Patrice Evra

Did his and Silvestre's job yesterday.

Full of energy, tough in the tackle, good delivery, adaptable and interchangable.
He makes a big difference to our attack when he's there.

Good to have the little man back fit and playing well.

Got caught out a few times by different strokes.

Originally Posted by red @rmy

Got caught out a few times by different strokes.

No shame in that, he's a good player and tough to handle. Most of the time it was because he was covering Silvestre's arse.

Originally Posted by red @rmy

Got caught out a few times by different strokes.

They played some good balls over the top but tbh apart from one moment second half I don't think SWP got the better of him.

FWIW, as pointed out by someone else, our 'left' isn't exploited because opposing sides view it as a weakness it's because most sides don't have a decent left winger to get at the right back. Very true. Most sides would love to have a full back as quick and aggressive as ours. Well, apart from Rafa...

It didn't help that he had that useless @#%&! behind him, Silvestre was £#%&!ing woeful.

Originally Posted by MUFC One Love

It didn't help that he had that useless @#%&! behind him, Silvestre was £#%&!ing woeful.

Exactly. He did two jobs. Almost like a wing back.

We could do with a right sided version of Evra, Neville is never fit for long periods these days and the decrease in attacking output with Brown there is rather shocking.

Evra obviously got a talking to after the Inter game, he was a lot more focused, aggressive and perhaps was our best player.

motm in my opinion yesterday touch little bastard who doesnt shirk a challenge

Originally Posted by puressence

motm in my opinion yesterday touch little bastard who doesnt shirk a challenge

Evra motm. Giving it to Cole was absurd.

Is it only me or does he look like a muppet when he does a blatent foul and looks at the referee saying its no foul.

I don't think he is best defensively and I think he will be caught easily against top quality european oppostion like inter other night, or milan, barca, madrid and arsenal. He is a liability in such games.

I would fancy that all goals scored will come from his side against top quality oppostion as we saw against arsenal away. gets caught out of position too many times because of his urge to attack.

Originally Posted by redrose

Evra motm. Giving it to Cole was absurd.

because cole was excellent. I didn't see once ronaldo going past coal where as if it was evra vs ronaldo, ronaldo would have skinned him umpteen times probably seeing what philips did to him.

Sharath - load of %@#$&!s. SWP went past Evra once, immediately after Tweetie went off and he was sent back to left back. After that, a few balls over the top but his pace meant SWP could do £#%&! all.

Cole's main asset is his attacking play and is something Chelsea need on the overlap. Whenever Ronnie plays he can't do that. Evra's better defensively than you give him credit for. Apart from Cole, at left back anyways, I don't know many better alternatives out there. Be thankful it's him playing and not O'Shea.

We need attacking full backs in our system, one at the very least. With Neville out and injury prone the importance of Evra cannot be overstated. You either accept he's an attacking full back (a bit suspect defensively and he is far from shit on that front) or you start to make a case for full backs like Gabby who are less adventurous and in those tight games don't offer much in the final third. Which is just as important.

Tbh, looking about there aren't many decent full backs out there. Cole apart Lahm is the only one I really rate and he has his faults too.

Oh and like I said, there's a reason why most of the attacks will come down the left it's because there aren't an awful lot of quality left wingers in world football atm.

Originally Posted by Whalefish

Sharath - load of %@#$&!s. SWP went past Evra once, immediately after Tweetie went off and he was sent back to left back. After that, a few balls over the top but his pace meant SWP could do £#%&! all.

Cole's main asset is his attacking play and is something Chelsea need on the overlap. Whenever Ronnie plays he can't do that. Evra's better defensively than you give him credit for. Apart from Cole, at left back anyways, I don't know many better alternatives out there. Be thankful it's him playing and not O'Shea.

We need attacking full backs in our system, one at the very least. With Neville out and injury prone the importance of Evra cannot be overstated. You either accept he's an attacking full back (a bit suspect defensively and he is far from shit on that front) or you start to make a case for full backs like Gabby who are less adventurous and in those tight games don't offer much in the final third. Which is just as important.

Tbh, looking about there aren't many decent full backs out there. Cole apart Lahm is the only one I really rate and he has his faults too.

swp went past evra once? he skipped past both silv and evra at least 3 times in the match. another 2 times evra just fouled him.

evra gets so tight on players that he will lose out easily to players who have some cleverness.

he is not slightly suspect defensively and he is really suspect defensively. In top class matches like against european top tier teams he will be a liability. Not only he gets caught out, but vidic gets drawn out to left against speedy wingers. vidic is no pacy road runner and invariably lose out to widemen.

I won't fancy playing evra against likes of messi, henry, robinho, kaka, ibramvich, higuain, persie and many more attackers like that.

off course if you are comparing evra with silvestre and heinze, he is miles better. But certainly I won't be looking forward to matches where we will go 4-4-2 against top class teams with ronaldo infront of evra.

god I hope hargreaves is fit for such matches so that he can give some solidity in such matches.

Again you're chatting %@#$&!s. When Tweetie was on he was the left back and thus Evra was further up the pitch - and SWP hardly skipped past the two of them loads of times. I lost count of the number of times Evra covered for Tweeties mistakes. When he moved to left back he went past him once and then Evra played him well. Also, there's no shame if the lad did go past him, SWP is a very quick winger good on the ball and no mug either.

