Nothing petty about it. You often employ passive aggressive tactics when anyone questions your opinions, and let's remember, that's all they are Luke, opinions. You (like me) are by no measure an authority.
You accused me of being passive aggressive, I wasn't, I was pointing out your mistake because you shouldn't simply trust stats because as has been proven on countless occasions they can actually be a poor reflection of the truth when placed in context.
That's why sometimes when some of us use the "eye test" of watching a game to make determinations of a player's contributions, we often times are actually full of crap. (including myself)
Here you clearly state that the stats carry more weight than your opinion and therefore allow the stats to make you believe that your opinion could be full of crap. This is incorrect, you formed your opinion on observations and contextualised them based on the situation and the game at hand.
For instance a tackle made by the corner flag in the opposition half with 30 seconds to go while winning 5-0 clearly doesn't carry the weight of a 90th minute goal stopping tackle when you're winning 1-0. (I'm not trying to treat you dumb here, just adding context and removing the weight stats should carry in formalising your opinion).
You rightly, in my opinion, concluded that although Adam had a decent game in the second half in a defensive sense, his overall contribution to the game was poor and the task presented to him initially was to be creative which he more or less failed at (both stats and observations confirm this so I'm sure you'd agree). Let's remember that this is Bournemouth at home, now I know some people are uncomfortable with admitting there are weaker teams in this league but it's a fact and Lallana should absolutely shine against a newly promoted side who came to compete man for man and not sit back in a cowardly low block.
So which one (stats or observations) am I believing since you seem to know what's bouncing around in my head? I don't think I "dismissed" anything, I merely stated that I tempered my initial observations once I realized that the statistics paint a different picture. I didn't say that I all of the sudden think he had an outstanding game, but what I did do was consider that maybe my eyes deceived a bit and that he wasn't as lackluster as I thought...which many others have already said by the way, so it's not like this is some revelation I've trying to make.
You're believing the stats and allowing them to prop up your over inflated opinion of the player at the expense of your own observations, as you admit, you're willing to believe 'you were deceived' when the truth is that you're allowing the stats to deceive you and render your opinion worthless. You quite clearly have a vested interest in seeing the very best of Lallana, it's obvious and I've no problem with it. You revel in the moment when he does something good and more power to you for it, but if you can't see that if you thought he had a "quite average" game it is actually an indication of just how poor he was then no amount of discussion will help you remove the bias.
I've not seen anywhere reliable nor have I seen any corraboration by anyone that actually "knows" football that would argue that Lovren was one of the top CB's in the country. I'm pretty sure Mick who is his biggest fan wouldn't put forth that he was one of the best in the country.
I never said they were reliable, reliable wasn't asked for, they are out there as HScRed1 has proven. (They've been going since 2010 though and that report is quite extensive)
I'm saying he shouldn't be dropped for Firmino, Ibe should be dropped because Lallana possesses qualities that are proving important that Ibe doesn't currently. Which incidently you went on to state......
Right, well on that we agree. I would only be against dropping Lallana at the moment purely based on his defensive contributions though. That as the biggest asset of a creative midfielder isn't a very big indictment. Markovic would be my choice against lesser opposition, but away to Arsenal we can ill afford to give them more to bite at than is already going to be our first proper test.
So again, like I said before, drop Ibe, leave Lallana on because of his experience, work rate and defensive cababilities and add Firmino and our midfield should prosper.
I think it will improve for sure, but to truly function we need at least 4 properly creative players. Firmino, Benteke and Coutinho wont be able to carry the entire weight.
I hardly think our problems are down to Adam Lallana alone as some are insinuating. To imply that is once again just a tactic used by those that believe they MUST have a whipping boy to blame any tactical woes on.
As I've said many times to you, Adam is an excellent squad player and in the second half we may actually have seen where his true position lies but I can't see Brendan shifting Milner or Henderson to accommodate that. Even when he does Can will probably be the preferred choice (who put in 4 tackles in the brief time he was on the pitch, compared to Adam's 5 total).
So yet again it boils down to squad player or true first XI candidate and for me, as has been consistently my view (not agenda driven), Lallana is that small amount of pace (which makes him have to hold on to the ball for longer than would normally be necessary) away from being a top quality player but as he's not going to suddenly get quicker at his age an alternative should be lined up. Ibe is looking like this year might, unfortunately, be a year too soon and as Debs alluded to, if he doesn't get it now, will he ever?