MOTM (Birmingham CityV Chelsea)

[Chelsea FC Champions]

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sp ... 524918.ece

[coco]

1.Pizzaro (Not just for the goal, but for determination and effort).

2.Maka was immense.

3.Joe Cole was very busy.

Very good effort from the lads today, watched the whole 90 mins.

Another hard fought game in the rain, we deserved the 3 points, but only just.

Positives:

Pizzaros fighting for his place, fair play to him.

Anelka looks very comfortable.

Negatives:

Cech and Alex need to talk more.

Bridge didnt come on till 93 min.

[munichblue]

Maka, who else? Best man on the pitch!

[The Moos]

Maka. No question about it. He was great...as usual

[Nibs]

I went for Belletti again.

Maka did well as did Pizza, Joey and Anelka.

[just]

Surely, even mentioning any other name is a joke isn't it? Over the whole 90 minutes there was only one contender.

Makelele.

The greatest defensive midfielder.......................... ever.

[Basarabeanul]

Makelele, obviously. Once more. He still has got some fuel inside. Maka is like some really enormous mountain in the middle of the field, that nobody is capable to climb.

[Chippy]

Maka mom, Belletti,Carv, Alex, Sweepy (while he was on) Pizza for the last 12 or so minutes looked as good as he's ever done for us

[Peckham Blue]

Pizarro for me, not our best player on the pitch but for determination and never going missing which would have been the easy option.

[ozboy]

Maka was great but so was Ballack and I voted for him. Between Maka and Ballack the short passing game is sometimes the best in the Premier, we do it that even better than Manu and Arse.

Personally I thought Joe Cole very average up until the last 1/3 of the game when he finally started to find some space. As usual we didn't create many chances.

[Guest]

Fair play to Pizarro for getting the goal, but he was easilly the worst player on the pitch for us. Not only was he poor but he forced Ballack further forward to do the job he wasn't which not only hurt Ballack's game but also meant Makelele had far less support than he needed and he ended up having to play further up the pitch and make longer, more adventurous passes than he usually does.

Once we lost SWP, the balance of our central midfield was gone and it was at least partially down to the fact that Pizarro was very poor.

I'd say Makelele was very good on the day and the fact that Pizarro and Ballack were so poor on the day only makes his performance stand out even more (its easier to have a good game when everyone around you is). He is surely MOM.

Apart from that, Anelka was decent given the little service he got and Carvalho did well to hold together a fairly leaky defence that was lucky not to conceed.

[High Street Ken]

So we've got Ballack both "great" and "poor". As I didn't watch the match, I'd love to know the truth!

[just]

So we've got Ballack both "great" and "poor". As I didn't watch the match, I'd love to know the truth!

Personally Ken, I'd say the truth was half way between great and poor.

I've been very, very impressed with him since his return but he didn't play to the same high standard yesterday. Average performance from him IMO.

[Guest Brian M]

He's been one of our best since he came back. Just not today. He looked to be in 2nd gear the entire match, and had the ball taken away from him far too easily and far too often. Which, combined with his long range passing being well below his normal standard (due I suspect to the conditions - but honestly, if it's p*ssing with rain and the ball is sliding all over the place, why not adjust your game to the conditions and keep it simple?), means it's a game he's going to want to quickly forget.

[coco]

Fair play to Pizarro for getting the goal, but he was easilly the worst player on the pitch for us. Not only was he poor but he forced Ballack further forward to do the job he wasn't which not only hurt Ballack's game but also meant Makelele had far less support than he needed and he ended up having to play further up the pitch and make longer, more adventurous passes than he usually does.

Watch the game again, Pizzaro deserves credit for the goal AND his effort yesterday. You cannot say he was the worst player on the pitch, did you watch MOTD ? Did you see Ashley Cole at all Qaz ?

[Nibs]

He's been one of our best since he came back. Just not today. He looked to be in 2nd gear the entire match, and had the ball taken away from him far too easily and far too often. Which, combined with his long range passing being well below his normal standard (due I suspect to the conditions - but honestly, if it's p*ssing with rain and the ball is sliding all over the place, why not adjust your game to the conditions and keep it simple?), means it's a game he's going to want to quickly forget.

Totally agree with that. Which makes it pretty bizarre that 3 people have given him MOTM

Could they have seen any of the game?

Having watched the extended highlights again I really don't know how we kept a clean sheet. The defence was all over the place at times, Cech, Ashley, Alex and Carvo all made at least one bad mistake each.

Not surpised Malouda has failed to get any votes though.

[coco]

He's been one of our best since he came back. Just not today. He looked to be in 2nd gear the entire match, and had the ball taken away from him far too easily and far too often. Which, combined with his long range passing being well below his normal standard (due I suspect to the conditions - but honestly, if it's p*ssing with rain and the ball is sliding all over the place, why not adjust your game to the conditions and keep it simple?), means it's a game he's going to want to quickly forget.

Totally agree with that. Which makes it pretty bizarre that 3 people have given him MOTM

Could they have seen any of the game?

Having watched the extended highlights again I really don't know how we kept a clean sheet. The defence was all over the place at times, Cech, Ashley, Alex and Carvo all made at least one bad mistake each.

Not surpised Malouda has failed to get any votes though.

Ballack got 3 votes ? Jeeezzz !

Ricky recieved 5 more votes than he should have got. Thought he was going to get a red again yesterday.

[Guest]

Fair play to Pizarro for getting the goal, but he was easilly the worst player on the pitch for us. Not only was he poor but he forced Ballack further forward to do the job he wasn't which not only hurt Ballack's game but also meant Makelele had far less support than he needed and he ended up having to play further up the pitch and make longer, more adventurous passes than he usually does.

Watch the game again, Pizzaro deserves credit for the goal AND his effort yesterday. You cannot say he was the worst player on the pitch, did you watch MOTD ? Did you see Ashley Cole at all Qaz ?

Pizzarro DOES deserve credit for the goal and his effort, I don't deny him that, but the quality was very sorely lacking and it really hurt our midfield yesterday which led to our defence being put under more pressure than usual and our attackers being starved of the ball for long periods.

It was Pizarro's lack of quality which I beleive was the trigger to the poor performance on the day. Yes A.Cole was poor as was most of the team, but I honestly beleive us losing the midfield battle was the primary reason we struggled.