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Quite a few tonight obviously:
1) The win with a largely 2nd string team and we looked like winning all the game.
2) Patrick. I am far from his biggest fan but he did a really good linking job tonight and his experience was evident.
3) Ade. The game before the Arse and he bags a hat trick.The first 2 were superbly taken and the last was special just because he stayed onside. Can't be bad but how will he react at being sub on Sunday?
4) Nigel. A couple of early dodgy moments but i thought he was immense and essential behind Vieira.
5) Silva. Just sublime.
6) Boyata and Lescott. Thought both did well even with a couple of dodgy moments apiece.
7) Micah. Looked good but that positioning isn't always quite right.

I would add AJ but I am going to be boring. Of course there were some great moments of skill and entertainment but oh that final ball ( and giving the ball away as he did for the goal wasnt great).SWP will want to forget most of the night and maybe so will Zaba. he worked really hard up and down but not his best night.

I thought Shaun played very well and that its a disgrace that he's not been offered a new £100k per week contract on the strength of tonight.

Yours

Ian Wright
Ex Channel 5

I'd agree with DH on everything there including AJ......... Except for point 7. I thought Micah was nowt special, but if Doug says he did well, then fair enough

Where I was sat all around me, including myself, thought Zab had a decent game.

Shaun is just short of match practice. That's the downside in a way of having such a talented squad. Most players - just like Ade - will take at least 1 or 2 full games to get back up to speed. But with every game so crucial, where on earth is he going to get those minutes? Tonight will have been crucial for him, I thought towards the end he was looking a lot sharper and more like the SWP we know.

Just to add to your points doug i thought we looked more attacking than any time ive seen this season look that way to you? Not sure if the lads are gelling and trust each other more or it was just attacking players on the pitch.

Well i hope that Ade has earnt a start.. and if not i hope he gets a good 20 mins. Thats life i suppose and he should of pulled his finger out earlier in the season if he wanted to walk into the starting line up. Still there is always Wolves to demolish... the Baggies and that lot in Salford..

I was impressed with the whole team tonight and quiet a few players had not had so many games recently so you have also to take that into account when assessing performances imo. eg SWP.

Lev Bronstein wrote:Where I was sat all around me, including myself, thought Zab had a decent game.

Must admit I thought he did alright. I also thought that apart from the duff back pass Boyata was excellent. On the contrary, I didn't think much of Lescott at all.

Very good attacking performance & good entertainment. Wasn't impressed with the defence myself, either individually or collectively.

High point for me was two successful quality balls from wide, both resulting in goals & even a HEADER!!!! SWP, AJ, Milner, Micah, Bridge, Weiss etc should all get the video of that & play it back again & again. Those two balls from Silva; no fucking about or stepovers, just looked up, judged where he thought Ade would be & put the ball there EARLY before the defenders were set. Absolute quality & the kind of pass we NEVER put in, which people like Giggs & Gerrard put in every week.

Silva was superb.

Remeber when our reserve team was often near the bottom of the old Central league.
Now our reserve team has just comprehensivley beaten the Polish champions.
How times have changed.

john68 wrote:Remeber when our reserve team was often near the bottom of the old Central league.
Now our reserve team has just comprehensivley beaten the Polish champions.
How times have changed.

was that our reserve team in your mind? i'd say it was more like the FA Cup tie side in the later rounds than the reserves. Still, your point is it wasnt our strongest XI. And we were playing a team from Poland btw. We ought to fucking tonk them with the likes of who started that match tbh.

Just being pedantic cuz i can. ;)

cheers

Positives as opposed to negatives? The way things are going right now, I don't see much anything negative. The shit is properly starting to happen for us.

1. Hart had one decent save to make, for the most part he was well protected.
2. Richards I thought was good again, he is certainly working on his game and still a ways to go, but showed he still has a place here.
3. Boyata apart from the backpass was superb, strong and quick and broke down more attacks than de Jong.
4. Lescott looked sharper, still needs a decent run of games and thank god was better than the weekend.
5. Zabs would be MotM if it weren't for that little spaniard, brilliant display and deserves a spot in the 1st team on merit.
6. Shauny needs more game time, he started to look a little better late on and I think as an impact sub he can still do a job.
7. Johnson was untouchable at times, shame his decisions when it comes to the final ball aren't always the right ones.
8. de Jong back to being the dog, great tackling...seriously, who the fuck says he is a bad tackler? Heard this a lot this last couple of weeks. Best tackler in the side.
9. Paddy was exactly what we needed and the reason he is in the side, calm, influential and great awareness of those around him.
10. Silva was just fucking brilliant, that third goal was all him and I am not sure anyone else in our side could have done that.
11. Ball at feet and dribble, cross to head, cross to feet. 3 goals for Adebayor, sharpness is coming and he could have had five.

Blackadder wrote:Shaun is just short of match practice. That's the downside in a way of having such a talented squad. Most players - just like Ade - will take at least 1 or 2 full games to get back up to speed. But with every game so crucial, where on earth is he going to get those minutes? Tonight will have been crucial for him, I thought towards the end he was looking a lot sharper and more like the SWP we know.

This is perhaps a stupid question, but shouldn't that be the reason to have a reserve team, i.e. to blood the youths and let sidelined first team players getting back to speed? Right now it seems to be a youth only team.

Hmmm I think I will have to go and watch the match again to see if I have wronged Zaba.

Douglas Higginbottom wrote:Hmmm I think I will have to go and watch the match again to see if I have wronged Zaba.

I haven't watched it back on TV but from what I saw lat night he had a pretty good game. He broke up their play on a number of occasions and used the ball well. He also took quite a kicking in the first 15 minutes or so but got on with the job manfully.

Douglas Higginbottom wrote:Hmmm I think I will have to go and watch the match again to see if I have wronged Zaba.

I thought he was caught out badly on several occasions but I can't help but admire the way he just gets on with it whatever job he's asked to do. I don't see bridge as a better left back than Zabba.

I thought Ballotelli had a good game at right back

Ted Hughes wrote:

Douglas Higginbottom wrote:Hmmm I think I will have to go and watch the match again to see if I have wronged Zaba.

I thought he was caught out badly on several occasions but I can't help but admire the way he just gets on with it whatever job he's asked to do. I don't see bridge as a better left back than Zabba.

id have zaba in front of bridge anyday of the week. and im no fan of zabaleta at all. kolarov, please hurry back!

Mike J wrote:

Ted Hughes wrote:

Douglas Higginbottom wrote:Hmmm I think I will have to go and watch the match again to see if I have wronged Zaba.

I thought he was caught out badly on several occasions but I can't help but admire the way he just gets on with it whatever job he's asked to do. I don't see bridge as a better left back than Zabba.

id have zaba in front of bridge anyday of the week. and im no fan of zabaleta at all. kolarov, please hurry back!

I think I might join you with those thoughts but it will be interesting to see how Mancini sees it.