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Alonso deserved some credits in this game, overall it's another comfortable win for us, we needed it after spurs defeat and costa rumors..

3 midgets up front ain't going to work in epl, at least not in the long term.. With costa being a doubt, I think it's wise for the manager to show more faith on batshuayi.. If we don't beat leicester, it could be messy after all the recent rumor surrounding the club..

Another way to see it, contract negotiation tools.. I don't want us to break the bank for costa, hazard's wage is huge enough already, nobody should earn more than him.. I think, instead of lamenting the chinese interference, we could see this as an opportunity.. Look at costa's age and his attitude when things don't go his way, selling him for anywhere around 100mils isn't a bad business at all, more over when it's to china where it's completely irrelevant to any competiton we're going to compete, it's not like we're selling him to 1 of our rivals.. It's really simple here, if the player's head is turned then we just have to deal with it with pride.. It's interesting to see whether playing in champions league have any real influence on players..

Now on sky, hmm... Usually I'll only take notice if it's on sky, other tabloids like daily blah blah blah is definite rubbish most of the times.. No smoke without fire, that said I doubt we'll lose him this window but in the next window? it's hard to say, the desire to leave was there last summer so can't take it for granted..

Azpi is a defender and a very good 1.. He's done pretty good in his current position.. Not sure where this so called weakness about him being shorty is coming from, he's not that short and off all the headed goals we conceded so far this season, it hardly had anything to do with him..

Can it be adjusted? We have kante.. pedro has the speed and work rate, just like willian and personally I prefer willian because he's harder to beat among the 2, giving more insurance in defence but the manager picked pedro so pedro it is at the moment.. If kante is being used as purely a sitting defensive midfielder then he should be able to cover, delaying the runaway attacker, by that time, pedro should be able to get back or depending how far the attacker managed to drag kante off his default positon in centre midfield, pedro has to fill the void temporarily there, of course this will depend on how intelligent pedro is but I think this 1 can be coached.. The flexibility of the players could prove important for a top collective performance.. In theory, it's not impossible to have the team play intelligently..

So everyone agree that he's not good defensively? is he good enough offensively? let's see.. he hardly beat his man and the chance for a good cross coming from him is pretty low... He's no good at holding the ball and he doesn't link up that well.. EVen when he had abundance of spaces on that left hand side of the pitch, he failed to take advantage of that situation because he's slow both in physical state and mind.. in truth, there is hardly anybody would fancy him coming out on top in 1 on 1 battle.. Of all the good things about alonso, it's his stamina is the most stand out, it allows him to go up and down on that left hand side of the pitch but how much relevant is that when his defence and offence are both average? I wonder if putting the likes of pedro/willian in that spot would be any less beneficial than using alonso? Offensively, those 2 would offer more and defensively, alonso is not much better so conte's latest experiment might worth a shot.. An inverted wingback makes the defense a bit easier anyway so I don't think it would be much of a downgrade in that area.. We won lots of games with him in the starting XI so Alonso couldn't be that bad, could he? Well, we're a top team, we can still win lots of games without needing everyone in the team putting a world class performance..

and it gets to question why we play slow?

who can blame him when he's only given a mere few seconds in premier league? That kind of thing is always going to mess up with player's mind... Batshuayi should have been used a lot more than he was and given he's the only back up to costa, I don't see why can not.. Not to mention to be used in 3-5-2 formation sometimes.. He's holding up play is quite good and I could see his willingness to pass, I don't think he's the type of selfish player or player who doesn't know when to pass.. He just needs to have the manager's trust which he doesn't have it for the time being..

Batshuayi can actually play with his back to the goal, it's a good asset for us.. Willian was lively in the 1st half.. I think it's game over, azpi,costa and hazard should all be rested completely.. No need to make substitution just for the sake of it unless it's required, aina for certain someone seems quite legit.. Pedro on the left wingback is something new, personally I would like willian there because he's more solid defensively but pedro occupying that position giving us something extra in offence.. However, I could see defensively we'll have a bit of a problem against top side but this experiment is worth it.. maybe conte finally realize alonso doesn't really offer that much in both offensively/defensively..

