Loftus Cheeck is the key, I have the feeling when he is on the pitch that the teamis more dangerous by far. 

Kepa - 5/10 - Didn;t even move for their goal, which I felt he should have. It's wasn't far from him.

Alonso - 3/10 - Beaten easily, put in some awful crosses, all-round poor performance again
Luiz - 5/10 - Christensen should be starting over him. He offers some decent passing, but not much else.
Rudiger - 4/10 - Rash and on another day could have been off
Azpilicueta - 6/10 - Only giving him a 6 for the goal, which was offside anyway, otherwise nothing special

Jorginho - 4/10 - Standard
Kovacic - 5/10 - He's not Kante
Barkley - 3/10 - Awful. Can't shoot, can't pass, barely looks in control of the ball most of the time

Willian - 3.5/10 - 0.5 for the cross at the end, other than that, dreadful
Higuain - 2/10 - Worse than Morata
Pedro - 3.5/10 - Did nothing 

Subs:

Hazard - 7/10 - We are f**ked when he leaves
Loftus-Cheek - 6/10 - Good goal, actually tried to drive forward
Giroud - 4/10 - Meh

 

Sarri - 2.5/10 - Hazard and RLC subs worked well, but his initial selection was sh*te and I'm so bored and tired of watching the same crap every week. He doesn't know how to set up a team.

RLC is our best attacking midfielder, needs to start from now on. Jorginho was dogsh*t again, Pedro was anonymous and we didn't deserve the win at all. 

f**k Cardiff , f**k Warnock, f**k BBC 5 live

sh*t happens!

win or lose up the BLUES.

I only watched 50mins but we are the most predictable team in the league. Teams are rubbing their hands when they see we come to visit. Hold the ball just above midway-line and 20 completely static players watch the ball first go left then to the right. As soon as we pass the ball to danger-area we lose it. 

Opponent just wait for the ball and run when they can. Many times they are dangerous.

I think Kepa is a very good and fitting player for us. Luiz as well. Hazard is a brilliant player. That is it. 

Wow. We got unbelievably lucky. Official's helped us out big time. Cardiff should of had a penalty. Azpi was clearly offside. Rudi was 50/50 call but went our way. 

Back to the game. Leaving Hazard out was crazy. He last played 6 days ago ffs. 

CHO not coming on tbh is being blown over too much. Hazard had to come on. RLC was needed to come on and he made a big difference. Higuaín was just useless up front and we needed something different. Had we gone with CHO instead of Willian, it would of been same old. Working our way around but no one to put ball in back of net. When you are chasing a goal and you have a striker on the bench, you bring them on. I agree with Sarri there. If he had brought CHO, he simply would have been bowing down to fan and media pressure. The crazy thing was just leaving Hazard out in beginning. Other than that, his subs he got spot on. Let's just hope he starts Hazard and CHO against Brighton. Fair play to Willian though today. Provided the assist at the end. Pedro was poor though. 

This result has saved his job for a bit longer. Really annoyed at the fans for singing "we want Sarri out". That is Arsenal levels of embarrassing we have resorted to there. That was not nice at all and no matter how frustrating Sarri can be, I don't like to see any player/manager get treated by his own fans like that. Really felt for him there.

But big win. Knowing us, knew this would never be an easy game but we got the 3 crucial points now. Can relax and enjoy Liverpool and Spurs now.

Edited March 31, 20197 yr by STATS

Nice to be the beneficiaries of inept refereeing for once, although I get the feeling some if the bulbs here would have preferred to see us lose.

I think it’s pretty clear now RLC is our second best midfielder after Kanté and should be starting whenever fit. He’s such a good all-round footballer.

Hearing the fans call for Sarri‘s head is really embarrassing, even more so in a match we actually go on to win.

Absolutely delighted with the 3 points, but make no mistake about it, we got away with one today. 

Sarri put a really dodgy team out, we created very little, and we came out fast asleep in the second half again. 

