kuyt

[Craig_H]

It annoys me that alls you ever do is slag the bloke off. You never give credit where it's due. It's always negative **** and it's really tedious.

That's not quite true though, is it? When i said that it was unfair on him, that's not quite slagging him off is it?

It's really tedious when people take what i say and change it to whatever suits their argument. I'm of the same opinion as shaggy, go and accuse him of all things wrong...

[calvoboy]

Unfortunately he's got three. And he starts almost every week.

If Rafa is true to himself then he'll be shipped out in the summer. He doesn't tolerate continual failure as demonstrated by his hasty removal of every other dud he's brought in.

It's harsh but it's also fair. Three league goals - two pens and a complete fluke - when he starts nearly every week is indisputably a dismal failure of the worst kind.

I know that, last year he got 12 in 34 games though, which isn't too bad for a second striker with his workrate. Hence the words "IF he returns to last season's form".

I've said on here a few times that he hasn't deserved his pick for most of this season, and should have been put in the reserves to rediscover his form, not the first team.

[Scratch]

His work rate and when on form ability to link with others is good and when the opposition have to worry about him his movement makes space for the other attacking players.

This is the reason why i think Rafa likes to have Kuyt on the field. He has great positional awareness, and makes runs that drag players away from the danger areas, creating more space for the likes of Torres and Gerrard to exploit.

[jonymadness]

Crouch and Torres have started 6 games together all year:
Goals
Team: Torres Crouch Result
Reading (A) 3 0 W 4-3
Marseille (H) 0 0 L 0-1
Bolton (H) 1 0 W 4-0
Reading (A) 0 0 L 3-1
Luton (H) 0 0 W 5-0
Sunderland (H) 1 1 W 3-0

No great lesson learned from that, interesting that they started together in two of our worst performances of the year, Marseille and Reading, cant think of worse, other than the Barnsley one?

Some of our most impressive performances have had Dirk and Nando up top, Chelsea at home, Marseille and Villa away, Porto at home (eventually)... nothing else really stands out.

[Mattshark]

Crouch and Torres have started 6 games together all year:
Goals
Team: Torres Crouch Result
Reading (A) 3 0 W 4-3
Marseille (H) 0 0 L 0-1
Bolton (H) 1 0 W 4-0
Reading (A) 0 0 L 3-1
Luton (H) 0 0 W 5-0
Sunderland (H) 1 1 W 3-0

No great lesson learned from that, interesting that they started together in two of our worst performances of the year, Marseille and Reading, cant think of worse, other than the Barnsley one?

Some of our most impressive performances have had Dirk and Nando up top, Chelsea at home, Marseille and Villa away, Porto at home (eventually)... nothing else really stands out.

I wouldn't say Barnsley was in any way a bad performance. A Bad result and bad performance are not the same thing.

I think Dirk does a lot a good running for Nando, as mentioned by a few previously and helps him make plenty of space. I also think that Dirk can play far better than he has for the majority of this season.

[bigfooty]

Crouch and Torres have started 6 games together all year:
Goals
Team: Torres Crouch Result
Reading (A) 3 0 W 4-3
Marseille (H) 0 0 L 0-1
Bolton (H) 1 0 W 4-0
Reading (A) 0 0 L 3-1
Luton (H) 0 0 W 5-0
Sunderland (H) 1 1 W 3-0

No great lesson learned from that, interesting that they started together in two of our worst performances of the year, Marseille and Reading, cant think of worse, other than the Barnsley one?

Some of our most impressive performances have had Dirk and Nando up top, Chelsea at home, Marseille and Villa away, Porto at home (eventually)... nothing else really stands out.

The Reading away game was 4-3-3. You can't really include that because Crouch was stuck on the left wing for large portions of the game and even ended up defending in the left back position at times. It was just another of the dozen plus striking combinations we've used this season, a frankly ridiculous amount even though we do compete on many fronts.

Take that match out and the record is pretty strong but given the mediocre nature of the opponents it is hard to make a really strong case other than perhaps wanting to give them a chance against those big teams.

What I mainly take out of Kuyt's recent performances is that the work he's putting in is more noticeable, but that's not to say he's doing enough in the danger areas. For example, our third goal on Saturday saw him back defending on the edge of our box before lobbing it down the pitch for Nando to chase. I'm not really sure I want our "second striker" to be spending time defending and isolating our main striker in such a fashion, especially when he doesn't have the pace to join him.

