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I have a feeling he may be unsettled by this Barcelona talk and will settle down once the window shuts - I agree though he's had a poor start to the season but the side as a whole isn't clicking yet

Was very disappointed with his effort last night, He did not look interested at all.

Pompy away was by far his worst performance for us last year. Controversial I know but I'd prefer to see Bellamy start over Robinho on Sunday.

he was really poor last night. far too many misplaced passes and he seems scared to take on his marker atm. i hope his form picks up because he is a world class talent.

many more performances like that and petrov will be knocking on the door.

imo Petrov has already earned his starting spot over robbie anyway with his form in friendlies, but robbie was our top scorer at the end of last season, dropping him would be as seemingly ludicrous as dropping stevie, who has also had a poor start (by his standards) difficult decision for hughes

Could of been different if it wasn't for that awful offside call by the linesman, but definately was not at his best last night.

I disagree. Although Rob has not had the impact of last years home games, he does bring something different to the game. He draws players in allowing others to move into space and as last night showed, he still seems to have 2 or 3 defenders on him when he gets the ball. He even started passing to the over-lap of Bridge for a change!

I think that he is going to come into his own against the bigger teams who play a stronger formation and believe that he will prove to be one of our most important players, home and away.

In a team full of stars not everyone can shine at the same time.

You'll find that Ireland and Robinho are doing different jobs to last season, and you'll also find that both players have been directly involved in most the goals we have scored this season, maybe not getting the assist but by making space, or getting the pass before the assist.

Also you'll note that in the first half SWP gave the ball away or just ran into players and was our most ineffective player. However, after half time he became our most effective player as space started to open up. Adebayor didn't do much attacking wise but was superb at been the link play striker and bringing others into play with lay offs and short passes.

With a team of stars the performances of each ebbs and flows during the match.

We are just use to seeing one or two stars in our team try and perform for 90mins. Now we have the luxury of seeing 7 or 8 of them turn it on for little periods during games.

I watched a different game then because I thought he was tremendous & involved in all our best football plus worked harder than I've ever seen him & even won two tackles. One of his best ever performances as a member of the TEAM imo & certainly his best away from home, against a fully committed fit, athletic side.

I think he was more of a City player last night rather than just playing for his own enjoyment & his forward runs were full of energy & invention. Would've scored a great goal but for the fat linesman.

MaineRoadMemories wrote:In a team full of stars not everyone can shine at the same time.

You'll find that Ireland and Robinho are doing different jobs to last season, and you'll also find that both players have been directly involved in most the goals we have scored this season, maybe not getting the assist but by making space, or getting the pass before the assist.

Also you'll note that in the first half SWP gave the ball away or just ran into players and was our most ineffective player. However, after half time he became our most effective player as space started to open up. Adebayor didn't do much attacking wise but was superb at been the link play striker and bringing others into play with lay offs and short passes.

With a team of stars the performances of each ebbs and flows during the match.

We are just use to seeing one or two stars in our team try and perform for 90mins. Now we have the luxury of seeing 7 or 8 of them turn it on for little periods during games.

Completely agree...I also think the fans expectations of what is an acceptable 'shift' has been raised significantly...every player is under the miscroscope now

Ted Hughes wrote:I watched a different game then because I thought he was tremendous & involved in all our best football plus worked harder than I've ever seen him & even won two tackles. One of his best ever performances as a member of the TEAM imo & certainly his best away from home, against a fully committed fit, athletic side.

I think he was more of a City player last night rather than just playing for his own enjoyment & his forward runs were full of energy & invention. Would've scored a great goal but for the fat linesman.

I agree with Ted....I thought we lost our fluidity going forward once Robbie went off...I know the game was already won and we took our foot off the peddle a bit but it was noticable. I think people have come to expect too much of Robbie and expect him to dribble past 5 men and score every time he gets the ball....but in reality this isn't going to happen. He is a team player now, rather than an individual.

MaineRoadMemories wrote:In a team full of stars not everyone can shine at the same time.

