Capital One Cup Semi-Final - 8/9/22/23 January *** Spoilers ***

But... but the Hazard backflick... Oh I wish I had a gif of that somewhere. I think they've both been massive disappointments to be honest, really happy that Hazard isn't nearly as good as he thinks he is though. Mata, however, has been on a different planet this year.
 
CliffyG said:
Hazzard looked awesome for the first 5 - 10 games though, what's changed?
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This really has become one of those footballing myths hasn't it?

Hazard didn't do anything amazing in the first handful of games at all, he was just on the end of some very poor defending which resulted in him winning some penalties and subsequently racking up some assists, maybe it was poor defending because he was new to the league and the likes of the Wigan and Reading defenders didn't know what to expect from him and if that was the case then it just goes to prove it hasn't taken teams long to figure him out.

Oscar on the other hand has scored a couple of 'worldies', has changed games when he's came on (see against us in the Carling Cup even though we still should have won) and made some actual assists (again against us his cross for Ramires' goal in the league)

One thing is for certain Oscar would instantly be the most talented player at Spurs had they got him!

divaboy said:
I rate Ramires purely on that finish against Barca last year that was superb
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Ramires is a good player, not many genuine box to box midfielder's left in the game, certainly not those that carry a real goal threat. Ramires is basically the player everything thinks Essien was, he's the player Man Utd supporters hoped Anderson would be and he's probably as close as anyone to being a like for like Yaya Toure (although he doesn't quite have Toure's dominance)
 
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I thought he looked pretty good and was very effective, i'm sure he didn't dive for 6 penatlies too. He looks a different player to how he did then.
 
Wasnt expecting Chelsea to lose to Swansea...that **** Michu again scoring, not only does he score against Arsenal but also against Chelsea:p Amazing how everyone bar Laudrup missed signing him for this season, hes been absolutely superb everytime i see him play.

Going to be an interesting 2nd leg when Chelsea go to Swansea...but i think somehow Chelsea will manage to get past Swansea.
 
Michu scored loads of goals for Rayo last season so I guess no one wanted to take the risk on him but £2m is nothing to clubs nowadays so I was surprised when he signed for Swansea.
 
Be very interesting to see if Michu can keep up this goal scoring next season, personally I think he's the real deal, there's players like Holt where you kinda suspect they're a one season wonder kind of thing but Michu is so clinical in front of goal that it suggests he's more than just that. Absolute best thing for him will be to stay at Swansea though, no one wants to see him go to a bigger club and not play every week.
 
The problem with Ramires is, not matter how good he is box to box, last night he and luiz were meant to be playing the ball into the attacking players in dangerous areas. Ramires wasn't able to pick an incisive pass.

He may be being misused by Rafa but last night he was woeful. Luiz was good at protecting the defence and didn't need Ramires there to double up with him. Personally I would have paired Mata with Luiz or pushed Oscar into a more central position to distrib ute the ball.
 
Newbie007 said:
Well considering he was voted player of the year at chelsea by his teammates he must have something. Kind of makes the rest of your post irrelevent (as usual).
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See its this kind of post that makes me laugh, you didn't come back and say actually even though he didn't have a good game his, passing was great/shooting is accurate/positioning is brilliant/tackling is excellent..... you said, a bunch of people who by and large get things wrong all the time voted to tell me what my opinion of him should be.

Here's a hint, that was the very argument told to me when I said Sagna was crap "but he was voted into the prem league team of the year"....... and now everyone agree's Sagna is completely painfully awful.

A debate with valid points is one thing, pushing off other peoples viewpoint as fact in a debate is completely and utterly useless.


Just look at the Ballloon'd'stupid votes, people vote politically, nothing more. YOu vote a striker other than Torres best, you upset Torres, you vote a defender other than Terry, you upset Terry.... vote for the little guy whose everyones friend = safe bet. Ronaldo's team mates with no link to Spanish team mates didn't vote for Messi(not sure if Casillas did), Spanish players voted Spanish, Liverpool player voted for ex Liverpool player, etc, etc, most of the voting had 90% to do with politics and 10% to do with who deserved to win.

