He has been a great signing but the number of easy chances he has wasted will probably be the difference between a successful league campaign (one where we comfortably get 3rd place) and a potentially damaging one.
10
Season Average Rating
- Appearances
- 46
- Goals
- 28
- Assists
- 9
- Yellow cards
- 8
- Status
People can express their thoughts if he is off the pace.
fecking sick of these precious fanbois.
He can still be a great player that had a bad game you know?!
fecking sick of these precious fanbois.
He can still be a great player that had a bad game you know?!
Crossing and hitting corners doesn't require as much vision and creativity as putting balls in behind the defence for runners to get in behind. Zlatan plays more as a true playmaker.
He's not been good recently and just gives too many balls away, whilst standing around not knowing what happened. He's been our worst player yesterday and seriously needs to get into the groove again
Same story as the last time he didn't score for some matches.
I'll repeat what I said then: He contributes to our team playing good attacking football, and he still gets on the end of chances. He was so close to scoring when Mata crossed for him yesterday.
Also: Got an assist yesterday, so still came up with end product.
I'll repeat what I said then: He contributes to our team playing good attacking football, and he still gets on the end of chances. He was so close to scoring when Mata crossed for him yesterday.
Also: Got an assist yesterday, so still came up with end product.
Did he actually get angry? Didn't see that. That's really horrible behaviour to do something like that, and he has done similar things in the past, like kicking Robinhos baby after he scored at Milan. Always hated that part of his game.
Having said that, Martial should have passed there. We can say it isn't a problem since he scored but ignoring Ibra in the middle was a bad decision. He would have never scored that if Zlatan didn't happen to be standing in front of the keeper.
But it's still unacceptable for Ibra to show publicly he was angry and not be happy for his teammate scoring.
I watched it again and nothing suggest Zlatan being angry at Martial for scoring and not pass him.
You sure mate?
Seems at the perfect height and distance for a header, in this picture it's only two feet in front of him. And at this point he has actually started to lean back. Had he leaned forward and jumped thats most likely a goal.
Well my opinion is that to be able to put his head on that ball he would have had to be a bit more away from the goal. This Picture doesn't show that he came in too fast and had the wrong balance. But this is the case because Ibra's not a "specialist" when it comes to headers, better with his feet. Andy Carrol would probably made a decision before to go for a header, but then again he would have done so even if it wouldn't be possible to score with his head - just like Ibra, with his martial arts moves using his feet. This is at least my opinion, it's impossible for me to be sure since I'm no expert - this is just a guess.
As I see it he was trying too make a very easy move - just put his foot on it, but the touch was a bit wrong so the ball went the other way. Because Ibra has scored many goals like this if I'm not mistaken. This was just one of those days when everything goes wrong - at least scoring wise, but his overall play was as good as usual - incredible hold up and link up.
You sure mate?
Seems at the perfect height and distance for a header, in this picture it's only two feet in front of him. And at this point he has actually started to lean back. Had he leaned forward and jumped thats most likely a goal.
Ha ha, I thought he could head it too until I saw this pic which proves otherwise to me... opinions eh?
Who cares anyway? He's got bag fulls of goals and our team is playing well, just enjoy it. Both Sanchez & Lukaku missed much easier chances yesterday because well, players miss chances.
I'm not surprised, do you have a link?
But people clearly forget that this is still his first season and it's normal to have "mistakes". He should be better next season when he get more used to the country, his teammates, the opponents (defenders and goalkeepers) and his family is an important part too. They have to settle in as well. So I hoping he'll improve - crazy that some never are satisfied with Ibra after such a good first season - makes me feel they have forgotten what kind of situation this club was in before Mourinho took over.
Ibra's second goal in this video takes a defelction on the way through, making the header even harder, but he pull it off. I think this header is a good example that he could have made that chance on his head.
I watched the game on Viasat but not sure you are allowed to post a link from youtube from PL here so just search for Anthony Martial Watford.
