₦airaland Forum

kingBolton:
I don't want to see Palmer in that right wing again.. just give him the number 10 role permanently and look for a right winger in the summer.

I proposed this even before he kicked the ball for us.

Griffon:
I’ll love to see this boy play more centrally as we don’t even have any player at the club who connects midfield with attack. He has that guile, creativity and super ball movement.

He may be found out playing out wide as he looks like the type that plays within himself a lot. A no10 role would see this boy’s inner KDB light up.

Great signing.

Palmer is the league’s second highest goal scorer after Haaland.

Things you love to read.

Ibime:
That is also Poch fault. He could have dropped Enzo behind Caicedo. Enzo does not have the legs or spirit to be a 2nd midfielder

Simples.

BlueMann:
You do realize a lot of it is down to the gaffer. How many times have we complained about Enzo playing out of position, so much so that sometimes he's the one leading the press, and sometimes he's stationed on the left flank like a false winger. Whenever him and Caicedo have played close together in the double pivot, they have generally been very good.

Honestly, I wouldn’t advice anyone to go with the emboldened suggestion. They may appear good against a mid team with a poor press, definitely not against a team that press high up the pitch.

Enzo is not the quickest of players. His recovery is suspect and he does little to improve the team defensively. Caicedo was never this bad when playing alongside Mc Allister at Brighton.

Ibime:
They should bench Enzo till season end, let's test whether this is a one off.

On paper it’s bound to return good results. Nothing beats having CMs who offers you the license to maraud forward while providing a high level of protection for the backline.

Caicedo have been suffering. The support has been so abysmal that sometimes that boy is left trapped in no man’s land. That explains the jittery attitude, panics and gaffes.

Drogba-esque goal!

Jackson!!!

NinjaMetahuman:
Caciedo baling hard today.

Gallaghers inclusion makes much sense now.

With the English man playing beside him, Caicedo is offered some level of confidence. No panics, just go out there and play your game.

Look closely, we are rejecting nearly every space in our own half. You don’t get this when Enzo starts.

nihilistjnr:
Done

Mates need to put to bed the Saka comparison. The only two young English players on Palmer’s level are Bellingham and Foden.

PERFECT HATTRICK!

See as guys are busy covering grounds.

Enzo would come on and decides to stroll around the park.

drisham:
Penalty left to complete the hatrick

If you’re referring to the perfect hat-trick, he needs to score with his right foot to achieve that.

Do you smell an incoming hat trick?

Palmer!!!!!!!

zeusis:
See wetin palmer miss

Such a great piece of defending by Palmer to stop himself from scoring.

Clever interplay between Jackson and Palmer. Omo this white kid has some crazy foot works.

Cold Palmer!!!

Big miss by Beto. Chelsea lucky not to be trailing.

nihilistjnr:
What an underwhelming teamsheet.

Gallagher and Caicedo pivot looks like a recipe for disaster on paper.

The bench looks threadbare as well.

On the bright side, a swerve from the not-too-convincing 4-3-3.

Frank Lebouef don finish us

swiz123:
I hope the club isn't using their money to treat Sterling.

Ballzproblem2:
🚨 𝐁𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐊𝐈𝐍𝐆: Enzo Fernández and Axel Disasi are out injured for Chelsea, club confirms 🔵

Raheem Sterling and Robert Sanchez are ill while Levi Colwill, Fofana, Reece James, Roméo Lavia, Nkunku and Ugochukwu are still all on club’s injury report.

🔙 Ben Chilwell, back on team training.

One would think they’re organizing a medic team vs the fit team.

Just imagine the number of key players who’re either on long or short term injuries.

“Hey Lavia, it’s Nkunku. I just checked in today. Is that Fofana in charge of the ding wing?”

nihilistjnr:
Your argument makes zero sense.

If you think Chelsea deserve to win because they scored from a corner and a speculative shot at a patently shït keeper , then I don't know how you can rationalize an argument that Sheffield deserved to lose a game where they did better than us attacking wise.

The only logical outcome of your argument is that we should have parked the bus after going 2-1 up against Sheffield, and that is A position I can never agree with. So I'm quite happy to leave it there.

Sheffield literally netted Liverpool only 3 days before yesterday. And instead of trying to protect their eventual 2-1 lead, Liverpool fired another one in. Both in the final 8 minutes of the game.

Sheffield conceded an average of 25 shots in each of their last 3 games. We went there and shot only 6 times, 2 of which were speculative shots into row Z from Gallagher and Madueke.

We are not the first team to go to Sheffield and concede 2 goals this season. However we are the only team in the whole league, and in the whole season to post worse attacking stats than the team YOU describe as having the worst attack in the league.

You’re still clutching at straws mate.

Worse attacking stats is for the reading, did we score two goals or not?

Did we have our noses ahead twice in the game or not?

I’m not a fancy footie manager, I don’t care if Sheffield have been conceding gazillion goals every game, if my team can score twice in the game and still couldn’t hold onto those leads, then I’ll be looking at my defense.

You making a case for that defense is an eyesore.

nihilistjnr:
All of this makes sense until you look at thr facts of yesterday's match.

