talkofthetownsend

cos his direct competitor isn't doing better than him? if he even has direct competition, such is the lopsided make-up of our squad. last 2 games we've played 3 mids & we have 4. like i said in my posts; mata has direct competition who are doing better than him. that's why they are playing & he isn't.

meh...he started the villa game...our second game of the season...he was so crap he deserved to be benched. our next 2 games were utd and bayern...jose really couldn't risk a passenger in those games. he started the everton game...and again, he was so crap he deserved to be benched. he's given him chances...like after his goal in the arsenal game he put him straight into the team for newcastle...& he was crap. after he did well off the bench against spurs, he started 3 games on the spin...& was crap. i'm a big fan of juan as a footballer and a person, but he doesn't deserve to be in the team based on what he's shown on the pitch this season...especially when his direct competition has been in better form.

i'd have schurrle in the team the whole time. not cos he's especially good...but because he's physical and he wins one on one duels...and he is literally our only player who attacks the ball in the box (apart from ba...who also never plays). imo that is one of jose's mistakes.

tbh when he has started mata, he has been crap. mata's only genuinely good performance was the second half against spurs. he then started the next 3 games and was crap in 2 of them...so he got dropped again. oscar has shown more...although his form has tailed off a bit. wrong thread...but why should he keep playing mata when his direct competition is doing better than him? imo the mata story is an excuse to play into a media narrative..."has jose lost it? is it his ego?" no. he's not playing mata cos he's been crap.

this. the team (& the squad) is unbalanced. the squad was put together by a guy who plays football manager rather than being one. can't keep on blaming the managers when they all have the same problems. jose has made mistakes, but he's also kept us within touching distance of the league leaders and kept us in the champions league and league cup. that's good enough.

(not aimed at you particularly...a lot of people calling for mata) mata changes little tonight. he would have given us more quality on the ball & especially from set pieces...but if we really do want to play 4-3-3 the wingers have to be an outlet not a ballplayer. tbh 4-3-3 and we have to play hazard & schurrle (maybe willian has it in him based on flashes but he has to be a lot better than he was tonight).

we tried to press tonight, they just bypassed it consistently. plenty of times we had 4 men around the ball in their third and within seconds they were cut out of the game. west ham couldn't do that cos they were a long ball team with nothing to hit. basel had outlets. a target man. fast wingers. they could bring others into play...west ham couldn't...they were hoping for a 0-0. pressing alone is enough when a team have no outball...but against better teams (which basel barely qualify as tbh) you need to press and cut off the outball as well, press the player on the ball and the players who could receive the ball. as for the "hopeful" long balls...that's cos basel pressed selectively (targeting the fullbacks & ramires/lampard...the players who were most likely to instigate an attacking move from deep areas...they never got the ball under no pressure) & used the rest of their team to cut off the outlet balls. they put us under pressure in the areas that mattered...where attacks started. we were left with non-creative players with time on the ball trying to force play cos there was no other option for them & the more creative players having to play so quickly that they couldn't make a difference. it doesn't matter tonight...we're through...but (from what i have seen this season) soton are better at the educated press than basel & have more quality; that could be a very unhappy day for us unless something changes.

not really. we backed him over the allegation (although i don't personally think we did so 100%) but i honestly don't believe the club backed him storming the referees dressing room & threatening to break his legs. defended him? yeah. claimed mitigation? for sure. but backed him? no. and the club's name was definitely dragged through the mud, whether you, or anyone, believe he was right or wrong.

las is talking about anelka. "le sulk".

avb replaced carlo...anelka got frozen out...was gone at xmas along with alex.

imo anelka is a good guess...and the game where he refused to come off the bench is the reason (away at blackpool iirc).

you've held this grudge, over a silly argument on the internet, for that long? 2 months later and it still eats you up that you didn't get the last word? do you want it now? edit. i see your presence in this thread has had the same effect as your argument that day...to make it a personal attack on me and veer wildly off topic. if you would like to continue insulting me, and disregarding the topic of the thread, perhaps pm me...that goes for anyone else who simply wants to "slag me off" as well. thanks.