So much shit posted in this thread as well as the Pogba, Rooney and Fellaini threads. Many posters here would be great writing headlines for the Daily Star with made up things.
Ibra doesn't get angry - he gets frustrated. Sure, during the beginning of his career he used to be a bit annoying against his teammates, but that had a lot to do about his own "problems" and his matured long ago. Of course he points out things during a match, but he does this towards himself too. He just loves too win that much - one of the reasons he still is this good at this age. He's even a winner during training. But as much as he seemed to be angry, he applauded his teammates constantly.
But there seems to be a lack of chemistry between Ibra and Martial. But this is probably a bit about Martial's age and that he's not played that many games, because Ibra "functions" well with the others. Ibra passes Martial when he's in good positions but Martial doesn't yet have the right "decisionmaking". But I'm sure this will improve between them the more they play, because it's clear that they will both benefit if they can learn each others movements and strengths.
I'm going to have to massively disagree with you, for one Ozil takes the majority of Arsenal's corners. Sanchez makes 2.5 key passes a game compared to Ibra's 1.9 in the premier league, only averaging one cross a game. Of through balls, Ibra makes 0.3, Sanchez 0.2 a game, not a world of difference.
I'm not a fan of stats, but just the eye test tells me Sanchez is the more creative player (imo).
I completely accept people can find Ibra the more creative player, but to say Sanchez is nowhere near his level with regards to creativity is hyperbole.
What about the chances everyone else has missed, those don't make a difference? Do you see any other of the top 6 where only one person is scoring?
What about Mikhi taking months before starting to deliver, Martial has taken even longer to come good. Where do you think we'd have been if those two had been delivering to their true capabilities and cemented their place in the team from the start? Surely we should have expected som goals from Pogba as well.
I'm not denying Zlatans wastefulness, but in the grand scheme of things, he has been the least of our problems.
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Nothing short of shite yesterday. I love him and what he's done goal scoring wise but feck me he was terrible.
Misses way too many chances for a world class striker.
Misses way too many chances for a world class striker.
Unless he's scoring at a goal per game he's shite apparently, and no other strikers miss chances, I mean, Alexis & Lukaku didn't miss sitters yesterday. 
Nowhere near was a bit exaggerated, I agree. But I wasn't talking about this season alone, more on their whole careers. If you look at Zlatans assists throughout his career you will see that Sanchez can't match his creativity/ability to execute difficult passes mostly thru balls.
Sanchez having more key passes doesn't mean he's more creative/better vision. Since he's a dribbler, he can create space by dribbling past players just to square it to someone, an easy pass for the goal. That's not creativity nor vision, but still a key pass.
@Cascarino Also, I'm guessing you saw those stats on whoscored. Where you can see Zlatan under strengths has very strong on key passes and thruballs while Sanchez only has strong on key passes and no mention of thru balls.
Yeah, I agree it's ridiculous. I can only imagine the hate and bitternes when some realise he will still be playing every premier league game for 90 min next season.
Unless he's scoring at a goal per game he's shite apparently, and no other strikers miss chances, I mean, Alexis & Lukaku didn't miss sitters yesterday.
Nobody has said this.
Strikers will have bad games and that's when it's up to our other forwards to do the business and yesterday they did. Not his greatest performance but he was involved a lot in our play and that shoulder shrug on Kaboul was delightful, just tossed him aside.
The players you mention don't have the same starting or never- subbed -off priviledges that Ibra enjoys and we aren't discussing those players because at the end of the day the chances in question fell to Ibra. This is not to say that he is shit and should be out of the team but we are merely stating the fact that we'd be a lot higher up in the table than we are right now.
They weren't starting because they didn't show enough according to the manager who gets to actually watch them and anslyse in training.
Ibra always plays because he brings something to the team even when he isn't scoring. Yes we would be higher up if he was more clinical but like I said he was the least of our problems compared to what I stated in my reply to you.
It was a cross curling towards him at head height mate. It should be a straightforward finish if he dives to head it. In 30 years of watching football i've seen people finish those plenty of times.
