Sorry for the late poll. My picks: Taarabt as MoM, flop goes to Mexès.

Taarabt
Mexes
Out?

Same. Except Zee to stay on. If he doesn't win Champions League we must fire him and appoint a new coach with exciting philosophies who can get things done. Like my milkman.

Taarabt and Mexes, obviously.

All things considered, I think Mexes-Rami remains our best choice for CBs.

Mexes? Nah, Balotelli for me 100%. One of his trademark shitty performances. He's supposed to be our best player.

Mexes made one mistake, DS another, the first a collective effort from the entire team, I'd say Mexes had a good game apart from that one blip, he had moments where he made game saving interventions as well. I think the Essien-De Jong partnership is what really killed us, plus Urby constantly getting caught out on the left as well

Good game? Nah, he was pretty bad overall. He seemed shaky and insecure in most situations. But he wasn't our worst player. Balotelli and Robinho were far worse. De Sciglio was bad as well.

He had a couple of game changing interventions. Yes he had a couple of moments, but I think it was an overall balanced game between some very good moments and a really bad one which cost a goal. So I'd say the scale is pretty balanced

I only saw the first half, I don't recall any "game changing interventions", just insecurity and bad calls. Maybe he had a better second half, even though that's when he made his biggest mistake.

Naah, he was overall bad.

Balotelli had zero service. Not much he can do in that situation. Mexes was very bad. I don't care if he made a couple good interventions, he still screwed up terribly and allowed goals. If Mexes were better positionally he wouldn't have to make last ditch goal saving tackles as often.

Disagree. He's not Pazzini, who can't live without service. Balo is the guy who's supposed to carry us, who wins games by himself and pulls magic tricks out of @ss. That's what world-class players do. If he disappears in big games, then he's simply not world-class.

Well put.

I remember 2 very clear instances when we had our back to the walls due to the fact that we had let them counter on us with a man advantage and Mexes made crucial tackles, one was on Higuain IIRC.

Yeah, he made some silly mistakes, plus one really huge one, but I certainly think that there were others who played worse.

Abate on that right wing was a nightmare - yeah, wasn't his fault but if we're going to judge based on performance then sheesh!
DS was ineffectual on that right side for the entirety of the game and then made a big error on their 3rd goal
Balo, as you said was completely AWOL (I do think that the fact that we could barely pass the ball further than the centre circle does give him a pretty damn great excuse though)
Urby constantly got burned by Maggio and their winger (can't remember who was playing on their right side atm)
De Jong and Essien were a complete nightmare combo who continuously left the CBs exposed to situations where they were outnumbered on counters

It was mainly one huge mess, and based on performance I really don't think Mexes came close to being the flop

Mertens, I think.

Yeah, you're right, Mertens started, Callejon replaced him

So, who was your flop?

I haven't voted yet, because I can't decide, and the person I really want to vote for isn't on that list.

In reality Seedorf was the flop last Saturday, not the players. It was a big tactical flop on his part, the selections and approach were totally wrong.

We were exposed at the back multiple times and this was something that we could see as an issue from the previous games where we got caught out as well but weren't punished because we were facing inferior opposition

I get that this is a huge learning curve for him and he'll have to learn as he goes. But certain obvious things like, um... NOT playing your best FB as an attacking midfielder, or not playing a defensively weak wing-back like Urby against one of the best attacks in the league, or not benching your best CB for weeks and then playing him again in a crucial match, give him the captain's armband after you've destroyed his confidence b picking Bonera ahead of him, etc.


I mean all these things were obvious to see before the game started yet he still went ahead with them