Maybe only one performance from Holtby, but that appears to tick an awful lot of boxes of what we need in MF at the moment - and not just a kneejerk reaction to yesterday's game. Get him back, I say!!
I would be in favor of bringing Holtby back, but only if he wants to be a squad player. He can be a good CAM, because he has a good footballing brain, likes to do the unexpected, and can catch the other team by surprise. He also works hard and has a great attitude. But I don’t think he’s nearly the player Eriksen is. There’s no doubt Eriksen’s performance level has fallen off since the Swansea away game. I don’t know why. But for most of his time with us he’s been the best player on the team with the exception of Hugo. While I think an effort needs to be made to get him back on track, I don’t think Holtby can ever be nearly as good a player. My other problem with Holtby is that he’s never impressed me in a deeper lying role.He can be a good CAM, but that’s the only place I’ve seen him play well, with the exception of Everton away last year, when his manic running around translated into useful pressing. Still, it’s fair to ask whether we wouldn’t be better with Holtby in the middle, Eriksen on the left and Townsend, presumably, on the right. It may well be worth a try, but I doubt it will be an improvement, since it means losing Chadli, who may be our best finisher and provides more width than Eriksen on the left. I think we need Eriksen to run the show the way he did a number of times this year, but which, for whatever reason, he hasn’t done lately. To me, we had a truly awful game. But it was only one game where we got no points away against the fourth team in the league. Let’s at least see if we have one more bad performance before we start making extensive changes. (Changing one or two players isn’t a bad idea, but which ones? Dembele and Lamela didn’t distinguish themselves. Fazio? Stambouli may be the most reasonable idea.) Until yesterday the team had looked reasonably good and had been making reasonable progress. I have to hope one bad effort doesn’t erase that.
Oh, ok. I was wondering what that was about. Made a few decent runs and wasn't picked out, but looked well off the pace, understandably. Ran into an offside position after giving the ball away at one point and just gave up, despite Kane winning it back and making progress with it. Woke up when someone shouted at him. Less forgivable.
Chadli AKA "The New Bale". That is what he is, similar to Bales last season with us when Bale would vanish for large chunks of the game, not appear to have a set role in the team yet would just score, often beautiful goals and that is what Chadli is, he has no set role in the team, no set position but often manages to score or create but he isn't a striker, or a typical winger, or a CAM. He is just Chadli. We're lucky to have Nacer Chadli and bringing back Holtby (who failed in his previous stint) would only work if as you say, as a squad player but he would be a frustrated squad player, not someone who is happy to be a squad player so I don't see any future for Holtby other then playing for lesser teams in Germany or say a club like Fulham over here.
Painful first visit to Old Trafford for me on Sunday. Couldn't believe how bad we were, quite possibly our worst performance of the season. If we could have made 10 changes to the outfield players I'd have done so. Walker especially was just woeful, really has no footballing brain whatsoever and I would have happily brought Vlad on at the same time as Dembele, I've been saying Walker's form has been indifferent this season but this performance was by far his worst. I was expecting a good game of football and predicted a draw as both teams are decent up top but ****e at the back, yet we somehow managed to make Smalling and Jones look like Maldini and Nesta, while allowing Utd to cut through our defence in the first half with absolute ease. Getting out of Manchester was a nightmare as well, topped up on what was already a really disappointing day. Less said about it the better I suppose. Hope Poch gives them a kick up the arse with steel toe caps.
You should have done what I did mate and stay overnight in Manchester. I've done the drive many times away from OT on a Sunday and on one occasion the motorway was gridlocked from Manchester to Birmingham and beyond. Travelling back yesterday was a doddle.
In hindsight I'd have definitely done that. We parked up in the town centre too, so had a mission getting back from the stadium after the game (walked 20-30 minutes until we jumped on the tram), then sat in the 235 casino for an hour in the hope traffic would die down but that was a mistake. Didn't get home 'til 2:15 as we used a hire car so had to drop that back off then get a mate who's a cabbie to drop us all home.
SOS would have had an even better time if the match was followed by this: http://manchester235.com/event-details/an-evening-of-burlesque3
If Havana Hurricaine and Lulu Macaroon had been playing for Spurs, you might have stood a better chance
Maybe we did have burlesque stars playing on Sunday...they did play like tits in tutus ... I'll get me coat,
Hats off to the Spurs fans who had to suffer through that.I'm sure that there were more than a few fans who thought they would rather have been at work than in Manchester.....then that trip home! Glad I'm retired!!!!!!?
I did try chatting up a couple of girls on the tram into the town centre after the game, though I don't think they were overly interested, especially as there were about 100 Utd fans crammed onto our carriage all giving dirty looks at me and my mates once they heard our accents. Reckon they must have been lesbians anyway