Sheffield created more chances than us: 10 key passes vs 6
They had more shots than us: 11 vs 6
They had more shots on target than us: 6 vs 3
They won more aerial balls than us: 23 vs 21


By every attacking metric, they dominated us. Our 40 year old centreback had more shots (1) in the game, than our lead striker (0) against an opponent that has conceded 82 goals.

And that's why I'm not buying any nonsense argument that we did enough to win the game, when actually they did more.

Its gotten to thr point where niggas are beginning to ask why we shouldn't be prioritising protecting a lead against Sheffield for God's sake.

People shouting about City, won't see that City conceded 2 goals against Palace on Saturday but won 4-2.

How on earth are niggas complaining that we did not protect lead against Sheffield? Team wey we suppose dey give 3 goal head start, before trashing.

This is what our mates are doing. Then there's us looking for cleansheet...against Sheffield?!

Two wrongs don’t make a right.

When it has turned out that we can’t forward more than four goals or get to do an Aston Villa or Burnley against Sheffield, but can score at least two, doesn’t it rest with the defenders to carry out their primary duty?

Your claim is valid but it isn’t sufficient. We didn’t score four or five but we scored and not once, but twice, same as the free scoring City.

At this point what you should be asking yourself is what were Chelsea doing to concede twice against the leagues worst attack.

swiz123:
Don't even think they will click on that link when it will automatically end their agenda.

One is good and one is poor. Na white man get that site and na him talk am and him no follow us dey for this thread.

Check:

If dem add an extra 2 minutes after Palmer grabbed his hat trick against manyoo to give us the lead, the devils go still equalize that ball 4-4.

Clowns!

If this was our attack:

Palmer Haaland Vinicius

We’ll definitely score goals, and everyone will be happy right? Well, not until Disasi, Badiashile or even Sanchez happens!

That’s a short summary of our season.

larride:
The funny thing be say both sides has solid point.

The kuku is that both your attack and your defense are trash.

Not really.

One problem is manageable, the other is utterly obdurate. There is nothing anyone else has to say here and I’ll buy it.

Men and women may lie but figures don’t lie. Go through our stats, we’ve ‘managed’ to average 1.83 goals scored per match this season - 0.87 in the first half and 0.97 in the second half. Now see why it’s realistically a manageable situation. One may argue that we should be punching above those numbers if not for profligacy and disoriented play upfield, which honestly is true but on the flip side, 1.83 goals per game is realistically ENOUGH to win you a game if you have an astute defense. However, in our case we get to average an abysmal 1.73 goals conceded per game this season - 0.63 in the first half and 1.10 in the second half. Chelsea’s BTTS (Both teams to score) percentage this season is an outrageous 70%. Abeg Oga Larride, how do you manage such numbers?

My guys here who are saying you get it done by outscoring your opponents are bringing a shortsighted fix plan to the table. Going by every metric out there, we can never outscore any team because our defense will end up undoing whatever genius you’ve displayed on that third half.

How many top teams across Europe’s top five leagues are averaging 1.73 goals conceded every game? A club like Chelsea are doing 50+ conceded goals with 6-7 more games to play in a single season and you’re pointing accusing fingers at the attack, mate you’re high on some meth.

Cmon let’s stop playing here and face the reality before us. Na those carpenters they brought here who are masking themselves as defenders be our major and primary problem. Scoring more goals or outscoring your opponent is a secondary problem which wouldn’t have risen if you had kept a clean sheet or kept the goal fest low.

Vischy:
You forgot this is agendaland where everyone got an opinion on football matters 😂😂😂

FR the conclusion of that argument is encapsulated in his submission.

There’s no one dimensional way to defend, rather you stick to what works for you. Some CBs are great when it comes to going toe to toe with a forward, while some are great at cutting off supply to the forward, like you have to literally watch as they step up and intercept a pass that was directed to you.

VVD’s style is more of ball reading. The time he takes to drift backwards, is simply him buying time to decide when is perfect to make that timely interception, block or even a tackle. It’s not a bad approach. John Terry was effective with same approach and excelled at it and this was largely because he lacked pace, so couldn’t charge forward.

Everyone must not charge forward, unless you’re playing in a system that demands such.

ThierryJay:
You actually have a point which is that there've been great defenders known not to shy away from robust challenges.

But there is something you are missing: Effectiveness.

At the end of it all, the hallmark of a great defender is how well he's able to prevent opponents from scoring or creating dangerous situations. It is not necessary that all great defenders have to employ the same style so long as whatever style they adopt is effective.

And it isn't a matter of argument that VVD was the EPL's most effective defender between 2018 - 2021. He had some 2-year downtime afterwards due to injury but has come back strongly since 2023 and the results for Liverpool are there for all to see.

It doesn't matter that VVD avoids lunging into tackles while Vidic and Nesta are tackling warriors. At the end of the day, they are all elite defenders that have helped their teams challenge and win league and UCL titles. What more evidence do you require?

No be only one road enter market.

Btw, Boateng no dey VVD's level.

Give this man a trophy.

raumdeuter:
What type of mental problems made Vidic to do this

We learnt that Cole Palmer just left Liverpool dressing room, we are yet to understand why he was there.