OhForAGreavsie

Can't agree with you there I'm afraid. This is exactly the kind of day for making realistic assessments. In the stands we all loved it of course, but in the boardroom they need sober heads. The squad has done remarkably well, but it needs help. That's not a fact which can be hidden or ignored. January is coming. We need to act and then act again in the summer.

Totally agree with you about Dembele. He was outstanding, especially in the first half. If we could add someone with that fluidity to our midfield, someone exactly of the type you describe, it would represent a huge improvement.

I like his talent and I think he is highly suited to the system which has been working so well for us recently. Badelj is bery competent technically. Unlike so many of the people we've watched toiling for our club, his technique allows him to play with his head up at all times. He doesn't have to focus on the ball when he is in possession. Instead, his feet take care of the football and his eyes are free to concentrate on what he wants to do with it. Almost every time a professional player touches the ball, the next thing he must do with it is make a simple pass. Before considering any other attributes therefore, a wise squad builder will establish that potential recruits are outstanding at this task. It sounds a deceptively easy task but just one or two players who are not good enough at it will drain your team of its efficiency. Poor continuity players make your passing clunky, slow your attack and expose your defence. It seems to me that our squad builders have never fully bought into this philosophy. As a result, they have produced squads which are forced to huff and puff their way to victories and trophies, instead of being able to rely on the type of football we all yearn to see from Chelsea. Heads-up mastery of the football, combined with two footedness, equips players to be very good at this simple, but crucial, phase of the game. Badelj brings these abilities. Such tools alone don't make you a good player. They are entry level skills which give players a platform to build on if they aspire to the top. Badelj builds on them well. He is very offensive minded, accepts the ball under pressure, gets facing forward and has a nice weight of pass. On the downside, Badelj is not physically strong or bursting with energy. If it were possible to house his technique, and his attitude, in MJO's body, we'd have a perfect midfielder. The Croatian is not perfect, but he would be a very serious improvement to our squad. Edit: I'm not saying Mikel's technique is poor. That is far from the case but Badelj's is better and his outlook moves his team forward more quickly. My biggest gripe with MJ0 is that too many of his passes are under hit and take too long to get where they are going. A split second difference can change an attacking opportunity into a slow, boring recycling of possession. There are times, and whole games even, when this is exactly what is required; Munich for example. MJ0 just seems stuck in that mode however. It is why, quite rightly in my opinion, he can't get a kick.

Hello BCS, Firstly, I owe you an apology which I will write to you about privately as soon as I have finished this message. I like Badelj and I am very enthusiastic about us signing him. You may be right in that he does not seem a world-class difference maker, but I think he would make an important difference to us. Someone made a great point about Matic earlier this week. They speculated that he would be a much better player if he were able to use both feet. As has often been pointed out, too many passing angles and opportunities are closed to Nemanja because he has no confidence in his right foot. This is in sharp contrast to Badelj, who is very capable with either foot. I'm convinced that bringing Badelj into the team would give us just as big an upgrade as Alonso has delivered. Just as Marco has done, the Croat would give our possession game a boost and, in so doing, make our attack more dangerous and our defence more solid still. Our squad is very thin in just about every position. Adding a capable player is not a trivial matter, it is an important protection for our medium term prospects. The swiftest way to re-establish our club's credentials is to make an immediate return to the Champions League. The thinness of the squad puts that prospect in serious jeopardy. Lastly, someone else made a point yesterday about not wanting us to be active in January. I could not disagree more strongly with this point. We not only need to give ourselves the best chance of a return to the Champions League, but we need to be competitive once we get there. Our squad is a long way short of the quality and depth required to sustain a challenge on multiple fronts . It is very unlikely that we can make all of the additions we will need in the summer alone. If there are opportunities to upgrade our group in January, and Badelj represents a serious upgrade in my opinion, then we can't afford to waste that window. None of the ambitious sides around Europe are going to stand by and watch us improve. The scramble for players is a race and the starting gun has been fired so we don't have the luxury of sleeping in January.

If Matic was going to learn that, or anyone was going to teach him that, it would have happened a long time ago. Far, far too late for Nemanja to make that improvement now.

Crossing is an overrated attribute of a wide defender. (And of a wide attacker, come to that.) It is far more important that a fullback/wingback should be a good possession player. I haven't seen any sign that Kennedy is such a player. I had hoped he would get minutes with Watford as he sought to turn himself into an attacking full-back. He clearly hasn't done enough to earn those minutes however. For now at least, it can't be much more than wishful thinking on our part to imagine Kennedy making a sound contribution for Chelsea.