You list a load of players playing in Europe. How often will we play against them? The bread and butter is the league and when teams turn out with 5 in midfield Evra, and Neville when fit, are vitally important.

Name me a left back, who is available for under £8million, and is better than Evra?

And yes Hargreaves will make a huge difference because he'll be covering the back four. Something O'Shea doesn't do very well because he lacks the energy and pace needed.

As for playing against those 'top' teams. Bring it on. I can't £#%&!ing wait.

Originally Posted by Whalefish

Name me a left back, who is available for under £8million, and is better than Evra?

As for playing against those 'top' teams. Bring it on. I can't £#%&!ing wait.

again you are talking subjectively. Obviously there is no left back better than evra for under 8m. But that doesn't mean he is the ultimate or world class. he is suspect defensively and will get caught out defensively. wait and watch.

Top teams. we will see how many times evra puts out world class defensive performances.

Originally Posted by Whalefish

Sharath - load of %@#$&!s. SWP went past Evra once, immediately after Tweetie went off and he was sent back to left back. After that, a few balls over the top but his pace meant SWP could do £#%&! all.

Cole's main asset is his attacking play and is something Chelsea need on the overlap. Whenever Ronnie plays he can't do that. Evra's better defensively than you give him credit for. Apart from Cole, at left back anyways, I don't know many better alternatives out there. Be thankful it's him playing and not O'Shea.

We need attacking full backs in our system, one at the very least. With Neville out and injury prone the importance of Evra cannot be overstated. You either accept he's an attacking full back (a bit suspect defensively and he is far from shit on that front) or you start to make a case for full backs like Gabby who are less adventurous and in those tight games don't offer much in the final third. Which is just as important.

Tbh, looking about there aren't many decent full backs out there. Cole apart Lahm is the only one I really rate and he has his faults too.

Totally agree.

Anyone who can't see that Cole played well yesterday is blinkered.

Evra has his faults, but saying he's a liablity is over the top. He is a little like Cole in the sense that he is so attack minded that sometimes he is caught a little high up the pitch or on the front foot and needs to re adjust and usually escapes because his powers of recovery are excellent.
He did this a few times against SWP and Cole did it first half when he was hopelessly out of position allowing Rooney in on the right but recovered well to dispossess him.

Evra is a 'United type' of full back. The way we play requires attacking full backs who are energetic, comfortable on the ball and adaptable. Evra is all of these. He leaps well too. He's tough in the tackle and his only real flaw is a slight lack of positioning discipline. But, as you say, I can't really think of many better left backs in the game.

Originally Posted by sharath

again you are talking subjectively. Obviously there is no left back better than evra for under 8m. But that doesn't mean he is the ultimate or world class. he is suspect defensively and will get caught out defensively. wait and watch.

Top teams. we will see how many times evra puts out world class defensive performances.

Top teams expose everyone anyway.

Suggesting that Evra is poor because Milan may do well against us is a little unfair.

Cole gets exposed against Ronaldo at times, but that's mainly because Ronaldo is so good.

Evra is flawed, but the suggestion that he's a liability or a weak link is over the top.

We're an attacking team, we will get exposed at times. We always have been and always will be. It's more about concentration levels and discipline and Evra is no different to anyone else in that sense.

Originally Posted by The Return of JC

Evra has his faults, but saying he's a liablity is over the top. He is a little like Cole in the sense that he is so attack minded that sometimes he is caught a little high up the pitch or on the front foot and needs to re adjust and usually escapes because his powers of recovery are excellent.
He did this a few times against SWP and Cole did it first half when he was hopelessly out of position allowing Rooney in on the right but recovered well to dispossess him.

Evra is a 'United type' of full back. The way we play requires attacking full backs who are energetic, comfortable on the ball and adaptable. Evra is all of these. He leaps well too. He's tough in the tackle and his only real flaw is a slight lack of positioning discipline. But, as you say, I can't really think of many better left backs in the game.

Spot on. Positional sense is about his only weakness IMO and he will cost Utd the odd goal from time to time. However I'd rather have him ahead of countless others. He brings so much more to the team and since we can't rely on Neville anymore we need at least one attacking full back in the side. The defensive clogger does nothing for me I'm afraid and quite often are just as bad positionally if not worse.

And Sharath - you mention world class performances against 'top' sides. World class for who? Another subjective football cliche I'm afraid.

Edit: Also, I don't know a single full back in world football today who isn't flawed. Too attacking, too defensive, too shit blah blah blah.

Originally Posted by The Return of JC

Top teams expose everyone anyway.

Suggesting that Evra is poor because Milan may do well against us is a little unfair.

Cole gets exposed against Ronaldo at times, but that's mainly because Ronaldo is so good.

Evra is flawed, but the suggestion that he's a liability or a weak link is over the top.

We're an attacking team, we will get exposed at times. We always have been and always will be. It's more about concentration levels and discipline and Evra is no different to anyone else in that sense.

you should be. thats what makes you world class.

Maldini and cafu did it so beautifully as did carlos in his pomp days.