I know it's a small thing but for me it sets the tone and drives me nuts. Zappacosta under no pressure and 3 mins into the game, dribbling it straight into touch for a palace throw in. I mean, why? That basic lack of focus can tell you a lot about the mentality of a player/squad. If I did that as a yoof, my coach would have made me run laps. At this level? Pathetic.
Just taking what palace are giving us. Not really threatening and haven't figured out how to use the ball effectively around their box (hint: don't stand still with it).
Willian decides to run with it, instant result. Nice deflected finish. That came from him forcing the issue. More of that will serve us well.
He’s a better crosser but a vastly inferior athlete. Neither is really good enough. Cahill is done at this level, I think.
True but a welcome relief over all our attacks just simply going to die with Moses. 3 points but 2nd half wasn't great.
Underwhelming. But 3 huge points so job done. Giroud was a little unfortunate today but thought he had a good game even if he didn't score.
On a side note, it seems ridiculously easy to score goals on Courtois. He has had very few good games this season. For a supposedly top keeper, he hardly makes world class saves like De Gea seems to drum up every week. He is excellent at collecting balls from the air and has decent distribution but a lot of other goalkeepers can do that. I won't be too worried if Madrid comes with a big offer.
A couple things here, though I mostly agree. I also hate the way he commands the box - he doesn't. He gives that over to his defenders; usually Az or Cahill. De Gea also looks fantastic because as a team, United's defense isn't very sound. Tim Howard is the United States' best ever soccer player because our defense was absolute shit. De Gea gets more opportunities to make great saves. Courtois is a good shot stopper and on numerous occasions has saved us with his reflexes, stretch, length, wrist strength, etc. I think he is one of the world's best simply because there aren't many top top keepers around. There's Neuer, drop a few steps down, then De Gea, Courtois, Oblak, ter-Stegen, Navas. Not sure why Madrid want to bother, really. Navas isn't their issue.
If it was a guarantee that we got Oblak as a replacement, I would be happy letting Courtois go. He’s good, probably even great, but I don’t believe he is consistent enough to be considered world class. Great with some reaction saves, makes a lot of really difficult dives look effortless because of his size, but his lack of presence in the box and the amount of easy goals he lets in kind of undermine his best qualities. I do think he has been growing more and more into a leadership role the past season or two though so I’m definitely a bit conflicted over the whole thing
The problem now (with both Courtois and Hazard) is that with each passing day, their value becomes less and less since their contracts are running out. Hazard is closer to declining than improving at his age. We'll be lucky to get 50m for him. Courtois slightly more. As I said, with this club, I wouldn't be surprised if we re-signed Conte, Hazard, Courtois this summer. A lot hinges on qualifying for CL.
Let's do an example. Coutinho cost what he did (what, 150m pounds?) because he had 4.5 years left on his contract. Hazard has less than 1.5 years on his deal. This is why we are so intent on re-signing him. Fewer years on the deal = less transfer fee. Europe has buy-out clauses in their deals. The UK does not. The transfer fee is basically compensation to the selling club for breach of contract. Fewer years on the deal = less transfer fee.
We won't sell below 100M. We will just tell the buying club that we will keep him till the end of his contract when he is 29. Either Hazard caves or extends as he may or may not get the same offer at 29 or the buying club caves and pays the fees.