Unbelievable

Fantastic goal that

Wow, Modric!

Sent off!

So that's both Madrid and Barcelona out before the quarter finals..

Ramos

Wellbeck wants shooting tonight..

Wellbeck Was offside anyway, wasn't he?

What the fuck..?

Evra

I don't think the criticism has been that excessive tbh. Players with less ability, such as Shola, get loads more stick ironically.

Especially since track record is so, so important whenever we want to criticise someone. I'm not criticising his past record, I'm analysing his performance so far this season and coming to the conclusion that it's at the level of his ability or where we need it to be. Nobody is saying he is s*** or we should look to replace him as far as I can see, but some people ARE becoming tired of waiting for him to magically click into form whilst his underperformance can not be openly discussed without name calling or being accused of negativism. I can't speak for College Dropout, but I love the bloke as a person and enjoyed every minute of that magical first few months with us, but that doesn't stop me from saying it as I see it. I'm still confident he can find form and be that striker he promised to be, but I'm past blind hope at this point and openly worrying if it will happen this season at all. If some people can't handle a few critical questions with regards to their perceived darlings than so be it. I don't why you have to use such ridiculous exaggeration and stereotyping other people's views. That's a fair enough statement, but I'm not the only one doing it. Plenty of people on the other side of the argument are ridiculing the thought that Cisse "dip in form" is even worthy of discussion.

Especially since track record is so, so important whenever we want to criticise someone. I'm not criticising his past record, I'm analysing his performance so far this season and coming to the conclusion that it's at the level of his ability or where we need it to be. Nobody is saying he is shit or we should look to replace him as far as I can see, but some people ARE becoming tired of waiting for him to magically click into form whilst his underperformance can not be openly discussed without name calling or being accused of negativism. I can't speak for College Dropout, but I love the bloke as a person and enjoyed every minute of that magical first few months with us, but that doesn't stop me from saying it as I see it. I'm still confident he can find form and be that striker he promised to be, but I'm past blind hope at this point and openly worrying if it will happen this season at all. If some people can't handle a few critical questions with regards to their perceived darlings than so be it.

http://descherpepen.nl/img/kop-in-het-zand.jpg

Why is it more ridiculous to criticise Cisse for underperforming than others, such as Pardew or Jonas? You say he's been part of a struggling team as if that absolves him of any criticism, but he's been as much as anyone in a position to influence that. Imagine where we would be now if he'd scored at the same rate as the second half of last season, or even one in two.

That's debatable tbh. It's not. Benteke is much more all round..

Alternatively you could argue he's not the ideal striker for our current system. I've said this before, but I think with the pace of Gouffran, Sissoko and Ben Arfa we are perfectly set up to be a great counter attacking side. Up top you would want a forward capable of holding the ball up and bringing runners into play as well as create chances for himself and others, and considering we're playing with only one real striker, somebody who can be relied upon to hit the net more often than not when presented with a chance. A threat from set pieces wouldn't go amiss either seeing as we're useless at them. As it is, Cisse provides none of these requirements in sufficient quantities. I really do hope it clicks soon, but I find myself incredibly frustrated by seeing one of our better players in theory having a stinker for such a long time and people continuing to blame the manager, the system and his team mates before even contemplating there may be an issue with the player himself.

A difficult bit of form that has now lasted since last summer, i.e. for almost 8 months, coming off a spell where his confidence couldn't have been higher?

We haven't played 442 for months

So nobody has been able to answer my question about what specific strengths he has, that we are not playing too, except for pointing to his number of shots as some form of evidence that we are not creating enough chances for him? Look, I don't need pointing out that we aren't exactly Brazil when it comes to creating chances, but neither do I think we are much worse than other teams in the league, and chance creation is as much something strikers contribute to actively as something that is done for them. From the statistics that Rich posted a couple of weeks ago his chance conversion was way below last season's and other top strikers. I don't even need to look at stats to know he's not brilliant at holding the ball up and creating chances for others. So I ask again, if indeed Cisse's disappointing season is a consequence of his team mates not doing their job well enough rather than he himself failing, how exactly should his team mates provide better service by playing to his strengths? Ping it high to him to hold it up, play through balls for him to beat the offside trap, make him work the channels, play crosses in from the sides? For me, based on what I've seen in the season and a bit he has been with us he scores the spectacular where he doesn't need to think and can just put his foot through it. Whilst these goals obviously look fantastic, it's pretty damn hard to base your gameplan around one of them happening every forthnight if you ask me.

Says it all. Those first couple of months I really felt for him, he just didn't get a sniff. Ba's gone but we still expect the same results from a completely different player, we've got to play to his strengths more. I don't mean to be funny, but what exactly are his strengths, except for scoring wonder goals from outside of the area? I think earlier in the season people were correct in pointing to the fact that he probably is a lone forward in a 433 rather than a support striker, and hence didn't work well with Ba unfortunately. However, we've long since changed to his preferred system, and still he hasn't really scored enough goals yet for a lone forward of a team with European aspirations. In my opinion his general contribution to our play isn't good enough either to make his lack of goalscoring acceptable, i.e. he's not creating chances for himself or others sufficiently. At this point, I hope he finds his goalscoring boots before the end of the season, or I would be looking for a replacement in the summer rather than a better deputy than Shola to provide some pressure.

Wenger

Bale scores again. The boy is on fire.

2-0

Bale again