OhForAGreavsie

The sky is green, the moon really is cheese and Vesper will return to normal tomorrow or we're going to see Brexit knocked off the front pages!!

Not till it's mathematically certain I won't. Not seen today's game of course but, from what I have seen, City have been playing better than Liverpool despite the fact that they are the ones dropping points.

Bugger

Wow! I better take a look at the lad. You might put some of the early season comments down to honeymoon assessments but this is a couple of months into the season now and you'd expect fans to be getting a bit more demaning about what they want from a player, yet the reviews seem to be getting better not more balanced.

Congratulations to Connor, he's started really well. I haven't watched him play for Charlton yet. In part, I confess, because I've never really believed in his Chelsea chances. If he makes the grade it will be a very pleasant surprise for me.

Disagree with almost all of this killer in as much as I am yet to be convinced by these two. I've also watched Ruben ever since he broke into the 18s. For most of that time, actually all of that time bar a few games last season, he's frustrated the heck out of me. The frustration was caused by his inability to get involved in the game and make a difference. He would often do something really, really nice and then stand around watching the game pass him by. I saw an England age group game where Rubes managed just three touches in twenty minutes. It definitely was not a case of others not passing to him he just wasn't making angles for his teammates to find him. What is more, his three touches were all just simple drop offs. Horrible performance and, I'm afraid, all too typical. Look at Ruben's efforts in the World Cup last year. How often did he really impact a game? Spent most of his time on the periphery. Even his most famous (televised) moment in the 18s was more evidence of his basic problem. In a UEFA Youth League game against a Schalke side including Sane, Ruben broke up an attack in his own box, beat a couple of opponents with some magic touches, surged past another few with more great feet, chose the right pass to serve the ball out wide left to Musonda who delivered it into their box and a beautiful team goal was scored. What's the problem? After Ruben laid the ball off he adopted his usual, I've done my bit, I'm a spectator now' attitude. No busting a gut to get into the box, no following his pass to back up Charlie if required. It was a bad habit and it has taken him a long time to even convince people that he might be shaking it off. No one but Ruben, kept Ruben out of the Chelsea side. At the back end of the 17/18 season, I posted to say that I thought Tino looked like becoming the next big thing in the 18s. Unfortunately he had a pretty lacklustre, injury affected, season last term. I've seen him several times so far this year and his cameo against a defeated, demoralised and knackered Grimsby was by far his best display in those games. Don't get me wrong, I loved what I saw from Tino that night. It reminded me why I said, what I said, in 2018. He's still a baby; more of what we saw against the Mariners and we'll all be very, very happy.

Very good point and, importantly, each was able to cover multiple positions so they weren't relying on a specific player being injured/rested/rotated to get game time. This meant they got plenty of minutes so stayed involved and happy.

How's your heart?

He-he-he, he-he-he

...absolve of....

Yess!!

Good stop Keppa

It's the manager's choice to make. We're entitled to judge him on the outcome of his decisions, but we can't demand he picks the team we want. After all, none of us would be picking the team Frank wanted if we happened to be the person in charge.

He's on the bench isn't he?

It's a good question. Personally I'd say exactly what you've said about Frank, but I know that wouldn't be everyone's answer.

🙂

I wouldn't go as far as excellent, but his all round play was good. He did still miss big chances however.

I like your point about the, let's use the word, unanimous support Reece has from fans and the similar status he held at Wigan. It's a consideration for sure. Reece is already too old to become our youngest ever full time captain so we can't get away with just saying he's too young for the job. If, when the time comes, Frank, Jody and Reece think it's the thing to do then I'm on board.

It really should be only one assist. 🙂 People outside the club, as well as in, have been talking of Reece as a future club captain since he broke into the U18 squad and it's clear to see why.

I'd be really happy to see Reece extend his deal but remember he did sign a new contract last summer.

As you say, the problem is that once again Bats was poor on Wednesday. The goals did not rescue his performance. He has a role in the squad because he's here and a better player isn't. That can, and must, be remedied asap. Full disclosure; I liked Bats when he first arrived. I was wrong.

Welcome Scooter and thank you for your comment. I hope we'll see more. I'm about to challenge some of what you said and propose an alternative reading of Pulli's history. I have to stress however that this is almost entirely theoretical. I saw very little of Chris at BVB so I can't, and don't, claim to know his game as well as you do. What I did see however raised more questions than it provided answers so I was pleased to read earlier comments from people who are equally positive about him as you are. Nevertheless I do think the alternative version might also fit the facts. My first challenge is to say that Sancho was indeed preferred to Chris. The injury might be an explanation for it, but the fact remains that on many occasions another player was selected ahead of our new recruit. Challenge two: Dortmund's 'easing him back' statement could be the simple truth, or it might be an attempt to shield their player from criticism. I'm not sure how it fits with the timeline of the Chelsea deal, but the comment may also have been aimed at preserving Chris's value ahead of a transfer. It's been done before. Challenge three: footballers often benefit from honeymoon judgements early in their careers. During that time they are given maximum credit for everything thing they do well, while anything they do poorly is excused or ignored altogether. Pato is an excellent example. Ahead of his loan to Chelsea, I said I had not seen any of his recent displays back home but gave my opinion that Pato was an ordinary player and always had been. A Brazilian fan felt I was being foolish to make a blind judgement but of course I had seen plenty of Pato in Europe and a leopard.does not change its spots. I fully agree with what you say about the pressure of expectation. Even so, there was a lot to like from Chris in Istanbul. I hope that your faith in him is justified and that my concerns, along with my theories, are baseless.

I thought he might start last night because I didn't think Frank would risk playing Marcos given Emerson's injury.

In fact I thought the speed of his decision making and execution was the outstanding part of Billy's game last night. Ross, for example, does this thing where stops the ball, rolls it forward with the sole of his boot and then, finally, he plays from there. While he does all of that the picture in front of him is much changed and any runners have probably gone off side. That happened several times last night to runs made by Chris and Reece who had to check back. Billy saw those runs and used them. Occasionally with beautiful passes. Super impressive performance from the lad.

Billy put in a tremendous display last night but it was by far the best I've ever seen from him. I say 'but' because that makes it an exception. I've seen him play well before but never this well. We need to see this level repeated before we take it as an indicator of his general output.. Hats off to the lad however; by some distance the best player on the park last night.