the 'traore' effect

[Woobus]

Zenden in his younger days was a superb player, pity he didnt age well. Would agree that our defence would be the weakest area with not to much quality back up for Agger and Carra.
I really didnt want us to sign Pennant but have to say he impressed me in the closing months last year. Deserves another run out to prove what he can do, Ronaldo was hardly on fire the first season he played for the Scum.

[dom9]

If Garcia was still at the club, he'd be top of the tree.

Sort of missing the point of the thread there mate.

[Kenneth]

Disagree with anybody putting Pennant's or Sissoko's name forward. My one concern is central defence. Sami is class, but getting old. Paletta scares me and Arbeloa ... let's just say that Rafa's right back signings have followed a similar pattern.

Arbeloa looks like a quality player who's hardly put a foot wrong. How can you compare him to the likes of Josemi?

[Gazzla]

Pennant closely followed by Palleta

[Mr Nike Top]

Fabio Aurelio looks like a really bad defensive fullback in my opinion and I would worry if he was playing LB in an important game.

[The incredible igor]

If Garcia was still at the club, he'd be top of the tree.

i agree, was great at the very rare 40 yard screamer but gave the ball away 40 thousand times a game. Yossi is ten times the player Garcia is

[Rhys]

i agree, was great at the very rare 40 yard screamer but gave the ball away 40 thousand times a game. Yossi is ten times the player Garcia is

nah mate! yossi is a stepdown from luis and is ten times less of a player garcia is.

i dont agree with the pennant bashers, i thought he was one of our better players towards the end of the season, and in some games he was our major attacking threat and id like to see more from him next season.

palleta is the only dodgy player left imo.

[kop-al-74]

i agree, was great at the very rare 40 yard screamer but gave the ball away 40 thousand times a game. Yossi is ten times the player Garcia is

That is proberbly the single most ridiculas comment i have seen on this forum.

[Mattshark]

That is proberbly the single most ridiculas comment i have seen on this forum.

[mersey86]

Arbeloa looks like a quality player who's hardly put a foot wrong. How can you compare him to the likes of Josemi?

The only way I compared him to Josemi was by saying that he was a Rafa right back signing. Josemi and Kromkamp both started well and deteriorated. Arbeloa started extremely well, but he's not yet a proven commodity. Of course Josemi's failure has no bearing on Arbeloa's progress, but I'm going to wait and see whether Arbeloa can do the job consistently.

[Jacko]

Have faith or else...

I think everyone will be pleasantly surprised with Momo this year. People have been too quick to cast Momo aside since Mascherano arrived.

I don't think there will be a surprise regarding Mo this season. His two years at the club have produced a whole 2months of poor performances from him. ****! A WHOLE TWO MONTHS!

Other than that he's been nothing short of WORLD CLASS (Barcelona away just one example of many).

Now the skipper who admittedly went a long way to winning us the CL in 2005- well he was ****E for a large chunk of that season but people were near enough ready to throw themselves of the nearest tallest buildings when he nearly left for chelsea (for the SECOND time).

Mo's young, already an exceptional talent and is going to further improve but it appears this isn't good enough for a section of people on these forums which leads me to think they know jack **** or plane just don't watch us or him play!

As for Garcia- deary me, did you EVER watch Garcia play? (not aimed at this particular poster btw).

[Kenneth]

****! A WHOLE TWO MONTHS!

Other than that he's been nothing short of WORLD CLASS

Can't let that go. He has been world class at closing players down and making crunching tackles. He's a complete dickhead when it comes to unecessary bookings and the guy can't control the ball well at all. He often looks more committed as he battles for balls he should have controlled in the first place. He's an average player at best with the ball at his feet. With the quality we now have in MF, we don't need a professional spoiler. I'm gutted we didn't cash in.

[Redlife]

I think there is a big difference between Zenden and the likes of Traore/Diao/Joasmi etc. Bolo was a decent player, even a good one when on form, and you could count on him not doing something silly. With the other lads there was allways the possibilty of a disaster happening.

I never thought Zenden would backheel into his net or pointlessly get sent off. I thought he could ineffective at times, but he was a different fish to those three.

[Redlife]

Mo's young, already an exceptional talent and is going to further improve but it appears this isn't good enough for a section of people on these forums which leads me to think they know jack **** or plane just don't watch us or him play!

As for Garcia- deary me, did you EVER watch Garcia play? (not aimed at this particular poster btw).

on both.


I think the anti-Sissoko-ism is well overboard.


As for Garcia, yeah he was a liability. As he lofted the ball over Buffon's head, I thought, "Well that's just sh#t."

[RedReet]

Can't let that go. He has been world class at closing players down and making crunching tackles. He's a complete dickhead when it comes to unecessary bookings and the guy can't control the ball well at all. He often looks more committed as he battles for balls he should have controlled in the first place. He's an average player at best with the ball at his feet. With the quality we now have in MF, we don't need a professional spoiler. I'm gutted we didn't cash in.

Tell me when his bookings have had a major impact on the team or performance. It’s not as if he’s picking up cards for petulance or dissent, just the odd badly timed tackle. I think he’s genius for somehow avoiding getting sent off in certain games.

Think it’s too easy for people to concentrate Momo’s more recent poor performances. This is thanks to Mascherano who has been immaculate since he joined as he rarely wastes possession, an attribute that Momo’s main detractors will always focus on. The thing is, if Momo is on form, there are few better. With Mascherano, you know what you’re gonna get, tidy tackling and simple passes. With Momo, anything can happen, he can go on a mazy dribble beating a few players, spank a shot form the halfway line off the bar, or alternatively hoof a ball miles over his head when no one is near him or hit the corner flag with a straightforward shot. I definitely think the good outweighs the bad, and with a bit of consistency should go on to be a big star in world football. World class he may not be just yet, but under Rafa’s guidance I fully expect him to reach such great heights.