At least with Crouch you generally expect he'll be staying in the opponent's half and be someone for others to play off and around. He definitely tipped the balance in our favour against Inter and probably would have done sooner if he'd been brought on earlier in the half. They simply couldn't deal with him whereas they were comfortable against what Kuyt had to offer playing in front of them, dropping back as they did to limit the space in behind after Materazzi was sent off.

I've never written Dirk off as such but I've been hugely frustrated with how Rafa has used him this season and, at times, last season. With no pace to speak of and a questionable ability on the ball he is limited in certain aspects of his play which means he's not really capable of doing some of the things Rafa asks of him. This has lead to matches where I just didn't think he should be on the pitch but I appreciate the hard work he puts in for the team and I'm glad to see him score a couple recently.

[Nicey]

3 good games in a row.

Thought he has done well.

Looking like he will finish the season strongly.

Babbel is getting more comfortable in the prem too.

Would just like to see xabi hitting a bit of form/playing soon, as this formation will suit his game perfectly. He can dictate our play from there.

Jasus that is great news, I've been off the grid for a couple of weeks .. managed to find a box in the arse end of nowhere in Oz to watch the Inter game. If there ever was a player I would like to see turn it around, Dirk is the man. I'd be very tempted to give him another season.

[SB]

Jasus that is great news, I've been off the grid for a couple of weeks .. managed to find a box in the arse end of nowhere in Oz to watch the Inter game. If there ever was a player I would like to see turn it around, Dirk is the man. I'd be very tempted to give him another season.

We aussies call that Melbourne

[Nicey]

Lol Tilba Tilba digger ... had a ****ing grand old time, Australia and Aussies are officially back in my good books

[SB]

Lol Tilba Tilba digger ... had a ****ing grand old time, Australia and Aussies are officially back in my good books

We are the best hosts in the world you know

I'm glad we took good care of you

[Trippendicular]

Lol Tilba Tilba digger ... had a ****ing grand old time, Australia and Aussies are officially back in my good books

What did we do to get in your bad books?

[Kenneth]

The Reading away game was 4-3-3. You can't really include that because Crouch was stuck on the left wing for large portions of the game and even ended up defending in the left back position at times. It was just another of the dozen plus striking combinations we've used this season, a frankly ridiculous amount even though we do compete on many fronts.

Take that match out and the record is pretty strong but given the mediocre nature of the opponents it is hard to make a really strong case other than perhaps wanting to give them a chance against those big teams.

What I mainly take out of Kuyt's recent performances is that the work he's putting in is more noticeable, but that's not to say he's doing enough in the danger areas. For example, our third goal on Saturday saw him back defending on the edge of our box before lobbing it down the pitch for Nando to chase. I'm not really sure I want our "second striker" to be spending time defending and isolating our main striker in such a fashion, especially when he doesn't have the pace to join him.

At least with Crouch you generally expect he'll be staying in the opponent's half and be someone for others to play off and around. He definitely tipped the balance in our favour against Inter and probably would have done sooner if he'd been brought on earlier in the half. They simply couldn't deal with him whereas they were comfortable against what Kuyt had to offer playing in front of them, dropping back as they did to limit the space in behind after Materazzi was sent off.

I've never written Dirk off as such but I've been hugely frustrated with how Rafa has used him this season and, at times, last season. With no pace to speak of and a questionable ability on the ball he is limited in certain aspects of his play which means he's not really capable of doing some of the things Rafa asks of him. This has lead to matches where I just didn't think he should be on the pitch but I appreciate the hard work he puts in for the team and I'm glad to see him score a couple recently.

Very well put

[Pablo]

This morning on my way into work I got to thinking back to the Chelsea home game last season when we beat them 2 - 0. The goal Kuyt scored that day was sublime. Genius first touch with his head to fool the CB back then nonchalantly half volleyed the ball into the top corner leaving Cech rooted to the spot

Fogot he could do things like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9TjxuwH6UjI

[Craig_H]

Problem is, it happens about once a year.

[Pablo]

Problem is, it happens about once a year.

if that