Parker's view of Berbatov..

[Adi-ffc]

When he was subbed he gave the armband to the ref. Visibly so unimpressed with the 'effort' in another awful display that he couldnt' give Berbs the armband himself. surely Rene will force him out of the team...  :026:

[One Martin Thomas]

I saw that too !  I  was not too impressed with Berba's body language when he took the armband off the ref either...

[bill taylors apprentice]

I have said this elsewhere on another thread,
No disrespect  to Parker, but its a sad situation when a player of his type stands out and is head and shoulders better than some of the so called gifted players in the team.

[PokerMatt]

I really feel for Parker. Yeah he's not the same player of a few years ago, but boy does he try. The same amount of effort from the sulking Bulgarian and a few others and we wouldn't be in this situation.

He moved to get first team football, but he does not deserve to have the rabble around him he currently does. The amount of times our pressing game that we attempted went to pot because Berba didn't bother was ridiculous.

We need players who put 100% effort in from now until May or we're screwed. Even if those players are less talented, the effort alone would put them ahead of the performances of Berbatov, Bent and Ruiz right now.

[Fulham_Surrey]

Dude, Bent could have had a hat trick, Berba was trying and chasing the ball, unlike previous games. Nothing wrong with our attack.  We missed 4 or 5 clear chances at home. We could have easily won yesterday.  Berba could have had an easy goal if Bent (who is technically dreadful) had decided not to pass the ball on the grass (the defender cleared it), but scooped it to Berba who has a wide open net.  Berba played behind Bent and was feeding him the balls. Again, Bent is not a clinical finisher.  We should try the young Dembele on top.  Berba is the best finisher but we cant play him on top according to Jol so he has to figure out a way to do it.

[bill taylors apprentice]

We all know we are in a difficult situation and its not ideal to play too many untried youngsters but, I would have replaced 2 or 3 of yesterdays team with youngsters.

It could have offered the potential for improvement and I really don't think it would have made it worse.

[bill taylors apprentice]

Dude, Bent could have had a hat trick, Berba was trying and chasing the ball, unlike previous games. Nothing wrong with our attack.  We missed 4 or 5 clear chances at home. We could have easily won yesterday.  Berba could have had an easy goal if Bent (who is technically dreadful) had decided not to pass the ball on the grass (the defender cleared it), but scooped it to Berba who has a wide open net.  Berba played behind Bent and was feeding him the balls. Again, Bent is not a clinical finisher.  We should try the young Dembele on top.  Berba is the best finisher but we cant play him on top according to Jol so he has to figure out a way to do it.

Really? If that was Berbatov making an effort, its still miles away from whats expected.
And I don't just mean players huffing and puffing around either, a PL player needs to do the unselfish stuff for the team, hard work off the ball when we have the ball and when we don't.   

[Fulham_Surrey]

bill taylor, fully agreed. I just dont think he is in good physical shape which begs the question why is Jol playing him

[PokerMatt]

37% Ball possession 63%

9 Goal attempts   21

3 Shots on goal   5

4 Shots off goal 7

Not being funny, but those stats at home against a team who themselves were really struggling does not show that we could have easily won. If we did, it wouldn't have been deserved. Even with Bent's misses they still created much more and saw SIXTY-THREE percent of the ball.

What I saw was Berba making an attempt to win the ball only when it came near him and managing just not to get there in time. It wasn't effort - at least, not nearly enough of it.

And there is plenty wrong with our attack if we manage only seven shots (and two blocked) on goal at home against Swansea. But that's just my opinion.

[triny]

 :031: :doh:At least we had shots on goal better than past game's. I do think that the midfield could have tryed to get in a space to give our defence an option other than the goalkeeper.nearly got us in more trouble.:-(

[callumc513]

Dude, Bent could have had a hat trick, Berba was trying and chasing the ball, unlike previous games. Nothing wrong with our attack.  We missed 4 or 5 clear chances at home. We could have easily won yesterday.  Berba could have had an easy goal if Bent (who is technically dreadful) had decided not to pass the ball on the grass (the defender cleared it), but scooped it to Berba who has a wide open net.  Berba played behind Bent and was feeding him the balls. Again, Bent is not a clinical finisher.  We should try the young Dembele on top.  Berba is the best finisher but we cant play him on top according to Jol so he has to figure out a way to do it.

Entirely agree. Berba had a good game yesterday and we would have won if we had a better striker than Bent.

