Thierry Henry

[ryuken]

He has now developed an excellent technique of parallel running

[Valon]

He was better than Ibra for me at least. Not a great game but at least decent performance, if only his crosses where higher though.

[barca7788]

A couple of his crosses were actually quite good and looked poor because people weren't getting into the area. That said he saw A LOT of the ball tonight and majority of the time did nothing with it. Pep showed his sub weakness again by not bringing him off.

exactly....ibra,xavi n iniesta sd be running in in those situation as eto used to do. but still he sd leave leave and leave.his play is so predictable that it makes me laugh.

[Metaphysical]

He was better than Ibra for me at least. Not a great game but at least decent performance, if only his crosses where higher though.

no chance.

apart from that one cross from pedro we looked utterly toothless after zlatan went off.

he draws double-coverage on a near-constant basis. that alone creates space, nevermind his movement (like his run across goal opening up space for iniesta to score, except of course he hesitated again) and hold-up play that allows us to set up base camp in sevilla's half.

henry had a very good middle of the match. and his crosses would be good if eto'o still played for us. but eto'o doesn't play for us, and his start and end were pitiful.

[Valon]

Zlatan was poor tonight. End off. I know you're gonna defend him but he was poor.

[Bojan]

Both were crap.

[Cal-FCB]

Sorry Meta but most people are going to disagree with your assessment of Ibra tonight. The general consensus is that he was very poor, quite simply his use of the ball was awful and he gave it away countless times. His movement was lazy for large periods as well.

[Co0ter]

Most of you look at the game very narrow-mindedly. Ibra has a lot of influence on the pitch, whether he is touching the ball or not. Henry, has none. Saying he played better than Ibra is....well I'm not even going to get into it.

Henry beat (and I use that term very, very loosely) his defender, in his same predictable fashion, 6 times today. One time he smashed a cross way to hard through the box, the other 5 times his crosses went DIRECTLY TO THE GOALIE. And by directly, I mean that the ball went to the goalie and he didn't even have to move. Besides the crosses, he did absolutely nothing. And given how horrible his crosses were, that's not much of a performance is it?! He draws only one defender, whether he's making a run down the wing or not. Ibra, however, draws 2-3 defenders everytime they even THINK the ball is coming to him. That's power. It opens up space for others around him. Henry was in the position to take advantage of this space, and he did not. When Ibra had the ball, Henry made one run the entire game to give him a passing lane. One. I'm not making excuses for some of Ibra's other mistakes, but he was marked out most of the game. It was up to Henry, especially, to step up and play well and draw some coverage. Which guess what?! Makes a little room for Ibra. But he didn't.

Sevilla played very well and we had to be at our very best. We were not. Pedro should be our starting LW, no more patience.

[Metaphysical]

Sorry Meta but most people are going to disagree with your assessment of Ibra tonight. The general consensus is that he was very poor, quite simply his use of the ball was awful and he gave it away countless times. His movement was lazy for large periods as well.

to be quite honest when have I ever cared what the general consensus is?

I call it as I see it.

Most of you look at the game very narrow-mindedly. Ibra has a lot of influence on the pitch, whether he is touching the ball or not.

very well said.

without him, we were blunt.

Haha indeed, that was somekind of a dodgy ending offensive. Only that header from Pedro towards the box which Messi missed coul be seen as a chance.

The rest was ticking around and absolutely finding no one, except Henry who would then lose the ball.

as gneg here points out.

[beef-supreme]

Admittedly, Henry's crosses were useless, and his play tonight was highly predictable.

[Gnegneri]

Admittedly, Henry's crosses were useless, and his play tonight was highly predictable.

Actually, I think one or two crosses were pretty much perfect. All a striker could wish for.

But for some reason, as it is happening alooooooot this whole season in fact, there is just no one in the box to tap them in.

[Metaphysical]

Actually, I think one ro two crosses were pretty much perfect. All a striker could wish for.

But for some reason, as it is happening alooooooot this whole season in fact, there is just no one in the box to tap them in.

that's coz neither zlatan or messi are front-post strikers.

zlatan is nearly always in the middle of the goal or at the back-post, and messi is rarely right up to the posts, he's usually somewhere around the penalty spot.

henry needs to realise that samuel no longer plays for us and adjust his crosses accordingly. that or zlatan needs to start making front-post runs (he made a couple second half but henry couldn't replace his crosses from the first period. typical.)

[Co0ter]

I still disagree, the crosses were terrible. He uses the same, stop, push the ball forward with his right then cross with his left technique. It's predictable and 90 percent of the time useless. He is usually close to the 18 when he does this so he has no space once he beats the defender to turn it into anything but a cross. He also doesn't have the speed or time to look up and actually PLACE the cross. It's always a blind cross, almost always nearpost and finds the goalie. Even if a player was making a near post run, its only going to end up as a flick or header that is at an extremely obscure, difficult angle.

[Metaphysical]

I still disagree, the crosses were terrible. He uses the same, stop, push the ball forward with his right then cross with his left technique. It's predictable and 90 percent of the time useless. He is usually close to the 18 when he does this so he has no space once he beats the defender to turn it into anything but a cross. He also doesn't have the speed or time to look up and actually PLACE the cross. It's always a blind cross, almost always nearpost and finds the goalie. Even if a player was making a near post run, its only going to end up as a flick or header that is at an extremely obscure, difficult angle.

yeah but to be fair if you beat the keeper to a near-post cross you're 99% likely to score.

but, again, none of our players are hardwired to do that.

really I'd just love to see bojan start at the weekend ahead of henry, who is just so bad.

[Cal-FCB]

to be quite honest when have I ever cared what the general consensus is?

I call it as I see it.



very well said.

without him, we were blunt.



as gneg here points out.

I didn't say you did, all I said was you're on your own on this one, you must have seen something everyone else didn't. Just because we didn't create anything with a midget front line after he went off doesn't = good Ibra performance. He gave us a target, but whenever that target was used too often Ibra wasted possession.