2 hours ago, RIP Mourinho said:

I don't think he's declined, i just don't think he's suitable to play attacking football.

He always looked great under Mourinho and Conte when he was tasked with defending, under Sarri and Lamps he looks poor because he's asked to get forward and contribute at the other end of the pitch, which he has never been great at.

Never mind, been a good buy now off ot the knackers yard at the end of the season, I guess either Selhurst Park or West Ham.

Great game from dave tonight.

1 minute ago, big blue said:

Great game from dave tonight.

Possibly his best so far. Defensively and offsensively he offered a lot.

3 minutes ago, Scott Harris said:

Possibly his best so far. Defensively and offsensively he offered a lot.

I agree, he looked dangerous, linked up really well with kante amd willian. Defensively he was aggresive, and didnt give an inch. 

Not sure why we cant see that every game from him.

Man of the match, great goal.

His best game of the season, I would still give Reece the nod over him on our next game though, but it's nice to see him putting in performances like this when he's struggling with game time. 

Defending and attacking like prime Ivanovic, 2nd half it was like he was running the show

I thought Dave had a good game, but didn't do enough for their goal at all. Their winger found to far too easy to beat him and get in the cross which led to their goal. Dave seemed tentative in that action, like he didn't want to risk giving away a foul or hand-balling a cross.

45 minutes ago, DannyVblue said:

I thought Dave had a good game, but didn't do enough for their goal at all. Their winger found to far too easy to beat him and get in the cross which led to their goal. Dave seemed tentative in that action, like he didn't want to risk giving away a foul or hand-balling a cross.

I agree with you here. He had a tremendous game apart from that error. He seemed to slip before the cross and couldn't recover in time. That being said, his header ended up winning the game so still gets an 8 or 9 out of 10 from me.

Great header too, we could do with a few more goals like that.

It's 2020 and we are still playing Azpi at leftback, jesus christ.

13 minutes ago, jack_super_class said:

It's 2020 and we are still playing Azpi at leftback, jesus christ.

A place we need desperate investment in at the moment. I think Azpi is on his final days at Chelsea now. 

Did the best he could and defended well. He cannot contribute offensively well though from outfield play.

He just has to be cover for james at right back.

He's been mediocre most of the season so far, with the odd good game but my biggest disappointment is his captaincy on the pitch.  Of course I can only see what the broadcast is showing, but what I do see, or rather its what I don't see, is a leader.  There are times when we are playing badly or give away a stupid goal but I have never seen him laying into anyone or trying to rally or encourage the players.  While JT may have been an exception rather than the rule as far as captains go, Dave I find is quite the opposite.  He seems like he wouldn't say boo to a goose; at times and those games that we have thrown points away, I have read or listened to his reactionary comments after the game but I didn't see the comments being put into action it on the pitch.  It's his job to lift team, rollick players and encourage when it's needed and not be silent. Whether it's because he's playing out wide on the right or left and he doesn't see things, or is not entirely tuned into how the game is going I'm not sure.   Dave appears to be a 'nice' guy and is no doubt well respected but for me he is not the 'leader' we need when things aren't going our way during a game.  Who the next leader is I'm not sure, apart from Rudiger and even perhaps Jorghino, both of which are constantly talking and geeing our players up during the game, I'm not sure that we have another player the likes of JT. 

7 hours ago, CFCCAN said:

He's been mediocre most of the season so far, with the odd good game but my biggest disappointment is his captaincy on the pitch.  Of course I can only see what the broadcast is showing, but what I do see, or rather its what I don't see, is a leader.  There are times when we are playing badly or give away a stupid goal but I have never seen him laying into anyone or trying to rally or encourage the players.  While JT may have been an exception rather than the rule as far as captains go, Dave I find is quite the opposite.  He seems like he wouldn't say boo to a goose; at times and those games that we have thrown points away, I have read or listened to his reactionary comments after the game but I didn't see the comments being put into action it on the pitch.  It's his job to lift team, rollick players and encourage when it's needed and not be silent. Whether it's because he's playing out wide on the right or left and he doesn't see things, or is not entirely tuned into how the game is going I'm not sure.   Dave appears to be a 'nice' guy and is no doubt well respected but for me he is not the 'leader' we need when things aren't going our way during a game.  Who the next leader is I'm not sure, apart from Rudiger and even perhaps Jorghino, both of which are constantly talking and geeing our players up during the game, I'm not sure that we have another player the likes of JT. 

I was reading an article on footy 365 a couple of weeks back saying that his time at the top was now limited yet his role appeared to be one that handles the ref and tries to stop the ref from giving us too many cards.

Also at times he fouls and protests cleverly to get us the decision.

I take your point about having a vocal leader yet are there other options, Rudiger is just back from injury and Jorginho is not a guaranteed starter so the choices are limited.

On 01/01/2020 at 19:39, Bluesince66 said:

He just has to be cover for james at right back.

James has to sort out the defensive side of the game before that happens. If the rest of the team as whole were playing better defensively, it would be easier to bring him in, but currently, he would just add to our defensive problems.

9 hours ago, Scott Harris said:

James has to sort out the defensive side of the game before that happens. If the rest of the team as whole were playing better defensively, it would be easier to bring him in, but currently, he would just add to our defensive problems.

I think it will come with experience, TAA and Robertson aren't the greatest defensively, especially TAA, but because their attacking play is that good people let it go. I think he should be starting every game. 

22 minutes ago, Slojo said:

I think it will come with experience, TAA and Robertson aren't the greatest defensively, especially TAA, but because their attacking play is that good people let it go. I think he should be starting every game. 

They've also got VVD behind them as well which helps

Turns out our captain is a Benfica ultra in his spare time!

Just stick with Azpilicueta at LB for the rest of the season. He looks so much better there and puts in some good crosses at times too.

He found them little inside areas to push forward, was good today.

about time we stopped playong him at left back 

either play him right back  or bench him , need a left footed player there going forward too predictable. 

We don't have a left back. 

He's our best option at LB, he can actually defend unlike the other two. But going forward he isn't good enough, and we just need better. I'm not sure what's going on here, if Frank doesn't think Emerson is capable of playing at LB, why is he still here? I haven't heard anything about him and Alonso leaving.