skell

48 minutes ago, MaVilla said:

good win, but my lord we were bad for large parts of that game.

If anyone thinks this side is a top 6 or 8 side with only adding a DM, you are mad my friend.

I must be mad. With a fit  couthino and a bissouma type player there is no question that we challenge the top 6. Everton played hoof ball and we struggled with it

1 hour ago, GingerCollins29 said:

Lots of positives.

Ings and watkins are a massive problem

Nah. Just drop one of them. Problem solved 

1 hour ago, MotoMkali said:

Luiz was fantastic again what are you talking about? 

We need a ball winning defensive mid. It's not Luiz. He needs to.compete with mcginn and ramsey for the 8 shirt

1 hour ago, CVByrne said:

Coutinho had a good debut. Buendia is brilliant. We are soft soft soft

Gerard knew we needed a left back attacking mid and a defensive mid. one more togo! If we get the right one we will be in a great position

45 minutes ago, TRO said:

I thought in the first half, it was some of the best football we have played for some time....just toothless up front....We lack Pace.

but when they scored from the Pen, new belief got in to them and they started that inevitabe top 3 trait of stopping you playing, being first to the ball and closing down....Lakaku just tipped the balance in their favour.

I also thought, we had so many of our passes, blocked.....need to be quicker, in our work.

I agree. I really hope traore will add that sharpness next to buendia

11 hours ago, OLDVILLAIN said:

Ings and Watkins together do not suit the way gerrard wants us to play..

Poor performance from one or two today and we really missed the presence of mcginn in mid.

1 shot on target tells the tale and with 2 disaster tackle penalties and the plastic chelsea fans outsinging us the writing was on the wall.

I'm hoping traore will blossom  behind Watkins or ings and next to  buen dia

2 hours ago, nick76 said:

so basically we didnt open them up with those chances you're referring to.  On the xG scale those we likely extremely low

The fact that a basic  bad choice with the final ball doesnt mean we didnt open them up. We were dangerous and they knew it

2 hours ago, nick76 said:

Watkins hasnt done it when Ings hasnt been on the pitch all season, his attitude has been the same on the pitch whether he's on his own or not. 

Not sure what's going on with him. 

Yes it maybe an excuse when Ings is on the pitch but what is the excuse when Ollie is on his own up front this season and still does the same. 

Something is wrong with him this season.

Honestly, hes not as good as we.make.him out to be. We.compared him to wesley and his work rate and hold.up play was immense. He has.missed a.lot.of.opportunities as he did last year.and has.little vision in the final third. For me it's the same.ollie just less.rated.byb fans

1 hour ago, hippo said:

An £80m goalkeeper an £80m CB - who at any other club would have been walking a tightrope.

So sure you bossed the game - and the boy wonder rookie manager cocked up on the he tactics.

But let's cut to the chase - lots of money and friends in high places got you 3 points - where quite reasonably you only deserved 1.

Been like for 40 years with Liverpool - I don't have problem with it - big money wins trophies - my beef is that Liverpool always claim to be to he epitome of fair play. Which of  is of course they aren't. Man city ? They buy trophies - but they don't claim to do anything else ...that's the difference. 

Just a nonsense comment. Friends on high places. Please!

1 hour ago, AVTuco said:

McGinn awesome and game winner, Mings and Nakamba great, Cash too and Young.

BTW, Why on earth did they take Zaha off?

 

Really why take him off. I was sure they were gonna score with him  being the architect.  Crazy 

I think he will stay the same as Brighton. It's all a lot grinding out results.  Bailey perhaps not ready to start and doesn't offer the same work rate as watkins. Maybe Luiz in but I think he will stick with the same, ever willing subs will be young and Bailey. The formation worked as did his tactics. Same again please Stevie!

On 22/11/2021 at 21:08, sir_gary_cahill said:

I don’t think Ings would  take too kindly to bring benched. In his appearances so far, I have been impressed by his goalscoring instincts but not his workrate. The overhead kick was outstanding against Newcastle 

Jeez. Really. The bloke never stops running!

58 minutes ago, mykeyb said:

Well today proved again he can't. Central or nowhere for me which is a problem for Ings

If only he had picked up the ball in a winger position and cut inside and scored.

