I agree with Gem. He has stepped up but we have all seen him play well at the start of the season before. He needs to keep that going through a full season.

I agree with Gem. He has stepped up but we have all seen him play well at the start of the season before. He needs to keep that going through a full season.

Yea he started like this previous season then his form dropped mid season before the World Cup. I hope he continues this form because him and the like of Fab and Costa will make the difference to our season

I have often criticised him in the past because he hasn't been more active but this season he is. Oscar has great shoot and finish touch, he is much better than Hazard in this component but he has to improve his mental strength, he doesn't have to isolate from the action. That was his problem in the past. It's very important for the playmaker, for number 10, to MAKE the game, to pass the ball, to move the ball, to occupy the spaces. He does it right now and I hope he will keep on do it.

 

Yes, he started well last season, but he wasn't active. He was good with his goals, with his finishes, but he wasn't active. This season he is. His performance is much, much better than last year's. 

Edited November 25, 201411 yr by Pendergast

I think oscar is benefitting from having fabregas dictating the play from deep. It means instead of him dropping deep, he is getting ball in areas he can hurt the opposition. I also think the team controlling games better, and having more possession, let's the likes of Oscar and hazard use their energy attacking, rather than tracking back.

Chipping in with the assists that had previously been missing from his game.

Fully deserving of the central role he has been given.

Made a lot of tackles too, got my vote for man of the match, excellent performance.

 

If Willian had been a bit better with his shooting he could have picked up a few more assists.

This is weird. Oscar posing with his wife and sister....why has he got his hand on his sister's ass LOL

that´s a bizarre photo. His hand is way too low considering the left one is his sister! (ps: I am brazilian. Never had my hands so low in my sister's "backs" (obviously, that low it doesn´t qualifies as "back" anymore)

 

his sister is quite a hottie however. Plenty of photos of Gabriele Emboaba on the net.

Back in the side today and the team's passing and movement looked much better than recent matches.

Horses for courses and all that but we look a better attacking unit when he plays.

oscar is a little diamond, couldn't finish beans on toast tho!

oscar is a little diamond, couldn't finish beans on toast tho!

 

Harsh!

 

Great little player but does seem to suffer with dips in form. When Oscar, Hazard and Fabregas are playing little one twos and triangles and linking up with Costa and Willian, that is when we are at our best, but Oscar does seem to be the most dispensable out of them all.

Back in the side today and the team's passing and movement looked much better than recent matches.

Horses for courses and all that but we look a better attacking unit when he plays.

It's because we played with one more attacking player. When Mikel plays, we have only four players involved in attack.

It's because we played with one more attacking player. When Mikel plays, we have only four players involved in attack.

No I think there is more to it than sheer numbers.

Oscar's movement off the ball is superb, he comes deep allowing Matic and/or Fabregas to go forward, he drifts on to the flanks and allows Willian and Hazard to come inside but still stretching the defense because the fullback can't track their marker.

His movement creates doubt in defences as well as being involved in some pretty slick passing exchanges. As a team I always think we look better with Oscar, if Schurrle or Salah had played rather than him today they wouldn't have had the same effect on our game.

No I think there is more to it than sheer numbers.

Oscar's movement off the ball is superb, he comes deep allowing Matic and/or Fabregas to go forward, he drifts on to the flanks and allows Willian and Hazard to come inside but still stretching the defense because the fullback can't track their marker.

His movement creates doubt in defences as well as being involved in some pretty slick passing exchanges. As a team I always think we look better with Oscar, if Schurrle or Salah had played rather than him today they wouldn't have had the same effect on our game.

I partly agree, but Oscar isn't the reason we played so well today. The previous game Oscar played was against Hull and we were incredibly poor that day, it was one of our worst performances this season. The difference was Fabregas's absence. Mikel played next to Matic and our midfield was a mess. Our attack was bad, everyone was sloppy, even Matic, and our play was disjointed and ugly.  

