Fantastic performance yesterday, but..

[Migselv]

I still see a lot of things that should improve if we are to sustain a real challenge this year. Primarily in our attacking play. The main points being:

1. We should try and get near the goalline (unsure if that's what it's called?) more, before crossing the ball. Babel's and Tevez goals are good examples of how much more havoc this creates. Most of the time we choose to cross the ball way to early IMO, making it easier for the opposition to defend.

2. Kuyt. This guy really frustrates me. I can appreciate his workrate and his ability to be at the right spot, but he simply misses too much. And our attacking play are often interrupted because he fails to control the ball.
He needs to be more clinical, since he'll play every important game this season.

3. Robbie Keane needs to improve too, but I'm confident he will given time, so not really worried there

4. Our corners are ****e for the most part. We tend to rely on winning the ball back, when the defence have cleared our corner. We rarely deliver a corner or cross that ends up in an attempt on goal. Instead we have stevie, alonso or others firing away from the edge of the penalty area, IF we manage to get the ball back.

5. We generally need to be more creative upfront. We are very well organized, and therefore we are able to put good pressure on our opponents, and grind them down. But we too often rely on individual glimpses of brilliance to really unlock defences. It's not that we never see a quick one-two combination into the box, or players making runs behind defenders into the box, but we see it too rarely IMO.

There's lots of positives to be pointed out aswell, and I'm not feeling pessimistic as such, I just feel we still have an extra dimension to add to our game. Our defence and midfield are not where we fall short compared to United and Chelsea, but our efficiency upfront is. Yesterdays game should have been won by a 2-3 goal margin with the dominance we held.

[Johnny]

I still see a lot of things that should improve if we are to sustain a real challenge this year. Primarily in our attacking play. The main points being:

1. We should try and get near the goalline (unsure if that's what it's called?) more, before crossing the ball. Babel's and Tevez goals are good examples of how much more havoc this creates. Most of the time we choose to cross the ball way to early IMO, making it easier for the opposition to defend. Early balls in are harder to defend.

2. Kuyt. This guy really frustrates me. I can appreciate his workrate and his ability to be at the right spot, but he simply misses too much. And our attacking play are often interrupted because he fails to control the ball.
He needs to be more clinical, since he'll play every important game this season.I`m sure he`ll try.

3. Robbie Keane needs to improve too, but I'm confident he will given time, so not really worried thereYep.

4. Our corners are ****e for the most part. We tend to rely on winning the ball back, when the defence have cleared our corner. We rarely deliver a corner or cross that ends up in an attempt on goal. Instead we have stevie, alonso or others firing away from the edge of the penalty area, IF we manage to get the ball back.

5. We generally need to be more creative upfront. We are very well organized, and therefore we are able to put good pressure on our opponents, and grind them down. But we too often rely on individual glimpses of brilliance to really unlock defences. It's not that we never see a quick one-two combination into the box, or players making runs behind defenders into the box, but we see it too rarely IMO.We scored over a 100 goals last yr.

There's lots of positives to be pointed out aswell, and I'm not feeling pessimistic as such, I just feel we still have an extra dimension to add to our game. Our defence and midfield are not where we fall short compared to United and Chelsea, but our efficiency upfront is. Yesterdays game should have been won by a 2-3 goal margin with the dominance we held.

Some people are never happy.

[Darth Marty]

Im sure that even after such a great result we know we arent the finished article, but if you think back to last season where we scored more goals than anyone else and had a defence who personally i wouldnt change for anyones, and combine that with the attacking form we had yesterday then we will be there or thereabouts come may.

Thats all we can ask for isnt it. But lets see what happens over the next few months, one thing is for sure though if Rafa picks the same players and they dont perform like they did yesterday maybe people will see its not all rafas doing and sometimes the players themselves have a responsibility to motivate themselves.

[brightred]

I still see a lot of things that should improve if we are to sustain a real challenge this year. Primarily in our attacking play. The main points being:

1. We should try and get near the goalline (unsure if that's what it's called?) more, before crossing the ball. Babel's and Tevez goals are good examples of how much more havoc this creates. Most of the time we choose to cross the ball way to early IMO, making it easier for the opposition to defend.

2. Kuyt. This guy really frustrates me. I can appreciate his workrate and his ability to be at the right spot, but he simply misses too much. And our attacking play are often interrupted because he fails to control the ball.
He needs to be more clinical, since he'll play every important game this season.

3. Robbie Keane needs to improve too, but I'm confident he will given time, so not really worried there

4. Our corners are ****e for the most part. We tend to rely on winning the ball back, when the defence have cleared our corner. We rarely deliver a corner or cross that ends up in an attempt on goal. Instead we have stevie, alonso or others firing away from the edge of the penalty area, IF we manage to get the ball back.

