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Ben Arfa has been dropped because he has provided nothing at all in his last few matches and probably been one of the worst players. If he was tearing teams apart, like we know he is capable of doing, he would start even if he sat down and started tying his boots every time the other team had the ball. Even when Ben Arfa "tracks back" (runs around aimlessly in our end, completely lacking the mentality or skill to actually defend) he isn't that helpful as a defender. Marginally? Zaha is fit and has played in only one competitive match for Manchester. It is a very strange transfer. How can you sign someone (a 20 year old England international at that!) for 15 million and then not even give them a chance to play?

I think u17 is the key word in that sentence Honestly, I wouldn't claim everyone to be proper age in a country with atrocious keeping of record, but we have been giving the players MRI tests that have caused the team to drop several players, including one who was born in America and had no question about his age.

Nigeria Golden Eaglets (u-17) is more dominant than Barcelona. We've been in three of the last four finals.

They have always done so, dating back to the constant failure of the dominant Lyon sides in the 2000's. This season has been especially embarrassing, but unfortunately the trend is nothing new.

I don't think he's a great defender no. They defend well as a team, not necessarily their players. Mertesacker is a good defender, don't get me wrong, I just don't see him as a top 5 defender in the PL. Who would you rate higher than him at CB? I'm only coming up with a few. His positional awareness and aerial ability are excellent. Not great with the ball at his feet, but that's Koscielny's job. Agger (whenever he's fit), Koscielny (prefer him), Terry, Luiz, Colo, Kompany. I do realize it's hard to really compare them like that since it's different kinds of defenders, but there's something with Mertesacker and the ball at his feet like you mentioned that kills me. So stiff in a way, I also like Kaboul and Vertonghen for those reasons as well. Luiz He's terrible. Awful positional sense and discipline Chelsea look far better when he's not involved. Clueless. Felipe, please understand. Luiz has incredible talent, so he obviously isn't just terrible, but the previous poster is right. He is extremely lacking in some of the most important mental areas for a centreback. He is often out of position for no reason whatsoever and commits simple errors that result from a lazy mentality defensively. Even when them played him as a deep midfielder last season, he cost them a big goal against Tottenham by simply not being in the defensive position required of him for no reason. He might be top three in the world for ninety percent of the time, but the ten percent of poor play will always hold him back from achieving full potential. It will be interesting to see how Chelsea handle his situation at the club once Omeruo takes his place in the side. Read what you wrote again and tell me where you actually agree with the previous poster. I completely agree with you fwiw. He was calling Luiz a terrible defender and Chelsea are far better off without him, which in my opinion shows a lack of knowledge. I'm not going to defend him and say he's pure class. But just like you said, for 85-90% of time he's one of the absolute best in the world, if not the best. His problem is consistency due to his mental lapses at times. He doesn't have great discipline, but his positional sense is getting much better. I won't sit here and the defend him till end of time because I've seen what he can do on a bad day, which is what scares me for the World Cup. I just don't agree with calling him terrible, when it's quite clear that on his day he might be the best in the world. (please don't come with the same goes for Bramble) I was agreeing with his poor position and discipline. Reading further, our positions are similar. At 26, the the guy is no child and needs to be improving, though. He should be embarrassed to live in a world where he is dropped for an average Gary Cahill and a finished John Terry.

I don't think he's a great defender no. They defend well as a team, not necessarily their players. Mertesacker is a good defender, don't get me wrong, I just don't see him as a top 5 defender in the PL. Who would you rate higher than him at CB? I'm only coming up with a few. His positional awareness and aerial ability are excellent. Not great with the ball at his feet, but that's Koscielny's job. Agger (whenever he's fit), Koscielny (prefer him), Terry, Luiz, Colo, Kompany. I do realize it's hard to really compare them like that since it's different kinds of defenders, but there's something with Mertesacker and the ball at his feet like you mentioned that kills me. So stiff in a way, I also like Kaboul and Vertonghen for those reasons as well. Luiz He's terrible. Awful positional sense and discipline Chelsea look far better when he's not involved. Clueless. Felipe, please understand. Luiz has incredible talent, so he obviously isn't just terrible, but the previous poster is right. He is extremely lacking in some of the most important mental areas for a centreback. He is often out of position for no reason whatsoever and commits simple errors that result from a lazy mentality defensively. Even when them played him as a deep midfielder last season, he cost them a big goal against Tottenham by simply not being in the defensive position required of him for no reason. He might be top three in the world for ninety percent of the time, but the ten percent of poor play will always hold him back from achieving full potential. It will be interesting to see how Chelsea handle his situation at the club once Omeruo takes his place in the side.

