Nibs

CLASSIC!!

Oh No. Here we go again

Tim, many of us feel the same mate, but you have to stick with it believe me. I am fed up with the dire football we are playing. But lets face it, if tonight's starting 11, or any other recent game's starting 11, had contained Cech, JT, Carvo, Lamps, Joey, Robben & Drogba it would be totally different. Yes, with the resourses we have we should have MUCH better cover and a lot of those that have played in the last few games just aren't up to the task. I think with Ballack & Sheva now, every time I read a thread about them it is pretty much like The Kings Clothes. No one really wants to admit just how poor they look, but it's got to the point where you can't help but face facts. But that's what being a supporter has always been about - especially for a historically inconsistent club like ours - you have to take the bad with the good.

Well said Gem. Shame Mourinho couldn't bring himself to give them any credit when Sky interviewed him afterwards. It was all about our injuries, blah, blah, blah.................. Wycombe deserve a heck of a lot of credit the way they played tonight. Mooney was deservedly MOTM as the bloke just never gave up and he looked totally shagged at the end of the match. How many of our players looked knackered? How many gave 100%? Perhaps Essien and Bridge. The rest really didn't like having to battle tonight. But at 1-0, when we should have looked to put the tie to bed, it seems we didn't have the quality to do so. Not quite sure why we brought Lamps on tonight. Okay, he is one of our quality players, but he just never got into the game tonight and we looked worse when he came on. At the moment, we have players who just don't look up to the task full stop. Ballack, Kalou, SWP, Mikel all exceptionally ordinairy. Add to that Sheva & Geremi and that's a fair number of the first team squad. Compare our youngsters with the Gooners youngsters last night. No, on second thoughts don't do that - it's far too depressing.

Wenger has certainly got another gem in Fabregas. The lad is simply brilliant. He is the best passer in the premiership bar none and so young and with loads of experience already, he is just gonna get better & better. So we need Jose or Arnesson to unearth another Fabregas. There must be another one out there somewhere.

That is the most bizarre scoreline. Quite shocking Bit gutted I didn't bother watching it now. Lets hope we keep the goal tally up tomorrow night.

It's funny with Hansen & Lawrenson. Maybe it's just me but I've always really liked Hansen but I can't stand Lawrenson. He is always so Liverpool biased, whereas Hansen isn't and it's almost like he enjoys the fact they are not as good as they were when he played for them

Yeah disrespectful. But the comments may have been taken out of context and to be fair he's only saying what most of us on this forum have been saying.

I'm still waiting for the usual suspects to come out in Sheva's defence and still complain about the lack of service And let's not forget that this was Macclesfield - with 10 men and no proper keeper for a large part of the game!!

Of course the flip side of that is the Gooners are still in :) Still lesser of two evils I guess. Does that mean Gerrard loses his MBE now? And what happened to the scousers who claimed that Carragher was better than JT

Sheff Utd 0-3 Swansea

Blimey, Raneiri's young lion - the forgotten man.

Most of your youngsters that came good (when Kidd was there) are now coming to the end of their careers. Lets take a look at who your most important players are now. Ronaldo, Rooney, Ferdinand, Saha, Van Der Sar, Vidic, Heinze. Hmm, don't appear to be too many Manc youngsters amongst that little lot

Not a great fan of cover versions - especially nowadays as all you bleedin get is Westlife, Girls Aloud etc etc, murdering songs that were'nt even that good to begin with. From a very biased point of view, the only ones I can think of right now are both cover versions The Jam did. One being David Watts (originally The Kinks) & the other Heatwave (Martha Reeves & The Vandellas). I'll try and think of some more, but must admit, the original tracks are very rarely bettered.

Great post Bluenut. As they say, hindsight is a wonderful thing, but in this case perhaps Mourinho was the only person who thought getting rid of Eidur, Duffer & Gallas and bringing in Sheva, Ballack, Kalou & Mikel was a good move. I know there are some, Just, Wicksy & Ethical to name a few who thought Eidur going was for the best. Perhaps they are even right. I was a huge fan of Eidur's and still am, but I did at times accept that he looked to be struggling for us. His problem was always his inconsistency and at times games did pass him by. Pretty much like games pass Ballack and Sheva by right now!! But as I said at the time we sold him (and Gallas & Duffer), sometimes you have to look deeper than just how a player performs in any given match. I think the loss of those three players has totally unbalanced our team and squad, not just for their playing abilities but because all three were part of the Chelsea family. Now they have gone and the new players have come in, it looks clear to me that we just don't have that same team spirit any more.

Put me on the bench then Just, Your nan and her mate are probably a bit more pacey than me !!! No Probably about it!! And lets not just talk of pace, their all round game would also be that much better.

Agree 100% Bluenut. This terrible slump in Maka's form must be happening when I'm not looking. I'll have to pay closer attention in future. I think Maka's form had dropped. Not markedly, but still enough to have an impact. It was bound to happen at some point - what is he now 35? There are loads of factors to take into account, no Cech, JT & Gallas being the main ones. Whereas before a Maka slip might not have cost of with the cover behind him, now it can prove costly. Also the fact that the likes of Kalou and SWP give the ball away as often as they do, clearly ain't helping the old boy!!

Will you? tough one, but at the moment i dont think we will. By the way, there are far too many 'we can' answers on here. What i was trying to find out is how confident you lot still are. For the record, i think you will. I think you are getting the "we can" responses because everyone knows we are capable, but with the players we have out at the moment and the way the replacements are underperforming, you really wouldn't want to put much money on it. If right now we had Cech, JT, Joe Cole and Robben fully fit and available I would say YES - no matter what Man Utd are doing, we are better. But having seen the last three draws and the way we played is so far removed from the last couple of seasons, I have to admit that I am not over confident.