5. We generally need to be more creative upfront. We are very well organized, and therefore we are able to put good pressure on our opponents, and grind them down. But we too often rely on individual glimpses of brilliance to really unlock defences. It's not that we never see a quick one-two combination into the box, or players making runs behind defenders into the box, but we see it too rarely IMO.

There's lots of positives to be pointed out aswell, and I'm not feeling pessimistic as such, I just feel we still have an extra dimension to add to our game. Our defence and midfield are not where we fall short compared to United and Chelsea, but our efficiency upfront is. Yesterdays game should have been won by a 2-3 goal margin with the dominance we held.

[dww]

Im sure that even after such a great result we know we arent the finished article, but if you think back to last season where we scored more goals than anyone else and had a defence who personally i wouldnt change for anyones, and combine that with the attacking form we had yesterday then we will be there or thereabouts come may.

Thats all we can ask for isnt it. But lets see what happens over the next few months, one thing is for sure though if Rafa picks the same players and they dont perform like they did yesterday maybe people will see its not all rafas doing and sometimes the players themselves have a responsibility to motivate themselves.

I think yesterday we saw what Rafa has been working towards for a long while in the squad: a collection of tactically aware players with good skills who can also compete physically (Yossi excepted). The problem is that our best player and one of our main match winner, Gerrard, unbalances the team IMO. It is harder for Rafa to get his plan executed with him in the team.

For me it is not about the quality of either Rafa or Gerrard individually as I feel both are world class but that the former has to find a way to get the best out of the latter within the way he plays. I think this summer Rafa intended his purchases to make this happen (especially Barry) but that didn't come off. It will be very interesting to see what happens now after an excellent display by Alonso and Mascher in the middle with Gerrard having whinged again in the last week about being played out of his favoured position.

[Guest]

I think yesterday we saw what Rafa has been working towards for a long while in the squad: a collection of tactically aware players with good skills who can also compete physically (Yossi excepted). The problem is that our best player and one of our main match winner, Gerrard, unbalances the team IMO. It is harder for Rafa to get his plan executed with him in the team.

For me it is not about the quality of either Rafa or Gerrard individually as I feel both are world class but that the former has to find a way to get the best out of the latter within the way he plays. I think this summer Rafa intended his purchases to make this happen (especially Barry) but that didn't come off. It will be very interesting to see what happens now after an excellent display by Alonso and Mascher in the middle with Gerrard having whinged again in the last week about being played out of his favoured position.

[Migselv]

Some people are never happy.

Don't see it as a question of being happy or not. I'm very happy with most of the squad,yesterdays result, our leagueposition and lots of other things, but I still see areas where we need to improve. If you don't then fair enough.
And as for early crosses, we'll have to disagree on that one.

[Migselv]

Im sure that even after such a great result we know we arent the finished article, but if you think back to last season where we scored more goals than anyone else and had a defence who personally i wouldnt change for anyones, and combine that with the attacking form we had yesterday then we will be there or thereabouts come may.

Thats all we can ask for isnt it. But lets see what happens over the next few months, one thing is for sure though if Rafa picks the same players and they dont perform like they did yesterday maybe people will see its not all rafas doing and sometimes the players themselves have a responsibility to motivate themselves.

Well, I don't think our attacking form was that great yesterday actually. We bossed the game, but created very few open chances ourself. In our own half, and half of theirs we were superb, especially in the second half, but in the last third I still see us lacking. Both of our goals were as much errors made by them, as they were created by us. That doesn't take anything away from these goals, as it was our pressure that made them make these mistakes.

As for the 100+ goals last year: A lot of them was down to individual glimpses of brilliance or pressure which made the opposition make mistakes. Only rarely were they a result of creative, fast and free flowing attacking play IMO. I might be wrong, correct me if so.

As for the players responsibility to motivate themselves, I agree.

[kalesh]

Let's not forget that Kuyt had a couple of clear cut chances - the second of which was beautifully created. And the balance and link-up play down the left was superb. I'm not saying our attacking play was great yesterday, but certainly the best so far this season.

[Migselv]

Let's not forget that Kuyt had a couple of clear cut chances - the second of which was beautifully created. And the balance and link-up play down the left was superb. I'm not saying our attacking play was great yesterday, but certainly the best so far this season.

I agree that it was the best so far this season. And yes we had a few good chances that we created ourselves. It's not all doom and gloom for me.
But I still see our attacking play as our main weakness compared to United, Chelsea and Arsenal. We're more than a match for any of them in all other areas.
Besides... the first of kuyt's sitters, was due to terrible save by VDS..