It is quite strange. There are twice as many Asians in the UK as Blacks, yet obviously blacks are much more common in football. People say that the issue is cultural, but how many generations of people from those countries have been living in metropolises such as London and Birmingham? Of course, some may think there is an athletic deficiency given that people from that part of the world are not represented in any of the explosive athletic sports.

Nothing is worse for a player like Ben Arfa than the complacency of knowing you will be picked no matter what. He has been poor in the last few matches and has hurt the team. The dropping was completely warranted. He will come back from it.

He has already dived to secure a draw at SJP the season NUFC were relegated. What does this mean? You don't think his options in attack and midfield would enter the teams of Sociedad, Plzen, and Anderlecht?

And I'm the only one who gets s*** for ''joking'' about Brazilian players. Enyeamagnet is actually dominating players in the first division, unlike certain Brazilians, so I am allowed to talk about this.

Lille look the best positioned to challenge the two money bags clubs in Ligue 1 this year. They handled Monaco rather comprehensively tonight and won 2-0. Enyeama (world #1) hasn't conceded since the middle of September and they've won 5 of 6 in that time. They've actually only conceded four goals in the entire season. I hope they can topple PSG because OM certainly do not look up to it.

Completely atrocious football matches can kill an atmosphere.

At this moment in time, definitely. Whilst Debuchy is now playing as we expected him to, Santon just doesn't seem to be making progress for me at all. At best he's been unnoticeable lately because he doesn't contribute much but doesn't make any clangers either. He needs to improve for me, or it's time to give Dummett or Haidara a run in the side to see what they can offer. I don't know, three or four weeks ago you could have reversed that statement. Davide was more than adequate defensively and positionally (which has been his biggest issue) in my opinion. The problems came in possession which isn't usually the issue. I believe he will improve and is unquestionably our best option at that position right now.

Chelsea and Manchester City still have a lot to say, imo. The winter months will tell us quite a bit. Chelsea especially have a very manageable fixture list until the new year (in sharp contrast to Arsenal) excluding the match against Arsenal, whom always struggled against Mourinho's Chelsea (different times I know). I have them second favourites at the moment personally, but it is very close at the top.

It's sometimes funny to hear perspectives from outsiders who are less invested and slightly less knowledgeable because they support other teams. Most people I know support Arsenal or Chelsea and I've received three separate calls and texts today calling Pardew "Little Wenger" or "Poor man's Wenger" because he's gotten good talent from the rest of Europe and sold big names. It hurts to tell them just how wrong they are. I thought Chelsea were wretched today, frankly. It was a sleepy performance. Still, the team played well and most importantly we didn't come to the game ready to capitulate as per usual, so credit to him for that. Yanga-Mbiwa and Debuchy appear to be settling in finally and Pardew's managed to get good performances out of all four of our centre midfielders of late. If the trends continue, results should improve regardless of his coaching performance.

I hope Chris Hughton enjoys working at Fulham.

:anguish: What's that for like? That's my honest opinion. He's an energetic, positive fullback who we were (nearly) all ecstatic to sign. Then we did our usual thing of absolutely hammering him for a dip in form. A dip? He was a liability for a long period of time and almost 11 months later were finally seeing the kind of player we paid quite a lot for. It's about f***ing time a full French international FB in his peak years puts in these kind of performances, he should have been like this from near enough the start. He's not a kid and didn't deserve to be treated like one. He's not a child no, but the player was put in an unfortunate situation to try and adjust when he arrived last season. He and many other players who had never played in the country before were thrown into a team with no chemistry or confidence that frankly was teetering on the brink of collapse. The delay is understandable. The first few matches of this season were worrisome, but he has turned himself around since his collapse against Hull. Now we sit and look at what he can accomplish. There is no reason he can't be a big player for NUFC, but his weaknesses have been exposed before.

