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8 thoughts on “A Player Review [by Gary Watton]”

• Nice article. I would question your assertion about Torres being ‘lethal’ in Europe against anything but the mildest of competition. Also, Ramires, as much as I love him, he’s simply not good enough to be in the first XI. His first touch and passing are not even League 2 level and I don’t see how that can improve over one summer.

  Other than that, everything else is spot on 🙂

• Thank you Arthur. I am interested to hear what others think about our current players.

• Torres would have much better if he had been given a run in the team instead of sporadic starts when etoo was unavailable. I can’t take to etoo in a cfc shirt and he’s way past his best anyway. Salah won’t make the grade, another expensive mistake. We need to sign a pacy right back cos I think brana is on the wane. Build a team around matic and please get rid of this out-dated and dire 4-5-1 formation and play two up front especially at home against weaker teams

• Don’t disagree with most of your assessments. Like many CFC fans, I appreciate the effort Torres puts in, but the fact is, he’s simply ineffective. Luiz is an inconsistent talent, lacking in judgment and discipline. I think JT has another solid year in his body; Cahill is coming into his own; Willian battles hard every match; Schurrle isn’t afraid to shoot; Matic has the potential to be an absolute beast in midfield; and Hazard is just a remarkable talent. We need a real striker, of course, and though I love Petr Cech, I believe Courtois needs to be at the Bridge, along with Lukaku.

  I’m hopeful for next season.

• Good informative comments there, Ish and Brian about Ivanovic, Salah, and Torres. I also would like to see two strikers up top, emulating such great double acts as Hutchinson and Osgood, Dixon and Durie, Hughes and Zola, and Gudjohnsen and Hasselbaink, plus Anelka and Drogba. Unfortunately two centre forwards will remain José’s Plan B when we need a goal or two.

• Spot on about the CL semi finals, although 0-0 was a semi-decent result against Madrid ultimately it cost us through not having an away goal to force Madrid to come at us at the Bridge. Too many games we try to cling on to 1-0’s instead of killing games off. Torres was past his best 2 seasons ago so why he wasn’t replaced this year is beyond me, personally I couldn’t see why we bought Willian instead of a striker, for me he’s just ANOTHER midfielder in an already overstocked area. Oscar has talent to burn and with a little more time and effort could be a massive player for us, if we’re going to carry on with 4-2-3-1 then Oscar, Hazard and Schurrle should get a run at being the 3, Schurrle at least has a good eye for a shooting opportunity. We just need to find the 1, and a few more options at the back, just in case, especially if Luiz goes.
  Oh and Jose needs to drop the “we can’t do it” routine, looked at times like some of the team believed we couldn’t! We CAN. 🙂

• Enjoyed reading your review and agree with almost everything said. However, I also remember some pretty painful 1-0 games during Jose’s first period in charge! I think he has a plan though and will manage us for longer than last time.
  What is also needed is a sense of hunger in many of the players which was woefully absent in some of our games againt “lesser” opposition this season. Perhaps some opportunities for our home grown or loaned players might put some pepper in the team?

• Jamie, I definitely agree that midfield is overstocked, and we have plenty of midfielders on loan too. Apparently José wants Khedira to bolster our midfield. However he has been injured for much of the season, which ought to start alarm bells ringing.Phil, I’d love to see some of our loaned players given more opportunities. Can we not use Bamford or Moses as substitutes? I’d like to see more of Ake and Kalas too

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