Player of the year, votes, by fans, teams, pundits, all meaningless. Watch the matches and comment on what you think of the players ability, anything else isn't debate, its just pointless spouting of random poles which happen all the time and mean nothing at all.

Compare Ramires's passing to Lampards.... its pathetic, compare his defending to anyones, its actually quite poor, compare is strength... poor, his movement, poor more often than not. He has the odd game where his movement going forwards is very good, when Chelsea counter well he has pace and energy and that can often overcome other weaknesses and I think he looks quite good inside the box at finishing, if he was a striker those things would make him a potentially good player, he's not. When the team has to play through the opposition I think he's completely woeful, when the team has to impose itself on the other side and win the battle in midfield, I think he's woeful.

His touch and passing is often so bad its laughable, he's a player who will nab goals on the break, more through pace and energy than actual skill, but offers not a whole lot else. He's a poor tackler and a bit of a git, does a few nasty tackles, its pretty rare that a guy his size gives away significantly more fouls than he receives, he's getting less bad but still concedes more than he wins in almost every competition. In his first season in the league he conceded 53 fouls and won 30, and in the CL conceded 16 to winning 5. Notice how I'm talking about Ramires and how he plays, not what the incomparable intellect of the Chelsea fan decided for me, nor what John "I never lie" Terry votes, nor a vote based on the true visionary brilliance of such people as Mark Lawrenson, Alan Smith and Jamie Redknapp.

So whose post was irrelevant, I talked about the player, you passed off political voting by idiots as fact about the quality of a player.
 
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Losing to Swansea is nothing to be ashamed about these days as they're a very well organised, hard working side with no shortage of talent in players like Michu & Britton who I thought was excellent, but having the complete lion's share of possession and 20+ attempts on goal and not even looking like scoring is.
It's going over old ground but the main problem yet again was Torres on the pitch.
He never makes runs to open anything up giving our MF's options, he just mopes about, we constantly had good possession in their half but had to go backwards or sideways as it was just static up front, this led to us frequently giving the ball away as we had to thread needles instead of passing to someone in space. The 10 mins or so that Ba was on the pitch proved that, we were far more threatening in that time than in the previous 80.
Rafa can **** off too, there was no reason on this planet to only give Ba 10 mins when we were completely ineffectual up front and needing to score, he may know how to organise a defence but that seems to be the limit of his renowned tactical genius, nobber.
We have an awesome array of attacking talent in midfield that has been blunted in recent weeks as they look like they've completely lost faith in the supposed spearhead of their attack, subsequently they're starting to look ordinary, they're far from that.
In short Torres needs to be gotten rid of and Rafa needs to grow a pair, at least until he gets the boot in the summer anyway.
 
The best description I saw was "Ba did more in 9mins than Torres in 81mins" and it's true.

I even think Ba's (excellent) offside goal should have stood because for the most part he was level, I don't think it should be given offside just because a striker has his toe/leg stuck out further than the defender... but it was one of those where it happened so fast that by the time the linesman had looked down the line he was a yard offside, so it probably would have been given offside regardless.

Anyway, Torres doesn't deserve to be at a club like Chelsea, he may have been a great striker at one time but for the past few years he's looked toothless for the most part, watching him now compared to his early Liverpool days it's like he's had a stroke and forgotten how to be a striker.
 
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I think the bookies are being downright disrespectful to Bradford personally. I know they are there to tempt you but they must be very confident of a Villa recovery although what have they done to warrant such confidence?

There are some VERY good odds out there.

Half Time: Draw
Full Time: Bradford

18/1

How long do we think Villa can go without scoring before the locals start to get restless?
 
mmj_uk said:
The best description I saw was "Ba did more in 9mins than Torres in 81mins" and it's true.

I even think Ba's (excellent) offside goal should have stood because for the most part he was level,.
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If this was the case Chicharito would be on about 40 goals for the season by now :D
 
Wardyp said:
Should be on my way to brum in the next hour, VERY excited now!!!!! :D
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You lucky man.

Enjoy.

Cmon BRADFORD.

Any chance you can tweet/post pics when you are there, I want to see how few tickets Villa have sold - lol.

They are giving away free flags apparently.

Is it 6½k Bradford were allocated?
 
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