I agree with Everything EXCEPT that bit. Believe me, I am not on a one man anti Ballack crusade - despite some of my posts!! But I thought the midfield did play a lot better last night without Ballack. Agreed, both SWP and Kalou did little to suf=ggest that they should remain in the starting 11, but with no Ballack, I thought we saw a much more effective Lamps (esp first half) and Essien too had more space to make an impact. Although neither actually did create or score I would agree that in the first half Lamps and Essien were able to get forward well. Some of that was down to Villa not going over the half way line but mostly it was down to us playing with a midfield three. Unfortunately, in the second half Frankie looked very heavy legged and had no width to exploit. Playing with Ballack in place of either Kalou or SWP wouldn't solve the width problem but it would have given us a bit more control in the midfield particularly in what was a very weary and uninspiring second half performance. And of course don't forget Ballack has scored a couple of crucial goals in the league in tight away games. He is certainly more likely to get his head on a ball in the box or lash one in from 25 yards than SWP or Kalou. Having said all that, my point was that we weren't suddenly so much better without him in the team. But as they say, it's all swings and roundabouts isn't it? Okay, with Ballack you get his aerial threat and perhaps an increased chance of scoring (but he has hardly been prolific). On the other hand the ball doesn't get forward as much, as 9 times out of 10 he passes it sideways - little pass here, little pass there, without often doing anything THAT productive. I would say he gives us more defensively but then you look at his piss poor attempt at a clearance which led to Fulham's equaliser. So what's better, Ballack and his non imaginative strolling through a game that is never gonna get people of their seats but at least we retain more possession (but don't actually do much with it). Or the SWP / Kalou alternative who at least give us width and regularly carry the ball forward but are then inclined to give it away so it comes back at us and puts our defence under more pressure? Neither are ideal really are they??? Come on Jose, time to live up to that "Special One" tag. Failing that get the cheque book out..............

I agree with Everything EXCEPT that bit. Believe me, I am not on a one man anti Ballack crusade - despite some of my posts!! But I thought the midfield did play a lot better last night without Ballack. Agreed, both SWP and Kalou did little to suf=ggest that they should remain in the starting 11, but with no Ballack, I thought we saw a much more effective Lamps (esp first half) and Essien too had more space to make an impact.

You can say that, as I thought the same!! Thought he struggled most of the night and I was getting worried that he was going to get sent off as he did have trouble coping with Agbonlahor's pace. And Kalou could be another one of those infuriating players. Plenty of potential, bags of skill but complete lack of a footballing brain. I know he is young but compare him to someone like Fabregas or Messi. Kalou, as you say looks way off being ready for this level and I lost count of the times he gave the ball away or got in one of his team mates way. Anh here lies one of our biggest problems. Our already shaky defence is not used to us loosing possession to the extent we are presently and cannot cope with the ball coming back at them on such a regular basis. Even Maka now looks like he is struggling.

I think Jamie Redknapp touched on it before the game tonight and it's down to the changes in the squad. Injuries have also had a HUGE impact. Last seasons defence included Cech, JT & Gallas. Three WORLD CLASS players. How could any team withstand the loss of those three? But last season we often had a bench containing Duffer, Eidur, Crespo - perhaps Robben and Joe. This season the bench tends to be Bridge, Geremi, SWP, Mikel. That is a huge difference in quality - there is no escaping that fact. We just don't seem to have the players that can turn a game at the moment. And add to that that our two major signings, Ballack and Sheva have massively underperformed - I don't think anyone could evisage just how average these two guys were going to be. Right now if you offered me Eidur and Crespo for Ballack and Sheva I'd bite your arm off.

Can understand the negative comments again tonight, but personally I thought we looked a lot lot better than we have done of late. IF we had tucked away one of the many chances we had first half I think Villa would have caved in and we'd have won easily. Lamps was brilliant in the first half although he did fade in the second admitedly. Drogba too was brilliant - some of his control and all round play - he really is now a top centre forward. Biggest disappointments? SWP - once agin did very little worthy of mention. He didn't even lok as though he had broken sweat when he came off. Kalou - shows plenty of promise but too often chooses the wrong option at vital moments and also gets in the way a lot!! Also thought Cole had a bad game both defensively and going forward. And Sorry, but I can't agree with those sticking up for Sheva and yet again blaming his lack of contribbution on poor service. Okay, he might not have had great service but you look for your subs to make some kind of impact. He made NONE. Even Mikel, who got fair less time than Sheva, at least made some impact and got involved. I know he is a midfielder and Sheva is a forward (allegedly) but he really gave us nothing. But overall, as a team, I thought we looked a lot better and I for one would not rush Ballack back

It is worrying just how badly we are playing at times, but that said, who else is playing any better? I don't think many would argue that Arsenal still look the best team on their day, but thankfully that day only comes around now and again. Defeats against teams like Sheff Utd are not what champions are made of. Liverpool also show glimpses of good form but then they too are just as likely to suffer a defeat against the likes of Blackburn. And Man Utd? Okay they have the points in the bag and a vastly superior goal difference, but still look very average at times - lets not forget they lost to West Ham too - a team just hammered ( ) by Reading!! It really is a funny old season and I expect that all the top contenders will drop plenty more points yet. If we had our full squad available I would be confident that we would now go on to win it, but the way things stand now it could be very close.

If it's cold - I'll be wearing a Lambretta Parka. Tell you what bonetti - why don't you wear a red rose or something!!!