[Slick_Footwork]

We will have to agree to disagree on both Pereira who was given mom by sky and numerous papers the same with Johnstone who is a really god keeper, agree Sawyers had a decent match and did you notice as soon as Townsend went off they created a lot of chances down our right,for me it shows just how much Townsend has improved.

I think those who work for Sky are basing their man of the match on what someone does on the ball, rather than the whole picture.

On the ball, I think we all agree that Pereira is our most creative player. We barely created anything from open play yesterday, but the one chance we did create from a great ball over the top from Pereira to Grant. The goal and other chances came from his set plays. My issue is, I'm not sure these moments of quality are enough to justify the fact he is probably the laziest player in the league when it comes to defensive contribution. Of course, I'm not asking him to be running around like a headless chicken, but at the same time, if you're part of a midfield 3 I think it's a prerequisite to at least jog back into a defensive shape if one of the opponents centre backs are marauding forward with the ball to create an overflow or a team mate is caught out of position upfield.

I think Pereira either needs to get better at providing at least a bit of defensive cover or Slav will have to sacrifice one of the 2 forward players as better teams will punish us if we were as open as yesterday. That would be a shame as both Grant and Robinson really bust their balls to help out defensively when we look short. Which IMO is why our best performance was against Spurs when Pereira was out.

Agree on Townsend that he's come on leaps and bounds compared to when he was signed. Still not sure he's good enough defensively for this level, but he's certainly got a lot better. Not too sure what the idea was in bringing Phillips on when Townsend went off injured. I assume Slav thought that might push us up the pitch, but it seemed to leave us extra exposed. I thought it would've made more sense to bring O'Shea on, who at least also contributes with defending balls into the box. Phillips seemed to leave Bartley exposed, which is always suicide as he's a baby elephant when teams run at him on the floor. Luckily we got away with it.