Just now, Scott Harris said:

I thought Kante was really poor. Struggled to make a positive impact throughout and was losing more duels than usual. The 3 man midfield doesn't seem to suit him at all.

Like much of the team I thought he was OK first half but in the second half most of our team couldn't seem to find their passes and we were losing all the 50/50's. I thought our weakest midfielder today was Kovacic though. He was often the culprit when we gave away the ball cheaply in promising positions in the first half.

7 minutes ago, forbzy said:

Like much of the team I thought he was OK first half but in the second half most of our team couldn't seem to find their passes and we were losing all the 50/50's. I thought our weakest midfielder today was Kovacic though. He was often the culprit when we gave away the ball cheaply in promising positions in the first half.

Kovacic is a great player to watch until it comes to delivering that final pass. It's got to be a mental thing, because he has no problem with passing in other areas of the pitch.

48 minutes ago, Nibs said:

Think that harsh on Sarr. Thought overall he did well and is very quick but his height (or lack of it) may be an issue.

Agree With this

We managed to win away, without conceding while playing Sarr, Chalobah and RLC full time. So in that sense it is a massive win, with the youth we got away with it.

29 minutes ago, The Don Antonio said:

Do you ever have anything positive to say?

🤔 I wonder how we might improve our attack? Not playing great this season but might  Ziyech have made a difference? Was it a mistake to sell Abraham? We probably should have kept Broja around really, right?. Barkley might be more of a goal threat so maybe he should have come on today? Really scratching my head as to how we might improve our attack assuming all players injured, loaned out, sold were available to us. 🤔 can you help us out @USATim

 

9 minutes ago, Dean said:

🤔 I wonder how we might improve our attack? Not playing great this season but might  Ziyech have made a difference? Was it a mistake to sell Abraham? We probably should have kept Broja around really, right?. Barkley might be more of a goal threat so maybe he should have come on today? Really scratching my head as to how we might improve our attack assuming all players injured, loaned out, sold were available to us. 🤔 can you help us out @USATim

He'd probably suggest a one-legged Pulisic before considering Ziyech

That was a hard-fought 3 points. I was dreading this game after watching a few Brentford games and was not surprised at how they battered us towards the end.  Don't know if it was the patched up defense or what, but we couldn't keep the ball when we were under the kosh, gifting it back to them and putting ourselves under pressure again.  Thank jeebus for Mendy

Another cleansheet  and 3 points, we could call this a spirited performance. We were awful but we didn’t want to lose and somehow we succeeded  carefree 

Edited October 16, 20214 yr by azpi28

We are the first side from the capital, to win seven consecutive away London derbies in English Football League history.

1 hour ago, The Brit said:

Thomas frank coming across as a bit of a dick post match. 

What did he say @The Brit?

Tough game as expected. We needed to be better bring ball out from the back at the end and the midfielders need to be better getting the ball in to lukaku. Lukaku didn’t play well but not much service. 
 

could have brought Reece on earlier and RLC is only a 60 minute -layer at this level. 

5 hours ago, Valerie said:

Are Kova and Sarr our only playera in short sleeves? Those are Real Men!

It was bloody warm here today.  At the Shrewsbury match today, half the men were in shorts and t-shirts!

Very entertaining game. Thank God for Mendy. Sooner we do away with the two up top the better.

2 hours ago, Scott Harris said:

Kovacic is a great player to watch until it comes to delivering that final pass. It's got to be a mental thing, because he has no problem with passing in other areas of the pitch.

I do not think it has mental, But rather I think Mateo is good at passing directly from A to B, which is very useful of course in the first third and the second third of the pitch. However, what I think Matteo lacks is the ability to pass with the appropriate ‘weight’, Making him a very poor passer in the offensive third of the pitch.  So, in other words, Mateo is a very poor passer of through balls. I think the same holds true of Kante.

Edited October 16, 20214 yr by Phillip

3 minutes ago, Phillip said:

I do not think it has mental, But rather I think Mateo is good at passing directly from A to B, which is very useful of course in the first third and the second third of the pitch. However, what I think Matteo lacks is the ability to pass with the appropriate ‘weight’, Making him a very poor passer in the offensive third of the pitch.  So, in other words, Mateo is a very poor passer of through balls. I think the same holds true of Kante.

I agree with your last point. Kova is a hugely talented player, but his passing in final third and his shooting are big weaknesses. As you say, Kanté has similar weaknesses. It's very frustrating that, for all their qualities,  our midfielders all have pretty glaring flaws.

