nice to see Lamps and Cork having a chat thought Turnbull played very well- got off his line well and made a very tidy save
Hope he gets a few chances with Moses out, but Marin is showing so far why he hasn't been getting picked (much to the mystification of the media), he just isn't match sharp yet. A lot of eagerness, not so much finished product. Time will tell.
For those stateside, switch over to Fox now if you haven't already. Butch is describing the FA Cup to Americans
I think Ram settled very well and was quite good second half. Made simple passes including a great first time crossfield pass to A.Cole. Good run and energy as usual.
The amount of vitriol Luiz got for this game, where we conceded all of two decent chances to the opposition is absolutely amazing.
It's vitriol when you don't agree...isn't it? I don't think he's got the right outlook of the match to be a CM or a DM. His off-the-ball movement is a clear indicator of this in my eyes.
I don't think the rest of the team's performance is reflective of Luiz' performance, and he is being rightly criticized.
It's a discussion board, ffs! We will discuss the positives along with the negatives. I cannot speak for others but in my small pea-brain, Luiz is not a DM...especially when he prefers to play as an AM at times and thus refuses to do any defensive duties. He walks around the park and waits for things to go through him rather than playing in our area trying to regain possession and make things happen. Just say you don't agree and move on rather than making a point to say other posters are spewing shit. Besides, didn't you exile yourself?
Statisticians Opta on Twitter: "20 - Frank Lampard has scored 20 goals in his last 30 FACup matches for Chelsea. Available."
Thanks for reminding me why, actually. Where did I say anyone was spewing shit? I've never thought Luiz at DM was a very good idea, actually; I'm just willing to give any experiment a bit of time before declaring it a complete disaster after a few games. Reading the descriptions of Luiz's play on this thread you'd think we conceded 4 goals and were under pressure all game rather than enjoying a very comfortable 5-1 win.
Vitriol? As in the criticizing was unwarranted. I don't think it was. I think they were good observations. Well, it was Sunderland after all.
"Harsh or bitter criticism". And I didn't lash out at you. I think the comments were justified by his performance and no one was "bitter" about it.
There were a number of Luiz related posts today, a number of them negative. There were also quite a few that were tongue in cheek, at least we're intended to be. But as he is a very visible player and this has been a much talked about trial, he's bound to attract focus and if he plays a bad ball or is in the wrong position it's likely to be noticed. As I alluded to earlier we also tend to watch the game we want and there are a number of posters who feel the experiment was doomed from the outset and of course will look to justify this stance by highlighting the negatives. On the flip side, this is possible only if he does something in his play to warrant it. I was very much in favour of the trial and I honestly still would give it a couple more games, but I am seeing things in his play that, whilst forgiveable early on, shouldn't be happening 6 games in and that's the bit that worries me. I still think he has plenty to offer and I would point out that, other than his stamina, Ramires has been just as poor with his overall distrbibution and positioning but he is not flavour of the month so this goes far more more unnoticed. Add to this that everyone's favorite whipping post stayed on the bench and it's pretty much only Luiz who is going to attract the flak along with the manager. We're watching him and therefore noticing the mistakes. I'm thinking of playing the devils advocate role next game for the wole game and focus on a couple of our better players (say mata for example) and post every time one of them does something wrong, just to see whether it's possible to make even top players look bad with selective posting. not today Luiz had a great game, but it feels worse because it is highlighted in the match thread. There is an element of chicken and egg to the whole situation.
Addendum on Luiz: A good amount of the negativity I saw was well before we were 5-1 and cruising. For the first 30 minutes or so we had not played well. Looking back after the fact it may be weird to have found much to fault but we only started looking more assured after the equalizer (and like fern said at risk of being burned at the stake, much of this was down to the tactical changes made by Rafa the unpopular gaffer).
Just watched some fairly lengthy highlights. Can hardly remember Torres making a run -- and actually getting across his marker -- like Ba did for his second. I almost think the lovely play between Hazard and Mata that created Ba's first would have been cleared off the line... because Torres would have been standing on the penalty spot rearranging his headband. Keep him in the team, Benitez. Moses looked impressive. Couple nice flicks to go with the goal. He generates so much power on his shots. It was just a little snap shot off the half volley for his goal, but wow did it fly into the back of the net. He's had quite a few thunderbolts this season, but needs to work on keeping over the ball and not swinging overly hard. I'd like to see keepers have to deal with his blasts more regularly.
Good result. One of only a handful of matches I've been able to watch in the last two months. The first 30 minutes were pretty shaky, but that is pretty much us, shite for a portion of the match and then slowly work out way in. Can't say much on Luiz as a DM, but from the 3 matches I've seen, he doesn't belong there, obviously. Ba was fantastic. His movement in the box today was head and shoulders above Torres' movement in the box. All in all, a great result, considering the hiccup midweek.