4 minutes ago, Backbiter said:

He has played since then, though.

Yeah I did think that but I deffiantly remember hearing they have fell out. I'm sure if anything has happened it will come out at some point.

I forgot what it feels like to have a good left back.

I have defended Alonso against the scapegoat criticisms but I also recognise that his form has dropped off. Emerson has put in a couple of good performances recently and his earlier tendency to lose concentration seems to have been sorted, so good news all round in that we have two more than capable left backs.

In this current squad there are very few real leaders, i dont think changing who wears the armband would particularly change this. 

Modern players tend to speak their mind, and any real leader, will lead regardless of title. 

I guess maybe one of the younger players can step up in time. 

 

34 minutes ago, EmeraldBlue said:

I have defended Alonso against the scapegoat criticisms but I also recognise that his form has dropped off. Emerson has put in a couple of good performances recently and his earlier tendency to lose concentration seems to have been sorted, so good news all round in that we have two more than capable left backs.

We have one capable left wing back, and one capable left back in my opinion. 

I like what I've seen of Emerson so far, he is very one-footed yet he is physical, good in the air and rarely gives the ball away.

Makes me wonder why he was so long on the bench,

2 hours ago, Strider6003 said:

I like what I've seen of Emerson so far, he is very one-footed yet he is physical, good in the air and rarely gives the ball away.

Makes me wonder why he was so long on the bench,

Probably a combination of Alonso's generally very good performance level until his form fell off a cliff relatively recently, and Emerson looking very average in the odd matches he was getting.

17 hours ago, bluedave said:

Probably a combination of Alonso's generally very good performance level until his form fell off a cliff relatively recently, and Emerson looking very average in the odd matches he was getting.

Alonso has been poor since late September, not that recent.

He need to work on his defending, but he's looking good.

Very good offensively, giving Hazard an option on the wing which Alonso doesn't do.

Suspect defensively.

Still don't see it, sorry.

He overlaps with speed better than Alonso (which I guess in a way you can say offers us an extra dimension for Hazard especially) but his end product is just as bad as the Spaniard and his defending is even worse (there was an attack from Fulham like two minutes in when he was literally on walkabouts no where to be seen).

A new left back has to be a huge priority in the summer.

11 hours ago, Argo said:

Still don't see it, sorry.

He overlaps with speed better than Alonso (which I guess in a way you can say offers us an extra dimension for Hazard especially) but his end product is just as bad as the Spaniard and his defending is even worse (there was an attack from Fulham like two minutes in when he was literally on walkabouts no where to be seen).

A new left back has to be a huge priority in the summer.

I like emerson's pace, and I thi k his delivery is better than Alonso's but he isnt really grabbing the opportunity by the scruff of the neck, and he was pretty poor yesterday. 

Tierney is being linked to arsenal for £25m, I dont watch Scottish football, but pat nevin has been waxing lyrically about him for 2 years. Maybe he could be a realistic target if the ban gets delayed. 

 

He's still a liability and doesn't appreciate what is going on around him. Pity, as he had a couple of good games recently. If Alonso can play like he did against Spurs he is our clear number 1.

12 hours ago, Argo said:

Still don't see it, sorry.

He overlaps with speed better than Alonso (which I guess in a way you can say offers us an extra dimension for Hazard especially) but his end product is just as bad as the Spaniard and his defending is even worse (there was an attack from Fulham like two minutes in when he was literally on walkabouts no where to be seen).

A new left back has to be a huge priority in the summer.

Yeah I remember a few games ago can't remember which... he went walkabouts up the field, lost the ball and it took him a criminal amount of time to get back. Literally half speed jogging. Was screaming at the tv. He strikes me to have a very nonchalant attitude and maybe that's his problem. It's ironic because Alonso has turned out to be exactly the same type of player. Definitely a new LB needed. Unsure on who we would sell though. Alonso just signing that contract might command a higher fee.

I don't think Emerson did anything wrong against Fulham, I don't think he did anything good either. I would still rather have him over Alonso right now though. 

I think people are being too harsh on him. That was his second start for us in the league, it's like people thought he would make an instant impact. His form right now is obviously going to be patchy until he get's a run of games.