Massive 3 points gained, especially given how we played even a draw be a good result. It's always going to be a tough game, especially after the dreaded International break, and not forgetting we missed 2 first choice defenders. Once we couldn't get the 2 goals lead, the last 15-20 they were always going to have a good go at us, with our fatigued players. The disappointment was our inability to get the second goal, or even getting close to score a second. The 352 is not a good system, the 2 up front get isolated too easily, and right now neither Lukaku or Werner are winning enough 1 on 1 duels. Midfield lacked composure in the last part of the game to keep the ball, allowed them to came back wave after wave. Difficult game for Sarr to debut, surprised he actually started but it's good to get it out of the way. Chiwell looked dangerous going forward, now with a few goals surely he's first choice for the rest of the season. Mendy is a top class GK, enough said, the one he saved with his face, ouch 😁 Referee was largely unnoticed in the game, Tuchel did the right thing backing him pre-game.

5 minutes ago, icecoolguy22 said:

Massive 3 points gained, especially given how we played even a draw be a good result. It's always going to be a tough game, especially after the dreaded International break, and not forgetting we missed 2 first choice defenders. Once we couldn't get the 2 goals lead, the last 15-20 they were always going to have a good go at us, with our fatigued players. The disappointment was our inability to get the second goal, or even getting close to score a second. The 352 is not a good system, the 2 up front get isolated too easily, and right now neither Lukaku or Werner are winning enough 1 on 1 duels. Midfield lacked composure in the last part of the game to keep the ball, allowed them to came back wave after wave. Difficult game for Sarr to debut, surprised he actually started but it's good to get it out of the way. Chiwell looked dangerous going forward, now with a few goals surely he's first choice for the rest of the season. Mendy is a top class GK, enough said, the one he saved with his face, ouch 😁 Referee was largely unnoticed in the game, Tuchel did the right thing backing him pre-game.

I thought the same. Just enough to get the quote in the press and make him think about it but he had positive vibes. Well played Tuchel.

We got lucky today pure and simple.Forget about players that were missing,we are a team that lacks  quality in depth.

The fact that we are top of the league is incredible.The writing has been on the wall for quite a few games now,we are struggling but still getting results.We have players that should never have been bought(havertz, zeyech and possibly  lulu)and I ask the question who is responsible  for buying this dross?.

This is not a blip it is team that is struggling I'm afraid and will get battered more in the future.

Our best eleven players are a match for any team in the world but our back up players are just not good enough.

 

8 hours ago, The Brit said:

The same reasons some are being negative actually provide reasons to also be positive. We are top of the league despite not being good enough in attack, getting best out of Lukaku, Lukaku getting the best out of himself, form of mount, Havertz etc 

Man City and liverpool are playing as well as they can and are still behind us. We have more gears to go. 
 

I think at least for me why I am being negative is that I think part of the reason they are not scoring enough is the formation .. 

39 minutes ago, jt61 said:

We got lucky today pure and simple.Forget about players that were missing,we are a team that lacks  quality in depth.

The fact that we are top of the league is incredible.The writing has been on the wall for quite a few games now,we are struggling but still getting results.We have players that should never have been bought(havertz, zeyech and possibly  lulu)and I ask the question who is responsible  for buying this dross?.

This is not a blip it is team that is struggling I'm afraid and will get battered more in the future.

Our best eleven players are a match for any team in the world but our back up players are just not good enough.

 

Havertz was tearing up defensives .. Ziyech dominating in UCL - lukaku scored 30+ goals how can you cal then dross? 
 

If we want to play 352 going forward, one of our midfielders need to start scoring more or assisting more. 

 

Well first of a big thank you to lady luck and Mendy, superb performance from the big man again.

Sometimes you get away with wasting the times when you are on top in a game, and sometimes you don't. Thankfully for us today was the former.

Lukaku has to stay onside for that backheel goal, poor play not watching the line well. Werner has to hit the target with his.

Kovacic's final pass is worse than Werners finishing or Lukakus first touch.

Lukaku was helpful in our own box at least though, unlike Kai who twice flicked on their balls in rather than clear them.

RLC was really good most of the game, Kante was not kante, Kova was poor and Dave looked tired.

Impressed with our back 3. Sarr played really well, Trev did not let Toney bully him, so much so he was diving for pens. Christensen led well, Chilwell was really good.

Lesson here is we won't always be so lucky. We have to do better when we are on top in games. We cannot afford for our forwards to keep wasting the crumbs they get and our midfield to be so hopeless at finding them.

Final positive thoughts though, well done Sarr for producing a really good display when all on here doubted you, Trev for maning up and clearing the one time they beat Mendy, and how great it is to have a top keeper again.

9 hours ago, azpi28 said:

Another cleansheet  and 3 points, we could call this a spirited performance. We were awful but we didn’t want to lose and somehow we succeeded  carefree 

The only spirited performance yesterday was from my sphincter