icecoolguy22

Just an awesome display, showed the performance against Villa was not a fluke at all. I took this game as a dangerous one, would be more than happy to take a ugly 1:0, but the match ( especially in second half) turned out nothing more than a training session. The so called backup players all looked greated, Bridge is a bit slower than Cole, but his cross was quality, Belleti scored a cracker and looked assured in midfield, Carlo is safe as usual, Kalou had a great game. We will destory a few more sides this year with the way we are playing.

How about we give him a game this Saturday since we are missing 2 if not 3 CBs? Seriously, until we lose 2-3 players, he wont be a game. Even for Carling cup matches, Scolari wont risk him for a knock out match. It's unfortunate for him, only way out is sending him out on loan. Attackers are likely to get some time when the game is won, but you rarely see replacing a CB in a match unless of injury or having a shocker.

If Ferriera hs to play CB, and Hilario in Goal, then we are definitely stuffed. I really hope some of our players (especially those over 30) retire from International football, every international break is f** us up. A dangerous game for us, especially if we are missing some strong personnel in the backline.

Another Non English fan here, if JT get a week rest, it will be great for the club. At the end of the day, any English team should beat Borat :lol: Also Im tired of the Lampard Gerrard debate, sick of hearing that Scum Gerrard talk about ' how good he is when he plays with a defensive midfielder '. let him have it his way , give him Berry behind his @ss ;) I hope Lampard call it a day for international football after next year. I can tell he's passionate about his country, but he hasn't got anything to prove at the international level .

They got more than just 1 lucky break against Man City. The red card was never on, Robino missed a rap in ,that Sketel knocked and Jol and didn't pay for it (it's karma he got injured himself at the end). The fat man is still tinkering as usual, and it will hurt him down the track. The may have a chance if Torress has a 30 goals season, and most players injury free, but I cant see that happen :lol:

Has JT been playing that badly this season? I believe his leadership skill is essenitial to to our success, and he hasn't been playing that badly this season. I thik it is a bit harsh to say he is out of form right now.

Di Santos is a talented player, from the brieft 45 minutes I saw a fast skillful young player. On the other hand, I fully understand now why Scolari didnt thrust him straight into starting 11 ( as many suggested) He still has a lot to learn before he can cement a spot in the starting 11, considering he only been here less than a year, he has made great progress. The case between Ballack and Deco is interesting. Ballack provides the authority in the midfield, while Deco provides the spark. A game like Sunday, if Deco played ( or played a part), we would have won by 3-4 goals at least ( as good as Ballack was, he wasted heaps of goal scoring chances) . However if we are playing against Man United this week, I rather see Ballack start. It's such a luxury to have both.

Great performance, worth the effort of me staying up until 3am this morning. It could have been a sweet day if Man City hold on against the scums, but that red card f** up a perfect day. In truth, we could have won by 5-6 goals, only downside is the poor shooitng of Ballack and Mike. Villa was chasing shadow all game, Curtis Davies will have nightmare about facing us. Our movement and passing ripped them open every time. De Santos looked a decent young player, even Malouda got an ovation when he came off. The memory of last Wednesday seems to be ages ago,

A lot of strong reactions here after ther result. I guess on paper we should have won about 3 goals, but in truth Cluj is a decent team, beating Roma at home is not a fluke. A point in uncharted territory in Europe is an acceptable result. We are well on track to progress to the second round (which is really the aim at this stage considering we will play about 50+ games this season). It's a good reality check for the lads, I'm sure we will see a better performance comes Sunday.

I been using it for a couple of weeks, can't see any real imporvement compares to the previous version, which was very stable and user friendly. I watched a few movies, sound and picture went out of sync on a number of occasions. It's still by far the best viwer out there, but I will go back to the previous version soon.

Most teams come to the Bridge playing for a draw, and we haven't been able to rip them open on a regular basis this year. It's still early under Scolari days, only 3 home games at home. Man United deserved a point, Spurs just got lucky, they never looked like breaking us until the freaky bounce off Lampard gifted them the goal. Playing away is somewhat diferent, teams are likely to play instead of parking bus in front of their box, in return give us more room to play with.

Enough has been said about the match itself, a good performance and valuable 3 points, this is the kind of match we could have lost 2 points last year. Couple of Observations of my own. The only ( or a few times) Boswing sent a early cross in the box, we stuffed their defence up and got a goal. I really like to see more early cross into the box for Drogba in future, as opposition is likely to pack the penalty box everytime we are in possession. We could have given Sinclair 10 minutes at the end, instead we got Paulo. The speed of Sinclair would be ideal when we have a 2 goals lead and playing counter. I still dont get the point of Malouda, maybe he's a defensive cover for Ashley Cole, and he still manage to miss the target somehow in clear cut situations.