I'm not sure sarri has done enough to warrant faith and patience. He makes some bizarre decisions. 

 

1 minute ago, Zeta said:

Kepa - 5/10 - Didn;t even move for their goal, which I felt he should have. It's wasn't far from him.

Alonso - 3/10 - Beaten easily, put in some awful crosses, all-round poor performance again
Luiz - 5/10 - Christensen should be starting over him. He offers some decent passing, but not much else.
Rudiger - 4/10 - Rash and on another day could have been off
Azpilicueta - 6/10 - Only giving him a 6 for the goal, which was offside anyway, otherwise nothing special

Jorginho - 4/10 - Standard
Kovacic - 5/10 - He's not Kante
Barkley - 3/10 - Awful. Can't shoot, can't pass, barely looks in control of the ball most of the time

Willian - 3.5/10 - 0.5 for the cross at the end, other than that, dreadful
Higuain - 2/10 - Worse than Morata
Pedro - 3.5/10 - Did nothing 

Subs:

Hazard - 7/10 - We are f**ked when he leaves
Loftus-Cheek - 6/10 - Good goal, actually tried to drive forward
Giroud - 4/10 - Meh

 

Sarri - 2.5/10 - Hazard and RLC subs worked well, but his initial selection was sh*te and I'm so bored and tired of watching the same crap every week. He doesn't know how to set up a team.

Would agree with that, never seen a team less committed despite the manager and his decisions. Kovacic is lucky in your ratings.

2 minutes ago, bluedave said:

Nice to be the beneficiaries of inept refereeing for once, although I get the feeling some if the bulbs here would have preferred to see us lose.

I think it’s pretty clear now RLC is our second best midfielder after Kanté and should be starting whenever fit. He’s such a good all-round footballer.

Hearing the fans call for Sarri‘s head is really embarrassing, even more so in a match we actually go on to win.

It’s just terrible. End of.

Loftus-Cheek HAS to start from now on. Despite the reservations that Sarri seems to have about his technical ability, he cannot deny that Ruben is our only midfielder with a goal threat. 

28 minutes ago, coco said:

Yes they do, support the club, wait till the end to boo the performance, load of f**king muppets.

First of all, not all of us were joining in with the anti-Sarri songs.  

Second of all, if you’ve travelled for four hours you at very least expect the team to actually try and look bothered. Not much to ask. 

Just now, Munkworth said:

First of all, not all of us were joining in with the anti-Sarri songs.  

Second of all, if you’ve travelled for four hours you at very least expect the team to actually try and look bothered. Not much to ask. 

If you travelled four hours even more reason to support the club/tem/manager for 90 minutes, it just makes no sense to do it whilst still in the game,  unless you dont give two hoots about the result.

1 minute ago, coco said:

If you travelled four hours even more reason to support the club/tem/manager for 90 minutes, it just makes no sense to do it whilst still in the game,  unless you dont give two hoots about the result.

Yeah just ignore the first point where I said not everyone was doing it. I didn’t do it, I’d never do it (I wouldn’t even boo at the end) but at the same time if people want to that’s their right unfortunately. 

1 minute ago, Munkworth said:

First of all, not all of us were joining in with the anti-Sarri songs. ? 

 

Any criticism of the fans is obviously directed at the fans who were actually signing. Good for you if you didn't join in.

First of all that rescued my Sunday, RLC should start he is better than Barkley and kova, without Kante and hazard we are not even mid table quality. 

This team does and has needed a major clear out for a few years. 

Bar kante the only top player we have bought in the past 5 years is costa and..well, he is no longer with us. 

The question is sarri gets slaughtered when we lose does he get all the plaudits now for the late turn around? Or is that down to the players? But not down to them when we lose? 

Edited March 31, 20197 yr by WalterWhiteCFC

6 minutes ago, bluedave said:

Nice to be the beneficiaries of inept refereeing for once, although I get the feeling some if the bulbs here would have preferred to see us lose.

I think it’s pretty clear now RLC is our second best midfielder after Kanté and should be starting whenever fit. He’s such a good all-round footballer.