This is weird. Oscar posing with his wife and sister....why has he got his hand on his sister's ass LOL

 

If my sister looked like that I might have a touch me self.

love oscar, I'm a huge fan of his. such a multi-faceted player. really intelligent and spatially aware, can do everything to at least a competent standard. I agree with nibs- we're at our best when oscar is in the side and on his game.

 

 

does the guy who seemed to absolutely despise him still post here by the way? I wonder if he's changed his mind. I think the low point was when he said ramires was a better passer of the ball...

love oscar, I'm a huge fan of his. such a multi-faceted player. really intelligent and spatially aware, can do everything to at least a competent standard. I agree with nibs- we're at our best when oscar is in the side and on his game.

does the guy who seemed to absolutely despise him still post here by the way? I wonder if he's changed his mind. I think the low point was when he said ramires was a better passer of the ball...

Lane has gone (although I always suspect he reinvented him self)

For me I think it's telling that when Oscars is out of firm or out of the team we lack a certain fluidity.. What he does won't always catch the eye like a hazard but for me he's so vital to the team. And he is going to get better

I partly agree, but Oscar isn't the reason we played so well today. The previous game Oscar played was against Hull and we were incredibly poor that day, it was one of our worst performances this season. The difference was Fabregas's absence. Mikel played next to Matic and our midfield was a mess. Our attack was bad, everyone was sloppy, even Matic, and our play was disjointed and ugly.

Oscar's movement is only going to beneficial if he's got the players around him to work with... Your giving one game as a basis of your argument, I'll use the majority of the season as mine.

He plays better with Fabregas in the team because Fabregas interchanges with him when he drops deep. Which comes back to my point that we look at our best with Oscar playing.

oh yeah lane. seemed a strange guy. his twin commitments towards being aggressive and aggressively wrong were almost admirable. like a ukip representative cold calling houses round southall.

Oscar's movement is only going to beneficial if he's got the players around him to work with... Your giving one game as a basis of your argument, I'll use the majority of the season as mine.

He plays better with Fabregas in the team because Fabregas interchanges with him when he drops deep. Which comes back to my point that we look at our best with Oscar playing.

We play our best when we have more players involved in attack, which is not the same thing as playing our best with Oscar playing. We don't depend on him at all. Oscar played very well, but he was probably our worst midfielder today. Hazard, Fabregas, Matic, Willian were all better than him. My initial point was we play more fluidly when we have our usual attacking-minded set up rather than a midfield consisting of two DMs, which is what we've been playing lately.  But even then, thanks to a freer Fabregas and Hazard's creativity we didn't miss Oscar that much. When Fabregas plays the 10, the Matic-Mikel midfield is okay, because a freer Fabregas compensates for Mikel's lack of creativity. I like the kid, but Oscar is the player who is most easily sacrificed when we need a more solid defensive set up. 

It's not a coincidence Jose is more willing to drop him rather than any of our AMs.

Oscar's movement is only going to beneficial if he's got the players around him to work with... Your giving one game as a basis of your argument, I'll use the majority of the season as mine.

He plays better with Fabregas in the team because Fabregas interchanges with him when he drops deep. Which comes back to my point that we look at our best with Oscar playing.

 

Personally I think that Oscar, Fabregas and Matic midfield is our most perfectly balanced both in attack an defence.

 

In the second-half West Ham seemed to come out with the intent to put pressure on Matic and Fabregas and Oscar dropped back a bit more to be the out ball. He's almost doing a Tiago-type job at times.

We play our best when we have more players involved in attack, which is not the same thing as playing our best with Oscar playing. We don't depend on him at all. Oscar played very well, but he was probably our worst midfielder today. Hazard, Fabregas, Matic, Willian were all better than him. My initial point was we play more fluidly when we have our usual attacking-minded set up rather than a midfield consisting of two DMs, which is what we've been playing lately. But even then, thanks to a freer Fabregas and Hazard's creativity we didn't miss Oscar that much. When Fabregas plays the 10, the Matic-Mikel midfield is okay, because a freer Fabregas compensates for Mikel's lack of creativity. I like the kid, but Oscar is the player who is most easily sacrificed when we need a more solid defensive set up.

