tracertong;2496058 said:
lol pete , hope you enjoyed the match. Barnsley for the cup !
Heheheheee......As it happens Tracer, I had a brilliant day mate. The result stinks, but I still enjoyed myself. Its about the crack when you go away, as much as the result.
NEGATIVES
Malouda? When are the powers upstairs gonna realise that this fella is fu<king useless? It took me about five minutes to see that he was gonna have another crap game. Against a physical team like Barnsley, you do not put your poofier players in the squad. Where was Alex to look after that 9 feet tall striker they had? Why take Pizarro ANYWHERE? Surely Avram didn't think that Claudio was gonna save the game with a wonderful hatrick did he?
In an FA cup game against a Championship side, you need your toughest guys, and if they have the history of the Cup running through their veins, as do English players, then you really do not want to leave out one of your most influential English players. Lampard.
There is a certain historical mentality that runs deep in British players where the FA Cup is concerned. It seems to me that whether you might be a foreign manager or a foreign player, there is a big chance that you will not know what the FA cup means in this country. It's NOT just another game, it's much, much more than that.
We had players who lived up to that example yesterday, Bridge, Terry, Cole, and Wright-Phillips knew what it would take to turn over Barnsley. Nobody, apart from Malouda, Ballack and perhaps Anelka, played badly at all the game. We played some great football, but with no damned goals. Many misses but no goals.
We were outdone by Barnsley's superior determination to WIN. Not outplayed at all. When Barnsley decided that 1 goal was all they were gonna get from us, they parked the bus. With 11 men inside the penalty box defending their goal, Avram brings on Pizarro???? Where was Drog? Where was Lamps?
Every man and his dog KNEW that if Barnsley grabbed a goal, then they would park the bus. Why wasn't Avram aware of that? Why did he not insist to the boys that we needed a flying start and an early goal, because although we began playing well, it was slow. This gave Barnsley every chance they needed to get in our players faces. Which they did for 93 minutes of total committment. Sure we had the better players, but not the hunger to win that Barnsley had.
It would be nice to see Barnsley lift the Cup now. They deserve it as much as anyone.