madras

People always say that Taylor makes some good last ditch tackles and blocks, without considering why he's having to make those kind of interventions. Quite a large part of the reason is because of the way he plays, he invites pressure by continually backing off and lets the opposition get forward into a dangerous position before doing anything about it. If he was more composed a la Coloccini then he would either intervene earlier in a position where even if he got it wrong and gave away either the ball or a foul it wouldn't matter much, or shepherd the opposition player away from danger, rather than letting them advance towards goal which is what he does normally. When we're on top of a game or it's pretty even it's not a huge deal because Colo's calming influence can win out, but when we're under concerted pressure in a game, like we were last night, his style of play doesn't alleviate that it amplifies it. I'm not blaming him for what happened last night, the whole team was panicking throughout the second half, not just him, what I'm saying is that I think Yanga-Mbiwa might have been able to calm the rest of them down, whereas Taylor's never going to be able to do that. Don't get me wrong, he's not bad, but now that we have two good centre backs at the club, why would you play a not bad one ahead of them? I'm more than happy with his position at the club if as it seems is likely he's going to provide willing and able cover for Colo and Mapou, but if Colo goes in the summer then we absolutely must get someone else in to play in front of him and Williamson. I think the fact he started last night had much more to do with things outside of pure footballing reasons than it did with putting out the best team available to us. most of the reason for the last ditch tackles are when someone breaks off someone else and taylor has had to cover. it's rarely the man he was marking that he has had to last ditch tackle and for what it's worth colo done little last night to alleviate any pressure, for all his composed nature he wasn't any better than taylor. Yeah, like I said, they were all s*** in the second half, including Colo, but he's not usually like that, is he, and I haven't just come to this conclusion after watching last night's game, you know. As for the last ditch tackles, well that may be so, but notice how often it's Taylor standing a metre or two behind the rest who's playing them onside in the first place. More often than not that's exactly what happens. and taylor isn't usually s*** either. the last ditch tackles bit is getting silly now. someone's mentioned he makes decent last ditch tackles and you can't deny it so you are trying to find ways to make it negative. Care to point out where I said he is usually s***? What I'm actually trying to do is state my opinion and then respond to the points made by those who have argued against it, that's kinda supposed to be the whole point of a forum, at least I thought it was. Must remember for next time someone disagrees with me to simply call him a c*** and have done with it, this is not the right place for discussion, I see. I never even tried to deny it, you would know that if you'd actually read what I said. i took it when you said they were all shit but colo isn't usually like that thet you were inferring that taylor is.

think it'll be the summer though. i'd like to see him behind sissoko/cabaye and just doing what he done well in his first season.

he needs to start against chelsea because he is much more fitting to that style. if we were playing stoke i'd still be tempted to play taylor, maybe even instead of colo. You'd be tempted to drop Colo? yes.

he needs to start against chelsea because he is much more fitting to that style. if we were playing stoke i'd still be tempted to play taylor, maybe even instead of colo.

i realise thats the default setting for everyone but no he wasn't, both had little to do in the first half and looked ropey in the second. I don't use these so called 'default settings'. Colo wasn't at his very very best, but still better than Taylor, in my non default setting opinion. i couldn't put one above the other, neither had what you'd call a good game, neither gave confidence to the rest of the team, both looked shaky. all thats missing now is for the call that colo was shaky because of having taylor alongside him.

People always say that Taylor makes some good last ditch tackles and blocks, without considering why he's having to make those kind of interventions. Quite a large part of the reason is because of the way he plays, he invites pressure by continually backing off and lets the opposition get forward into a dangerous position before doing anything about it. If he was more composed a la Coloccini then he would either intervene earlier in a position where even if he got it wrong and gave away either the ball or a foul it wouldn't matter much, or shepherd the opposition player away from danger, rather than letting them advance towards goal which is what he does normally. When we're on top of a game or it's pretty even it's not a huge deal because Colo's calming influence can win out, but when we're under concerted pressure in a game, like we were last night, his style of play doesn't alleviate that it amplifies it. I'm not blaming him for what happened last night, the whole team was panicking throughout the second half, not just him, what I'm saying is that I think Yanga-Mbiwa might have been able to calm the rest of them down, whereas Taylor's never going to be able to do that. Don't get me wrong, he's not bad, but now that we have two good centre backs at the club, why would you play a not bad one ahead of them? I'm more than happy with his position at the club if as it seems is likely he's going to provide willing and able cover for Colo and Mapou, but if Colo goes in the summer then we absolutely must get someone else in to play in front of him and Williamson. I think the fact he started last night had much more to do with things outside of pure footballing reasons than it did with putting out the best team available to us. most of the reason for the last ditch tackles are when someone breaks off someone else and taylor has had to cover. it's rarely the man he was marking that he has had to last ditch tackle and for what it's worth colo done little last night to alleviate any pressure, for all his composed nature he wasn't any better than taylor. Yeah, like I said, they were all s*** in the second half, including Colo, but he's not usually like that, is he, and I haven't just come to this conclusion after watching last night's game, you know. As for the last ditch tackles, well that may be so, but notice how often it's Taylor standing a metre or two behind the rest who's playing them onside in the first place. More often than not that's exactly what happens. and taylor isn't usually shit either. the last ditch tackles bit is getting silly now. someone's mentioned he makes decent last ditch tackles and you can't deny it so you are trying to find ways to make it negative.

i realise thats the default setting for everyone but no he wasn't, both had little to do in the first half and looked ropey in the second.

