Where it all went wrong

[Mr Tourette]

We gave it a go? How many times did we have a striker in their box. Giving it a go is not fannying about in midfield with pointless short passes. How many clear cut chances did we have? Exactly. THe moment we went 4-5-1 or 4-4-1-1 or whatever you want to call it we lost the impetus.....did any of you see the second half? MIlan controlled it...their pace...their style of play...their niggly little cheating etc....

And I do not see how anyone can defend Alonso...he stunk the place out

Youre doing my head in. Who do you think you are... shankly? youre a nob. Its nobody's fault, it football. The better team loses from time to time.

[Riddler]

Hey, Some you win ,some you loose. There is no shame in tonights peformance , we played well for the most part ,got unlucky on their goal. The Ref was ok ,perhaps his watch is a little quick. Perhaps a defeat helps bring in more top players than a win. I feel fine.

[Tom]

We gave it a go? How many times did we have a striker in their box. Giving it a go is not fannying about in midfield with pointless short passes. How many clear cut chances did we have? Exactly. THe moment we went 4-5-1 or 4-4-1-1 or whatever you want to call it we lost the impetus.....did any of you see the second half? MIlan controlled it...their pace...their style of play...their niggly little cheating etc....

And I do not see how anyone can defend Alonso...he stunk the place out

.........WUM

[SouthAfricaRed]

You know our record with Kuyt starting this season, when not with Crouch?

Won 9, drawn 5, lost 9.

That's hardly stellar stuff.

Now compare that to Crouch, when starting without Kuyt.

Won 10, Drawn 3, lost 2

If we go 4-5-1 then Crouch has to start. I must have been the only person to see us beat Arsenal, whilst the rest of you must have missed the two games away to the Manchester sides.

Kuyt can work hard all day but it's only when he's in the middle, up front with a target man that he is really effective.

How many of those games were in Europe?

[Riddler]

BTW Zendan played because Gonzales has been such a let down and Kewell not match fit, give the guy a break.

[kemm1]

Where did it go wrong? When Benitez decided to field Zenden. In the first half, we were all over Milan. At a time when we needed to push home our superiority, everything broke down at Zenden's feet. That's where it wrong - own goal for Benitez.

:whatever:

[Mr Tourette]

Hey, Some you win ,some you loose. There is no shame in tonights peformance , we played well for the most part ,got unlucky on their goal. The Ref was ok ,perhaps his watch is a little quick. Perhaps a defeat helps bring in more top players than a win. I feel fine.

strangely i feel the same. Its one of those things. we will come back stronger, The tactics were fine. these idiots are talking out there arse.

[redheart]

Zenden is an honest, hardworking player...its simply that he is not up to football at this level....and Gonzales...you could see he was never going to work out....Smicer mark II...all the skill and technique in the world....but tyhe spine of a jellyfish...never gonna work out in England

[Beachy]

Where it all went wrong

The first post in this thread is a good place to start ...

[Imy]

Zenden maybe a nice guy but he was awful

[kurtangle01]

The thing is we never deserved to be behind at half time. If anything we could have been ahead by the time they scored. Even then if Stevie had scored at 1-0 we'd have been right back in it and would have taken the game to Milan even more and possibly grabbed a second. Then we got caught from a counter attack which is always liable to happen when you're chasing the game.

Even then at 2-1 we could possibly have got back into it if we'd had been slightly more patient.

We deserved more from tonight and on the balance of play Rafa got his tactics spot on. We just have to learn to take our chances and punish teams when we're on top. We need to be more clinical.

[smu1977]

Although we controlled the game for large periods, i was concerned with our lack of urgency. I was also getting a bit fed up with Pennants floated crosses and corners - needed to whip a few in at pace, it was a bit static in the box.

Still, proud of the boys for getting to the final and giving a good account of themselves.

1 each I suppose........

[SouthAfricaRed]

BTW Zendan played because Gonzales has been such a let down and Kewell not match fit, give the guy a break.

Zenden seems to be everyone's scapegoat. He did much better than Kewell. There was a noticeable loss of impetus when he was substituted.

Having a ref that hates Dutchmen (Kuijt and Zenden got no decisions) didnt help

[Tom]

The first post in this thread is a good place to start ...

Class.

[bigfooty]

How many of those games were in Europe?

In Europe?

If you include tonight the record would be:

Won 1 (Barca away)
Drawn 1 (PSV away)
Lost 3 (Chelsea away, Barca Home, tonight)

Admittedly all close games, and difficult ones, but this was the first time he had started as the lone striker in Europe. Those other results are when he partnered Bellamy.