OhForAGreavsie

Better than recently but not back to his best.

I suppose it's possible that this bloke, who ever he is, knows something. On the other hand, it seems more likely that this is just a ridiculous extrapolation from Antonio!s post match press conference. In that conference he said, a number of times, that the players are training again on Tuesday so we'll see. Taken in context, that simply meant Tuesday would be his earliest opportunity to see how Diego's "injury" is progressing.

He is a far better player than Torres. And yes, I was saying Nando was an extremely average footballer before he arrived at Stamford Bridge. (Before he arrived at Liverpool actually.) Of course mine was a pretty lonely voice back then.

Assuming the sentiment attributed to Roman is accurate, it's hard to conclude anything from it. On the one hand, if Roman does not wish to sell, then that is exactly the stance he would take. On the other hand, if he is willing to sell then that is exactly the stance he would take for negotiation purposes.

Interesting player. Worthy of serious consideration I think. Under the circumstance Torino would hold out for his clause, said to be £100 million if I am remembering the figure correctly from one of the posts in his transfer talk thread. That really is a lot to consider.

Not for me.

Absolute, total nonsense. A complete stupidity of a statistic.

I like this lad but I think he is someone to consider if, and when, we need to replace Diego. Belotti does not look like he could play with DC and I can't believe he would accept the role of backup. In any case, his transfer fee and wage requirements would make him far too expensive to park on the bench.

I think it's reasonable to believe that they are seriously evaluating Kennedy and Charly. After all, what else would they be doing? Even if like me, and probably you too, Antonio has a preformed expectation about what the lads can do, they are here and they are training. Unless the coach shuts his eyes he can hardly avoid forming an opinion about what he sees. No, the evaluation is definitely happening, with the youngsters being put through their paces in various roles. What we wait to find out is the outcome of that evaluation. As far as that goes, the unknown element here is what options Antonio has. If he keeps our two returning loanees will that be because he likes them, or because no better alternatives are available to him over the next 20 days?

That much looks pretty clear even on YouTube.

Or everybody else, from any season you care to mention. Even if your name is Beckham or De Bruyne most of your crosses from open play will not find a teammate, and most of those which do will not be converted into goals. I don't say the ability to deliver a cross is not desirable, I just say it's less of a benefit than many think it is and definitely less of one than the other WB attributes we could list. Find me a candidate who offers those other attributes and I tell you honestly, I couldn't care less whether he is the best or the worst in his position when it comes to delivering a cross. The difference between top and bottom of that category, in terms of outcome, will be pretty marginal anyway. You and I go back much further than most posters on here. If we put our heads together, how many consistently great crossers could we name who have represented this club? And I include attacking players in that. I would suggest that any name we come up with would only seem to have been great when shrouded in a haze of nostalgia. A haze which causes us to forget all of their uselessly wasteful deliveries, and only remember the ones which came to anything. I did a post a month or two ago in which I explained why I don't rate crossing as a big factor in the play of a wingback, and talked about the things which I think are more important. I won't attempt to regurgitate it all but if I can find the original I will link it. In the meantime, if you would find it interesting, why not list the attributes you think are important for wingbacks and say which ones you rank below crossing?

No you don't. This widely held, yet wildly inaccurate, idea is a great big fat myth. It's why so many people wrongly believe that Ricardo Rodriguez is a tip-top full-back; they've seen him hit a cross or two on youTube. In the list of attributes required to be a good wing back, crossing ability is rock bottom last of them.

I think that's a misinterpretation of his behaviour. None of the players went over the top after scoring. Even the first goal, which was the one most likely to cause excitement, was not made a huge fuss over. I thought the reactions to the goals were exactly as I expected them to be. I also can understand Michy's desperate desire to impress and that leading to selfishness. The penny must drop, or more accurately he must demonstrate that the penny has already dropped, pretty quickly. For Sunday afternoon however, I found it excusable. That is at least in part because I don't really believe this is his problem. There was no sign of that selfishness during pre-season when he was, largely, very impressive in buildup play and decision-making. My guess is that Antonio will talk to him about it, he will admit that he doesn't know what he was thinking about and it just won't happen again. Michy isn't Studge. This isn't going to become an issue.

I completely agree with you. In fact I have used exactly the same phrase you did to describe Nat's on pitch persona. He does indeed move around as if he owns the place. I first made that point more than four years ago when Nat was captaining the youth team and most recently repeated it earlier this season when I argued that, if he can make himself an automatic starter, Nat would be the perfect choice to claim the armband as JT's long-term successor. Now there is something I must add. I have many times in the past written off Nat's chances of making it at Chelsea. If he does become a starter, and the club captain to boot, he will have proved me to be comprehensively wrong.

I can't pretend that I see Mikel as any kind of loss, but I'm happy for him that he has achieved a magnificent contract. Whenever he returns to The Bridge I will be on my feet and cheering; he deserves no less. MJO is not the player we need however so his departure is good for all concerned. Meanwhile… Nat impresses every time we see him. As far as I'm concerned, in any game where Antonio does not believe that Cesc can start, Nat should be selected ahead of Nemanja. He offers no less defensively than our lanky Serbian and is a better distributor since he sees passes across a wider arc than Matic does. Nemanja is so horribly left-sided that he seems to automatically disregard all passing options which would be available on his right foot. I'm not talking about beautiful, defence splitting deliveries, just the ordinary little balls which give the team an opportunity to press forward and build momentum. Time, and time again, Nemanja has to ignore such opportunities and opt to drop the ball back towards our own goal simply because that's the angle available with his left foot. It is something which drives me mad. People might point out that Nat is right-footed, and ask if we would not simply be swapping one kind of problem for another. Well, no, we wouldn't. Nat has better body control which means he is more able to adjust his shape and make the pass with his right foot. In any case, he is less, far less, one-footed than Nemanja.

Spot on. I think we will need several starters against Peterborough. If we field a lineup consisting entirely of squad players, we will lose. Our squad team is never as strong as it really should be. Worse, it always manages to perform at a level which is less than the sum of its parts. This is the ideal game to re-introduce Kurt, while Michy must play of course, along with Nat and JT if ready. We might expect to see Beggo, Willian and Fab but other places should be filled with starters. Anything else is dangerous and would make me nervous.

I agree with much of the criticism posted tonight. Indeed I posted a fair bit of it myself. The thing is, we have a week and a half to chew things over before we get back to the league. In the meantime, let's try to spare a few posts in praise of the players and the coach to recognise their magnificent, record-setting, achievements. If I was there, I'd be on my feet applauding you all off the pitch gentlemen. Well, I can be there in spirit at least, so huge congratulations to the squad and coaching staff for three unbelievable months. Thank you lads.

When your midfield is a mess things get chaotic at the back. Retain possession poorly and your defending automatically gets worse. Some people insist on blaming the defenders for that but there is a bigger picture people need to see.

No, the lads deserve our attention. The problems we've been discussing this evening are not news. We've known about them for a long time, and Antonio has known about them for as long as he has been here. Despite those issues our team has put together a magnificent sequence of results. Even if tonight ends in defeat we need to honour them for what they have achieved.

I argued that we should have signed him from AZ all those years ago. Oh well.

No, he used to PLAY as an attacking midfielder. That's not the same thing as being one.

Agreed, which is why the solution to this problem lies in the market. The market is for another day however. For today, I'd make the change.

There is solidity but I'm not sure it's being added by that combination. I confess I'm just completely fed up with Matic. He is problem, not a solution.

Moses at fault for the goal. Everyone else stepped up, he didn't. Outcome free header and goal.

They have better athletes at wingback, and better technicians at CM. Makes a huge difference to their fluidity.