[Pluto]

Berba was a complete passenger- he spent most of the game strolling around uninterested and should have been substituted.

[MJG]

I will stick up a little for Berbatov yesterday. I thought he did work to close down and tackle and get involved.
maybe not enough but he did do it. But in his main job of being a forward he failed once again.

[Max Headroom]

Berba was trying harder than he normally did yesterday but even though bent missed his chances, at least he got into positions to score..... Berba didn't.

[Twig]

Dude, Bent could have had a hat trick, Berba was trying and chasing the ball, unlike previous games. Nothing wrong with our attack.  We missed 4 or 5 clear chances at home. We could have easily won yesterday.  Berba could have had an easy goal if Bent (who is technically dreadful) had decided not to pass the ball on the grass (the defender cleared it), but scooped it to Berba who has a wide open net.  Berba played behind Bent and was feeding him the balls. Again, Bent is not a clinical finisher.  We should try the young Dembele on top.  Berba is the best finisher but we cant play him on top according to Jol so he has to figure out a way to do it.

Nothing wrong with our attack except their failure to thier job and score goals.

[bill taylors apprentice]

Dude, Bent could have had a hat trick, Berba was trying and chasing the ball, unlike previous games. Nothing wrong with our attack.  We missed 4 or 5 clear chances at home. We could have easily won yesterday.  Berba could have had an easy goal if Bent (who is technically dreadful) had decided not to pass the ball on the grass (the defender cleared it), but scooped it to Berba who has a wide open net.  Berba played behind Bent and was feeding him the balls. Again, Bent is not a clinical finisher.  We should try the young Dembele on top.  Berba is the best finisher but we cant play him on top according to Jol so he has to figure out a way to do it.

Entirely agree. Berba had a good game yesterday.

[/b]


Thats so wrong

[farfouille]

Statistically, Berbatov had a great game because he won every possible aerial combat and his passes were accurate (don't tell me I am the only one who saw it). However, he wasn't a threat at all and he didn't have the excuse for playing behind a striker because they were supposed to play a diamond formation with 2 forwards (Berba and Bent) with Ruiz behind them (according to Jol).
The average position of the players showed something different though:


We actually played with 1 defensive midfielder (Boateng), one full back who also had a winger role (Zverotica), 3 central midfielders - Ruiz (!), Parker and Kasami, then we had Berba and then upfront we had Bent who had 3 good chances that he missed. Not sure if the problem was bad luck or tactics but I can't really recall Ruiz feeding our 2 forwards in this game...

[epsomraver]

Statistically, Berbatov had a great game because he won every possible aerial combat and his passes were accurate (don't tell me I am the only one who saw it). However, he wasn't a threat at all and he didn't have the excuse for playing behind a striker because they were supposed to play a diamond formation with 2 forwards (Berba and Bent) with Ruiz behind them (according to Jol).
The average position of the players showed something different though:


We actually played with 1 defensive midfielder (Boateng), one full back who also had a winger role (Zverotica), 3 central midfielders - Ruiz (!), Parker and Kasami, then we had Berba and then upfront we had Bent who had 3 good chances that he missed. Not sure if the problem was bad luck or tactics but I can't really recall Ruiz feeding our 2 forwards in this game...

just shows how wrong statistics are then

MATCH STATS
Possession
53%
47%
90mins
Manchester City
Tottenham Hotspur
Shots
15         13
On target
10          5
Corners
4            7
Fouls

Spurs had 53 % possession to 47% City  similar amount of shots but who lost 6- 0?

[Herbie]

Beat me to it, Epsom. I agree, statistics can be used to support any argument, but they don't always give the complete picture.  One could say that Berba had a bad game because he failed to fulfil his role as striker by not scoring.

Also, looking at that diagramof average positions, one could argue that Berba dropping deep occupied the space that Ruiz should have been operating in, pushing Ruiz back into midfield and leaving Bent as a lone striker.

The thing that strikes me from the diagram is the void on our left hand side

[farfouille]

just shows how wrong statistics are then

MATCH STATS
Possession
53%
47%
90mins
Manchester City
Tottenham Hotspur
Shots
15         13
On target
10          5
Corners
4            7
Fouls

Spurs had 53 % possession to 47% City  similar amount of shots but who lost 6- 0?

My point was about tactics, not statistics. Berba could have been Man of the Match if that diamond formation had really worked. Instead, he's the big disapointment once again.