Heitinga

[Barrett487]

New boy. Free transfer. Played well but also the reason RVP was onside for the first goal. What's the consensus?

[One Martin Thomas]

New boy. Free transfer. Played well but also the reason RVP was onside for the first goal. What's the consensus?

A bit harsh on a debutant.  Very difficult to play offside effectively against a team like Utd so close to your goal. 

[KP_FFC]

bit harsh. probably his only fault from those 81 crosses. though him and burn did excellent.

[Barrett487]

New boy. Free transfer. Played well but also the reason RVP was onside for the first goal. What's the consensus?

A bit harsh on a debutant.  Very difficult to play offside effectively against a team like Utd so close to your goal.  

Agreed, i was only pointing out that i noticed he was well behind the line and had time to adjust. He made a call, the only one that went wrong. I thought he played well.

[Zu-Meister]

steady enough, but did a few things which worried me. hopefully they are few and far between, i i think the combo of hangeland and burn is too immobile, hence needing someone like heitinga who isnt great, but more suitable.

[cookieg]

I think Reither could have done better for that goal, he should have been closer to RVP.

[Barrett487]

I would point out that a number of sceptics had scorned his acquisition, it would be nice for a few of them to post that this performance was promising.

[One Martin Thomas]

I would point out that a number of sceptics had scorned his acquisition, it would be nice for a few of them to post that this performance was promising.

I think you are right point it out though.

[Bassey the warrior]

Think that's harsh, he showed good judgement to get on the line actually, if he'd made a goal line clearance you'd have said different. Riether had a great game but he should've stopped the ball reaching Van Persie.

[PokerMatt]

As Moose said.

I'd rather he gets back to the line and defends the shot - Mata's was mishit, and is the one he thought he might have blocked.

Imagine he steps up and Mata's goes straight in. That's woeful defending right there.

[Barrett487]

Think that's harsh, he showed good judgement to get on the line actually, if he'd made a goal line clearance you'd have said different. Riether had a great game but he should've stopped the ball reaching Van Persie.

Agreed, the same thought occurred to me. As for Reither, i think he was playing to orders, but didn't always respond to situations.

[simplyfulham]

Think that's harsh, he showed good judgement to get on the line actually, if he'd made a goal line clearance you'd have said different. Riether had a great game but he should've stopped the ball reaching Van Persie.

That may have been an astute observation. However it was the case a few times that Heitinga was a couple of yards behind the rest of the defensive line.

He looked good, just a bit rusty.

[HatterDon]

For a guy who is really a defensive mid, he did very well today, as did the entire defense -- well augmented by Richardson, Sidwell, and Kvist.

[Barrett487]

 :plus one:

[JackyFulham90]

Heitinga was brilliant today, very solid

[hovewhite]

Heitinga very impressive as was the whole defense and midfield.

[General]

How can people find space to criticise him or Burn when they dealt with over 80 - EIGHTY crosses - in one game... it was a premiership record.

If we had that many in any other games under any other back four line ups we would have conceded WAY more.

In fact, can someone get the stats together to see how many matches before this one it took for over 80 crosses to tally up? Also - those were just crosses, not even balls on the ground.

[Rudolph]

For a guy who is really a defensive mid, he did very well today, as did the entire defense -- well augmented by Richardson, Sidwell, and Kvist.

He is a centre back who can play DM if required, not the other way round.

[Luffy86]

He was mustard!! Quality signing!!

[Jack Fulham]

I thought he had a really good game. He's a good partner for either Burn or Hangeland. I don't think we should play those two together any more.