It really does highlight what a difference the likes of Ronaldo and Cavani make. Said this after the game on Saturday earlier on this thread. There were so many times the ball was either played into the 6 yard area or pinged around in the box and what was missing was someone who anticipated that, a predator. I was thinking a few times, if Ronaldo was there he would've been there instead of the defender.
Absolutely. That’s why CR’s first few goals shouldn’t be taken for granted. Martial continues to disappoint. He looks disinterested and paradoxically he needs a new challenge and I think that if he goes to another team that can get him motivated he’ll score loads. But for us I think he’s a busted flush. I am rather sad to say that because I really wanted him to succeed since he arrived. He’s been unlucky with the way Mourinho treated him. His confidence looks absolutely shot.
You have a point if you're expecting him to play as a centre forward. Weirdly enough he can't help drifting out left even when he's played centrally. Even tonight. If you look at what he did as a wide forward he played well. If you look at what he did as a centre forward he was poor. A few times he linked up well with Sancho down the left and jinxed his way into the box. But when he did, he needed a goal poacher there, a proper centre forward for him to pass to and tap it home... who obviously wasn't going to be there because that was supposedly his role tonight. One perfect example of that was when he got to the bye line and dinked the ball in front of an open goal, and the only player anywhere near it was Dalot and even he was about 4/5 yards away. That's where a Ronaldo or Cavani is needed. It's why I want to see Martial on the left, Sancho on the right with Ronaldo playing centre forward. I'd have Shaw and Dalot as full-backs as well. Btw I absolutely slated Martial last season so there's no love lost there. But I genuinely believe the presence of Ronaldo will improve his game IF he's played on the left.
Since the start of this season Martials attitude has improved massively, there is a player in there but not a striker.
Tonight our team looked unbalanced. We had lots of midfield play with pretty passing up to their penalty area. Then no end product. Not surprising when the strongest section of our side our strike force were not playing tonight.
West Ham sat back and were well organised. They would've done that whether it was 0-0 or 0-1. We've seen this at Home all last season and that's largely why our home results are so poor. We struggle to break teams down who sit back. At least we were playing attacking football and not passing it back to our defence. I agree about the strike force. I did say something similar at the start of the match on here. I think if we'd started with Greenwood we would've stood a better chance.
All your dirty cheating came for naught against our b team, Fernandes proving he's just a scummy **** and no doubt Matic will get let off scot free for his blatant assault on Coufal. Kneeing someone in the nuts is a ****s trick, so he's at the right club.
No, just disgusted with the way your players played that game. Bailley pretends to get punched in the head, so we kick the ball out, but rather than give the ball back like every other team, you immediately launch an attack from the throw. Matic gets mugged by Coufal so then knees him in the nuts and then Fernandes being a cheating low-life at the end. Scum-bag football, anyone who supports playing the game like that isn't a football fan
You'd have a point if you afforded your own players the same criticism. 30 seconds before the incident Coufal didn't mug Matic, it was a snide swipe at his ankle that left him on the ground. The ref didn't give that either. I'm not condoning Matic at all, I don't even rate the bloke so if he's banned I wouldn't give a ****, but Coufal was no saint either. Noble from minute one was trying to take lumps out of our players. He went in two footed on one challenge and thankfully he missed because Van De Beek was quicker. The guy's as much of a **** as any you want to point the finger at in our line up. Anyway you won, be happy. I'm disappointed but not by our performance. One of those days.
Maybe he’s annoyed at missing out on Lingard. Or losing 1 point at the last minute of the league game or he’s just a bit anxious about playing City. He shouldn’t worry about that last one. City are playing **** at the moment. Right time to dump them out of the cup