I thought he clearly got the ball and his momentum took him into their player, therefore IMO he should not even have been penalised let alone carded for that tackle
His initial yellow was a total joke. His second (the red) was worthy of a yellow, but had that pathetic first card not been shown for a nothing challenge he would of stayed on the pitch. He played well today and looked up for a fight. Something that a player like Sarr could take a leaf from.
He doesn’t hold anything back when going in for a tackle, that’s for sure. On the second booking Tavares had lost control of the ball; Kucka could’ve just poked it away with a toe but he just had to have a big ol’ swing at it instead.
Personally want to see another angle of the Lokonga (Sp?) challenge on Tufan - that looked to be a challenge where the follow through took the man as well.
This literally didn't even enter my mind until my brother reminded me when discussing this very question, either, but we do actually have our most expensive summer transfer as an option there! Unthinkable, I know, but it's so crazy that it just might work - playing him, that is.
Yeah I agree Cude! I just saw that incident on MotD2, and the pundits seemed to think that he got the ball and it was only his follow through that caught Tufan, therefore in their opinion it was not a foul. However if they thought that why did they not say that Kucka should not have been sent off, after all that is exactly what Kucka did to the Spurs player? Strange that isn't it
A. We didn’t play Spurs. B. That isn’t what Kucka did. I think the Arsenal challenge was likely worthy of a FK - but in the case of Kucka, he didn’t ‘get the ball’….the Arsenal player got there first and kicked the ball into Kucka’s shin on his standing leg and subsequently the swing that Kucka took to try and get the ball took the player out. Blatant yellow card.
Tbh I don't care. He and Sissoko played with real passion and desire. These displays need to start rubbing off on others and quickly.
This is one of my biggest annoyances about punditry. Any time anyone "gets the ball" they deem it as not a foul whereas getting the ball isn't actually mentioned in the rules at all - if the referee deems a challenge to be reckless, careless or using excessive force then it's a foul - whether the ball was won or not doesn't come into it at all.
There's some debate over the goal. Well, from my perspective, there was a clear foul on Sarr by an Arsenal player just before the goal was scored. Had it been up the other end, Friend would have given a freekick for that, as he did numerous times for Arsenal during our attacks for smaller infringements. It can never be proved categorically of course, but we all know how it works. We swim against the tide with certain officials. Nothing we can really do about it.
Absolute pisstake that VAR didn't even look at it. I would put good money on betting that if it had been the other way round it would have been disallowed.
VAR did look at it. And even more bizarrely, deemed it not a foul or something the ref needed to look at again. Which, all-in-all, is worse than them not even looking at it.
Bloody awful. Constantly giving the ball away and barely able to keep up with play. That horrific last passage was a gift to those Brentford *****s. Set it up on a plate. Deep into injury time and give it away.
He's absolutely terrible. He hasn't looked anything other than terrible since the first game of the season. A woeful, useless old man who, much like a number of players in our squad, has no business being anywhere near this level.
Could barely even stand up, let alone get a pass to a teammate, then before the penalty he gives it away not once, but twice totally pathetically and unnecessarily. Hard to recall a more universally woeful performance from one of our players in the PL years.
I think in the context of the standard of the opposition, and the fact Rose was only picked due to injury to Masina, not through actual wilful choice on behalf of the manager, Kucka was worse.
Joke of a signing. Clearly near retirement, gets a nice little PL payday. I don’t think there’s any lack of effort from him, he’s just finished.
I don't disagree with this regards to football ability. But didn't we offer Hughes much improved terms and he chose not to take them? They were not just discarded.
But (puts tin hat on), not as effective as Cleverley . Our best midfield three imho is Sissoko, Cleverley and Louza.
We withdrew the offer when he didn’t immediately accept it. We also gave away Chalobah for free for some reason.
Actually thought he was fairly okay for the most part, made a few decent tackles when Brentford were counter attacking. Then seemingly his legs/head just went and he started doing nothing other than giving the ball away. Can't believe he stayed on the pitch.
Yes I think he's ok for about 60 mins a game but then needs to be replaced. Except at Everton of course.
I agree with this. 60 mins is his max and while that is not ideal I think he has a part to play. As for the worst performance ever by a player in our years in the top flight, there have been a lot that were worse than that and I do mean a lot
Kucka and Cleverley can each give us 110% for 45 minutes. So we're looking at a good 220% from those two alone. Good squad building from Gino, Scotty D and Crissy G.
