I thought he was his best performance for us defensively in all honesty. That would have been a tough second half for him being on a second yellow and having to pick up arguably the best footballer in the country most of the half.
I thought he was probably our best midfielder over 90 minutes. Eriksen was invisible. Sissoko was wasteful and Dele had a good 20 minutes in the second half.
Bingo.
Winks getting criticised again, he was easily out best midfielder over the course of that game and especially second half. Eriksen and Sissoko just did nowhere near enough.
I got annoyed with Winks tonight. He kept recycling it back I nto the defence when Chelsea were in full press and he had options forward that would have taken pressure off. There’s sticking to the plan and then there’s using your brain.
Sissoko deserves a lot of credit for attempting to break the press. Whilst he might have been guilty of losing possession he did so after gaining a lot of yards and giving the back line a break... pretty much the only player that managed it apart from Toby hitting a few long balls in the first half.
There wasn’t any real pressing until Poch had a word in Dele’s ear second half and he dropped back and went hunting, so credit for that. He would have had a poor game otherwise. We were content to be on our heels most of the game and fall back to our box. Watching Alonso swallow yards uncontested over and over wasn’t very pleasant to watch.
I know it was the game plan but I thought we rode our luck tonight. Defence were all great, Gazza saved us but midfield was poor and that was Eriksen’s worst performance for a while. If you’re going to play for the counter then you need to, you know, counter.
Despite all that we have the lead going into the second leg so what the fuck do I know?
:eriksenlol:
The reason Winks had to keep going backwards was because Eriksen, and particularly Sissoko were not showing for the ball enough - that's their jobs in this midfield, Winks distributes they transition - they are the 8's. Winks touched the ball 76 times, made 62 passes, Eriksen 59/44, Sissoko 44/34. Winks also made more tackles/intercepts (4) than anyone bar Trippier (6).
"At least he gained yards" ? Seriously ? It's not American football. We gained yards every time TA whacked it up to the forwards. It was as pointless as Sissoko charging upfield and then giving the ball away..twice.
Totti has let himself down today. Sissoko was our best midfielder.
As for Eriksen, his team mates did not set the stage for him, so he could not perform.
Totti was bang on. Sissoko was our worst midfielder, once again hid from receiving the ball too often (half the touches Winks for example), trundles about without enough urgency without the ball and went on a couple of forward surges which, as ever, ended with him giving the ball away and them breaking back on us.
Eriksen not far behind, was about as ineffective as he's been since the early part of the season, it was almost as if Chelsea did the same job on him with Kante that we'd done on Jorginho with Alli in the last game.
Winks wasn't brilliant, but was the only one our midfielders that kept playing. He was the only player that managed to get the ball off Hazard too, without fouling him.
Winksy needs to find a blend of playing it safe to turning his skill into threat. Too many balls into play it safe areas today that I believe put us under unnecessary presssure. Fair enough you need to have that safe way when it's required but I want to see him look for teams weak areas and exploit them, even if it's just a quick knock past someone to win a free kick. Add these areas to his games, be a little more positive instead of still looking like a youngster in a senior team and he will be just fine. Simply put bags of potential but he needs to find a way to add more in my opinion
Winks actually saw nearly as much ball as Jorginho tonight, he was the only one of our midfielders that really kept trying to play football through their press. See above (and Totti's probably answered this as well).
I was far more disappointed with Eriksen, Alli and Sissoko who's job it was to transition. All of them struggled to play under duress. Alli was better when dropped back, but he couldn't be much worse than he'd been at the tip of the diamond.
Totti made a valid point regarding Winks currently playing as a holding midfielder hence maybe being told not to do what I'm seeking. Very good point, we'll hopefully see a change in him once Dier is back.
