LordSepulchrave

I'm a fan of stats, but not just taking one stat in isolation and using to try and prove some point. Look at this article written back in October for example: http://www.statsbomb.com/2013/10/introducing-mipmop-again/ Now although at that point our poss. stats were worst in the league, we were 6th best at preventing shots against us and 5th best at getting shots off quickly. In other words, a lot of possession our opposition had wasn't all that efficient and we were efficient with possession. In that context, the lack of possession wasn't necessarily that big a deal. Yet people (even still) use the possession stat without any real attempt to give it context. I think everyone would like to see us be a bit more comfortable on the ball, be able to open up a defense with some nice triangular passing - but calling for increased possession alone just seems simplistic.

Stoke are exactly the sort of team that tends to trip us up. Genuinely think we might lose this one.

https://twitter.com/NicklasHelenius/status/444948982473969664 Nice to see that it looks like his lack of involvement this year is something he's on board with, but still confused where he fits into the team overall. Maybe as a wide forward like Gabby or Weimann? Or maybe the lack of our ability to get our hands on an attacking mid has meant we can't play the type of football yet which would allow him to be effective The cynic in me wonders if he was bought on the cheap to help Okore settle in - hopefully not, and I still look forward to seeing him properly in action.

Over a long distance - a run from inside his own half for example - Ramires would definitely have burned him. Over a shorter distance, I think Vlaar is probably the faster though - he doesn't take as long to get going. A red card would have been clearly the wrong decision. The size difference between the two of them is quite stark actually - Vlaar looks huge next to Hazard.

Was a falling out reported or is that your gut feeling on the situation? But yeah, 14 goals in 109 games isn't bad - I'm assuming he mainly played on the right side of midfield?

Same. Pacey winger with an "atomic strike"? Promising Spanish fullback? Danish striker whose youtube videos are filled with finesse, technique and finishing ability? Nope, the signing of the season is a utility player from a midtable dutch team who didn't even particularly rate him.

"He reminds me of myself." I wonder if he'd been waiting all week to say that? Totally worth it either way.

What strikes me the most is that our midfield, which has long been agreed on as a weak spot, was really excellent this game. Delph will get deserved credit, but both Westwood and KEA did their jobs extremely well. Special shout to KEA, whose recent drastic improvement seems to gone largely unnoticed on here. And Bennett looking solid up against the likes of Willian and Hazard? Crazy times.

Really imposing himself onto games lately. It's too easy for players who do the dirty work to hide behind "does the unseen jobs well" as a defense, but recently you'd genuinely feel we'd be a worse team without him.

Did surprisingly well today, seemed to fit in well with a defense that looked very confident and totally a match for Chelsea.

Would love a point, but will probably settle for a good performance and defeat.

Pretty sure I've heard Quinn call him Elmohamady repeatedly too. Embarrassing professionally not just for him, but for the networks that keep putting him on as a pundit. To be fair, I have heard names like that where "ah" is pronounced "ach", so that one might not be so far off.

Well, we did name a stand after him after all.

Absolutely agree.

The thing about Delph is when he's good everything he does is incredibly obvious and flashy. When, say, Westwood has a good game it's not clear until he is not there, the Newcastle game being the big example. Delph has bags of potential, but because he can be so explosive when he is good he's a tad overrated. Atm I wouldn't put him that much further ahead of Westwood or KEA.

Why would it be? It's just one missed chance (a very bad one admittedly). Even if his form does dip, I doubt it'll have anything to do with this. Well Benteke's already had a "return to form" where he scored in the Arsenal and Liverpool games. In the next five game he only scored from the penalty spot, and never looked like he was back in-form at all. Although against Norwich he did look a lot more like the Benteke of last season and early this season, confidently giving their defense nightmares, we really need to see him do that with some sort of consistency. Alone that miss doesn't mean anything, but I just hope that within the context of this season it doesn't mean that Benteke's still not back on song.

Not even just lost to, Norwich were properly the better team. But yeah, it seems like we've already had a couple of false dawns with Benteke this season since his injury, here's hoping this isn't a signifier that the Norwich game was another one.

Eh? How in any way does that scenario have any basis in reality? Further up the thread Risso said that we'd be better with nobody than having Holt. I'm just making the point that Holt's absolutely better than nobody. Edit:

In his four sub appearances, we've only conceded one goal (the pen against L'pool) from when he's come on. Four games isn't enough to make a definite conclusion, but that certainly suggests he's a decent shout for helping to close out games. I certainly can't imagine that would have been the case if we'd been reduced to ten men in all these games. Not keen on him starting mind.

Lambert's words when we signed him? "He's a proper guy" or something like that. Seems to me that we signed him to help in the dressing room as an experienced voice. The role he plays on the pitch, he seems more like an upgrade on Bowery than anything else, a defensive forward. This does seem to be much ado about nothing - cheap short term cover whom the manager has hinted has been signed for his presence off the pitch as well as on it.

Whilst I do rate Martinez, I feel like people are forgetting amongst the disaster that is Man Utd just how good a job Moyes did with Everton. Martinez's Everton play well, are dangerous, but are drawing way too much and not-quite there in their quest for the top 4. Just like Moyes's Everton. And it's not as if Moyes had them play long ball football either - it was a good balance between physicality and skill, and their style of play was certainly miles ahead than the slow and timid stuff we're seeing with him at Utd. Martinez took over a very strong, very stable side with Everton. I don't like loans too - short term fixes, and ones that are probably more expensive than they are worth in Everton's case unless they can snatch a place in the top 4. It's difficult to say if Martinez would have done that much better a job than Lambert, but it's probably more worthwhile discussing valid replacements than angst over what-could-have-been. Not that I want him to be replaced - I'd like to see us be patient with Lambert.

In a weekend dominated by Pardew's headbutt, really glad the press didn't pick up on all this. They would have immediately linked the two of them.

This year's Benteke. The impact he has on the team is staggering.

We concede way less goals. Bacuna looks like a smart acquisition, an if we can keep ahold of Bertrand that could work too. Injuries to Okore and Kozak have really hurt our potential for moving forward - I honestly think we're missing Kozak, Benteke's form being what it is. We've not progressed much, but for what it's worth I think next season is where Lambert really needs to prove himself. This season was always gonna be a bit of a struggle, and finishing somewhere between 12-14th would be where I was expecting us at the start of the year.

Random thoughts on the match: The match was summed up when Benteke stormed forward against two defenders, with Weimann and Gabby free either side of him, and he just puts it straight into the feet of one of the defenders. We pressed brilliantly, especially first half, but without a goal we were always gonna run ourselves into the ground and eventually we tired enough to let them lay siege to our goal. Subs were crap. I have to assume Westwood was taken off due to injury, because otherwise massive mistake by Lambert. Great performance first half but, like against Cardiff, I didn't think we had the composure to put away chances if one had fallen to us. KEA, Westwood, Bacuna, Vlaar (except for a couple of almost massive mistakes), Baker, Guzan all great today. Not getting any luck either, on top of everything.