---Deco---

What ever happenned to taking his chances in the premier league with two hands and scoring great goals etc.???
He has now become Scolari's golden boy who sucks crap. Why was Ballack (who was performing averagely) subbed against West Ham instead Deco? (who was playing below averagely!)
Deco has become slightly useless of late, aside from scoring a fantastic bicycle against Bolton (hoorah) his vision seems to be lacking, he is not fast enough, and cannot compete for 50-50's because of his size and lack of strength. Am I the only one who is fed up here?

i havent seen a chelsea game in ages...

You are the only one who is fed up here max. For one, you are the only Chelsea fan, thus more likely to notice aspects of the game to do with Chelsea, and two, Deco has not suddenly become a bad player, he has just dipped in form. After a magnificent beggining to premiership life, he has subsided as most players eventually will. Do not lose heart dear friend, all is not lost.

bryn the o wise one

i watched everton v chelsea today... it was kinda crap. the whole team was kinda blah incl deco. <3 terry getting red cards

totally agree, was an awful game! Chelsea lacked imputus going forward and Everton did not press their advantage. I stopped watching as a result. Not a game for the neutral.

how things can change in three months. It was not long ago where Chelsea were being hailed as the most exciting team in the premiership and the title was gift wrapped for them. C'mon boys. Faith doesn't fade so easily. But Deco is still playing like crap, and being played to often by Scolari.

yeah he really did play awfully that game. I cant remember any other games he has done that badly in though. Besides no chelsea players played well in that game... except Cech.

and Ashley Cole. And John Obi Mikel.

chels got bad cos of a lack of carvalho and essien... those two are strong in getting chels through everything and giving them long lasting confidence which equals playing well

which leads to the conclusion that there are stand out players in chelsea.

carv and essien

lack of standout players + lack of confidence = loss of morale + loss of results -> team in bad state

max, you are 2nd in the premier league, and still in the champions league. Stop whining.

Bryn, we've only won 3 of our last 8 games. That is lower mid table form.

Yes, key word, form. You will stop losing. You are second.

oh yay. We had a rough ride but we managed to deal with the difficult side that is West Brom away from home. We squandered 4 1v1's and several million 4v4/4v3's etc. Our final shot/final balls were AVERAGE!

meh, you are not on top of your game, but you are not in danger.

danger. What is danger for a big club? Is it relegation? I think that is just out of the question for a squad of Chelsea's calibre. For Chelsea danger is an empty trophy cabinet at the end of a season. The treble is still in sight, but people aren't even considering it in the Chelsea camp. I wonder why? Because we are not playing well, results are still results but we are lacking conviction and are seemingly aimless. Danger is not looking comfortable against mid table teams. Not consistently getting 3 points. Example: Chelsea (and also actually Liverpool). The one English team that is looking dangerous is Man U, aside from stoke (where they still got 3 points) they are taking care of teams in a way that league winners do. They are showing they can go the distance.

Have you actually watched ANY Liverpool games??? They have been rock solid for the most part, only a few slip ups. Chelsea I agree are off form, but they will come out of it. Manchester United have looked shakey at best this season, not even close to the quality they exhibeted last season where they were almost unbeatable.

Liverpool, this season, actually look like a championship winning team. Beating Newcastle, who are coming off a great run of form with a heap of confidence in their manager Joe Kinnear, 5-1. The way they played was atune with the best football played by Barca this season. Prior to this they have dominated their games but have not got as many goals as they deserved. This, to the eyes of one who does not watch their games, might look shakey and out of form, by beating teams by 1 goal or drawing with them, but they dominate the game, but lack the finishing prowess of Torres up front.
Manchester United on the other hand, have drawn games against teams that one would have put the mortage on them beating, and their victories have been universally scrappy. Look at, not only the Stoke match, but at the Sunderland 1-0 victory, a one all draw with Everton, a tight 4-3 victory over Hull, narrowly beating QPR in the Carling Cup, back to back 0-0 draws against Aston Villa and Villareal, then narrowly beating Man City 1-0 in the following game. This covers the majority of their season and, as is shown, out of their 18 games, they have only won 11, and only 3 by a margin of 2 or more goals. This does not inspire a massive amount of confidence as they have played two of the big four teams, Arsenal and lost and Liverpool and lost. If this is "looking dangerous" I have been misusing the word for my entire life.