If arsenal miss out CL next season then the chance is not that far fetched. They may not require the money now like before but they still operate as in business prototype, it's in their blood.. Next summer, sanchez would only have 6 months left in his contract and I believe he would want to leave if arsenal doesn't have CL, 40mils is almost equivalent to the winning prize money of CL triumph.. That would play in their mind.. A bid should definitely be made.. nothing to lose..

Ok so it's the summary of achievements is where you're coming from.. well, jose has certainly won more, that can not be denied.. I take it if that's the barometer then conte has alot to catch up before anyone has a chance to argue.. Whether jose's so called signature move is passive or not, he almost always play passive whenever up against top side.. maybe not enough to be called his signatured move for you but the existence of that very move is a fact rather than just opinion.. is that move bad or good? It's opinion... I think that's it for the side dish, I'm not that interested into who's better actually, I just wanted to know where you're coming from and you've delivered and that should be all.. Back to the main dish, my english is not very good, I don't know in what other way that I can get across the cons of a ball playing defender to the team in general, I've said enough in my previous posts and you still seemed very firm and fixed on your view so I think this 1 is over too.. sorry for dragging it for 2 posts longer than initially decided as you requested mate..

But the prospect of a ball playing defender to overplay is genuine though.. remember how costa scored the goal in the west brom game? There were also other examples like john stones for city.. When the player have ball playing attributes, they tend to be keen on trying to execute them and for a ball playing defender, I don't think the success rate is as high as you believe.. lets face it, if their ball playing attribute is so good, they wouldn't be a defender in the 1st place, don't you think? I just think for the last outfield player to try anything other than playing it safe is a bit too risky.. Obviously there are pros and cons but i think you underestimate the cons... If it's the striker, midfielder, fullback/wingback, I agree and I actually demand them to be having good ball playing attributes.. I think the risk is still manageable since they are not the last man.. Oh regarding jose mourinho being better tactically than conte, what made you think so? what has jose done this season to suggest he's a better tactician? My own view about jose is that his signature move (against decent side) is actually very passive, in his 4-2-1-3 formation, he's practically making the wide attacking players as second additional fullbacks, 2 sitting defensive midfielder and 1 mobile 'defensive midfielder' and the main idea of his gameplan is to sit back and only attack through counter which doesn't involve too much genius for this kind of offence.. He will only let his team play against minnows but his signature move is more often than not is like the 1 I described.. Speaking of his subs, not sure if moves like bringing roberth huth as striker in a hoof ball gameplan would be considered as tactical genius, I also remember he put torres, eto'o and ba all 3 on together but still playing the same formation.. whatever he did with his subs, he rarely changed his default formation..

Speaking about that, at the end of the day, I'm pretty sure it's non issue.. However, they shouldn't have let it happen because that just gave the fuel for the opposition to laugh about especially when we didn't win.. no matter how you look at it, it didn't look good for us at that time.. I can understand with costa's frustration, pedro literally giving him no option, should have moved away to the left hand side giving some option for costa.. Having said that, I think costa dragged it a lil bit too long for my liking, if it's heat in the moment stuff then we all can just shrugg it off.. I think this 1 should be addressed by the manager..