You'll find that Ireland and Robinho are doing different jobs to last season, and you'll also find that both players have been directly involved in most the goals we have scored this season, maybe not getting the assist but by making space, or getting the pass before the assist.

Also you'll note that in the first half SWP gave the ball away or just ran into players and was our most ineffective player. However, after half time he became our most effective player as space started to open up. Adebayor didn't do much attacking wise but was superb at been the link play striker and bringing others into play with lay offs and short passes.

With a team of stars the performances of each ebbs and flows during the match.

We are just use to seeing one or two stars in our team try and perform for 90mins. Now we have the luxury of seeing 7 or 8 of them turn it on for little periods during games.

Agree with all of this, Robbies speed of thought increasing the tempo made the space for Ireland to get SWP away & Robbie himself got SWP away when he hit the bar. Add to that a wrongly dissallowed goal...

FFS.

Fat linesman denies him a goal (which he netted with an arsenal-esk chip) and he put Shaun clear through to rattle the woodwork, but for incompetence and a couple of inches, he would have had a goal and an assist....wait till he clicks with Ade and Tevez and Barry and Roque. (get the feeling the avalanche of new players might be hurting the more intricate play of our tricky superstar?)

I don't get why people are saying Robinho was piss poor... I actually think he was pretty much involved in everything and made things happen.

I think he did as good a job as the rest of the team last night - Brilliant run and Chip that should have been a goal and what an awesome through ball for SWP!

He was everywere trying to get into space in a congested final 3rd of the pitch. Tried some things that didnt pull off but so did SWP and all the other outfield players.

In our 4-4-2 the main person who is going to suffer is Robinho as he IS NOT a left winger. That said, he's doing ok there and he is adapting to our formation rather than our formation adapting to him which has made us stronger in other areas. (similar to the Ireland situation)

Michael Brookes wrote:In our 4-4-2 the main person who is going to suffer is Robinho as he IS NOT a left winger. That said, he's doing ok there and he is adapting to our formation rather than our formation adapting to him which has made us stronger in other areas. (similar to the Ireland situation)

Would 'our 442' actually translate as 4-3-3 to other clubs? We're not playing with much width so Rob isnt playing as left wing as such ...

Infact I dont think we play 4-3-3, its all pretty fluid but it definately isnt 442.

I would still play him at Pompey over Bellamy. IMO Pompey are there for the taking at the moment and it could be just the game to boost Robbie's confidence and get him on a scoring run, or at least create a couple of goals for someone else. He along with the team as a whole still needs to gel. The more games they play together the better they will play.

Svensational wrote:Ok, I dont want to put a downer on a great night of football but in my honest opinion I actually thought Robinho wasnt good at all last night?

Does anybody else agree? Pretty much every pass he made was inaccurate, he just didnt look like scoring!

He did do abit of trickey every now and again which was pretty flossy but apart from that he looked lost??

Correct me if I'm wrong but didn't Robinho score last night? OK......so the whistle had blown for off-side when it wasn't but he dinked a beautiful looping ball over the goalkeeper who was well off his line and into the back of the net. Had that not been off-side (which is wasn't) the keeper stood no chance.

I understand that he didn't stand out as much as we're used to but that's because he's now surrounded by players who are more equal to him. I think once him and Tevez have a clear understanding of each others play, we'll see plenty from Robby. Tevez just seems to drag players all over the place and Robby should be exploiting that.

I thought Robinho played quite well, it was much better than his away performances from last year. He misplaced a few passes but also played some great balls which got our players in.

Whilst he's not pulling up trees so far this season, he's doing fine by me. He's always liable to make something out of absolutly nothing.

Irelands form and maybe alround game is more of a worry for me.

Agree about the comment on Ireland. I guess it will take a little time for the team to settle down and part of this will help Ireland. Team is doing fine at present though there is room for improvement, it will get better over time.

Robinho's form is fine, should have got a goal at Palace. He will produce brilliant football, just not possible to do it all the time. At least with the other options we are not now having to rely on them as much.