18 hours ago, Liam said:

Of course the undisputed king of the wavy arms was Jimmy. Mind you I'm sure I read on here that his father was an Aircraft Marshall so it might just have been in the blood. 

"pass me the ball" 

You'll probably be less surprised when you see which thread I've posted this in...

1 hour ago, PloKoon13 said:

You'll probably be less surprised when you see which thread I've posted this in...

Djilobodji?

Poor last night, looked uninterested and still cant beat the first man from corners.

Looks like it was just a purple patch again, hope CHO comes back strong. 

In defence of Willian (from match thread). He’s had a good season on aggregate. Two bad games in a row is still a blip in that trend, so we should reserve judgment. He adds poise to our attack, is really good on the ball (our best according to Tammy, and let’s not forget that flick on for the goal v Palace) and has a great engine. The squandered opportunities and poor final balls are frustrating but it’s his engine/work rate that get him in those positions in the first place more than the average player of his type, thus exposing him to more criticism than most players. He is at the very least a key squad member, has earned a starting place, now in doubt admittedly, but either way we should definitely hang on to him till end of the season. 

1 hour ago, Dean said:

In defence of Willian (from match thread). He’s had a good season on aggregate. Two bad games in a row is still a blip in that trend, so we should reserve judgment. He adds poise to our attack, is really good on the ball (our best according to Tammy, and let’s not forget that flick on for the goal v Palace) and has a great engine. The squandered opportunities and poor final balls are frustrating but it’s his engine/work rate that get him in those positions in the first place more than the average player of his type, thus exposing him to more criticism than most players. He is at the very least a key squad member, has earned a starting place, now in doubt admittedly, but either way we should definitely hang on to him till end of the season. 

If anything, the purple patch of form is a blip in the trend. He's back to usual Willian now.

2 minutes ago, RIP Mourinho said:

If anything, the purple patch of form is a blip in the trend. He's back to usual Willian now.

Fair enough. Disagreement to be expected as I’ve always rated Willian more than the consensus.

Back to normality for Willian i see. 

6 minutes ago, RIP Mourinho said:

Back to normality for Willian i see. 

He is awful, I don’t care how much he runs around and looks busy. 2 goals and 3 assists in 15 appearances (11 starts) is just not good enough.

37 minutes ago, RIP Mourinho said:

Back to normality for Willian i see. 

It was inevitable. 

I think Willian is generally playing well this season.

3 minutes ago, Strider6003 said:

I think Willian is generally playing well this season.

I agree. Don’t get the degree of vitriol and even if one doesn’t rate him, who deserves to start ahead of him? Certainly not CHO on current form.

Just now, Strider6003 said:

I think Willian is generally playing well this season.

Willian has been rubbish since the international break. He does this every season. He is good for a month or two but awful for the rest of the season apart from the odd good game here and there. 

19 minutes ago, Dean said:

I agree. Don’t get the degree of vitriol and even if one doesn’t rate him, who deserves to start ahead of him? Certainly not CHO on current form.

CHO at least has potential on his side and can be excused given his return from injury and youth.

I also think Lampard made a mistake in not giving Pedro more of a chance. Pedro isn't anything spectacular but he gives you far more consistent performances and is a goal threat unlike Willian who gives you about 2 months of good form/performances and ranges wildly from average to terrible for the rest of the season.

6 minutes ago, Remodez said:

CHO at least has potential on his side and can be excused given his return from injury and youth.

I also think Lampard made a mistake in not giving Pedro more of a chance. Pedro isn't anything spectacular but he gives you far more consistent performances and is a goal threat unlike Willian who gives you about 2 months of good form/performances and ranges wildly from average to terrible for the rest of the season.

He gave Pedro a chance against West Ham and he just bombed. I’ve rated Pedro over the years but wonder if he’s still got it.

1 hour ago, Dean said:

I agree. Don’t get the degree of vitriol and even if one doesn’t rate him, who deserves to start ahead of him? Certainly not CHO on current form.

CHO has had scraps of game time since international break, that's unfair. 

CHO already has 3 assists in the Premier League, doesn't Willian have like 2? And has much more game time. I think CHO is the better alternative at this point. 

42 minutes ago, Slojo said:

CHO has had scraps of game time since international break, that's unfair. 

CHO already has 3 assists in the Premier League, doesn't Willian have like 2? And has much more game time. I think CHO is the better alternative at this point. 

Understand re game time. I suspect we’re never going to agree on Willian. I don’t have the stats to hand but would point out though that in his last game alone he had one quasi-assist and two belter shots (including a freekick and aren’t we always criticising his dead ball ability?) that would have gone in on another night/against a keeper not having such a blinder (so potentially one goal, not two coz first would have changed the course of the game - something I’m quite pedantic about). I don’t think this is a consensus view, but of all our forwards, he’s the one I trust the most with the ball at his feet. I think the frustrating thing about him  is he does the hard stuff really well and makes it look easy (e.g. fending off players and keeping the ball - he’s very skilful) but then vacillates and fumbles the simple stuff, like a straightforward pass or shot. when CHO has the ball, I’ve come to expect very little. He hasn’t impressed me this season. But again, he’s young, not been fully fit and your point about the game time is fair. Honestly  i’d really love to be proven wrong. 

Would still start him in front of anyone we have at the moment. He might frustrate at times but still runs with the ball and takes people on better than everyone in the squad. He also works back when we need to defend.

22 minutes ago, Richard P said:

Would still start him in front of anyone we have at the moment. He might frustrate at times but still runs with the ball and takes people on better than everyone in the squad. He also works back when we need to defend.

I think the same except Abraham and Abraham should have had a brace in that first half he only has himself to blame. 

2 hours ago, Dean said:

Understand re game time. I suspect we’re never going to agree on Willian. I don’t have the stats to hand but would point out though that in his last game alone he had one quasi-assist and two belter shots (including a freekick and aren’t we always criticising his dead ball ability?) that would have gone in on another night/against a keeper not having such a blinder (so potentially one goal, not two coz first would have changed the course of the game - something I’m quite pedantic about). I don’t think this is a consensus view, but of all our forwards, he’s the one I trust the most with the ball at his feet. I think the frustrating thing about him  is he does the hard stuff really well and makes it look easy (e.g. fending off players and keeping the ball - he’s very skilful) but then vacillates and fumbles the simple stuff, like a straightforward pass or shot. when CHO has the ball, I’ve come to expect very little. He hasn’t impressed me this season. But again, he’s young, not been fully fit and your point about the game time is fair. Honestly  i’d really love to be proven wrong. 

I don't disagree with a lot of that Dean, but I think CHO has a much better delivery than Willian, and the stats kind of back that up. 

Would still start him in front of anyone we have at the moment. He might frustrate at times but still runs with the ball and takes people on better than everyone in the squad. He also works back when we need to defend.

Not in front of Pulisic for me as he's easily been our most dangerous attacker this season but certainly ahead of anyone else. We desperately need more consistent goal threats.

Thought Willian had a very good game tonight. CHO was not the best when he came on.

I think Willian is our best front player this season behind Tammy. Pulisic has been better on occasions yet Willian is more consistent so far.

He can normally beat his man and some recent crosses between the defenders and keeper have been excellent.

He is not a natural goal scorer so others needs to step up and I don't like him taking corners.

Interesting when he starts to link up with James on the right, only seen it briefly yet looks promising.

 

He actually did really well to get that assist on Tuesday. When he received the ball he still had to beat his man and find Tammy, so deserves credit where its due. 

 

He had a good game against Lille, but he should have wrapped the game up after half time when he was 1v1 against the keeper. He just hit it straight at him.