Ok, just 1 more time and after that I'll probably stop as requested.. this time I'll cut to the chase.. Since you mentioned luiz, let's talk about him.. Luiz could make that hollywood pass but he missed by quite a lot which immediately turn to lost of possession.. He could dribble away past his marker but being last defender, it's risky, for example his ball was stolen in the spurs game when he tried to dribble away and that immediately turned into a promising counter attack for the opposition.. Luiz has been phenomenal for us since his return but overall in his career, he's not someone who people would label as a solid defender, part of the reason for that is because of his so called ball playing attribute.. When it comes to VVD, you sound like a football fan turned into sales promoter in the way you rave about this player, you sound pretty excited about this recruit and by no means I have any intention of being critical over that so don't get the wrong idea and be offended.. It's just that you still think it's a good buy despite his pricetag... 60mils should be off limit really for a defender, our defensive record is quite good and more than anything, it's actually been our strong point for quite a while.. I know you have addressed that it's not just about the defending but the complexity for a ball playing defender is like what I described about luiz.. It's too risky for the last outfield player to try anything than playing it safe.. There is a chance getting a ball playing defender could decrease our defensive solidity and adding 60mils into contention, it's too big of a risk..

By history, do you mean trophies? if yes then we're still far away.. And the other bold statement, what's your point?

So it's indeed a long ball/cross to our penalty box that undo us.. why the hell this thread even created in the 1st place? lol.. no wonder the forum crashed yesterday..

Not a good performance but it ain't the worse.. however, the mentality/attitude by most players suck big time.. totally lacking belief to make a comeback, somewhat subdued and half given up attitude.. That's really difficult to take especially against spurs... Even a draw is not good enough against this lot so being beaten fair and square is pisstaking feeling for me.. The only positives from the game is the subs, it's spot on!! Alonso is average and unfortunately it's gonna remain that way for quite some time.. Moses, for me, was more of a fault for both of their goals but in his defence, probably he's not a defender so doesn't have that defending instinct but I think he's just not that focused.. Kante is a quality player but his worst performance were actualy in both of these spurs games and that's difficult to swallow... I'd like to think the subs were too late but the general fighting spirit was really lacking in the game so I'm not sure if it's gonna make a difference.. Conte didn't have an answer in the game tactic to counter spurs gameplan and that played a part in our downfall.. The players seemed to have lost belief during the game..

Those qualities are not usually associate with a defender, you even used hazard for your example.. It's not easy to find one but when you do manage to find one, chance is, he's not very good at defending.. Make no mistake, I'm not against getting this so called ball playing defender but I prefer my defender to be solid when defending but that's not to say I prefer an orthodox no nonsense defender because like I said before I don't like my defenders doing blind clearance too casually.. I don't even like them going to ground too easily for the tackle.. Just name your targets..

like what? Put a nice long ball forward ala fabregas or luiz? That would be a plus but I'm not that greedy, it's logical for players to have strong points and weak points.. Heard a lot about building from the back and I have to say I'm frustrated whenever I see the defender or the keeper just lob the ball long to freaking nobody when they can just do a short past to their nearby teammate.. This short pass is not that difficult to do, they're professional footballer, it's the basic really..

That's more like a hope from all of us and belief by some.. For the record, we did start even worse than that against city right after that spurs game so not a given.. If spurs indeed going to apply their high intensity pressuring game then our priority in the 1st half should be making them chase the ball, exhausting their energy and stamina.. A smart possession gameplan is needed...

That's never been my intention, the article created a simple rule and I just went along.. Apart form goals, there are other things but it's a bit complicated for the article to show it, I'm pretty sure other team's main man bring them more than just goals so eventually it's pretty much the same if we're following the same rule..

It's not about me trying to rate costa only based on goals.. This season costa's overall play has improved quite dramatically compared to previous seasons, that is obvious for all to see.. However, I was playing within the rule in that article I provided.. They took out costa's goals and make it look like we're 5th instead of top like in the current standing BUT in fairness, if they do the same with the other teams by taking out their top goalscorers, the team at the top would still probably be us..

sure, sure, if you're hell bent on seeing things pieces by pieces, you got what you set up too, to make it out as it's a negative post.. My post is corresponding to that article but of course you don't care, hardly a surprise..

'don't mind him mate, he's just a bellend..' oops. that's not really original but thanks for giving me the chance to let him taste his own medicine..