Can someone please remind me the brilliant Arsenal kids? Maybe they have brilliant kids, but ordinary adults

Stoke looked a decent team so far, and I dont see the point of resting players this early in the season. I remember a certain fat Spanish man do that every eyar and hasn't won a title . If we win ( as we should), thats 2 points gained on Liverpool, or should I say 2 points returned since they beat Man United and we didnt. Alex must play, sounds like Stoke it's a long ball team, so his physical presence is essenitial. Drogba should start in place of Anelka. The rest team pick themselves. As much as I believe Kalou should play, Scolari is in the mood of ' pick Malouda until I die', so the frenchman will get another game.

I wonder what would people's reaction be if Big Phil played 6 youngsters and we lost on penalty or extra time. He knows he is judged by every single game, so he can't take any risks by letting one go, especially in a knock out competition.In my view, Carlo should have been in goal, there was no point for Cech to play. We needed Terry's leadership and Lampard's goals in the midfield. Ballack and Drogba needed game times. Malouda should not have played, but Scolari is on a mission to play Malouda at moment, unless he is injured he will play every game, especially after he scored a few goals lately. Sinclair and Di Santo should have came on earlier, I was disappointed about that too. However they will get some game time in the next round, so it isnt the end of the world. Overall, I think the criticism lashed out at Scolari has been harsh. Portsmouth is not a bad team at all, we can not afford to take the game granted and play a bunch of kids and expect an easy ride home.

I remember last year Arsenal put up a kids team that had a few good wins in the cup, then so went to Old Trafford and got a thrashing from the second string Man United. Afterwards no one mentioned the 'wonder kids' again.. I admire what Wenger is trying to do every year, but if he keeps playing the 'boys' every year, it will take a divine intervention for them to win the cup in the next decade. Wemger can talk up his kids every year, but unless he start win something, his position will be questioned. No one is unsackable in this business. I still prefer our approach to the carling cup, although we are a bit too conservative by the team we sent out last night. The priority is to win the game, you play a bunch of kids and lose the game, the kids have to wait for another year for a game. We play a strong team, the kids will get 5-6 games as subs, and by some luck they will walk away with a medal. If we shove them into the deep end, they play a couple of games, and have to live with the disappointment of losing to an average mature team.

Got love this! who said money buy you success huh? If I was a City fan, I got blame Mark Hughes for the team selection. With the amount of money spent, you have to in with a shout for the Cups. Losing in the first round will have serious implications later on, maybe Huges took the words of his owners too literally.

Capped by Brazil 24 times, so he can't be a bad player, can he? I always remember that world cup winner called Roque Junior through :D This is purely a Big Phil sigining, maybe he knows something none of us know. We have enough cover in the midfield even if one of the Ballack and Obi take a break(god forbid). It's somewhat Comparable to Tiago ( and the loan of Maniche), Jose had no real needs to sign him, but he bought Tiago because he liked him, and Tiago was on his way after a year ( although he's a decent player). Hopefully we arent paying him 120k a week. Even if it doesnt work out, no one call him him a flop because he's a free agent.

It's only September, no point speculate on buying a new striker. Give the backup players a chance, or call back Sahar if we are really short of players. What's the point of youth system if we never show any faith in them? I'm not sure about the confidence factor for Anelka, he scored in the last 2 games. For me he just doesn't have it when the push comes to shove.

As much as we want give the kids a go, losing the game would be a disaster, and we are going to play against the decent team. Therefore I still expect an experienced team on the park. For me: Carlo Paulo, Alex, JT, Bridge Mikel Lampard Ballack Kalou Drogba Sinclair Give Di Santo etc a go after we take the lead. Big Phil knows he has to win trophies this season, the earlier he breaks the duck the better, so he will take this seriously.

It turned out to be a decent weekend for us. Liverpool will not win the title with performance like this. The spurs will get their act together in the coming months, they will take some points of our rivals. Man City looked a good team now, glad we played the away match last week, a lot of teams will have troubles getting points there. Arsenal is on top of now, but they haven't played anyone decent as far as I remember. We had some bad luck yesterday, it wont happen too often. Deco is the X factor this season, if he is fit, we will get a good long run.

Boswinga for me, the only one in our team who can provide a decent cross. To be fair, we should have scored a couple of goals from his cross. Defensively he is getting better, Ronaldo had a few goes at him and didnt get past.

Overall our finishing let us down. Even in the first half Cole had a great 1 on 1 chance. As soon as Drogba came on, we became more lively. I posted earlier in this thread about starting Drogba and Anelka to win the game. If Drogba was fit for 45 minutes, why not start him and play for 45 minutes when the score is even, rather than put him on in the second half to chase the game? Anelka tried hard, but his finishing was abysmal! We need another striker, no doubt about it. On the positive side, we showed we can dominant the 'best team' in the country when we really want to play, and saved our home record once more.

Why not play Drogba and Anelka together? I dont have that much faith in Malouda, anyone could have looked great on Tuesday night. We play 2 up front, narrow midfield of Mikel, Lampard, Deco and Cole, with full backs creating width. We need the power of Drogba and speed of Anelka, this is a must win, so let's go all guns blazing

That Micah Richards shove on Anelka was a clear penalty, c** of a refree not give it and a red card. I wonder why SWP never turned out to be a good player for us, he was clearly the best player for them on the park. Maybe he need a carefree environment and just go out do his things.