Diego Costa

[Gilvorak 3,734]

He's a killer and a fantastic finisher but look at 6:09 in this video. Quick return pass there and Eden's through on goal. Drogba plays that pass.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivjZakOZngg

Exactly what I'm talking about when I say his link up play is shit. As I said before his hold up play is excellent but he's terrible at combination football. That's simply something he has to improve on as Cesc, Hazard and Oscar all thrive on 1 touch play.

No idea why people are up in arms whenever you criticize Diego btw. Hazard, Cesc, Oscar, Willian etc all receive criticism, Costa shouldn't be exempt from it either.

[The Skipper 20,593]

No idea why people are up in arms whenever you criticize Diego btw. Hazard, Cesc, Oscar, Willian etc all receive criticism, Costa shouldn't be exempt from it either.

What you've said is fair criticism, it's one aspect of his game that he definitely needs to improve (one-twos, slipping people in and stuff). It's when the criticism is unfair where I'll disagree.

[BlueLyon 9,359]

Apart from some games, our whole attack was positioned bad. Something I think Mou should work on, but just cant. We dont use width, we dont use through balls enough (we have players to do it, but we dont). Our FBs dont get involved in attack enough (except Iva who then goes missing in defense).

Its not just Costa that is at fault in our combination football. Its whole attack, but we can improve and we showed it, but just not enough consistent. We are not fast enough and when you compare us to bvb 2012/2013 (i believe this is what Mou wants to achieve), we lack movement, vision and passing skill big time. Too many individual actions or we play so slow that our players get surrounded and defenses positioned. And then Willian/Costa or sbd loses the ball because he tries on his own and there is no movement around him/or they simply lack visio and skill to pass that ball.

And how many fucking times did player A run near player B with ball, while A should run in open space, away from B and then recieve the ball.

[Whiskey 173]

Apart from some games, our whole attack was positioned bad. Something I think Mou should work on, but just cant. We dont use width, we dont use through balls enough (we have players to do it, but we dont). Our FBs dont get involved in attack enough (except Iva who then goes missing in defense).

Its not just Costa that is at fault in our combination football. Its whole attack, but we can improve and we showed it, but just not enough consistent. We are not fast enough and when you compare us to bvb 2012/2013 (i believe this is what Mou wants to achieve), we lack movement, vision and passing skill big time. Too many individual actions or we play so slow that our players get surrounded and defenses positioned. And then Willian/Costa or sbd loses the ball because he tries on his own and there is no movement around him/or they simply lack visio and skill to pass that ball.

And how many fucking times did player A run near player B with ball, while A should run in open space, away from B and then recieve the ball.

Maybe we should try something like:

Schurrle - Hazard - Willian ?

[lionsden 4,689]

People fail to realise that a good link up and hold up play requires technical ability first and foremost amongst other things such as intelligence,tactical awareness and selflessness. Problem is diego isnt a technical striker, he has never been and as such lacks the ability to link up and hold up play effectively. We knew this (well some of us did) before buying him so should have little complaint that he's not what we want him to be. To me he's a taller version of falcao I.e excellent runs and good/great finishing in the box and not much else.I have said this all along and criticised for it when I pointed out that the signing of diego wouldn't solve our creativity issue against lesser teams.

If good/great link up play was top of the expectation list from our striker then we should have signed a striker in the mould of aguero,rooney,benzema et al instead

[DYC. 7,542]

He's a killer and a fantastic finisher but look at 6:09 in this video. Quick return pass there and Eden's through on goal. Drogba plays that pass.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivjZakOZngg

5:10

The importance of handling quickly (when required).

Playing that pass first time took out 3 (!) players. Control the ball first, maybe taking an even extra touch, before passing and the space and time for the receiver is gone, something we see quite often. One of the main reasons of the struggles when facing a defensive team.

Loved that pass.

[Bir_CFC 3,455]

I find it funny when people use a couple of highlights to make an assessment. Was no one watching earlier in the season? He made some amazing 1-2s. But just cause they didn't result in a goal, no one bothers remembering them.

I wish I had the time to go back and look at all his match highlights, I guarantee I'll find several great link ups and passes. In fact, that's one of the things I explicitly saw that he was pretty good at. Not as good as prime Drogba, but it was not something I would ever note as a weakness. He's just not on form at the moment.