In the case of Liverpool they have played a total of 38 games this season, including friedlies, which is a testement to the amount of complaining over nothing Sir Alex partakes in (he claims Manchester United have a far more hectic schedual than other teams as a result of the three game Club World Cup). Out of these 38 games Liverpool have won 25, and in their two games against the big four members, Manchester United and Chelsea, the two best big four teams I might add, they have collected 6 points from both. In this season to date, out of the 38 games only two have been lost, both to Spurs. This in comparison to Manchester United's season is BY FAR better, and for those of us who watch the premier league, we know that they have played better football.

And Max, do not try to claim that you watch the Premier League, as i know you watch Chelsea's games on the internet, and occasionally watch the highlights, but this does not give you a full view of the game, and the way a team plays. So in my opinion, Liverpool are playing the best football, are the dominating force in the EPL this season and are going to be tough to catch, by either Man U or Chelsea.

Bryn, I do watch the premier league on illegal internet satelite tv, I went 15 GB's over my 5 GB cap last month, which adds up to at least 15 games so stop pulling the sky tv card to discount my opinion

Are you forgetting something?

Liverpool have gone 2 goals down three times this season, and although they won two of those 3 games, it speaks volumes about their pathetic backline. When Agger leaves Liverpool will be nothing, as Carragher has shown multiple times that the real reason he stopped playing for England is because he is not good enough, his display against Hull last week is enough to prove my point. If he is their rock then their backline is made of playdough.

As some famous pundit said (who's name eludes me) " Strikers win matches but defenders win leagues."

Aside from their capitulation against Hull Manchester United have looked solid at the back for the majority of the season. I don't think I need to explain to you of all people the value of solid defense.

And now that their star midfielder (St. Hon. Sr. Steven Gerrard Motm GBE PhD) who happens to be the biggest factor in their game saving midfield is going to be thrown in the slammer for assaulting some bum in a nightclub Liverpool's season is looking shaky.

ANYWAY

This Topic is about Deco

I'm happy that Scolari had the guts to drop him against West Brom and has finally realised that he cannot work with Ballack. I'm not so stoked that Ballack was benched against Fulham for Deco to start. One of the two needs to find form asap!

BrynJ_SE7 wrote:So in my opinion, Liverpool are playing the best football, are the dominating force in the EPL this season and are going to be tough to catch, by either Man U or Chelsea.

holy god.

the fact that liverpool could both be the dominating force and team playing the best football out of other epl clubs is evidence enough that the epl is full of crap

although i disagree on the playing the best football point - that honour goes to aston villa

@max; haha i wondered how you were managing to watch so much football on the comp with only 5gb. that streaming stuff takes up a lot of bandwidth

Max wrote:And now that their star midfielder (St. Hon. Sr. Steven Gerrard Motm GBE PhD) who happens to be the biggest factor in their game saving midfield is going to be thrown in the slammer for assaulting some bum in a nightclub Liverpool's season is looking shaky.

oh if only this were true

I feel for Footballers. Think about how much shit they would get from Fans. The thing in the nighclub was almost certainly as a result of some drunk Everton fan who was pestering Gerrard all night. And finally he just snapped. Most people would say, if the perpetraitor was not famous, that the guy had it coming and that he deserved it, however if the "mugger" is famous, he is supposed to be above the level of everyday people, above aggrivation and anger. So in ways, I feel for him, however I don't believe that he should have, but i dont think that it's fair to ban him from International football or put him in prison, which has been suggested by some, as under normal circumstances this would just go down as a typical bar fight.

I don't feel for footballers. They are paid FAR too much and should at least be role models within society. They are idolised by children etc. and with great power comes great responsibility (Spiderman's Uncle), and it's not like it's normal or excusable for anyone to be involved in a bar fight, regardless of who started it. If it's worthy of arrest, which it could be, bye bye Stevie G

What I am saying is that he would have been majorly provoked, by some fan who was drunk and Gerrard was just trying to have a good night. The fact that this would happen a lot, Everton fans would rip into Gerrard all the time and maybe it was the straw that broke the cammel's back (ancient proverb). As i said its not excusable, but i still feel for him as i can see why he might have done it. And he is a player who has had an untarnishable record in terms of behaviour, and is one of the good guys in football. A guy who plays for the right reasons, and stays at his given club and has a real passion for the club. This was epitimised when he was on the edge of a move to Chelsea, and the MASSIVE contract that would have been a part of that. However he didn't go, and gave the reason for rejecting the move and massive increace in salery, being that "couldn't leave Liverpool". If more footballers had this sort of integrity the game would not be so much based on money.

He couldn't leave Liverpool, yet he officially handed in a transfer request and publicly announced this fact.

i do not feel for gerrard.