Not sure why everyone is raving about him. He seems decent. Nothing special - yet. There were a few times they went through the left too easily. I do like the fact he is good in the air, though. Okay-Good game, nothing amazing. 

1 hour ago, Kante Conte said:

Not sure why everyone is raving about him. He seems decent. Nothing special - yet. There were a few times they went through the left too easily. I do like the fact he is good in the air, though. Okay-Good game, nothing amazing. 

Was ferreria?

He was a 7/10 player day in and day out. Nothing special but did his job. and as a defender/wing back, thats about it.

He has provided us with Stability and dont think I can ask for more. Happy with the way he is playing.

True. My comment was in response to some of the strange ones above. Steady is alright, as long as the team is winning. 

I think he can do the job needed of him. As I said a few pages back, I don't rate him on the same tier as Luis or even Bertrand, but so far he's been pretty capable, certainly going forward at least. Still worry about him against a crafty winger and nearly all of United's good play and crossing yesterday came through his side.

it's still a stop gap signing me thinks, i like his size and he's a natural wing back, but he really lacks pace which is worrying proved yesterday with valencia running pass him easily everytime

he'll do us solid this season but if we want to challenge for the league/ucl in the future think we need someone better

Alonso did pretty well in my opinion, still needs time to gel with the team. Valencia did pass him a few times, but did nothing serious out of it. Hopefully he can just do better. 

I thought Alonso was poor on his debut against Leicester away, but against Leicester at home, on his home debut, he was impressive, although he didn't have to do a lot of defending.

 

Sunday was a different matter. He was completely out of his depth. It was a pretty shocking performance IMO.

 

Yes, he gives us balance on the left, and he knows the position and he appears to have good stamina, and it's nice to have a left-footer there, BUT ..

 

Jesus Christ how many times did Valencia get past him in that first-half?

 

Utd had 3 very good opportunities in the first-half arise from Valencia getting to the byline and crossing it. Now, Valencia may be fast and direct, in fact he'd make a very good wing-back, but he's not a great attacking talent by any stretch, yet he had Alonso completely on the ropes, he would just push the ball past him and Alonso was powerless, he was neither fast or aggressive enough, I'm afraid Alonso was sh*tting it every time Valencia got the ball. Everything Utd did came down his flank.

 

Second-half, Conte sorted it out by making sure Alonso wasn't left exposed against Valencia, which is why we often saw Hazard or Costa helping him out. Valencia simply wasn't allowed to get a run on Alonso, as it appeared to be their main tactic. They had definitely identified our weakness there and they won't be the last. Alonso will need to up his game but no doubt Conte feels there's enough there for him to work with and improve. Let's hope so.

 

He got booked second-half, dragging Pogba down, down by the corner flag as Pogba skipped past him, again he was helped out by a teammate and he wasn't left exposed, which was clearly an instruction from Conte. On that occasion I was at least glad he showed a bit of aggression. 

 

On the hour mark we could easily have conceded, making it 2-1. I'm posting a very bad video, which gives you an idea of Alonso's negligence. Zlatan finds himself a bit of space in front of goal, the cross comes in and if it's an inch lower it's a free header. However we get lucky.

 

What the video doesn't show you is that there's no-one behind Alonso, he's looking at the play, and he sees Zlatan and he HAS to get in front of him, but he simply stands behind him and gets lucky. Passive defending and a worryingly passive performance for me. Yes, we won comfortably, yes it's early days for him, but for me he looked hopelessly out of his depth, given the quality on show.

 

Going forward he did nothing either, apart from give us balance, which I appreciate is important in its own right. Moses on the other flank was far more impressive for me, going forward and defensively.

 

Anyway here's the video, sorry about the poor quality, the moment I'm speaking of happens at 15mins30secs ..

 

 

Edited October 25, 20169 yr by Davey Baby

Good signing and a good looking man to go with it.

Good signing and a good looking man to go with it.

Has no lips though

33 minutes ago, MariaCFC said:

Good signing and a good looking man to go with it.

Is it me or does he have highlights. Only a decade or so behind the latest fashion crazes kids are into these days. You'll be telling me he's a dab hand with a yo-yo next!

