

 

There's no doubt about the fact that Anzhi are a very good side, with a well drilled defence. In two games against them we had about 1 effort on target.

There are positives in spite of our lack of creating chances against them. It was cruel luck that both HBA and Cabaye were missing/not fully fit for such a tough tie, but that's life.

We did very well to get through though.

If it wasn't on the back of non-productive first half against Stoke, a side who are way below the class of Anzhi, many of us wouldn't be worrying about a dearth of creativity in our game. So maybe we've just got to take the buzz of achieving the results of the last two games, and take that buzz to the next game.

The slating of Cisse is in my view hard on him. He's being given scraps to feed on and there is a pressure he must feel to take maybe his only chance. Yes he does wander offside far too much and this may reflect his desire to get a yard of space. It needs working on.

Hopefully a trench mentally will give the side strength - we're third choice for TV coverage and to Fleet Street we're a wee club outside the UK.

The bottom line is we've knocked out a financially well equipped side who have looked excellent in this tournament before being eliminated by us.

 

I notice that despite looking tiny at St. James Adam Campbell is 5ft 7in tall, the same size as Lionel Messi. Just saying like lol, heres hoping.