Cisse and his teammates.

[ricflairandy]

Anyone who know me nkows i watchec siise for 2 years before we signed him on french tv and thought he was quality

 

 

Howveer watchinging today)speling is awful, sorry, im pissed), i oculdnt help notice that his movement is not what our temamastes expetct.

 

He stands there, pointing at the space behind him, like he did when hew as in france wanting to run onto the ball. yet all of our squad refuse to pass to him until he is in space. Thats not his game, his game was always ot use his pace to run onto theball in space behind him and the players, yet today, when he wanted it , no one gave him it (understandably(because he was not in free space.

 

 

What im sayin gis that what he needs for his style of play, is the total opposite of what our players are looking for when on the attack. We look for him in space, and wont pass it untill he is, wheras he is on the sholder of 2 or 3 defenders wanting it played in behind them. It wont work untill he is either gone, or the defenders are on the same wavvelenght. Anyone elese knti ce this.?

[Guest Sabre]

I understand what you're saying, mate.

 

When he was at Auxerre they built their whole attack around him. Rafa wants something different from his forwards, but I'm not sure why we don't adapt slightly when he is on the pitch?

[Sir Tokyo Sexwale]

top spelling meff

[Guest Sabre]

top spelling meff

 

Hehe, give him a break, he's quite lucid considering he's hammered!

[McBain]

Drambuie claims another victim

[Earl Hafler]

I understand what you're saying, mate.

 

When he was at Auxerre they built their whole attack around him. Rafa wants something different from his forwards, but I'm not sure why we don't adapt slightly when he is on the pitch?

 

He still wasn't what i'd call a good footballer though. The ball would bounce off his first touch like silly putty and he didn't do much work outside 25 yards away from goal.

 

I was hoping he'd develop and that Rafa could polish his raw, unrefined talent but it's not happening at all.

He moves like an athlete and plays football like a shotputter.

[_00_deathscar]

When he was at Auxerre they built their whole attack around him. Rafa wants something different from his forwards, but I'm not sure why we don't adapt slightly when he is on the pitch?

 

For the same reason we didn't alter our way to play to Baros' strenghts?

 

As some posters said about Meelan, if he wants to stay - learn how to play the Rafa way.

[Nebraska Red]

what I saw today was a player who seems to have no link between his feet and his brain, he has little, or no, thought to look where he is going to put the ball, or who is in the area he is going to put it.

 

whatever GH saw in this guy to convince the club to part with 14 million quid has not been displayed for us.

 

he seems to play to orders with no common sense to do something different/unusual/out of the ordinary if the opportunity arises.

 

i am not sure why he even gets a place on the bench these days.

[Guest Sabre]

I turned to my mate today and said that he plays like a sprinter who could play a bit when he was 14/15.

 

Deathscar, I certainly don't think Rafa should tell him team to play differently for one player. Players need to adapt to what the manager wants. However, it seems a little pointless to throw him on (especially when you have no other available options) and ask him to play a certain way which he finds almost impossible.

 

When he was at Auxerre he scored from threaded balls so he could beat players with pace. Today, if we'd been a little bit more savvy, we could have curved the ball around defenders to give him a bit more of a chance.

[Nebraska Red]

I turned to my mate today and said that he plays like a sprinter who could play a bit when he was 14/15.

 

Deathscar, I certainly don't think Rafa should tell him team to play differently for one player. Players need to adapt to what the manager wants. However, it seems a little pointless to throw him on (especially when you have no other available options) and ask him to play a certain way which he finds almost impossible.

 

When he was at Auxerre he scored from threaded balls so he could beat players with pace. Today, if we'd been a little bit more savvy, we could have curved the ball around defenders to give him a bit more of a chance.

 

 

agree with all of that. as for the last bit, we have tried that with him and he has invariably gone too soon and got caught ofsfside, or gone the wrong way.

[Guest Sabre]

agree with all of that. as for the last bit, we have tried that with him and he has invariably gone too soon and got caught ofsfside, or gone the wrong way.

 

I don't know why in situations like today we don't just tell him to stand on the half way line, pop the ball over the top for him to run onto. No offside, good chance for the horse to gallop

[Earl Hafler]

Horse ? With his haircuts, more like a Frilled Neck Lizard

[Nebraska Red]

I don't know why in situations like today we don't just tell him to stand on the half way line, pop the ball over the top for him to run onto. No offside, good chance for the horse to gallop

 

 

baffled me why we were continually playing the game on the wings when they had 2 center halves that are slower than me. I reckon Rafa just wanted to keep them occupied out wide and restrict the attacking ability of their full backs.

[Guest Sabre]

Horse ? With his haircuts, more like a Frilled Neck Lizard

 

Racialist

[Nebraska Red]

Racialist

 

no , he 's a reptilist!!

[Guest Sabre]

baffled me why we were continually playing the game on the wings when they had 2 center halves that are slower than me. I reckon Rafa just wanted to keep them occupied out wide and restrict the attacking ability of their full backs.

 

I imagine that's why he moved Stevie inside to play off Cisse. Stevie almost played a peach of a pass with the outside of his foot for Cisse to skin Henchoz but it was overhit.