It's not a coincidence Jose is more willing to drop him rather than any of our AMs.

I don't think we depend on Oscar but I think we are a better side with him in the team.

Jose might occasionally sacrifice him for Mikel or Ramires but we always look more static and blunt without him.

He's sacrificed most often because the central area that he operates in is the area that most often we're going to counter an element of the opposition.

Like I said, play Schurrle or Salah instead of him each week and no way do we look as effective.

He's a lot more vital to the side then I think you are giving him credit for.

I don't think we depend on Oscar but I think we are a better side with him in the team.

Jose might occasionally sacrifice him for Mikel or Ramires but we always look more static and blunt without him.

He's sacrificed most often because the central area that he operates in is the area that most often we're going to counter an element of the opposition.

Like I said, play Schurrle or Salah instead of him each week and no way do we look as effective.

He's a lot more vital to the side then I think you are giving him credit for.

No, I agree that playing Schurrle or Salah instead of him will be a downgrade. They're worse defensively and can't drop into the midfield. My point is Oscar doesn't offer something unique, something that can't be replicated by any other player: he's good defensively but isn't that good, and his creativity isn't good enough to keep him when we set up more defensively. If we had a better AM in our squad or a somewhat creative CM to allow Fabregas move into the hole, Oscar could be replaced without much pain. As things stand, there are no better alternatives to play the 10 other than moving Fabregas up, but then we'd have only 4 players in attack. So yes, I agree that we look more fluid with Oscar, but not because of some unique qualities Oscar brings to our attack. If we had a CM to do what Fabregas does for us, Cesc would be more useful in the hole than Oscar is: his movement in the final third(just look at the clever runs into the box Fabregas made against Stoke) and his final ball are much better than Oscar's. 

I like Oscar a lot, but his problem is, he is pretty good at many things, but isn't great at anything. That's why for Jose he's our most easily dispensable main midfielder. He needs to improve. Because as things stand, playing Oscar in the hole works well only when we have a playmaker behind him to compensate for Oscar (and Willian's) lack of creativity. Both of them need to step up. Because sooner or later Hazard or Fabregas's form will dip and Oscar and Willian's lack of creativity will be be made very obvious. Right now it doesn't seem important because the other two guys are creating a gazillion of chances every game. 

Joint 4th for assists in the Premier League this season, averaging an assist every 3 games begs to differ that he isn't very creative.

Add in his 4 goals and he's just shy of contributing a goal or assist every other game for us. How that can be construed as dispensable and replaceable is slightly lost on me but I think we see different things when it comes to Oscar.

Joint 4th for assists in the Premier League this season, averaging an assist every 3 games begs to differ that he isn't very creative.

Add in his 4 goals and he's just shy of contributing a goal or assist every other game for us. How that can be construed as dispensable and replaceable is slightly lost on me but I think we see different things when it comes to Oscar.

He's not joint 4th for assists in the PL. He's joint 8th. There are seven players that have more assists than him: Fàbregas, Sigurdsson, Sánchez, Di María, Tadic, Baines, Downing. But it's not just about assists. He doesn't create enough chances. Practically every game Hazard and Fabregas create at least 3 or 4 chances each, but Oscar creates very few if any. He's 24th in the Premier League for key passes. Even Costa is ahead of Oscar when it comes to key passes. Though Oscar's creativity is good compared to Willian's, who is, eh, 66th. I have no doubt if Oscar was as fast as Willian and had his energy, Willian would be the one who is dropped when needed, not Oscar.

They both need to step up, especially Willian. Making space for others with only occasional creativity shouldn't be enough and puts too much pressure on Hazard and Fabregas.

Edited December 27, 201411 yr by Ward