[Rapkun 668]

I personally think his current drop in form is a mental problem. for the last couple of weeks he was trying so hard to score a goal and failed to, he seemed more bothered about it as each game passed. That's very understandable especially for a striker. and to be fair, the attacking mids are not providing him a great service. the best chances he had mostly came from cesc.

obviously that must have worked his mind up and he started being more selfish and less focused. The goal on saturday was very important for his confidence, I'm not sure if people here felt the same or not but as soon as he scored he looked more comfortable and confident in everything. he even tried to link up with Eden afterwards which in the last couple of games he would never have done.

[BlueLyon 9,359]

Maybe we should try something like:

Schurrle - Hazard - Willian ?

I think Mou has to allow bit more freedom to our attackers, work on attacking tactics and bring proper RW (or Willian/Schurrle improves soon).

Surely Mou is capable of teaching our team to have planned attacks. He is great at setting up counter attacks, but when we play against organised defense, we are bit too slow and players seem to not realy know what to do (for example we never use width, and we rely on individual skill too much). This is where Mou could still make plenty of improvements on our team, but I feel he wants realy solid defense and that decreases our attacking potential. Secondly, our attackers are mostly young and not long together, there will surely be further improvements from them and they will be more consistent, regardless of Mou tactics.

[Barbara 15,149]

What you've said is fair criticism, it's one aspect of his game that he definitely needs to improve (one-twos, slipping people in and stuff). It's when the criticism is unfair where I'll disagree.

I find it funny when people use a couple of highlights to make an assessment. Was no one watching earlier in the season? He made some amazing 1-2s. But just cause they didn't result in a goal, no one bothers remembering them.

I wish I had the time to go back and look at all his match highlights, I guarantee I'll find several great link ups and passes. In fact, that's one of the things I explicitly saw that he was pretty good at. Not as good as prime Drogba, but it was not something I would ever note as a weakness. He's just not on form at the moment.

Somehow I agree with both of you...

I think it's a weakness of his game, but I also think he was much better than I expected. If someone complains about his lack of technique (or unconventional technique negatively) I'll agree to them to a certain extent.

What really bothers me is that he was worshiped here for months - with the same limitations, after all he didn't improve or got worse in the time span of one month - are now being really harsh on him. He was the best thing since sliced bread and now he's shitty? Come on, he wasn't/isn't either. He's a very useful striker for us, that already won us matches, that has been key, that went through a blip, a very small drop of form and who has a few areas of his game that he can improve and some weaknesses he won't ever improve. None of those weaknesses limit his usefulness though. He's exactly the kind of striker we needed imo. I think we have complimentary strikers, which is always good.

Suarezes and Agueros aren't found everywhere. Aguero is VERY injury prone and a cunt (I like most of Costa antics and approve of them because except with the Ramos episode where he spitted on him, he never kicked and stepped on opponents like Aguero has so many times, he's a cunt) and Suarez who is the cunt of the cunts, a cheater and whats not, score 5 against Norwich but seem to struggle very often against big teams or in big matches (I could say he bottles, but maybe some will think that's too much).

Still they're amazing strikers, I'd have Aguero - I wouldn't have Suarez, but just because they're better than Diego on some aspects it doesn't mean Diego isn't what we needed.

[iseah100 5,612]

Costa does no wrong. He scores when he feels like it.

[Polo7 3,496]

He has scored 12 goals yet people still complain? Pathetic.

[DH1988 1,193]

We do not play like we played at the start of the season and we can only put that down to Jose not liking the amount of goals we conceded so whilst the team has creative and attacking movements it's a ton more compact now, diego is most of the time left isolated and pointing where he wants it, doesn't grt it, comes deep and tries to bulldoze through.

Tactics and team play needs to have more freedom imo

[Madmax 9,219]

It seems silly to say this for a player who's missed two straightforward finishes (for his standards), but I thought he had an excellent game, his best performance in weeks. Proper centre forward shift - battled for everything, every ball played up to him stuck and even had a role in the 2nd goal with the run that opened space up for Fabregas.

[DH1988 1,193]

Improved his hold up play today and seemed to calm down, still toothy in the fight but doesn't cross the line.

[xPetrCechx 13,546]

Beast.

[MrBlueGuy 1,552]

Good link up play but not as clinical as Aguero, tbh he should be on like 16 goals by now but happy with him in the team

[DH1988 1,193]

Improved his hold up play today and seemed to calm down, still toothy in the fight but doesn't cross the line.