On 22/02/2020 at 22:27, EdinburghBlue said:

Just because he doesn’t score goals as a CB doesn’t mean anything.

 

The fact that he hasn't scored one says rather a lot to me, given the number of games he's played, particularly about his aerial ability. Hopefully he's reading this and it stirs him to break his duck against Bayern.

Normally I wouldn't want to sell especially to a rival like Barcelona, but Lord is my witness, I want him gone badly. I don't give a damn where. Just not here. 

6 minutes ago, Droopy said:

Normally I wouldn't want to sell especially to a rival like Barcelona, but Lord is my witness, I want him gone badly. I don't give a damn where. Just not here. 

For every time he has a good performance, he has like 3 bad ones. I think ive just about had enough of him, ive given him chance after chance and he just isnt good enough, its sad to see

Absolutely criminal for the third goal. It's inexcusable. At the very least bring the guy down and get a yellow. It's no coincidence it happened straight after we went to a back four. He needs to stand up and be counted.

7 minutes ago, Davey Baby said:

Absolutely criminal for the third goal. It's inexcusable. At the very least bring the guy down and get a yellow. It's no coincidence it happened straight after we went to a back four. He needs to stand up and be counted.

He wasn't great tonight. We were very poorly organised though. Lewandowski and Muller dropped into space and dragged one CB up and disorganised us completely.

Bayern had also watched our video and realised the way to break us down is to draw our defence over to one side and then break quickly back into the middle. That is what happened on the third goal which totally exposed Christensen.

 

29 minutes ago, Davey Baby said:

Absolutely criminal for the third goal. It's inexcusable. At the very least bring the guy down and get a yellow. It's no coincidence it happened straight after we went to a back four. He needs to stand up and be counted.

It was very David Luizish wasn't it 

Christensen just hasn't go it. He's too fragile. 

Frank seems to keep faith in who he chooses until they undeniably have to be dropped eg. Michy for Giroud, Emerson for Alonso. I don't know if Andreas has reached that stage yet but the fact that we have Tomori available makes me hope that is the case in his mind.

This is the one choice that really has me scratching my head.

Zooms and Tomori have more physical strength, more pace, more aerial ability and offer more of a goal scoring threat from set-pieces than Christensen. Zooms also has a better range of passing IMO. It seems a no-brainer for me.

He must be bloody mustard in training to keep getting picked.

Being positive, he is better than Zouma… that man is a walking disaster area. 

On 26/02/2020 at 10:56, Wha'Eddie? said:

Being positive, he is better than Zouma… that man is a walking disaster area. 

Nope, he isn't. Zouma has some weaknesses and some strengths. Christensen has weaknesses and got no strengths. 

Probaby too weak to be a PL defender.He has that problem for 2 or 3 years now and yet he doesn't seem to try and build some muscle.

Honestly ,still waiting for us to play that team that won us 6-7 consecutive PL games in October.I don't think we've seen that team play once since Kante came back from injury in early November.At that point Frank stared needlessly to shuffle our defence and midfield when Zouma/Tomori and Mateo/Jorginho started to build some understanding and when we actually started to look good lol

That team of :Kepa,Azpi,Zouma,Tomori,Emerson,Kovacic,Jorginho,Mount,Pulisic,Willian and Abraham needed only James in for Azpi and we would've been set to get some results.But then Frank started pushing out of form Kante,Christensen,Barkley and Hudson Odoi into the side and as a result those players that were in form started to be benched and they went from in form to out of form really fast. I mean I would've understood if he gave some of them some minutes but with the exception of Kante,none of them deserved to start at any point this season.

Edited March 2, 20206 yr by mm24

4 hours ago, mm24 said:

Probaby too weak to be a PL defender.He has that problem for 2 or 3 years now and yet he doesn't seem to try and build some muscle.

Honestly ,still waiting for us to play that team that won us 6-7 consecutive PL games in October.I don't think we've seen that team play once since Kante came back from injury in early November.At that point Frank stared needlessly to shuffle our defence and midfield when Zouma/Tomori and Mateo/Jorginho started to build some understanding and when we actually started to look good lol

That team of :Kepa,Azpi,Zouma,Tomori,Emerson,Kovacic,Jorginho,Mount,Pulisic,Willian and Abraham needed only James in for Azpi and we would've been set to get some results.But then Frank started pushing out of form Kante,Christensen,Barkley and Hudson Odoi into the side and as a result those players that were in form started to be benched and they went from in form to out of form really fast. I mean I would've understood if he gave some of them some minutes but with the exception of Kante,none of them deserved to start at any point this season.

Actually, that team you mentioned wasn't used together as much as you think. Kovacic and Pulisic only started 3 of those games and Emerson 2. Only Kepa, Willian and Abraham started all games in that run of wins. 

