Gareth Bale

[markysimmo]

I was watching the game with a load of liverpool fans and they had the cheek to lecture me about my teams cheating hahaha !!!

 

[Joesh]

I think he should stick to the left more. I always feel he will get his opponent booked or sent off. It also stretches the opposition defense allowing more space of VDV or Ade to do the damage centrally. Either way, he shouldnt be allowed to forget his defensive responsibilities as yesterday showed where he didnt even want to defend set pieces and left Benny on his own all game.

 

[Johnny Ray]

Left wing unless he's getting doubled up on and needs to come inside. But only if he needs to. Otherwise, just stay left.

 

[Cal_Yido]

It frustrates me so much when he drifts inside. Yes he has scored more, but i do think his attributes of pace and power are better suited out wide! He needs to be able to switch between the two, like yesterday, 2nd half, we were dying for width, especially with VDV on, yet Bale still drifted in. I remember Parker having the ball looking right and left but VDV and Bale were right next to Ade, it was so narrow.

 

[parklane1]

He is a left winger and we are at our best when we play him and Lennon out wide.

 

[BAE]

Lennon on the right = Bale can roam
Lennon not on the right = Bale less roam

I think its as simple as this

 

[Spursalot]

I think its as simple as this

I would put it slightly more complicated.. if vdv could play on the right/left the roaming thing would work so much better because he would fill the space that bale left..

I guess this is why i want a hazard type player in the centre as he can play left centre and probably isn't bad on the right..

 

[Jurgen the German]

Don't get annoyed mate, there are some here who see how one views Gareth Bale as a way with which to judge their moral fibre...it's getting tedious. I personally wish he'd just stop attacking whatsoever and not get himself into these awful positions where someone might foul him but not in such an egregious 'tried-to-break-his-leg' way that it warrants reprisal!!! OR I wish offenders would just try to break his legs so as we don't have to have this tedious fudging argument. There. Wouldn't that be better LOL!!!!!!!

Seriously, it's just pathetic IMHO, almost Monty Python-esque the lengths to which some people will go to prove they're 'decent moral footballing folk'...

I don't want to start an arguement, but just so were clear, are you saying that Bale doesn't dive?

 

[yiddo2786]

Bale was slated for not being flexible enough to adapt to getting double teamed or owned by Phil Neville or Rafael. He has adapted well to this in two ways. One, which I don't like, is to roll around on the floor at every challenge and dive, and the other is to roam the way he does. I prefer him on the left where possible, but when necessary he should definitely switch it up with Lennon and cut in more.

 

[Mulletperm]

Drifting away from the left wing against a team like Arsenal, who have a ridiculously fast right-side player was always going to be a loser. It meant Ekotto had to worry about Walcott and Sagna (who had licence to push forward).

 

[Gutter Boy]

Think the key is to play him left of a 4-2-3-1.

That gives him more flexibility to interchange with Rafa and Lennon than a 4-4-2 would, but means he has to be more disciplined/do more defensive duties than in the 4-3-2-1 we've used against Norwich, Swansea and Arsenal (i.e. when we play Sandro instead of Lennon).

 

[thfcsteff]

I don't want to start an arguement, but just so were clear, are you saying that Bale doesn't dive?

...in which case mate, what I wrote is self-explanatory. Believe what you wish to believe, about both of us.
Don't want to start a fight? Easy!
Move along, nothing to see here...

 

[ArcspacE]

He did it to avoid injury. Scezny was about to bite his leg and tweet about it later

Jokes aside - I thought it this particular incident there was enough contact for a foul.

 

[ArcspacE]

Oh, and besides all that - Luka's pass which lead to this was pure master-class and deserves a little compilation of its own

 

[DanishWhite]

Agreed - replay at 34:00 shows a nailed on clear contack from the player behind him too, subtly clipping his legs to make it look like a dive BEFORE Bale gets contact with the keeper.

 

[Klinsmania]

Some people have short memories. The final 5 months of last season and first month or two os this Bale was pretty ineffective as a straight line winger and I don't think he scored at all in that time either, teams doubled up on him and you could've made a good case for him being dropped. Then he started to roam more, the goals started to flow and he was more involved, 3 or 4 quiet games later and people want him back as a hit it down the line and run type winger again. Even in this quiet spell for him he charged through and won a penalty yesterday, against Liverpool he made a brilliant outside-to-in run which put him through, but fluffed the finish. The one thing that I don't like though is that he seems to think he's free of most(if not all) defensive responsibility, he's not working hard enough off the ball and leaving Benny pretty open at times.

I agree. When he's playing left wing he's far more defensively disciplined, but when he has a free role he doesn't seem to track back at all, and rarely closes down the defenders either. Against the scum, part of the problem was he was not getting back which meant that their extra man always had time and space. I think he should predominantly play off the left win, and only really start to roam if we are controlling the game but failing to break through, or if we are already comfortably in the lead.

 

[diego_maradona]

If you want Bale to have a completely free role then we should play him as one of a front 3. But even then he should be harrassing up top and closing down.

Really disappointing to see him drop that element of his game, his unbelievable work ethic to get up and down the pitch time after time. Players simply could not live with that.

 

[ArcspacE]

Play him as a false quarterback behind the inside 5

Or instead put him back on the left where he was unplayable, utilising one of his major assets (pace) and have him do what he does back - attack with speed. Sometimes I feel there are too many tactical ideas for such a great player and it all becomes shambles

 

[Spursalot]

Oh, and besides all that - Luka's pass which lead to this was pure master-class and deserves a little compilation of its own

This. Not enough has been made of this from what i have seen on the forums. The pass was a masterpiece...

 

[Kingdawson]

gibs made contact with bale and not the ball, why does bale have to stay on his feet? i dont understand why he has to stay on his feet when someone mistimes a tackle and makes contact with the opposing player and not the ball

scezeby did clip his foot, of this i SWEAR!!! get a HD replay of this on a HD screen and look at scezeny's hand and bale's foot. he touched him and not the ball

now neither the gibbs or scemevzeny contact was enough to make him drop , but it was contact..from two players in opposing directions who both missed the ball....why bale has to stay on his feet when he can gain advantage by punishing people that fall prey to the rules is beyond me

I've seen it loads of times and I still can't see contact with Scezeny. With Gibbs though there might have been but not a pen for me. Let's look at facts though, Gareth Bale is the most booked player in the league when it comes to diving. There has also been times where he hasn't got caught doing it. Theres only so many times someone can say "he dropped to avoid what would have been a nasty challenge by the opposing player" , or he "dropped to protect himself" , or "yep there was minimal contact if you slow down your tv and watch it for the 3000 time". You can bet your arse if gooner scum were making these excuses for their players we'd be having a field day.