verlaine1979

You couldn't have made my point for me more succinctly if you'd tried.

Two things: 1) Davis rarely turns on the ball - he prefers to play in the direction he's facing, much like an entire generation of British footballers. 2) He hinders counter attacks because he's so slow to play the ball in the final third. He wants a look at every option before he picks one, by which time the defence is usually set again. He's not alone in this, of course, but if Davis was judged by the same criteria as the rest of the squad rather than being idolised as infallible, we wouldn't have to have these conversations in the first place. Oh, and a third for free. He isn't even that good at the defensive/retention stuff any more. Gave up possession for City's goal, and failed to track Hazard for Chelsea's first. Been that way for well over a season now - he's slow, indecisive and frequently caught in possession these days.

Bit of a straw man really. Nobody is saying we expect to have a midfielder who does all of that. Quite the opposite. We're saying we don't actually need a midfielder who does all the harrying, fetching and carrying against weaker teams, because playing the likes of Davis in those games leads to situations like Sunday, where we struggle to break down a very poor Hull side.

Or, in summary I'm saying we've scored half our league goals in just two games against dross. Or that our midfield has managed a single goal all season, and that from a substitute in the dying minutes against the aforementioned dross. Do three goals against Burnley make up for not laying a glove on Chelsea and only managing a penalty against Hull (and relying on an o.g. for our 'famous' win against Inter)?

We have a lot of blocked shots that count technically as 'chances' but which were never likely to make it beyond the covering defender. Our chance creation stat seems to be a balm to a lot of people, but barring the Burnley game where we genuinely did create a lot of scoring opportunities, I don't think this is a genuine reflection of our creativity. We're certainly not spurning anything like 15-20 genuine goal scoring opportunities each game.

Last three league games we've scored five goals, only one of which was in open play, and that from a Stones back pass/mistake. Only one goal from any of the midfield three in eleven league games this season (JWP against a dead-and-buried West Ham). I don't believe our failure to score more against Hull this afternoon had anything to do with tiredness, or unlucky/inept finishing - we have had a midfield creativity/goal scoring problem for several seasons now, and it wont get any better until certain inadequate players are dropped. Today we had Davis and Clasie as ostensible central midfielders, but how many times did they actually show up in the box when we were attacking? So many times today we had the ball wide, with only Austin in the box covered by two CBs. I see what both players bring in retention and recycling of possession, but popping the ball around in the middle third hoping to win on corners is going to lead to more results like today. I'd like to see Boufal in place of Davis & Hojbjerg in place of Clasie. Based on recent performances, I'm not sure we'd lose much defensively, while the gains in creativity and ball-carrying would be massive.

Unfortunately it's having cack like Davis behind them that is the reason we're not creating anything.

That's why it's not called 'controlling the game'.

Hmm, the usual suspects playing an awful lot of propaganda football at the moment.

We've got very little in the way of imagination going forward. Reach the edge of the box, pass wide to fullback or wide attacker who takes a touch to kill the ball and then tries to cross from standing. Cleared away. Repeat.

He took that off JWP - Prowse was certainly holding the ball early on.

If you think the difference in this game is just down to finishing, you're not watching closely enough. Chelsea have tried to stretch us every time they've had the ball, and as a result they've forced us to make mistakes and won fouls. We've largely played around in front of them because (as Andy Townsend observed at the start of the second half) our midfield and wide attack are not brave enough on the ball.

Davis and Clasie both rubbish today, and not just defensively. In possession, neither strays far beyond the half way line, and as a result we're really struggling to move the ball through midfield. Since our defensively-minded central midfielders can't defend, I'd rather have Hoj and Boufal on in their place - it'd give Chelsea more to think about than our mind-numbingly slow build up.

My favorite player, covering himself in glory as he did last week.

Very sweetly struck, lovely technique. So, if he carries on at this rate of scoring, he would end up with around 18 goals in the Championship, which would be very respectable.

Great goal from Boufal, and a few moments where is control was Hazard-esque. A player like that on the pitch changes the dynamic - other teams will be scared of him, and I'm not sure we've had a player opponents genuinely fear since we returned to the Prem.

That was glorious.

The only error for the goal was Davis dithering in possession and then passing the ball to a City player. Everything else was just other players failing to dig the team out of that situation. Hardly a surprise though that only about three people watching seemed to notice who was at fault, and everyone else is busy apportioning blame elsewhere.

Yup, we had a great break brewing down the left just before their disallowed equaliser. If I'm not mistaken, the usual suspect was responsible for the decision to pick a high percentage ball into midfield rather than the riskier ball down the line, and as a result we handed possession back and almost gave up the lead. It doesn't even make a lot of sense - I'd much rather lose the ball near city's corner flag than on the centre circle.

I agree - based purely on our attacking so far this season, City have no reason to play this one particularly conservatively, especially when most of the talent in their squad is up front.

Pep not exactly showing our attack a lot of respect by only picking three defenders.

Only saw one replay of the JRod header, but it definitely sounded like the whistle went so early it was for something happening elsewhere in the box. Pretty dispiriting result - played well without really carving them open and then got suckered by an irritatingly good finish that put the technique of our strikers into sharp relief. In a way it felt like Inter were England and we were the Eastern European minnow that plays well for 90 minutes of a Wembley qualifier and then gets done by one moment of quality.

Great finish - what JWP should have done in the first half.

Apparently it is the sum of assists + key passes (that's passes/crosses/mi**** shots that lead to a shot being taken). As far as I'm aware, the key passes stat has no control for quality. If you take 10 ill-advised shots from distance that go nowhere near the goal, you'd still be said to have created ten chances. Still, heady company, though if you compare chances to goals, our conversion rate is 9% while the others are between 15-16.5%. Better players obviously convert a higher % into goals, but there's almost certainly a different in chance quality buried in there too.