2 hours ago, RIP Mourinho said:

Wolves actually targeted him yesterday, every time they got the ball they smashed it wide for the winger to walk past Alonso. Painful to watch at times.

For a full back he is extremely slow, if the Wolves wingers went pass him like he wasn't there imagine the horror when he faces Sterling and Sane who are extremely fast.

Sarri said Alonso isn't playing badly because he is tired, but for another reason. He says he was poor vs Fulham and after the goal against Wolves. Emerson is a "good option" for him. He adds he likes Alonso for his set-pieces. #CFC #MCFC

A couple of decent free kicks ain't really a good enough reason for not trying Emerson imo.

26 minutes ago, RIP Mourinho said:

A couple of decent free kicks ain't really a good enough reason for not trying Emerson imo.

I think he means his height is an advantage defending set-pieces. 

9 minutes ago, DannyVblue said:

I think he means his height is an advantage defending set-pieces. 

Even so, would still give the chance to someone who can defend 1v1. Dave doesn't have an issue aerially, don't really see why Emerson would be much different.

11 minutes ago, DannyVblue said:

I think he means his height is an advantage defending set-pieces. 

He does say for HIS set pieces though. Imo that means his free kicks.

Just now, RIP Mourinho said:

Even so, would still give the chance to someone who can defend 1v1. Dave doesn't have an issue aerially, don't really see why Emerson would be much different.

Yeah, I'm all for giving Emerson a chance - I really rate him.  I'd start him against City.

1 minute ago, DannyVblue said:

Yeah, I'm all for giving Emerson a chance - I really rate him.  I'd start him against City.

I wish he'd started one of the previous two matches, i feel like he he starts against City he'll inevitably get torn about by Sterling/Sane/Mahrez and not be seen for another few months.

3 minutes ago, RIP Mourinho said:

I wish he'd started one of the previous two matches, i feel like he he starts against City he'll inevitably get torn about by Sterling/Sane/Mahrez and not be seen for another few months.

But look at it the other way, if he has a great game Alonso will struggle to get his place back for a while.

3 minutes ago, RIP Mourinho said:

I wish he'd started one of the previous two matches, i feel like he he starts against City he'll inevitably get torn about by Sterling/Sane/Mahrez and not be seen for another few months.

He should definitely have started against Wolves, I was disappointed that he didn't feature. I know what you mean though - it's a tough ask for him to come in against City having barely played all season. Alonso will probably start anyway.

8 minutes ago, RIP Mourinho said:

Even so, would still give the chance to someone who can defend 1v1. Dave doesn't have an issue aerially, don't really see why Emerson would be much different.

It's a tough situation. Alonso provides height, but he has been poor. Against a team like Utd, Spurs or even Liverpool, they can expose our lack of height. I think City are the only team who have similar height in their team. It's just we can't go head to head with City because they are better in possession at the moment. 

4 minutes ago, enigma said:

It's a tough situation. Alonso provides height, but he has been poor. Against a team like Utd, Spurs or even Liverpool, they can expose our lack of height. I think City are the only team who have similar height in their team. It's just we can't go head to head with City because they are better in possession at the moment. 

Take Alonso out and we concede fewer free-kicks, corner kicks and crosses down his flank. So Sarri's argument doesn't fly with me.

I wouldn't blame Alonso that much, I mean we all know that he has always been a bit weak defensively but just look at the goal situations last game:

Second goal the ball is lost from the midfield ( Willian ), Alonso tried to cover the area more in the center because Christensen can't cover nor outrun a 190cm tall Jimenez, so at the end he tries to stop the low cross which made him the only player that actually tried something at that moment.

First goal, again ball is nowhere to be found by anyone from the midfield, opposition runs through everyone at the midfield, the pass in empty space towards Jimenez that outruns Christensen and all Alonso can do is watch since he is already out of position and behind Jimenez. I dare to say that this first goal influenced Alonso to position himself more central during the second goal because he noticed that Christensen can't mark Jimenez at all.

So stop bullying Alonso, other players did absolutely nothing at both conceded goals!

7 minutes ago, Gol15 said:

I wouldn't blame Alonso that much, I mean we all know that he has always been a bit weak defensively but just look at the goal situations last game:

Second goal the ball is lost from the midfield ( Willian ), Alonso tried to cover the area more in the center because Christensen can't cover nor outrun a 190cm tall Jimenez, so at the end he tries to stop the low cross which made him the only player that actually tried something at that moment.

First goal, again ball is nowhere to be found by anyone from the midfield, opposition runs through everyone at the midfield, the pass in empty space towards Jimenez that outruns Christensen and all Alonso can do is watch since he is already out of position and behind Jimenez. I dare to say that this first goal influenced Alonso to position himself more central during the second goal because he noticed that Christensen can't mark Jimenez at all.