16 minutes ago, mykeyb said:

Well today proved again he can't. Central or nowhere for me which is a problem for Ings

You know his goal came from a position where he would be playing on the wing. I agree he can improve, and he will. Nice problem to have

25 minutes ago, IrishVilla10 said:

A second striker was essential yeah, but if you sign a player like Danny Ings for 30 million he has to play games. Forcing the striker who scored 15 last season out of position just to accommodate, or shoehorn them into a two up top. 

I hate the 2 up top. But as you say we needed a second striker. Why not sign a good one? 

He would only play wide if better than traore or Bailey for example. It's about picking the best 3 up top. If its ings with watkins and buendia then fine if its Watkins with Bailey and buendia that's fine too

14 minutes ago, IrishVilla10 said:

Ollie definitely can yeah but Ings and Ollie shouldn’t be on the pitch at the same time, it hasn’t worked once this season. We didn’t need Ings to start with 

It never worked because they were played in a 2 up top. This doesn't work.

Ings was essential for our team. We didnt have a second striker!

17 minutes ago, IrishVilla10 said:

He shouldn’t be competing with bailey , Ings should be competing for ollies place up top 

Let's have both! As long as we find the best 3 . The point is that ollie can play in both position 

I've seen a few negative comments . Here's my contradictory post.

We were well organised, clearly the front 3 were told to let the ball go to the side when brighton had it. They operated as a unit. 

We tried to play through the middle more instead of to the wing with aimless balls crossed in. Buendia unluckynot to get an assist. 

Nakamba playing with more freedom looked solid and aggressive. 

I felt like we were just on top  but I didnt really think Brighton looked like creating much. 

We definitely played with purpose and moved the ball quicker.

Huge strides and an excellent performance. No negatives for me.

12 minutes ago, mykeyb said:

Our summer recruitment has been shocking. Watkins can't play wide and looks better up top so how do you fit Ings in. Buendia I think will come good but Bailey............expensive showpony.

Good result.

Completely wrong. Watkins can play wide . He can compete with Bailey for a place

6 hours ago, Paul33 said:

The issue is surely ...... dropping Watkins ?

Watkins can play left . No prblem

On 06/11/2021 at 13:01, IrishVilla10 said:

Absolutely. But I’ve also seen us play lump ball all season. Leak goals all season, struggle to maintain possession all season and struggle to create chances all season. We have been absolutely shocking. Badly managed to the point I have zero faith that anyone coming back from injury is going to make a significant difference. We had one of the best defences in the league last season and no ones changed, we still have the same base of our team but we look miles off it. We’ve got to the point now we’ve had so many bad results our objective of top half football looks near impossible and it’s not good enough. Simple as that for me  and we’ve seen enough stats now to suggest this isn’t just a problem from this season. The warning signs were there last season when we took the huge dip in form. We have no consistency in results under Smith and we’ve seen that every year. Sure he may turn it around, but evidence suggests its only time before we see the bad results again

 

 

Hes obviously been sacked as I write this but for me hes always done well with his best 11 when we have injuries we have struggled . Whilst all your points are correct I could counter argue and say that the 2nd 11 is not good enough and we have had loads of players out.  Is that deano or the squad. I would say that Loads of players have improved with him. He deserved more time for me. Hes gone now. We move on. Fresh manager = fresh ideas. Who do you want? I have no idea

9 hours ago, AVTuco said:

The one who gets the best player wins the trade.

I believe the 3 big signings have had 35 minutes on the pitch together. Think about that 

8 hours ago, TomC said:

Missing Dougie has clearly hurt us the last two matches. Missing Konsa hurt us tonight. But the problems go deeper. If we get a run with our best players healthy, we should avoid relegation, but top half of the table is looking very unlikely.

 

This team should be top half easily. I think we can be top half easily.  Watch this space!

8 hours ago, IrishVilla10 said:

Have you watched the last 5 games? 

Yes. Have you seen the players we havent been able to play?

2 minutes ago, IrishVilla10 said:

Yeah let’s chance it. Bottom three by Christmas is a risk, and if he turns it around and we can wait till the next time this happens under Smith. And if it continues to go downhill it’s going to be less and less attractive to any potential new manager. There’s an international break now, 2 weeks for whoever to come in and work with the quad. If we don’t take the chance now we’re in for it. 

You're assuming it will go badly. Let's wait for a fit bailey,  fit buendia. Ings and Luiz playing. It could go well. Have faith