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The little fella ran through brick walls for us tonight. He was kicked all over the place but somehow kept going.

Must be one of the toughest players in the league, well done Shaunie.

You seem to be raising good points tonight KK - have you been drinking less than usually? ;o) just kiddin'

It would do him a world of good if he was given a decent rest during the internationals as well

he really did get a good kicking today. but he always does. teams know they have to kick him to stop him.
but it did affect him today and i think maybe he should have been took off for petrov.

He did get some rough stuff but he needs to step his game up, as on many occasions he's not been nearly good enough with the ball in the final third so far this season.

His workrate and commitment to the cause is as usual excellent but we need him to be better in possession, and in getting to the bye line and putting over more decent balls into the right areas - and I'm sure he will as we know the talent is there but for me he's been a little under par.

(ducks and waits for the flak to fly)

Worked really hard for the team but created nothing and gave Friedel catching practice all night.

Not good enough

Goaters 103 wrote:He did get some rough stuff but he needs to step his game up, as on many occasions he's not been nearly good enough with the ball in the final third so far this season.

His workrate and commitment to the cause is as usual excellent but we need him to be better in possession, and in getting to the bye line and putting over more decent balls into the right areas - and I'm sure he will as we know the talent is there but for me he's been a little under par.

(ducks and waits for the flak to fly)

Agree 100% mate I thought he gave the ball away too many times tonight at times puting the back four under pressure in the process. He needs to step his game up or I think we could see Petrov in for him with Bellamy switching to the other side. Gonna be more pressure on him with Robinho coming back soon aswell.

Am I the only one who thought he was shite yet again? Defensivly he gave it his all, but was dire when attacking. Can't think of once when he beat a Villa defender in the final third or get a cross past the first man.

I agree with both sides of the argument. He did run through brick walls & he was useless in the final 3rd. Most attacking players having such a shit night creatively would lose heart & slack off, he stuck to his task & gave everything he could for the team. That makes a top player in my book. Whether he should start every game just for his grafting when having a spell of not creating very much is open to question imo though. If we just need a right sided grafter away from home we could play Zabba in front of Richards.

Its amazing how some people can watch him on TV and sing his praises yet watch him live and know he played bollocks,like grobby said he gave no end product all night and should have left the field of play early.
Sorry is true.

He had a poor game really, gave up in the last 20 minutes and should have gone off for Roque imo!

Fairplay warnock is a descent player but Zabs showed him up.

lets all have a disco wrote:Its amazing how some people can watch him on TV and sing his praises yet watch him live and know he played bollocks,like grobby said he gave no end product all night and should have left the field of play early.
Sorry is true.

I watched him on TV and there is no way anyone should have come to any conclusion other than he was poor, as he has been mostly so far this season. He is extremely wasteful at the moment constantly taking the wrong option and running into the oppo. Yeah he ran through brick walls but he didn't take the ball with him. I love the lad but he isn't cutting it at the moment and therefore should be dropped, hopefully a bit of a rest from being kicked up and down the pitch will do him good.

He's too honest for his own good sometimes, he's a tough little fella. Can you imagine Drogba getting half the kicks Shaun did last night? He'd still be rolling round Villa Park now.

irblinx wrote:

lets all have a disco wrote:Its amazing how some people can watch him on TV and sing his praises yet watch him live and know he played bollocks,like grobby said he gave no end product all night and should have left the field of play early.
Sorry is true.

I watched him on TV and there is no way anyone should have come to any conclusion other than he was poor, as he has been mostly so far this season. He is extremely wasteful at the moment constantly taking the wrong option and running into the oppo. Yeah he ran through brick walls but he didn't take the ball with him. I love the lad but he isn't cutting it at the moment and therefore should be dropped, hopefully a bit of a rest from being kicked up and down the pitch will do him good.

I agree, he's been indifferent all season but last night looked especially poor

IMO the game was absolutely crying out for him to come off and Rigsby on (with Bellers switching flanks) as soon as we scored. SWP had no end product whatsoever last night. The ball to Ireland in the lead up to the goal was just about his only contribution in 90 minutes. Terrible display.

he's the very man, but also the player whose place is most under threat by the return of Robson.
Can't drop Bellamy, and he can play just about anywhere.
Stevie's strong return shows the benefit of resting busy players, and if there's any benefit from having a squad of stars, surely it's that you don't need to field tired/injured/off-form players.
Throw an arm around him, give him an ice bath and hope Capello finally gives him a game because we should rest him

SWP got a lot of stick last night from the blues that were sat near me. I hope he isn't the next one for the boo boys to target. I think he is the sort that needs us to get behind him to get him back to his best. Every misplaced pass, every tackle not won....he was getting some stick I can tell you.

I agree with the posts on here, but he did seem to get singled out a bit last night.

Hé´s a confidence player going forward and that will return although last night Petrov should have come on for him and Bellers switched to the right - we might have won with that formation

Alex Sapphire wrote:he's the very man, but also the player whose place is most under threat by the return of Robson.
Can't drop Bellamy, and he can play just about anywhere.
Stevie's strong return shows the benefit of resting busy players, and if there's any benefit from having a squad of stars, surely it's that you don't need to field tired/injured/off-form players.
Throw an arm around him, give him an ice bath and hope Capello finally gives him a game because we should rest him

I actually think he's one of the hardest players to replace atm, there's just no player in the squad with similar qualities. If he had been replaced by Petrov last night, I feel we would have opened up way too much, Robinho in his position would be even worse.

I agree that he hasn't been as good in the attacking aspect lately, but if Hughes was to replace him, it would have to be with good defensive sense. Right now, I feel our defending is relying heavily on Bellers and SWP tracking all the way back and we are quite short of players who does that well.

The alternative is of course to play Baz/Stevie/NdJ together in a 4-3-3/ 4-3-2-1 formation but it could make us a bit too narrow and exposed to good wingers/ full-backs

bluemoon wrote:Am I the only one who thought he was shite yet again? Defensivly he gave it his all, but was dire when attacking. Can't think of once when he beat a Villa defender in the final third or get a cross past the first man.

I agree, him and Ireland have been a disappointment so far. Hopefully its just a bad patch as they are performing nowhere near as well as they were last season.

david yearsley wrote:Hé´s a confidence player going forward and that will return although last night Petrov should have come on for him and Bellers switched to the right - we might have won with that formation

Or lost.

He turned off again, twice, at throw ins last night and allowed Villa to attack down the left and get crosses into the box. You would of thought he had learnt this after the derby.

He was terrible in attack and nothing more than standard in defensive duties, Zabba was left one-on-one far too many times for my liking.

Comparing our right side against our left side is like chalk and cheese. One superbly good, one very suspect.