So stop bullying Alonso, other players did absolutely nothing at both conceded goals!

Sure, he wasn't completely at fault, but nobody is bullying Alonso.  The fact of the matter is that he is not playing up to standard, and hasn't been for at least a month.

1 hour ago, Gol15 said:

I wouldn't blame Alonso that much, I mean we all know that he has always been a bit weak defensively but just look at the goal situations last game:

Second goal the ball is lost from the midfield ( Willian ), Alonso tried to cover the area more in the center because Christensen can't cover nor outrun a 190cm tall Jimenez, so at the end he tries to stop the low cross which made him the only player that actually tried something at that moment.

First goal, again ball is nowhere to be found by anyone from the midfield, opposition runs through everyone at the midfield, the pass in empty space towards Jimenez that outruns Christensen and all Alonso can do is watch since he is already out of position and behind Jimenez. I dare to say that this first goal influenced Alonso to position himself more central during the second goal because he noticed that Christensen can't mark Jimenez at all.

So stop bullying Alonso, other players did absolutely nothing at both conceded goals!

Alonso is out of position for the second goal and is literally stepping on Christensens's toes but it's ok because he tried to recover the mistake . I have still been believing all Morata's misses are down to him being mesmerized by Willians step overs, makes his mind go crazy as f***. Alonso had a bad game and is in a bad patch, all players go through it. 

1 hour ago, mwblue10 said:

Sure, he wasn't completely at fault, but nobody is bullying Alonso.  The fact of the matter is that he is not playing up to standard, and hasn't been for at least a month.

People really have a go at him, maybe you should look through the thread. Since day one. If something went wrong he always got the stick of it.

but just go back 4-5 pages and you will see people calling him the best left back in the premiere league and apperently now he is not even good enough for the Championship.
He is "bad" since when? 2-3 games at best. We as a collective are bad and to pick out Alonso for his pace is an easy target.
I am not saying he should be played regardless of his performance but some people are cynical and over dramatic.

Nevertheless we have proper back up in Emerson and if he can give us a little momentum i am all for it.

1 hour ago, mwblue10 said:

Sure, he wasn't completely at fault, but nobody is bullying Alonso.  The fact of the matter is that he is not playing up to standard, and hasn't been for at least a month.

Even if he was playing better when you look at the goals nothing really changes, fact is Christensen couldn't mark Jimenez and the rest of the defense did 0 work done, he's not really that much of a key reason why bad things happen but most on the last few pages agree that he should be dropped out of the team.

Christensen's sh*t pass and Rudiger switching off compeltely was the main fault for the 2nd goal.

Alonso was never a decent defender for me......the way Conte used him was perfect for him and the team. We will defensively never be settled with him there.......

1 hour ago, Nevamind said:

People really have a go at him, maybe you should look through the thread. Since day one. If something went wrong he always got the stick of it.

but just go back 4-5 pages and you will see people calling him the best left back in the premiere league and apperently now he is not even good enough for the Championship.
He is "bad" since when? 2-3 games at best. We as a collective are bad and to pick out Alonso for his pace is an easy target.
I am not saying he should be played regardless of his performance but some people are cynical and over dramatic.

Nevertheless we have proper back up in Emerson and if he can give us a little momentum i am all for it.

There will always be people who have a go at individuals players when things aren’t going well for the team and it’s certainly easier to do that after a loss.  But Alonso has been bad, like dreadfully bad, recently, so I wouldn’t call it bullying.

His offensive productivity used to offset his defensive deficiencies but that hasn’t been happening recently.

It’ll take one good performance and a lot of people will forget.  Still, it would be nice to see Emerson at least every few league games.

Alonso just lacks pace. I don't think he is any worse positionally than someone like walker, but walker has the pace to compensate. 

Alonso has been a pretty good signing all things considered, but in this system he isn't going to cut it in my opinion.

Maybe Emerson will step up, or we will have to dip into the market. I think telles from Porto would be a good option.

5 hours ago, DannyVblue said:

I think he means his height is an advantage defending set-pieces. 

Simple, don't give free kicks away

Just absymal. He hardly looks like a footballer.
Shocking descision to give him a new big five year deal.

He's been very poor of late, that's true, and he's lucky to be still in the team. Having said that, nearly scored a great goal, but those sort of moments don't make up for the general paucity of his defending. Thought he was lucky not to get carded when he struck the guy with his arm on the touchline, and thought he was very lucky not to get red when he only got yellow at the end. Having said that, it has to be a clear goalscoring opportunity, so if it's not clear to the ref he's right to veer on the side of caution. Even if he had got sent off, that was a foul worth making, and probably won us two points.

Got lucky today against Brighton, could easily end up with a red card. 

It's easy to run on him, he could be a real target for good dribblers.