Samba Diakite

[jmelanie]

The game before.

[DeepcutHoop]

Tiote has just made a very nasty late challenge on Diakite about 30 seconds in.

[MattyRangers]

Tiote has just made a very nasty late challenge on Diakite about 30 seconds in.

He up playng again?

[DeepcutHoop]

He up playng again?

Yeah, it looked touch and go for a moment. This game is full of needle/crap tackles so far.....

[MattyRangers]

Ffs I thought he was playing a worldy, hearing his name every 30secs.... Then realised there's about 3 Diakites on the field :strive:

[Sprocket]

Brother apparently

[zuluop]

hmm he is like running around in slow-motion.....

[DeepcutHoop]

hmm he is like running around in slow-motion.....

Not slow there, outpaced Zokora and a superbly timed tackle.

Some abysmal cheating by he Ivory Coast, Zokora pretended to be hurt by that tackle, and Drogba keeps rolling round holding his head when he hasn't been touched.

[QPRDave]

Ffs I thought he was playing a worldy, hearing his name every 30secs.... Then realised there's about 3 Diakites on the field :strive:

[DeepcutHoop]

Really powerful run there, beating 2 players and feeding the right winger.

Mali strikers are gash btw...

[Gtleighsr3]

so is vine

[zuluop]

he doesn't look like he is running a lot of miles without the ball during a game.......hope he is not a defensive oriented Taraabt, we need a hard working midfielder.

[scuberry]

Mali Out !!! when will he be here ???

[jmelanie]

He won't yet, they have to play the third/fourth place (a complete waste of time) on Saturday.

[DeepcutHoop]

so is vine

????

Anyway, quietly reassured that he looks OK. Showed a hint of what Hughes et al have seen in him. Very much a defensive midfielder, he spent most of his time patrolling in front of the back four on halfway (or not moving around much, depending on your point of view ), but looked the only player who could hold on to the ball going forward. Missplaced a pass or two late on, and took a booking for the team as he stopped Gervinho breaking away in the last minute.

QPR are a far stronger and more skilful side than a poor Mali side, it'll take time for him to settle in, language barrier and all, but I think he'll be alright.

Ivory are a horrible side, so far superior to the rest of the African sides, but are just awful, and cynical to boot. Zokora was my favourite, faking an injury late on while at the same time doing little hops on his #### to get back on the pitch to waste time