Pau Torres

[brontebilly]

I wouldn't include Maatsen's name in that.

Nor Konsa or Chaos Carlos. Our defence has been sh*t for ages including every CB mentioned here.

Must have been confusing for you when the entire right-side of our defence was made up of those two and it performed so much better than  the one you prefer.

I mean, not only is the bloke who has played RB, RCB & LCB for England a “massive drop off” from the bloke who has given away more penalties than every other Premier League player since his debut, and found an international career on Ancestry.com, but he had the added handicap (according to you) of playing next to Carlos. And yet the only real massive drop off (outside your fevered imagination) is in the number of clean sheets we kept when your man played. You must think Pau and Digne were McGrath and Maldini in disguise to help Konsa and Carlos become the fourth best defence in the CL so far and keep somewhere between double and treble the amount of clean sheets as we did when Cash played.

It’s like saying there’s a massive drop off from Samatta to Watkins.

Tired and emotional again? Carlos is gone and he isn't coming back.

[VillaTim]

Away games in Europe first legs have always been about keeping it tight at the back. Football may have changed a lot , this hasn't. Playing Torres would be a huge mistake . Stick with the strong defence for this one.

[Percy McCarthy]

I wouldn't include Maatsen's name in that.

Nor Konsa or Chaos Carlos. Our defence has been sh*t for ages including every CB mentioned here.

Must have been confusing for you when the entire right-side of our defence was made up of those two and it performed so much better than  the one you prefer.

I mean, not only is the bloke who has played RB, RCB & LCB for England a “massive drop off” from the bloke who has given away more penalties than every other Premier League player since his debut, and found an international career on Ancestry.com, but he had the added handicap (according to you) of playing next to Carlos. And yet the only real massive drop off (outside your fevered imagination) is in the number of clean sheets we kept when your man played. You must think Pau and Digne were McGrath and Maldini in disguise to help Konsa and Carlos become the fourth best defence in the CL so far and keep somewhere between double and treble the amount of clean sheets as we did when Cash played.

It’s like saying there’s a massive drop off from Samatta to Watkins.

Tired and emotional again? Carlos is gone and he isn't coming back.

The post was about your oft-repeated bollocks that Cash is a massive upgrade on Konsa. But seeing as you can’t quite grasp the idea that better defences concede fewer goals than worse ones, expecting you to know that Konsa was the England player I was referring to is probably a bit ambitious.

Did you Google ‘what should I post on the internet in the absence of any evidence to support my argument’ or did you come up with this trolling strategy with your own tiny mind? You’ve been doing it quite a lot lately - like the homophobic slurs that were your last desperate attempt at deflection.

I liked it better though when you pretended you could read Emery’s mind like a slow-witted, bigoted Clinton Baptiste.

Whatever your avoidance strategy though, please keep doing the parody player ratings that everybody laughs at.

[Chap]

Away games in Europe first legs have always been about keeping it tight at the back. Football may have changed a lot , this hasn't. Playing Torres would be a huge mistake . Stick with the strong defence for this one.

Erm, which strong defense would this be?

[Somniloquism]

Away games in Europe first legs have always been about keeping it tight at the back. Football may have changed a lot , this hasn't. Playing Torres would be a huge mistake . Stick with the strong defence for this one.

Erm, which strong defense would this be?

I was thinking that as well.

[Olneythelonely]

Away games in Europe first legs have always been about keeping it tight at the back. Football may have changed a lot , this hasn't. Playing Torres would be a huge mistake . Stick with the strong defence for this one.

We haven’t had a strong defence, just one that has been much worse on the ball. You said it would be with Mings replacing Pau, yet we’ve not seen that at all. Funny.

[PaulWinch again]

Away games in Europe first legs have always been about keeping it tight at the back. Football may have changed a lot , this hasn't. Playing Torres would be a huge mistake . Stick with the strong defence for this one.

We haven’t had a strong defence, just one that has been much worse on the ball. You said it would be with Mings replacing Pau, yet we’ve not seen that at all. Funny.

Yeah weird that, it’s almost as if it’s not all down to one individual. One thing that is noticeable though we are significantly less fluid going forward without Pau.

[Drummond]

When Torres plays we play more offensively. There are less shoot ourselves in the foot moments generally because the ball isn't constantly recycling across our box.

I'd expect with Asensio playing as a 10 that Torres will be able to find an out ball far more easily too.

[London Villan]

Both Torres and Kamara need to be in the team for us to work effectively at controlling games.

[brontebilly]

I wouldn't include Maatsen's name in that.

