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Cesc Fàbregas


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People saying it's an overreaction to one game, he was the same against Man City as well, less so against Arsenal but it is worrying. He seems poor on the ball under pressure in big matches.

No, he wasn't. We played too negatively against City, but in that game Cesc rarely put a foot wrong and was careful in possession and stayed focused throughout the game. Against Arsenal he was very good both defensively and offensively and was one of the most influential players on the pitch.

Even stats make it obvious:

Against United: 43 passes with 84% pass accuracy, 62 touches (very low for him, about the same amount of touches as Hazard, Matic, Luis, Cahill)
Against City: 66 passes with 87% pass accuracy, 81 touches (more touches than any other Chelsea player)
Against Arsenal: 70 passes with 89% pass accuracy, 89 touches (more touches than any player on the pitch)
The difference is glaring. He was far more influential and careful against City and Arsenal.
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I'm not talking about his passing mainly, I'm talking about him being marked out of the game.

The amount of touches he had demonstrates the difference pretty well. The amount of touches he had against United is abnormally low for him--he was marked out of the game, and he wasn't marked out of the game against City and Arsenal.

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The amount of touches he had demonstrates the difference pretty well. The amount of touches he had against United is abnormally low for him--he was marked out of the game, and he wasn't marked out of the game against City and Arsenal.

The touches against City were mostly passing to Terry and Cahill and back. He rarely ever had the ball with enough time to make the difference further up the pitch.

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Just to throw this out there. One of Fabregas' weak points is that he doesn't have the close control and balls skills of a Modric, Iniesta, Gundogan or Xavi. It's sometimes difficult for him when the opposition gets in his face and puts pressure on him. Add that to his lack of quickness, it becomes a problem for him to shake off his marker. This is usually more apparent against higher quality sides who are far superior tactically to the smaller teams.

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I'm not talking about his passing mainly, I'm talking about him being marked out of the game.

I don't think he's been marked out of any game except yesterday. City he wasn't as influential simply because we played for a draw. Arsenal I thought he was good offensively and great defensively. Crystal Palace first half he was man marked first half and was poor but turned it around in the 2nd half.

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People saying it's an overreaction to one game, he was the same against Man City as well, less so against Arsenal but it is worrying. He seems poor on the ball under pressure in big matches.

Well that's one hell of an understatement. He won the official MOTM for that game!

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The touches against City were mostly passing to Terry and Cahill and back. He rarely ever had the ball with enough time to make the difference further up the pitch.

That has nothing to do with him being marked out of the game. He wasn't more marked out than any other Chelsea player. Against City we rarely went further up the pitch as a team.

Against United he was so well marked out of the game he couldn't even pass the ball to Terry and Cahill and back enough times.

Yes, he was sloppy and marked out of the game against United, but let's not rewrite history and pretend the same thing happened against City and Arsenal. It didn't.

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Kroos is "slow" and "immobile" as well and would have dominated that game yesterday. Still can't believe how shocking he was yesterday up against average footballers like Fellaini and Blind.

His minimal influence on the game affected the entire team.

Took me a while to realise how different is to a Kroos, or pirlo or Alonso. They dictate play, Fabregas plays good give and go movements but is at his best when playing killer, which is something the aforementioned rarely do. Playing him deep in the pivot won't change that, a 4-3-3 is his beats position

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You guys are overrating Kross imo. He's great at controlling play in a possession team but he's never looked good when the pace of the game increases or when he's pressed. He's been part of teams that always have 60% possession or more. Easy to ping balls around when you're always dominating and have loads of space and time.

Modric is the real beast. Him and Rakitic are probably the best complete CMs in the world on current form.

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You guys are overrating Kross imo. He's great at controlling play in a possession team but he's never looked good when the pace of the game increases or when he's pressed. He's been part of teams that always have 60% possession or more. Easy to ping balls around when you're always dominating and have loads of space and time.

Modric is the real beast. Him and Rakitic are probably the best complete CMs in the world on current form.

I agree on Kroos--he can be very nervous and sloppy under pressure--but disagree about Rakitic. I watch many Barcelona games, and he's a solid all-round midfielder, nothing more, with next to no creativity, and his passing isn't better than just above average.

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Thought he got better as the game went on but we have to give credit where it is due, Van Gaal had a really good game plan and his team executed the defensive instructions well.

From what I saw they man marked Cesc with Fellaini, Matic with Mata(lol he did okay though) and Blind on Oscar. That's why Hazard and Willian were afforded so much space down the flanks.

As good as Hazard was I thought he could've done more....

Cesc needed to get on the ball but only because we didn't make proper use of the space in the midfield. Hate to admit it but a ball playing defender like Luiz would've been useful here. If they're gonna hug Cesc so closely we need someone on the ball from deep who can distribute the ball.

He's not gonna zig zag and run away from defenders to get himself in position to receive the ball, we just have to be better at utilizing the space available

just my opinion of course.

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Just to throw this out there. One of Fabregas' weak points is that he doesn't have the close control and balls skills of a Modric, Iniesta, Gundogan or Xavi. It's sometimes difficult for him when the opposition gets in his face and puts pressure on him. Add that to his lack of quickness, it becomes a problem for him to shake off his marker. This is usually more apparent against higher quality sides who are far superior tactically to the smaller teams.

I agree - Fabregas doesn't have the agility and close control that those players have and it's why I think he'll be easy to shut down/have minimal influence against the elite teams in Europe. However, he's a good player in his own right and will almost certainly help us win the league this season. And considering the likes of Oscar and Willian (attackers who play a lot of minutes) contribute so little in terms of creativity (virtually nothing at times) we need Fabregas' creativity and assists more than we need a Modric.

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