Stewart Downing - West Hahahaham player

[Neil Young]

Aye, look at Man City's in comparison to ours. They have had less passes and more failed passes yet they've got the ball in the right areas. They've had countless passes into the box yet we've had just a tiny few.

They pressed much higher up the pitch too so it's partly about where they won the ball back. Obviously they had the better of us for pace all over the pitch.

But it was frustrating watching our players getting trapped in little triangles time and time again but when they had the ball back, they simply passed their way out of it.

[Exiled_red]

This was a major problem for me last night with most of our players

They got in positions to put balls in and checked back

You lose all advantage when you do that as defenders can set themselves with their backs to goal (which is how they want to play)

Part of the problem with that though is the lack of men in the box.

If there is only one man in the box against 4 defenders do you take a chance and deliver a ball into the box and hope that you get lucky, but in all likelihood lose possession or do you play a 'safe' sideways ball, keep possession and hope there are better options later in the move?

Last nights game reminded me of that article a while back about Rafa and possession taking preference over creating chances.

[cream]

http://fourfourtwo.com/statszone/share.aspx?i=04FqH

Downing's passes in the attacking third against Man City.

Hard to tell which side he was playing for.

[yamiedo]

Part of the problem with that though is the lack of men in the box.

If there is only one man in the box against 4 defenders do you take a chance and deliver a ball into the box and hope that you get lucky, but in all likelihood lose possession or do you play a 'safe' sideways ball, keep possession and hope there are better options later in the move?

Last nights game reminded me of that article a while back about Rafa and possession taking preference over creating chances.

Barcelona can keep possession and create chances. We have shown we can do this too with the right players on. We create numerous chances and keep large amounts of possession. The problem against Man City was we didn't have the right players for doing that.

[yamiedo]

Kuyt is far from the most creative and is very limited in what he does. Downing is proving to be that way too.

Carroll is quite negative going forward and often resorts to passing back instead of taking men on.

When we have Suarez taking players on we usually find a rush of players trying to join him. One thing he does brilliantly is his ability to turn his man when they are closely marking him, thus creating far more space and dribbling at defenders, encouraging players to bomb forward.

Bellamy was far more positive than Downing and looked like he could have had a goal if he was on the pitch longer.

Henderson and Spearing just looked to play simple passes instead of those that could split the defence open (apart from that one sublime pass by Henderson early on).

We lack creativity. Having said that, its clear to see Man City's gameplan was to get men behind the ball, they were very good defensively and its difficult to break down but its not impossible.

[G]

http://fourfourtwo.com/statszone/share.aspx?i=04FqH

Downing's passes in the attacking third against Man City.

I felt that looking at it last night,but that just shows how **** he is.**** me almost everytime he gets close to the area he passes backwards

[Nick77]

He should go play for Ingerlund imo - that's his level & he'll NEVER get any better ffs! 20 million on a Donkey ffs!!
DONKEY DOWNING!!!

[Chrono]

I'm pretty sure in the first 15 minutes that everytime he got the ball he played it to a Man City player. I was shocked at how poor he was/is. He really is a dreadful footballer

I'll support him while he is in the team but I really do hope we get rid of him.

[Norbs]

[Norbs]

http://m.youtube.com/index?desktop_u...?v=ifO7AwBtNjE

[Exiled_red]

Hopefully the goal will give him a confidence boost and we'll see a different player from now on...

[cream]

Doubt it.

[Lee]

Hopefully the goal will give him a confidence boost and we'll see a different player from now on...

Same for Carroll.

I'm not a fan of either but I really hope that their goals tonight will give them some added confidence (which must've been rock bottom), and that they now both go on to finish the season strongly.

[Norbs]

Doubt it.

Hello Roy

[sean_lfc]