Hearing the fans call for Sarri‘s head is really embarrassing, even more so in a match we actually go on to win.

For some of us 'bulbs' the 'light' when on earlier rather than the 30 watt crowd who joined in today (tongue in cheek)....I don't believe there is one person on this forum who wants to see us lose; what we are seeing is a stubborn old git of a manager who it seems is lost in this league, and while I could forgive him now and then after the first few losses, because its new to him, I like many others would expect a good manager to change his tactics and team selection when players are out of form, or in the case of the 'golden boy', out of his depth.  But no, his stubborn attitude and lack of understanding of how this league works highlights his incompetence to manage this team in this league.  Not necessarily all his fault of being thrown in at the deep end by the Board, but other managers new to this league with inferior squads have worked it out, whereas Sarri clearly hasn't.  I for one will be glad to see the back of him, for his sake before it gets more embarrassing and for the sake of the club....if it hasn't already.

Couple of other thoughts. 

-  I have no argument about the quality of football today. Terrible ...

- ...but you know what - I think sarri agrees.

- team selection - yes very odd. My biggest problems right now are not so much Willian and Pedro (I rate them both in fact) but Jorginho and Higuain (and I really rate giroud).

- on the plus side: coming back from behind and winning is potentially huge psychologically, no matter what the circumstances. I’ve seen big turning points on marginal outcomes / decisions  like that.

- while selection is a headscratcher, substitutions have come some way since he brought on zappacosta for azpi bs Man U.

- I understand the Sarri detractors, I really do. I have my doubts too. But give him a bit more time to adapt. It’s not an easy situation for him. At least give him till the end of the season (I’d rather longer but understand it may not be realistic in the short-termist world we live in). What good would it do firing him now?

- and for the love of fxck don’t call for his head DURING the match....

Just now, coco said:

If you travelled four hours even more reason to support the club/tem/manager for 90 minutes, it just makes no sense to do it whilst still in the game,  unless you dont give two hoots about the result.

You don't have to support the manager to support the club.
And the only chance you have of the board hearing our view on the manager is if we do it during a game. And a majority of the fanbase thinks the club would be much better off if Sarri were sacked.

11 minutes ago, BenCFC19 said:

Loftus-Cheek HAS to start from now on. Despite the reservations that Sarri seems to have about his technical ability, he cannot deny that Ruben is our only midfielder with a goal threat. 

Everyone scoffed when conte said he was an attacking midfielder not a defensive one....

Although there were a lot of justified criticisms of the starting lineup, the one that I thought held us back the most was Jorginho - not so much that he played poorly, but more that he was never needed in this sort of game.

Looked a more creative side against a defensive opponent when he came off - two attack-minded midfielders in Barkley and Loftus Cheek, and Kovacic a more dynamic deep lying midfielder than Jorginho is.

We've deperately needed a scrappy 'team-building' late win. Hopefully that's that shakes off the defeatist attitude we've had when trailling recently. The 3 points were all that mattered, so long as we can kick on and keep picking up wins, roll on Wednesday!

3 minutes ago, bluedave said:

Any criticism of the fans is obviously directed at the fans who were actually signing. Good for you if you didn't join in.

You should'nt even need to say it, it was obvious.

1 minute ago, Dean said:

At least give him till the end of the season

Why? So we can be 100% sure we lose Hudson Odoi as well as Hazard? We need to build for the future now, Sarri is the worst manager we have ever had in the Roman-era.
He's not going to build anything here and the quicker we get him out the better off we would be.

 

2 minutes ago, Sindre said:

Why? So we can be 100% sure we lose Hudson Odoi as well as Hazard? We need to build for the future now, Sarri is the worst manager we have ever had in the Roman-era.
He's not going to build anything here and the quicker we get him out the better off we would be.

 

Zzzzz

1 minute ago, Dean said:

Zzzzz

Good, i figured you didn't have any good arguments for why we should extend his time.