late to the party but anyway -
1. johnson
what a fucking goal, with finishing like that maybe we should play him as a striker.
the approach play was brilliant and the finish was sublime.
that said johnson was all over the fucking place and allowed way too many crosses to come in, he really needs to learn to tuck in when we are under the cross and stop getting dragged out of position, just jocky the guy with the ball and stop chasing the runner like a school kid on the playground.
2. suarez
a disasterous game from him. maybe we need to think about resting him when a flies halfway round the world. someone said he was holding up the ball, excuse me, what? nothing stuck when we were under the cosh and the ball kept coming back. nothing was coming off for suarez but you can understand kenny leaving him on because he is capable of a moment of brilliance even if he is having a mare.
3. adam
so he isn't a one season wonder, I thought he was excellent and the guy sees the entire pitch like alonso used to. the pass for johnson took out a half the chelsea team.
4. lucas
snuffed out danger well, I still think he shouldn't be playing the majority of home games but lucas is tailor made for games against quality opposition.
5. suarez, maxi, bellemy
were pulling the chelsea defense all over the shop first half there movement is amazing and creates so much space that teams don't know how to deal with it. I would like all three to start most games but I don't see that happening.
6. skrtel and agger
allow us to hold a high line and press the opposition in their own half. you can argue carra is a but out and out defenders than both of them but they (agger and martin) allow us to play in a specific manner. kenny has a big choice on his hands of whether to call on carra for what will be our biggest game of the season (so far).
7. pepe as much as johnson won us the game because I really don't see us coming back to win had the chelsea header gone in. we don't have many world class players but pepe is numbered amoung the select few.
8. kenny
brilliant team selection and good first sub to flood the midfield.
general thoughts;
the first half showed what kenny wants long term, high pressure, high impact pressing, I thought we were magnificent in the manner we chased after chelsea first half we obviously ran out of steam and also boas changed around the midfield shape to counter this.
the introduction of henderson to flood midfield was a good one if for no other reason than to give chelsea another body to attempt to bypass.
we have a very quick backline and all four are resonably comfortable on the ball.
the importance of attacking fullbacks can't be underestimated, not just because of johnson's goal but because they pushed back cole and (the other guy), in the first half they were key to our high impact pressing, the reverse of this is obviously when you are under the cosh you need them to be able to defend but you can teach some how not to get pulled out of position you can't teach someone to do what johnson did yesterday.