He's the left sided equivalent of Albert Ferrer. 

Never going to win man of the match but looks like you'll nearly always get a solid 6/7 out of 10 performance from him. 

I think he's a sold if unspectacular player and maybe what we needed to address what was a very poor defence last season. 

26 minutes ago, ForeverCarefree said:

He's the left sided equivalent of Albert Ferrer.

I'm not sure I agree with that - maybe in terms of his general role in the squad but his style of play is almost entirely different. Alonso operates fairly comfortably as a wing-back and seems to have a natural inclination to move forward, the Chelsea version of Ferrer didn't really (I can't really speak with any authority about his role at Barca); he was far more of a 'pure' defender for us and you would never see him play at wing-back for example. There aren't many that are enormously similar, but I'd probably pick Paulo as the closest full-back to a Ferrer analogue (lack of natural attacking instincts, decent crosser) during the Roman era.

In fact I would think that Ferrer, in our current lineup, would play as a right-sided centre back. Come to think of it he may actually have played in a back three for us at times during his own Chelsea career.

 

Edited October 25, 20169 yr by PloKoon13

Solid player, he'll get better over the season too.

I really thought he'd be a typical panic buy, looked dodgy in a back 4 but seems to be decent as the left sided wingback , like the new formation hopefully he will only get better

He's not that great defensively, which is why he's the LWB in a 343, not the traditional fullback in the back 4. He did create the first goal ( call that luck or not), and his positioning allows Hazard to go play a more central role. He could cross the ball, can't say that about Azpi playing on the left.

I'm with Davey here - I'm a tad worried about him defensively. Hopefully it's just settling back in to the league but he was not great Sunday 1v1 and we could have been punished. 

11 hours ago, PloKoon13 said:

I'm not sure I agree with that - maybe in terms of his general role in the squad but his style of play is almost entirely different. 

I meant more in terms of level of performance rather than style of play.

Chappie barely ever played brilliantly but was rarely, if ever, bad. He played well, few mistakes but not contributing much to remember either.

Ferrer was one of my favourite players when he was at Chelsea for what it's worth. 

2 hours ago, ForeverCarefree said:

I meant more in terms of level of performance rather than style of play.

Chappie barely ever played brilliantly but was rarely, if ever, bad. He played well, few mistakes but not contributing much to remember either.

Ferrer was one of my favourite players when he was at Chelsea for what it's worth. 

Ah right sorry, I misunderstood. All the same I'd probably say that Azpilicueta is more of a Ferrer figure - far more solid/reliable! I'm yet to be totally convinced by Alonso's defensive capabilities although his spell has obviously only just begun and my initial impressions are definitely positive.

Totally agree though, I absolutely loved Ferrer.

Fascinating reading about his father and grandfather.

http://www.marcos-alonso.com/my-family/marquitos/

http://www.marcos-alonso.com/my-family/marcos-alonso-pena/

 

Fascinating reading about his father and grandfather.
http://www.marcos-alonso.com/my-family/marquitos/
http://www.marcos-alonso.com/my-family/marcos-alonso-pena/
 

Good pedigree

5 hours ago, ForeverCarefree said:

I meant more in terms of level of performance rather than style of play.

Chappie barely ever played brilliantly but was rarely, if ever, bad. He played well, few mistakes but not contributing much to remember either.

Ferrer was one of my favourite players when he was at Chelsea for what it's worth. 

And that description also rings true of Gary Neville who, as much as I hate to admit it, was as good a right back as any.

8 minutes ago, dkw said:

And that description also rings true of Gary Neville who, as much as I hate to admit it, was as good a right back as any.

Not quite any ;)

Petrescu featured in my dream the other night, no idea why.

14 hours ago, icecoolguy22 said:

He's not that great defensively, which is why he's the LWB in a 343, not the traditional fullback in the back 4. He did create the first goal ( call that luck or not), and his positioning allows Hazard to go play a more central role. He could cross the ball, can't say that about Azpi playing on the left.

Dave can kick it with either foot, he's said it and showed it quite a bit.  Just because it's not his natural foot doesn't mean a person of his talent can't master it.

On 25/10/2016 at 18:19, Surf said:

Has no lips though

He makes up for it