 

There were moments late on as well when Cisse was released down the right flank and absolutely no one was at all interested in getting in the box...

 

no , he 's a reptilist!!

 

No, horsialist

[_00_deathscar]

I turned to my mate today and said that he plays like a sprinter who could play a bit when he was 14/15.

 

Deathscar, I certainly don't think Rafa should tell him team to play differently for one player. Players need to adapt to what the manager wants. However, it seems a little pointless to throw him on (especially when you have no other available options) and ask him to play a certain way which he finds almost impossible.

 

When he was at Auxerre he scored from threaded balls so he could beat players with pace. Today, if we'd been a little bit more savvy, we could have curved the ball around defenders to give him a bit more of a chance.

 

Cisse comes across to me as someone who thinks he's far better (or faster) than he actually is. Either that, or he has arguably the most abysmal first touch in football I've witnessed - be it professional or recreational!

 

Look at how heavy his touch is when he tries to run past a defender by knocking it past them...

[Guest Sabre]

Cisse comes across to me as someone who thinks he's far better (or faster) than he actually is. Either that, or he has arguably the most abysmal first touch in football I've witnessed - be it professional or recreational!

 

Look at how heavy his touch is when he tries to run past a defender by knocking it past them...

 

It's not so much heavy as lacking in composure. He doesn't seem to be smart enough to fake and drop the shoulder. He's certainly quick enough to beat 90% of players but he chooses the wrong moment and the wrong angle at which to dry and beat his man.

[Nebraska Red]

Cisse comes across to me as someone who thinks he's far better (or faster) than he actually is. Either that, or he has arguably the most abysmal first touch in football I've witnessed - be it professional or recreational!

 

Look at how heavy his touch is when he tries to run past a defender by knocking it past them...

 

 

I think he runs Morientes a close second for the poorest first touch in a red shirt.

 

Did you see Rafa trap the ball as it flew at him, class even in a suit.

[Guest JV]

Drambuie claims another victim

 

Thought his spelling was better then normal

[Guest Anders Honoré]

strikers like Baros, Cisse and Sinama don't really seem to fit that well into rafa's tactics, as they are at their best using their pace getting in behind the defence, something we under rafa hardly ever do centrally.

 

Sinama does have the allround game that might make him a benitez player after all, but not as the player turning round the last defender and winning penos galore as we saw under houllier, probably more as a withdrawn forward.

 

Owen would conceivably suffer from the same with the caveat that he basically scores goals in any system and probably isn't so reliant one one kind of play to score goals as someone like Cisse is.

 

There were moments late on as well when Cisse was released down the right flank and absolutely no one was at all interested in getting in the box...

No, horsialist

 

A classic thing that. For a team that aims to cross into the box as much as we do, it's amazing how poor we are at getting numbers into the box and getting them into the right positions as well. we don't score nearly enough headers, which is extremely odd considering we have a player billed as the best attacking header of the ball in Europe before he signed for us and a 10 feet tall beanpole up front most of the time. Cisse actually seems to win more headers at goal than they do.

 

I think he runs Morientes a close second for the poorest first touch in a red shirt.

 

Did you see Rafa trap the ball as it flew at him, class even in a suit.

 

Morientes has a quite good first touch imo. much better than cisse. It's the strength to hold up the ball, the physique and the composure to keep up with the pace of the game, along with finishing ability he lacks.

[Nebraska Red]

Morientes has a quite good first touch imo. much better than cisse. It's the strength to hold up the ball, the physique and the composure to keep up with the pace of the game, along with finishing ability he lacks.

 

so, other than his flowing locks, what does he add to the value of the team?

 

how the heck did he manage to do so well in France and Spain? Or, are the defences their absolute garbage.?

[Guest Anders Honoré]

so, other than his flowing locks, what does he add to the value of the team?

 

how the heck did he manage to do so well in France and Spain? Or, are the defences their absolute garbage.?

 

well, I never thought he would be more than decent for us, although he has disappointed me as well. My opinion is that the way he plays the game is just not something he has the physical attributes to do well with in the prem.

[Kite]

strikers like Baros, Cisse and Sinama don't really seem to fit that well into rafa's tactics, as they are at their best using their pace getting in behind the defence, something we under rafa hardly ever do centrally.

Both Baros and Pongolle can run with the ball at their feet well whereas Cisse wants to just run after the ball - you can't lump all three into the same bracket. Technically Baros and Pongolle are better players than Cisse - in terms of overall effectiveness, Baros is probably the best.

 

I don't agree with the initial post - we play plenty of balls into space already just Cisse wants balls in spaces that often don't really exist. However, Sabre's point is probably the truest, you'll get most out of Cisse by playing deep and leaving him on the halfway line, then just balloon the ball into the opposition half for him to chase after. Makes me think he'd do well at Chelsea!!

[Guest Sabre]

I don't agree with the initial post - we play plenty of balls into space already just Cisse wants balls in spaces that often don't really exist. However, Sabre's point is probably the truest, you'll get most out of Cisse by playing deep and leaving him on the halfway line, then just balloon the ball into the opposition half for him to chase after. Makes me think he'd do well at Chelsea!!

 

The two of us seem to be agreeing a little too much at the moment. I'm going to go and lie down.