Karim El Ahmadi

[omariqy]

94% pass completion

[vandaq]

And again, did a better job today. I really can`t wrap my head around this guy. I love the good kea though.

[Isa]

94% pass completion

Didn't realise it was that high. Hopefully that's the end of the 'we missed Westwood's composure on the ball' arguments.

[Tomaszk]

Very much doubt it. 

 

We were all over the place for the last 20 mins unless breaking away. No composure in midfield.

[KennyPowers]

I thought he and Delph worked very well today in the middle. He adds more bite than Westwood and playing in a more distinct 4-2-3-1 curbs Delph's desire to get forward and keeps him in a more defensive role where he is more effective. 

 

I think if Lambo wants to play a 4-2-3-1 he should go with El Ahmadi and Delph now. 

[Skruff]

Brilliant today. Won an amazing amount of tackles.

[Folski]

 

94% pass completion

Didn't realise it was that high. Hopefully that's the end of the 'we missed Westwood's composure on the ball' arguments.

 

 

Westy had 70 touches against Liverpool, 68 against Newcastle while KEA only had 44 against Norwich, so we definitely did miss his composure, we need both of them on the pitch as they are our most composed players and we struggle to keep the ball at the best of times.

[Isa]

Well it isn't too difficult to have lots of touches when the opposition are happy to camp in their own half for an entire 45 minutes as was the case against Liverpool and against Newcastle I don't think anybody can claim there was much composure in our midfield that day. Our midfield three were pushed awfully deep and struggled to produced any sustained passages of play.

I think people seem to forget that we are not a possession team and are not set-up as such. The way the game yesterday panned out wasn't much different to the way many of our games have been panning out for ages. With us desperately hanging onto a lead for the last few minutes. Westwood would've changed nothing today other then offering much less off the ball then KEA. For me Westwood is superfluous unless we are completely dominating possession, which only really happens if we play extremely inferior opposition.

[Kwan]

KEA is good at breaking up play but he lacks the vision and composure to offer anything else significantly

[lexicon]

KEA doesn't really do average games - either looks good or bad and I thought he was good yesterday. Him and Delph were under a lot of pressure yesterday because Tonev was playing alongside them and he really isn't a traditional CM, which is what we needed.

[Richard]

Still prefer sylla and if tonev is going to get an extended run I think sylla would work better

[AndyBM]

to be fair it certainly is a tough call, sylla, delph, westwood and el ahmadi all have on and off games, there dosnt seem to be middle ground with them, which im not sure is a good or bad thing? they can all have brilliant performances or be completely awful..

 

what we do know is we can only play 2 of them at a time, as we do need an attacking mid to bring it from their interceptions to link up with attack

 

kea is one player who i still dont know is an asst or not or whether he will end up in the bomb squad, hes 27 now so we wont get many more good seasons out of him

[DamsonwoodVillan]

I much prefer Sylla, but like Bacuna in Lowton's position if KEA is playing well then keep him in there. It will be interesting to look at the starting line ups for the Spurs and Man City games. We need to get some sort of run going at home but these are not exactly the two teams you would wish for to start a good run. I'm happy as long as KEA is keeping his place on merit, like any other selection.

[Dodgyknees]

Much better than last season and shows why we should not write off Tonev.

[theunderstudy]

Absymal vs. Newcastle, excellent yesterday.

 

"When he was good he was very very good,  but when he was bad, he was horrid!"

[mikeyp102]

For me his strengths lie in breaking up the play high up the pitch, when the whole team is playing that way he is a good player to have. However , if he goes to press high and isn't supported by team mates, then it is easier to pass around him making him look ineffective (ala Newcastle).

Against Norwich the organisation was a lot better and we defended more as a unit. Kea's strengths therefore came to the fore.

[Folski]

Well it isn't too difficult to have lots of touches when the opposition are happy to camp in their own half for an entire 45 minutes as was the case against Liverpool and against Newcastle I don't think anybody can claim there was much composure in our midfield that day. Our midfield three were pushed awfully deep and struggled to produced any sustained passages of play.

I think people seem to forget that we are not a possession team and are not set-up as such. The way the game yesterday panned out wasn't much different to the way many of our games have been panning out for ages. With us desperately hanging onto a lead for the last few minutes. Westwood would've changed nothing today other then offering much less off the ball then KEA. For me Westwood is superfluous unless we are completely dominating possession, which only really happens if we play extremely inferior opposition.

 

While we are by no means a possession team, Spurs had 68% of the ball against Norwich last week, who in turn had 64% of the ball against us yesterday. When you look at the chances Norwich had yesterday it was a minor miracle they didn't score, Guzan made 2 wonderful saves one from Bacuna, Clark hit the bar when blocking a shot, RvW chested over when he should have busted the net, and they missed a penalty. All I'm saying is if we can keep the ball a bit more we ease the pressure on ourselves, I understand we are deadly on the break but at the same time our inability to keep the ball for extended periods was the main reason we were under so much pressure, I don't think a win should hide the fact we had half as much of the ball as Norwich yesterday, our pass completion was 11% lower than theres. El Ahmadi had a good game, and I think it was more 442 at fault for the performance than anything else.

[bradarmstrong_]

I'd rather a consistent Sylla play than KEA who we never know what side of him will turn up.

[Isa]

Agree with that Folski but to change this, Lambert has to start changing the entire system because the way the team are set-up means that we don't keep the ball when we should. I lost count of the amount of times that I was shouting at the TV/Laptop for us to keep the ball when we were protecting the lead last season. So unless the system is changed, Westwood won't individually change the way we play. Same way that Barry, another good possession player, didn't stop us being a counter-attacking kick-and-rush side under MON.

[villaglint]

Well it isn't too difficult to have lots of touches when the opposition are happy to camp in their own half for an entire 45 minutes as was the case against Liverpool and against Newcastle I don't think anybody can claim there was much composure in our midfield that day. Our midfield three were pushed awfully deep and struggled to produced any sustained passages of play.

I think people seem to forget that we are not a possession team and are not set-up as such. The way the game yesterday panned out wasn't much different to the way many of our games have been panning out for ages. With us desperately hanging onto a lead for the last few minutes. Westwood would've changed nothing today other then offering much less off the ball then KEA. For me Westwood is superfluous unless we are completely dominating possession, which only really happens if we play extremely inferior opposition.

While we are by no means a possession team, Spurs had 68% of the ball against Norwich last week, who in turn had 64% of the ball against us yesterday. When you look at the chances Norwich had yesterday it was a minor miracle they didn't score, Guzan made 2 wonderful saves one from Bacuna, Clark hit the bar when blocking a shot, RvW chested over when he should have busted the net, and they missed a penalty. All I'm saying is if we can keep the ball a bit more we ease the pressure on ourselves, I understand we are deadly on the break but at the same time our inability to keep the ball for extended periods was the main reason we were under so much pressure, I don't think a win should hide the fact we had half as much of the ball as Norwich yesterday, our pass completion was 11% lower than theres. El Ahmadi had a good game, and I think it was more 442 at fault for the performance than anything else.

I think Lambert set the game up that way. It was a very attacking formation we played so he must have known we were going to leak chances. I think he expected a high scoring game but backed our attackers to convert more than theirs.

It worked but maybe not in the way he expected