Of course he is a flop, as predicted. Does not even look good on his YouTube videos. I'm not in the slightest bit worried that Antonio is really interested in him. No chance of that.

It turns out that there are three centrebacks in there but well done about the wingbacks. Good call and good reasoning.

I'm a Cava a man myself but all the women in my life prefer Prosecco so I grin and drink it.😊😊

Turkey is a must I suppose but I always feel you can't beat a whole poached salmon on Christmas Day. Be sure to descale it thoroughly though before you poach it.😊

Agreed, the man is a football pundit par excellence. It's a shame he's lost a bit of his confidence following the Valencia experience but hopefully it will come back slowly.

Yes that was disappointing. There was a stage during yesterday's game when he was protesting a bit too much against decisions and that looked to me like he was trying to get the job done. Thing is I suspect the ref was on to it.

Ah well, fair enough then. I didn't hear the interview you must be referencing. In the one I heard he only talked about the Impact of the early goal on the way we were able to play.

He's better than Maka in my opinion.

If he said that then he is obviously wrong but that's not what I heard him say. I heard Jose say that the early goal allowed Chelsea to play on the counter which he claimed is something we like to do.

That's your choice which is quite obviously nothing to do with me. Just don't imagine yourself to be speaking for Chelsea fans in general.

I am a Chelsea fan and I understand no such thing. I also do not understand why the anti Jose brigade is so grotesquely over represented on this forum. Jose is, and will remain, a Chelsea legend. If that irks anyone, then they deserve to be irked.

You may be right about that. The objection was really just about my own opinion on Kennedy's qualities, not your idea as a whole. For me Kennedy is in example of an important improvement we need to make. I understand what the club does with recruiting young players, particularly South Americans as early as the regulations permit. If we wait until they've proved their quality than our chances of recruiting them are dramatically reduced. Neymar is an example of a player we courted for years but who we never really had a chance of getting because he was already attracting the attention of clubs higher up the food chain than ourselves. It's a good plan to try to beat the rush; to try to identify and sign players early. The problem is that we don't seem to be carrying it out very well. We have youngsters around the continent who are struggling to get games with teams who play several levels below the one to which we aspire. This suggests that we are not selecting well enough. It could be that we are signing the best players who are available to us. It could be that we do identify better players but that somewhere between those players ambitions, and their current club's demands, our hopes of recruiting them fall apart. I think we all understand that the club is working in a very competitive market with one hand tied behind its back by UK employment laws. I question though if we should be so committed to pursuing this plan that we are prepared to sign players just because they are the ones we can get. From the first time I watched Kennedy on YouTube I felt that he did not have the required quality and posted here to say so. I love the lad's attitude and his general hassle on the football pitch. If, however, the day ever comes when he's good enough to hold down an attacking role for Chelsea, it will be because we have become a less good side then we want to be. An even less good side than we are now.

I don't see any reason to put that much faith in Kennedy. More to the point, I don't imagine that Antonio would.

I've said this before so forgive me for repeating myself, but I think the crosses he makes should be right at the bottom of the list when assessing a fullback's/wingback's contribution to his team. No matter who you are, most of your deliveries into the box will be ineffective and of those which are effective the majority will still come to nothing. In any case, show me a good cross delivered by a fullback/wingback and, nine times out of ten, I'll show you a good passing move which put him in position to make it. Good possession and crisp passing create situations which might become great crosses. Almost every time a team establishes good possession one, if not both, of their fullbacks will touch the ball. Frequently they will do so more than once. Minute by minute, match by match, fullbacks/wingbacks who are strong in possession, and are capable of good continuity passing, make key contributions to their team. These are exactly Marcos's strengths which is why I was enthusiastic about his signing and hopeful about what he could do for us. To be truly outstanding such players must also be sound defenders, and this is perhaps where Marcos has something still to prove. It must be remembered however that, by improving the quality of their team's possession, good continuity players also help to solidify it defensively. It is way, way too early to judge if our recent improvement, at both ends of the pitch, is lasting, and to be sure whether any of it can be attributed to Marcos's involvement. I feel very encouraged by what we've seen from him so far however.

In terms of competition regulations, the type of player you are talking about is described as "Club Trained".

And of course Tammy doesn't have any "caps" for Bristol City. 😊

Really like this bloke. The breakdown describes him as right-footed but he is very comfortable with either foot and as a result has a much easier time working his way out of tight situations and finding angles for good continuity passes.

I read a post yesterday in which someone called it not the Bundesliga, but the Bayernliga. Made me laugh and 100% right of course.

There is planning for every eventuality and then there's, "If PSG don't qualify for the champions league!!" Good work Paulo. Let no one ever accuse you of failing to dot the Is and cross the Ts.