Edited March 4, 20197 yr by Scott Harris

9 minutes ago, Scott Harris said:

I don't think Emerson did anything wrong against Fulham, I don't think he did anything good either. I would still rather have him over Alonso right now though. 

I think people are being too harsh on him. That was his second start for us in the league, it's like people thought he would make an instant impact. His form right now is obviously going to be patchy until he get's a run of games.

Bare minimum, he was no worse than Alonso has been for the last few months, and he can make up for his positional shortcomings more than Alonso can, due to pace.

5 minutes ago, mwblue10 said:

Bare minimum, he was no worse than Alonso has been for the last few months, and he can make up for his positional shortcomings more than Alonso can, due to pace.

EDIT. Sorry, read your post wrong 

Edited March 4, 20197 yr by Scott Harris

To be fair i lost count the amount of times he overlaped Hazard but he never got the pass from Hazard to whip it to Higuain. On the other side willian passed to azpi and he shot it towards higuain which we got the first goal. Hazard and willian keep it far too long in my opinion and always dribble around the centre. Palmieri could benefit alot from his runs IF someone passed the ball to him. He is better than alonso on all aspects except scoring.

14 minutes ago, Gentian said:

To be fair i lost count the amount of times he overlaped Hazard but he never got the pass from Hazard to whip it to Higuain. On the other side willian passed to azpi and he shot it towards higuain which we got the first goal. Hazard and willian keep it far too long in my opinion and always dribble around the centre. Palmieri could benefit alot from his runs IF someone passed the ball to him. He is better than alonso on all aspects except scoring.

I do recall him whipping it over once yet generally agree with your point.

He had an okay game. Idk if anyone noticed it but Azpi even ran over to him once to complain or whatever. Sometimes he gets brushed off too easily like in the last minutes of yesterday game, conceded a dangerous flank to a Fullham player which should have been a throw in for us. 

But lets see more of him, he hardly got game time as of yet. 

3 hours ago, Scott Harris said:

 

I think people are being too harsh on him. That was his second start for us in the league, it's like people thought he would make an instant impact. His form right now is obviously going to be patchy until he get's a run of games.

On the contary, I think people are too easy on him because of how desperate they are to see his competition dropped.

Even his abysmal games are getting passed off as good.

1 hour ago, Argo said:

On the contary, I think people are too easy on him because of how desperate they are to see his competition dropped.

Even his abysmal games are getting passed off as good.

Certain individuals have to make it a toxic argument, calling Alonso a sh*t player and whatnot. 

Why can't we just be happy that we've got two good fullbacks? I definitely want to see Palmieri play more, I don't think he was good against Fulham but he hasn't had the necessary game time to showcase his attributes just yet. 

All this "He's much better" "He's sh*t" is getting us nowhere. 

5 hours ago, Scott Harris said:

I don't think Emerson did anything wrong against Fulham, I don't think he did anything good either. I would still rather have him over Alonso right now though. 

I think people are being too harsh on him. That was his second start for us in the league, it's like people thought he would make an instant impact. His form right now is obviously going to be patchy until he get's a run of games.

The ball he lost put us in bad shape, we won it back, then rudiger gave it away again, that led to the shot that Kepa made a nice save that lead to a corner, which lead to Emerson getting pushed out of his backside responsibility, leading to a wide open goal.  

We gave up one goal, and he was the #1 culprit.  He did some things well, but what he did wrong was very wrong.

We gave up one goal, and he was the #1 culprit.  He did some things well, but what he did wrong was very wrong.

Worse, there's a failure to learn. Exactly the same situations led to goals in the Europa League earlier in the season.

12 hours ago, Slojo said:

Certain individuals have to make it a toxic argument, calling Alonso a sh*t player and whatnot. Ironic when you did this in the Bakayoko thread.

Why can't we just be happy that we've got two good fullbacks? I definitely want to see Palmieri play more, I don't think he was good against Fulham but he hasn't had the necessary game time to showcase his attributes just yet. 

All this "He's much better" "He's sh*t" is getting us nowhere. 

No we don't, we have one good full back and one good wing back.