Yeah but there were times where we had possesion in the back and were just killing time after the goal. I agree that we needed to keep possesion more, and try to take some pressure of our defense, but the fact is it was hard to criticize. I guess you and I saw it differently. I agree that we certainly lost a lot of confidence, but we still battled through and didn't give up all hope. There was still a lot of chasing, pressuring and tackling even in the 90th minute. I thought he did well defensively to be honest, and for me that is why he was a good player for us tonight. We didn't need individual brillance from him going forward. He needed to sit in front of the defense, make some hard tackles and work his ass off. I thought he did that well. I didn't take away very many negatives from tonight's match. I thought it was a pretty lucky goal. They were clearly getting frustrated and it showed on the pitch, I think if we had gotten through 5 more minutes a draw would have been ours. Oh well, we really can't be upset guys. I know I was extremely dissapointed but we move on from here. Watford now has to be a win.
When Butt is doing his job as holding midfielder, IMO, his presence may not be noticed. If he wasn't doing his job. Chelsea would have scored 5 goals or more.
I thought Butt held his own quite well. Huntington was a surprise start and he also did well. If Toon would get up for all their games, as they do The blues and ManU, we would be in the top 5. Question: Is Fifa Manager 07 worth looking at?
Butt was invisible? Then what would you call the contribution of Lampard, Ballack and Essien? Jose may have had his 2nd choice strike-force out there, but his mid-field was loaded with 3 of the prem's top players, and they were all non-factors. Credit the Butt and the rest of our midfield with doing a great job limiting their chances. When you play away to one of the top clubs, you are only going to get a couple looks at goal. At Arsenal we snuck one in, and were able to hold on for a point. At Chelsea we hit the post, and sent a free header right at the keeper's heart. Chelsea are going to score at home, so a goal was always going to be needed to get a reult. Too many positives to get worked up about it. Did you see the tight camera shot on Huntington taking the throw-in? He looked like a boy who had bought a jersey and wondered on the pitch! Our defending, other than Robben undressing Baba, was outstanding. Milner was a bit out-classed, but he won't be alone in looking that way at the Bridge. I was reminded of the Souness quote, "We won't win anything with a team full of James Milners." I still think he is an important player for us, and has made some of the more important plays of our season to date [setting up Luque at Palermo for one]. Up front, I was impressed with Rossi. He showed a couple glimpses of what all the fuss is about. I still don't think he will get any more games in the spring back at ManU. He needs to stay till summer and help us win the UEFA. But the guy that is really starting to get it is Martins. You can actually tell teams have some fear factor against us, which hasn't been there since Bellamy left. He continues to improve and with our injury situation, we need him to be our best player.
I think thats chelsea's weakness. Too many good attacking players too many defending players, not much in the middle. Essien was mainly playing in the back, Lampard and Ballack were up front trying to score (did Cole play?). Leaving the middle to us, which we did posses quite nicely, but could go no further than the penalty box. They have no one to pass thru from front to back and looked pretty disorganized when we had posseion in the midfield. At least until we encountered their defense...a fast defense. IMO Chelsea's a two field team: attack or defend. They do not play a total football or have much of a build up. Its either on or off. Which is why I do not see them going far in the CL or enjoy watching them play. I enjoy seeing Martins make runs. Yes he may not get far but damn when he sees the opportunity an afterburner kicks in and he is gone...Now if we can get him to see those opportunites a little earlier and more often...
While hunting for N'Zogbia injury news just now, (this is a nice little article, including a rundown of all our injuries, though it might have the date for Babayaro's suspension wrong) I realized that nothing has been said of Sibierski's injury yesteday. He was clearly hurting out there, and just because he toughed it out for 10 or 15 minutes yesterday doesn't mean he'll even suit up this weekend. So has anyone heard anything about him?