Conversely, the positive performances in the last few matches may have increased his confidence to the point we don't have to shift the team to protect him. Anyway, he needs to keep going in this manner, as he's been a very useful player recently. Both of our fullbacks need to work on being consistently solid at the least. I think both of them have been quite good on an inconsistent basis, but you cannot afford to have days off when you are a defender.

Shrining the boy after one fantastic performance (I thought the entire defence was special today) is the same terrible thought process as wishing for the return of Danny Simpson after a few poor ones.

"When you look at this lad and his build, he is the same height, weight, everything about him, he is like Alan Shearer," insisted Whelan. "He has the same confidence when he gets the ball, he knows where the goal is, he doesn't need to look up, he has this instinct. "Strikers like that have an instinct as to where the goal is. You can't describe it, you can't give it to anybody. "Certain people have it and Alan Shearer was one who had it in abundance, and this lad is exactly the same. "He has this ability to score goals. Sometimes there is no danger, but then, wham, and the ball is in the back of the net."

I haven't seen anything from the two reserve fullbacks to make me think they will be starting quality Premiership players in the next two seasons. First of all, one of them should be on loan once injuries clear and both should be given time to develop before being thrown to the lions. I do rate Santon significantly higher than some people on here though, admittedly.

I disagree with almost every single point made in that article. The Europa League isn't any more or less broken then before. You can talk about format all you want to, but the problems with that tournament will persist as long as monetary incentive is low in comparison to the league for clubs in higher tier leagues. When you factor in the fact that second tier teams in top leagues and top teams in the lower leagues generally have smaller squad than those of the CL behemoths, this is what you get as a result. A knockout may be more interesting, but surely less matches would mean less prize money, less money in gates, and less TV money for participating, all of which would exacerbate the original issues. The author is quick to dismiss the likes of Venezuela and Scotland, but the truth is that there are definitely 40 teams in the world capable of contributing to a competitive World Cup. This isn't cricket either, it is one of the biggest events mankind has produced. I doubt interest will wane in any significant manner. The 24 team Euro is stupid because 24 teams is simply a poor number for a tournament of this style. In fact, anything where we are comparing third place teams group by group is going to be tedious and a waste of time. I would propose a 20 team Euro, with a pre-group stage, knockout round, but this idea never seems to stick with anyone other than myself.

This really isn't much different from our normal first team side, other than the Haidara make an appearance from the dark. http://i.imgur.com/iLxRAvH.jpg Anita and Haidara are the only players playing now that didn't play on Sunday. edit: Mbiwa would have played if not for his ban of course.

This really isn't much different from our normal first team side, other than the Haidara make an appearance from the dark.

I don't understand how someone can say statistics are not useful in football. They have been fairly effective in basketball, which is also a very fluid game. I never said they're not useful, but simply not in the way they are for baseball, not even close. The initial point made was that "stats are useless without context" which was disagreed with "because Moneyball" - but that's exactly the point. There is almost no context in a batter facing a pitcher, in that moment alone it's essentially an individual sport, certainly from the batter's point of view. In comparison, there are very few points in a football match where a player's contribution isn't directly influenced by what his teammates are doing. It's chalk and cheese. Very much agree with your subsequent point. Fair enough, I didn't read the whole discussion, your post just stuck out. In a sport like football, that is so dependent on "team" and other intangible things, statistics will never tell the full story, but in 2013 we are able to do many things with numbers that provide deeper information about players and teams. It is just simple things. As I mentioned, they've introduced some simple things in basketball (percentage of time of player is sprinting, shot charts to see where someone is most effective/ineffective, etc) that have been really useful and similar things would work in football. You are right, though, signing someone because they "put in the most crosses" and other such nonsense is a fairly foolish way of using the numbers.