People always say that Taylor makes some good last ditch tackles and blocks, without considering why he's having to make those kind of interventions. Quite a large part of the reason is because of the way he plays, he invites pressure by continually backing off and lets the opposition get forward into a dangerous position before doing anything about it. If he was more composed a la Coloccini then he would either intervene earlier in a position where even if he got it wrong and gave away either the ball or a foul it wouldn't matter much, or shepherd the opposition player away from danger, rather than letting them advance towards goal which is what he does normally. When we're on top of a game or it's pretty even it's not a huge deal because Colo's calming influence can win out, but when we're under concerted pressure in a game, like we were last night, his style of play doesn't alleviate that it amplifies it. I'm not blaming him for what happened last night, the whole team was panicking throughout the second half, not just him, what I'm saying is that I think Yanga-Mbiwa might have been able to calm the rest of them down, whereas Taylor's never going to be able to do that. Don't get me wrong, he's not bad, but now that we have two good centre backs at the club, why would you play a not bad one ahead of them? I'm more than happy with his position at the club if as it seems is likely he's going to provide willing and able cover for Colo and Mapou, but if Colo goes in the summer then we absolutely must get someone else in to play in front of him and Williamson. I think the fact he started last night had much more to do with things outside of pure footballing reasons than it did with putting out the best team available to us. most of the reason for the last ditch tackles are when someone breaks off someone else and taylor has had to cover. it's rarely the man he was marking that he has had to last ditch tackle and for what it's worth colo done little last night to alleviate any pressure, for all his composed nature he wasn't any better than taylor.

sounds familiar ?

Basically this - we were lucky to win this match, Krul saving our bacon in the second half with at least 3 great saves....all caused by handing the initiative to Villa, who, thanks to Lambert's HT reorganization, really put us under the screw. They went for it with 3, sometimes 4 up front and with Gutierrez having a nightmare second half, our m/f couldn't cope at times. Naturally, we reverted to hoofing the ball forward once Shola came on, and needless to say, he lost it more times than not.This is Pardew's favoured tactic. Pardew had millions of pounds worth of talent in the side and still managed to make us look worse than Villa in the second half...their side cost a fraction of ours. We have some great players but we are never going to see the best of them under this man...some may disagree, but that's my opinion. do you not think sissoko and cabaye had crap second halves ?

Coloccini normally covers the left side of centre, tonight he was trying to cover both left and right. you reckon, i thought taylor went for benteke and colo went after bent in general.

I like Taylor most of the time, I still wouldn't play him when he's clearly not up to it because of his lack of fitness and we have fit and probably better options. i did say today i'd only play taylor if he was fit, also i thought colo was wanting tonight aswell though. it was a collective failure rather than an individual one.

i see the players in similar terms, they can do fantastic things, look great for spells, but they collapse when there's pressure, i'm not sure who to blame.

don't you think he has the same tactic when we are losing ?

about 20mins and like villa today, because we had to come out.

can you remember the last time we played better in the second half than the first regardless of the score ? everton 2nd half at goodison earlier this season, abomination of a first half but much better 2nd your right,any more ? why are we a first half team, i don't think it's tactics.

can you remember the last time we played better in the second half than the first regardless of the score ?

no argument with that. the one thing jonas does is work, doesn't matter if it's the left or right, if he's going to do it may as well do it to the best advantage. Does anyone remember Jonas playing regularly on the right while at us? he hasn't regularly, more so when a dead ball situuation has broken down and he's found himself there. he played there a bit for mallorca though, seem to remember him creating a few for that forward guiza or somesuch ? however my main gripe with pardew at the minute is his persistence with jonas.

no argument with that. the one thing jonas does is work, doesn't matter if it's the left or right, if he's going to do it may as well do it to the best advantage.

tonight people haven't been defending his season but the furore about the second half on tonights game.

can see him becoming a higher calibre sibierski. many underwhelmed at his signing but end up really liking and more importantly, respecting him.

well we certainly have.

don't even think it was lamberts team talk as much as the villa players had a break in order to regroup and knew they HAD to go for it.

so, so ,so so much.

eggs bastard zackerly