Nor Konsa or Chaos Carlos. Our defence has been sh*t for ages including every CB mentioned here.

Must have been confusing for you when the entire right-side of our defence was made up of those two and it performed so much better than  the one you prefer.

I mean, not only is the bloke who has played RB, RCB & LCB for England a “massive drop off” from the bloke who has given away more penalties than every other Premier League player since his debut, and found an international career on Ancestry.com, but he had the added handicap (according to you) of playing next to Carlos. And yet the only real massive drop off (outside your fevered imagination) is in the number of clean sheets we kept when your man played. You must think Pau and Digne were McGrath and Maldini in disguise to help Konsa and Carlos become the fourth best defence in the CL so far and keep somewhere between double and treble the amount of clean sheets as we did when Cash played.

It’s like saying there’s a massive drop off from Samatta to Watkins.

Tired and emotional again? Carlos is gone and he isn't coming back.

The post was about your oft-repeated bollocks that Cash is a massive upgrade on Konsa. But seeing as you can’t quite grasp the idea that better defences concede fewer goals than worse ones, expecting you to know that Konsa was the England player I was referring to is probably a bit ambitious.

Did you Google ‘what should I post on the internet in the absence of any evidence to support my argument’ or did you come up with this trolling strategy with your own tiny mind? You’ve been doing it quite a lot lately - like the homophobic slurs that were your last desperate attempt at deflection.

I liked it better though when you pretended you could read Emery’s mind like a slow-witted, bigoted Clinton Baptiste.

Whatever your avoidance strategy though, please keep doing the parody player ratings that everybody laughs at.

Homophobic slurs? I think you need help at this point

Cash is a far better right back than Konsa in my view. As a OP put it "clean sheets" aren't the "incontrovertible truth" you continue to paint it to be, I think we are a far better balanced team with Cash at right back. His limitations in the attacking third notwithstanding. The ongoing sh*t show in the middle (including Disasi's Carlos impression at Palace) isn't his, or Digne's issue.

It's a similar discussion here on Torres. He is to my eye a very average defender that is easily got at by bog standard PL forwards. But he can be an outstanding player with the ball at his left foot. I thought bringing Mings back in would make us defensively stronger but that absolutely has not worked. So as others are saying here we might be a better team if/when Torres gets back in, defensively we can't be any worse in any case.

[Percy McCarthy]

Well done, you made it about football.

To say that there is a “massive drop off” from the right-back who played in the outstanding performances that got us into the CL in the first place, who did brilliantly when playing for England there, who was a huge part of our defensive performances that led to us being the fourth best defence in the CL league stage, to Matty Cash is ridiculously OTT.

Although we can’t be certain, I’m pretty sure we would have at least drawn one of the games out of Man City at home and Arsenal home or away last season, and as a result wouldn’t have qualified for CL. Then once in the CL, one goal conceded v Bayern or Juventus and we wouldn’t be playing tonight. That’s how important clean sheets are. When Emery positively, absolutely thinks we’ll need one because he thinks we’ll probably only score one goal, or indeed none, he picked Konsa there and was proven right to do so. And yet you call it ‘the dreaded Konsa experiment’ ad nauseum and attach absolutely zero credit to the players that achieved them, even belittling our CL clean sheets as easy and no big deal whenever those brilliant  results and performances are mentioned. It’s tiresome and silly. Shall we wait and see which games we’re still posting about in ten years, or do we already know?

Whatever one’s views about balance, a “massive drop off” from Cash to Konsa is just stupid when you look at the results of it happening.

Emi to Olsen is a massive drop off, and there’s evidence to prove it. Cash to Konsa isn’t, and there’s evidence to prove that as well. Which is why I post evidence, and you post vibes and call me silly names like Petal, which is a homophobic slur. Ok Duck Egg?

[London Villan]

It’s going to be tricky to get him back up to speed and in the team, as it’s unusual to swap central defenders mid-match. Add to that the two week break we have and it’s a challenge for Unai. It wouldn’t surprise me if we arrange a friendly for Torres, Barkley and Onana to get them up to match fitness.

[jwarry]

It’s going to be tricky to get him back up to speed and in the team, as it’s unusual to swap central defenders mid-match. Add to that the two week break we have and it’s a challenge for Unai. It wouldn’t surprise me if we arrange a friendly for Torres, Barkley and Onana to get them up to match fitness.

Even so, it’s good to have them all back

[eamonn]

I'm sure you've been called far worse, Percy

[Goldenballs]

There's an older lady at work who calls people Petal, I'll have a word with her tomorrow, the silly old homophobe.