For me, the biggest difference between then and now is that back then, our attackers were in much better form. Abraham was on fire, Pulisic was starting to prove himself, Willian was having his usual once a season purple patch and Mount was chipping in with the odd goal or two. Defensively, we were leaking as many goals as we are now. We are suffering more now because every single one of our attacking players has completely lost form and our defense still can't defend. If the defense is as leaky as ours is, then your attackers need to be bang on in form, but they aren't anymore.

Edited March 2, 20206 yr by Scott Harris

10 minutes ago, Scott Harris said:

Actually, that team you mentioned wasn't used together as much as you think. Kovacic and Pulisic only started 3 of those games and Emerson 2. Only Kepa, Willian and Abraham started all games in that run of wins. 

For me, the biggest difference between then and now is that back then, our attackers were in much better form. Abraham was on fire, Pulisic was starting to prove himself, Willian was having his usual once a season purple patch and Mount was chipping in with the odd goal or two. Defensively, we were leaking as many goals as we are now. We are suffering more now because every single one of our attacking players has completely lost form and our defense still can't defend. If the defense is as leaky as ours is, then your attackers need to be bang on in form, but they aren't anymore.

The difference was,you had some sort of spine starting to form and then it was all disrupted.I didn't say that absolutely all of them started those games.Obviously you need to rotate a bit from time to time,specially in those more attacking areas.The thing is we started to see some other players starting to be used and some others were tossed aside.Clear example is the backline.I don't think that Tomori and Zouma were doing that bad not to get any games for the past two months.I think they were doing pretty good and they would probably be even better now and they would have better understanding if they continued to play rather than being benched for two guys who are not really better than them.

 

44 minutes ago, mm24 said:

The difference was,you had some sort of spine starting to form and then it was all disrupted.I didn't say that absolutely all of them started those games.Obviously you need to rotate a bit from time to time,specially in those more attacking areas.The thing is we started to see some other players starting to be used and some others were tossed aside.Clear example is the backline.I don't think that Tomori and Zouma were doing that bad not to get any games for the past two months.I think they were doing pretty good and they would probably be even better now and they would have better understanding if they continued to play rather than being benched for two guys who are not really better than them.

 

Good point, I wasn't keen on Zouma and thought he looked awkward yet despite that he actually played well for me.

Well, Frank gave him a fair old run in the side, far too long for my liking, but I think that'll be the end of him now. Two clean sheets in two games without him. We're not keeping those clean sheets with him in the side. He's had enough chances for me. He'd be the first one I ship out this summer.

5 hours ago, Davey Baby said:

Well, Frank gave him a fair old run in the side, far too long for my liking, but I think that'll be the end of him now. Two clean sheets in two games without him. We're not keeping those clean sheets with him in the side. He's had enough chances for me. He'd be the first one I ship out this summer.

After Emerson and Batman for me. Andreas is not good enough imo, but those two are different levels of bad.

6 hours ago, axman2526 said:

After Emerson and Batman for me. Andreas is not good enough imo, but those two are different levels of bad.

Bats is definitely poor, but Emerson was actually showing great signs when he got his chances at first, and then it went drastically downhill in the space of a couple of games.

14 hours ago, Davey Baby said:

Well, Frank gave him a fair old run in the side, far too long for my liking, but I think that'll be the end of him now. Two clean sheets in two games without him. We're not keeping those clean sheets with him in the side. He's had enough chances for me. He'd be the first one I ship out this summer.

Bit of a stretch to claim that was down to great defending... the clean sheet on Sunday was pretty lucky... Zouma gifted Calvert-Lewin a chance that he would take 9 out of 10 times.

 

We still need a top class CB. The only question is who we pair with that player, for me it would be Tomori then it would be a case of letting two of the 3 remaining CB’s go which would give us 4 (if you include Ampadu at CB) with Azpi as emergency cover.

5 minutes ago, EdinburghBlue said:

Bit of a stretch to claim that was down to great defending... the clean sheet on Sunday was pretty lucky... Zouma gifted Calvert-Lewin a chance that he would take 9 out of 10 times.

 

We still need a top class CB. The only question is who we pair with that player, for me it would be Tomori then it would be a case of letting two of the 3 remaining CB’s go which would give us 4 (if you include Ampadu at CB) with Azpi as emergency cover.

I thought they were generally ok apart form that one incident though Calvert-Lewin is never a 9/10 finisher more at 6/10 finisher for me.

Happy Birthday to Andreas, who is 24 years old today.

Can he play like this every game? 

I think his best performance this season, MOTM for me against City.

 

Yep MOTM for me, all of a sudden he played like he doesn't have his Barca PTSD. Much more aggressive and tight to his opponent than usual, took a shot to the head and kept playing without dropping his level all game.

Even his shot was on target which must be a first.

5 minutes ago, sonic90 said:

Yep MOTM for me, all of a sudden he played like he doesn't have his Barca PTSD.

started for me when he shoulder tackled Mahrez off the ball in the penalty area. He's a big kid, he should play like one

he did today. excellent effort all around.

Christensen was brilliant from second 1. It felt he was on a mission today. Brilliant front foot stuff from him and very solid at back.