the reason chelsea fans booed townsend afer he left? surely that was actually a few months ago...not a few weeks? is it really still bothering you? seems like yesterday? get out more dude. seriously. edit. no...wait...you were the guy who i disagreed with about the torres face scratch thing...and you kept on posting, saying nothing, cos you wanted the last word? dude...that was still a couple of months ago. get over it. re; this. i was actually being perfectly civil, until i was repeatedly insulted by other posters (feel free to go back and check). did you "stick your oar in" and remind them to be "more respectful"? no. cos you've got a chip on your shoulder over some months old argument that i can barely remember.

hence why i said "no-one" and not "i". because i was referring to the complete absence of what you said...not just the absence of it in my posts. you have to be a troll.

nothing sly about it. if you are still bothered by a conversation i can't even remember, a disagreement on the internet; then you have issues. and seeing as how you did a whole post "slagging me off" (as they like to say around here), a "sly dig" is probably restrained. i respect opinions. i don't respect faulty premises. you're entitled to your opinion...but i can question how you got there. edit. if the "opinions" on this thread were along the lines of "i really rate mikel, i watch him play and i think he is good" then i would have no issue with that. what i have issue with is people going "he's good enough for jose, so he's good enough for me", "our managers always pick him, especially for the bigger games", "he is first choice under every manager so he must be good", "he starts most games and that's why i trust managers over fans", "if he were poor he wouldn't get games" etc. that's horsesh*t, not an opinion.

that is pretty much exactly how i feel. others disagree, which is fine. i don't have a problem with differing opinions, although if they are based on faulty premises i think that should be pointed out.

no-one said mikel was "sh*t" and no-one called anyone an "idiot" for "liking" him. drama queen.

i'm fine with not everyone sharing my opinion. said it numerous times. this discussion wasn't actually about my opinion though. tbh i don't even remember this. if you're still caught up on it and taking it personally that says a lot about you.

i would have done it to several referees and not stopped at the threat. but you can't say he's "never been one ounce of trouble since he signed for us, never...besmirched Chelsea's name" when he did that.

show me where i "slagged off" mikel. are you guys really so thin-skinned in your adoration for the man that anything that isn't nuthugging man love is "slagging off"? cos...if not...what do you think i said that was "slagging off"? i can show you "slagging off" me...multiple times...if you would like a frame of reference for that. really? never? the guy who burst into the referees dressing room and threatened to break his legs?

yeah. that's proof you're not a drama queen.

show me "slagging him off". show me giving him "constant scorn". quote it. only 30 or so posts to choose from...can't be that hard. drama queens the lot of you.

"your stats are wrong anyway". = "asshole". you really are a bunch of thin skinned, pissy little girls with sand in your vaginas. get a grip lads. in the context of your reply to me...where i said that only one manager "truly and consistently relied on mikel" and you disagreed; i don't see how starting stats like his (23, 28, 31, 27, 32 in 50-60 game seasons) really illustrate your point. at the risk of repeating myself; he was definitely trusted by rdm...he has the stats of a starter in 2008-09 & 2010-11 but was dropped for the biggest games in those seasons. that doesn't indicate to me that he was "truly and consistently trusted" by all our managers (yet alone "always").

on the official site, the first number is total appearances & the number in brackets is times brought on as a sub. if you subtracted the second number from the first number you would get the correct stats. wrong. 21%. roughly a 5th. i haven't been here long and i have had two long-ish discussions on this thread...including this one...where i have multiple people posting at me (and one doing nothing but insulting me). that does not seem to be that outlandish. i bet you had hoped for more when you started that search, no? too easy, right?

except, this season those have been the games he has done well in. lesser teams in the relegation zone who sit back and let us have the ball, like west ham or fulham (his two best performances this season?). in the one "bigger" league game he's played this season he was hauled off at half time. i didn't claim he wasn't good enough for mourinho. you claimed that he was. based on the available evidence, i would say the jury is still out. it is likely, imo, that he knows that mikel can do a job but he doesn't see him as a viable long term option. i could be wrong though. players tend not to slag off their mates and managers tend not to slag off their players. fans don't really care about upsetting players if they don't think they are good enough. in the time torres has been here he has received nothing but praise from managers and team-mates. the fans have been much less kind. who, in general, has been right?