Ibrahimovic will ALWAYS look to CREATE, to move the ball FORWARD any play the DIFFICULT pass. For those reasons, he's going to be guilty of losing possession more often than the player who shirks responsibility and takes the easy route out.
I only get frustrated when he's dispossessed needlessly on the ball.
But he's 35, playing in the Premier League and has scored 20 goals already. He's doing fine. He's great for us.
I only get frustrated when he's dispossessed needlessly on the ball.
But he's 35, playing in the Premier League and has scored 20 goals already. He's doing fine. He's great for us.
In my opinion mate you don't need to be a specialist at headers to score that chance. I think it's just he always prefers to use his feet instead of his head even when his head would be more effective. He's been doing it all season.
This is the reality of how we play under Mourinho, it's a very direct style. Zlatan is obviously under instruction to play like this, that is playing to his strengths. Trying these difficult passes is always gonna result in a lot of lost balls.
There's no more sideways LVG style passing until we walk it into the goal.
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Indeed, i thought when i seen posts in here saying it was an impossible chance to head i was maybe being harsh on him. But after seeing that video it looked even closer to him than in real time. But as you say mate opinions.
That's because of insecurity I think, he just isn't confident using his head. I think it's really strange for someone his size to be weak in this departement.
A lot of times, he also just heads it down to another player for the assist when he's in a position to direct it at goal.
Possibly mate, i think people (myself included) are maybe guilty of assuming he should be great in the air because of his size. But he's so good with his feet that maybe he trusts them more, but it is frustrating because he has scored a few very good headers for us.
That's just not true.
Dribbling through a crowd of players and then squaring it for a tap-in may not be as aesthetically pleasing as a through ball. But it sure as hell isn't NOT creative. Any dribble, any pass, any cross, even a deflected shot is creating a play. By definition, it should be termed as a creative action.
Oh lets defer to managerial infallibility to close an argument and forget that managers can be wrong and this manager, in particular, has form for being wrong on creative players or unnecessarily falling out with players which has led to him to getting sacked in his last two jobs in the last five years. Mourinho is a great manager, who I still support and trust, but that doesn't mean I put my head in the sand and overlook instances where he might be making a mistake - the failure to rotate Zlatan or the questionable prolonged absences of Shaw, Martial and Mkhi.
To me it's not questionable at all though. There's no evidence to back the questioning of Mourinho, it's just speculation taken out of thin air. In a few years time we will see what Mikhi and Martial say about Mourinho, and I have no doubt they will say good things about him, motivating them to work harder.
But fact is, they haven't lived up to expectations, not helping the team when we needed it, to provide some goals.
There has to be a reason for Mikhi and Martials exclusuon. The only logical motive is that they didn't live up to Moirinhos standards.
As for rotating Zlatan, we are to dependent on him to leave him out.
Thats debatable to say the least which is why you have people still arguing over their treatment to this day. Anyway this is not the Martial or Mkhitaryan thread so lets not derail it further.
As for Mourinho not rotating Zlatan its simply his preference because Rashford and Martial didn't do too badly last season and we were reasonably successful. So why does Mourinho refuse to use them in the smaller cups, particularly Rashford to maintain Zlatan's freshness for the more important league competition or even sub him off when we are comfortable?
Erm, that's exactly what he's done in the last 2 "smaller cup" games. First Rashford, then Martial, both were poor in the strikers position, Martial so poor that he switched him with Rooney in the 2nd half.
So what are you on about @itso?
Yes you are creating a play but there are obviously levels of how creative a certain play is. Putting a cross in from the wing doesn't always have to be that creative, for example, just swinging in a cross hoping someone will be there to connect doesn't require vision or innovative thinking.
Dribbling is creative by itself but that's not on the level of what a playmaker does. Having the vision to spot runs in behind and then executing an inch perfect pass, even using the backheel to put someone through on goal. Dropping deep to initiate plays and overlooking the whole field like a quarterback. You have to be very artistically gifted to play this role in football.
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