You can say that but with our second choice defensive duo and basically no midfield, West Brom managed exactly two efforts on goal and neither of them came by the centre-halfs getting beaten on the ground or in the air.
The Shopping List—aka We've got flipping great wadges of cash
West Brom's inefficacy creating chances had a hell of a lot more to do with the fact that they never really had the ball.
Didn't think the centrebacks were that bad yesterday as individuals, though both displayed their weaknesses. Squillaci could just about have given away a penalty when Fortune bowled into him when he had both feet planted, and Koscielny pulled out an absurd rash tackle in the second half, which he does every other game.
Personally, I would say that was a great tackle by Squillaci.
It ended well so let's call it a great tackle I suppose.
I only saw very brief highlights on MOTD, but Koscielny got done badly by Odemwingie when Squillaci made that great/lucky block at the end. He was caught square on, ridiculously crap defending.
Even worse, it was that lump Fortune. Awful defending.
He got done badly when he made that sliding, scissor tackle from behind that could easily have been a red.
Well we have no choice but to play him so it's not worth worrying about
if we are to win the league we're gonna have to be immense moving forward
Nothing to do with the CBs or Almunia that we managed to create exactly 1 decent opportunity for about 65 minutes against the 2nd worst defence in the league.
Make no mistake - we are quite useless going forward these days as well. Personally, I think that is part of why we concede more goals than necessary. We commit too many players forward far too often to compensate for how inefficiant our attacking play is. Yesterday was no exception.
That's cos we play tippy tappy pussyball to the edge of the box
I wonder how much it'd take to lure Agüero from Atletico.
50m or more, as Chelsea found out
Klaus wrote:I wonder how much it'd take to lure Agüero from Atletico.
I've never seen what all the fuss is about, and we'd be forced to play him wide.
He's incredibly gifted. We could probably play him anywhere in the attack as long as we don't depend on him to beat defenders in the air. But we don't.
I'm not saying I wouldn't want him, only that he'd cost an absolute fortune, and I think there are others I spend that kind of money on before him.
Yeah, it's a fair point about the price tag. I suspect it was mainly to fend off prospectors in january though. If they can get around £20-25 million for him and make sure that he'd leave for a club outside of Spain they'd probably be tempted to sell.
He's a good player, very good. Super intelligent in terms of decision making around the box.
Klaus wrote:Yeah, it's a fair point about the price tag. I suspect it was mainly to fend off prospectors in january though. If they can get around £20-25 million for him and make sure that he'd leave for a club outside of Spain they'd probably be tempted to sell.
They rejected 35m didn't they? 10-15m is a lot to shave off just because it's a different time of year. I think he'd easily command 30m odd.
I'm actually beginning to question if we have anything absolutely right beyond our little attacking midfield boys (LAMBs), namely the group of Nasri, Fabregas, Arshavin and Wilshere. Obviously, I like van Persie but I think his injury record makes him a bit of a luxury.
I would not miss anyone else if we got rid of them. Obviously, you try to hold on to guys like Vermin and Sagna, but I really would not be depressed if I saw anyone beyond our LAMBs leave. In fact, I want lots of them (5 or 6) to leave in order to finance the acquisition of a game-changer or 2.
otfgoon wrote:Klaus wrote:Yeah, it's a fair point about the price tag. I suspect it was mainly to fend off prospectors in january though. If they can get around £20-25 million for him and make sure that he'd leave for a club outside of Spain they'd probably be tempted to sell.
They rejected 35m didn't they? 10-15m is a lot to shave off just because it's a different time of year. I think he'd easily command 30m odd.
They were looking at a possible relegation battle though and Forlan was in the worst funk of his career post-United. It could've cost them a lot more than 35 million to sell him at that point. Just a thought. I expect other clubs to be in for him too in any case. It'll probably push the price too high in the end even if Atletico might settle for a decent sum.