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Reece James

Good call by Frank, Idah was drifting to the right flank to presumably take advantage of Azpi's fatigue. Reece James put a stop to it and Idah moved centrally.

 
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the special one said:
Good call by Frank, Idah was drifting to the right flank to presumably take advantage of Azpi's fatigue. Reece James put a stop to it and Idah moved centrally.
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Thats how I saw it, a good move by frank as Idah was dominating Azpi physically, James came on and that was stopped. His crosses were excellent too.

 
EdinburghBlue said:
On this forum? I disagree - as soon as he has a below his usual standards game the ‘he’s finished’ or ‘not good enough anymore’ posts start & crying for James to play who comes in and inevitably plays even worse but gets praised.
The guys 30 years old. I’m not sure where this myth of players being finished when they get over 30 comes from. Sure their resale value will start to go down but a lot of people reckon Giroud is our No1 striker and class, he’s 33 going on 34 and I’d argue playing some of his best football for us.
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Have to embarrassingly admit thatI i thought Azpi was about 32/33 years old.

30 is not old by any stretch, so I was wrong to say we need younger legs. 

 
EdinburghBlue said:
On this forum? I disagree - as soon as he has a below his usual standards game the ‘he’s finished’ or ‘not good enough anymore’ posts start & crying for James to play who comes in and inevitably plays even worse but gets praised.
The guys 30 years old. I’m not sure where this myth of players being finished when they get over 30 comes from. Sure their resale value will start to go down but a lot of people reckon Giroud is our No1 striker and class, he’s 33 going on 34 and I’d argue playing some of his best football for us.
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It was a legit concern at the time. He's bounced back amazingly well but the back end of last season and start of this he was showing similar worrying signs Ivan did before he completely collapsed.

That plus James's spell at Wigan (it may be a level below but he's considered by many fans their best ever player which is a big achievement considering Wigan were in the PL for many years and had a good go at the cups even winning one) meant it was understandable the possibility was brought up.

 
MUCH better from James today. The more the game went on, the stronger he got and looked like the player who was head & shoulders Wigan POTY last season.

We need to remember he is only 20 and still has a lot of learning to do but today was a big step in the right direction.

 
I think he's just played himself back into form, not every gets going immediately like Willian does. I expect him to keep it up for the rest of the season and we'll look much better going into the final games.

 
MOTM for me, showed a lot of maturity and won the ball back for Mount's goal (Callum take note). His combination play (with Willian and Azpi) and tactical awareness left me beaming. An immense performance.

 
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How can he be so gifted? It's feels like we're cheating by having all this talent  :woot2:

 
Benefitted massively from having Azpilicueta support him both vocally and positionally. 

He pressed at the right times, held his position at the right times, and he didnt put a foot wrong all game.

 
Always knew he was quality. He can be shaky at times and that shouldn't come as a surprise given his age plus a lack of leadership at the back. He's going places, only a matter of time.

 
Has to be said Utd were awful all over the pitch, but seeing that i've been critical of James it's only fair to praise him after a good all round performance.

 
Wingback is a fantastic position for him to develop his defensive game without being hung out to dry with errors. If he makes mistakes he has Azpi covering. It’s a perfect set up for him. 

 
I said last week I didnt think Full back suited him but he is much better as a wing back with a 3 behind him and I think this game showed that perfectly. It gives us the stability to allow him to go forward, and I thought it worked really well that when he banged forward Jorginho moved to his wing to cover in also.

 
I’ve been harsh on his performances lately and rightly so as I don’t think he’s been good enough since the break. Having said that, he was outstanding yesterday, very commanding, made the right decisions, sat back with Azpi went forward. A top, top performance from the young man. If he can start showing that on a regular/semi regular basis then it’ll be a massive boost for us as we’ll have two of the best RB’s in the league. I think having the 3 at the back helped him massively, especially having Azpilicueta right beside him to give him support. Very impressive indeed!

 
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