OhForAGreavsie

Then why are the 21s doing so badly?

If Charlay were as good as some assess him to be he would be dominant at development level. He has had good games, and even 1 or 2 great ones, but all-in-all he seldom dominates. I'd like to see him get chances but neither he nor we should get carried away by what he offers. For what it's worth the two best performances I've seen from Charlay were both playing the Pirlo role. Those two games were 18 months apart mind you so it doesn't seem like anyone feels that's his position.

Batshuayi looks pretty interesting in those videos. Does anyone know how he stands viz the Belgian national squad? It proves nothing either way but you'd have thought that a player who is of the quality we'd like to have would be in the frame for international honours.

I'm sure no one really imagines that Willian's current rate of free kick conversion is going to continue. Of course it won't, no matter how much he practices. In the entire history of the game no one has ever sustained this rate of success over a prolonged period. There's a reason for that.

I'll give you that I can't offer an available name who might be brought in to replace Willian but I put that down entirely to my lack of knowledge not a lack of appropriately talented players. I'm busier work wise than I have been for a while and I'm watching a lot less football than I have done recently. I thought that yesterday was a great example of what we get from Willian. Some of his ball carrying was outstanding, turning defence into potentially dangerous attacking situations. I want to stress that I don't regard this as nothing, this is a great attribute. However what did he ever generate to make any of those more than an uplifting moment for the fans? Time after time he was in position to translate a good position into a great one but missed the boat. As for example when his pass to Ramires was just too far in front of his fellow Selacao resulting in a pressured shot and wasted opportunity. That, I'm afraid, is how it goes with William, just too far in front, a little behind the run instead of into it, little flicks than find touch or the defender and cross-field balls that look great but require headed control and so limit the receiver's options. I'm not trying to pretend that passes which require accuracy within a matter of inches are easy. Of course they are not but Willian misses and misses and misses again. To satisfy me that he's a Chelsea player he'd have to hit sometimes. In fact we should be looking for players who hit more often than an average player might. Willian does not. Eden Hazard has shown us what he can do. He has given us reason to believe and to be patient with him. (In fact I thought he wa very good yesterday.) I'm still waiting for Willian to do likewise. His lovely runs beating 2 or 3 opponents is for show, the simple pass perfectly executed at the right moment is for dough. Willian puts on a great show. There is a logic to what you say about Willian looking better if the side is playing well. My fear however is that as long as Willian is deserving of a starting place it will only serve to reinforce the fact that we are not playing well. When we get the side we need, the side we all want, Willian won't be in it.

I like the bloke enormously but the long and the short of it is that he flatters to deceive. Lots of eye catching moments in open play but they pretty much all come to nothing. The killer touch, pass, finish or decision nearly always eludes him. We need an upgrade. Desperately. There's been a lot of debate about him recently. A strand of the debate being that Willian is the best we have for the role he plays. Well, I don't happen to think that he is but it doesn't matter either way. The important thing is neither he nor Oscar is good enough for that role so an upgrade is essential. I'm sure Willian's supporters will want to carry on the discussion but I can't see any way to assess his output other than as I've said above.

Deleted - I've already posted.

True unfortunately.

How strange. Do you mean that people like me, who were not impressed with what we had seen from Baba previously, should not acknowledge that he's played well when he very obviously has?

Well I had been wondering how he could possibly have survived in a Bundesliga team if he really was as bad as he looked in early outings for us. He was very good last night and decent in his previous game but prior to that he was shocking.

No! I am not saying that Willian has found form. I'm saying that things are going well for him from set pieces but that otherwise his level* is exactly as it ever was and that his level, though it flatters to deceive, is not good enough for what we need. Sanchez's output at Arsenal has been way better than I thought it would be I must say. A case could be made, and was made by Arsenal fans as well as by some others, that he, not Eden, should have been POTY. Had Arsenal won the league it is my guess that Sanchez would have won the vote. Jose Mourinho works for us however, not for Arsenal. *I prefer to talk about level rather than form because we all understand that form comes and goes.

This is the heart of the difference between us. You say Willian is better, I say he looks better. In every way Willian looks a better player than Oscar, and don't get me wrong I've been calling for Oscar to be replaced since January 2013, but what does Willian accomplish? Oscar's attacking stats vs Willian's is a no contest. There was a magnificently stylish Australian batsman called David Hookes. He was even better aesthetically than Greg Chapple and Mark Waugh (widely regarded as two of the most pleasing to watch batsmen in the history of the game) but, whereas those two backed up their style with a pile of runs, Hookes didn't so, nowadays, people rightly ask, "David who?". Looking good ain't being good.

Willian, fantastic passing? Can't agree with that at all. Poor would be my grade on his passing over the course of his Chelsea career. It is the main reason he flatters to deceive.; looks good but produces little.

1. Willian was certainly the man of the match last night. No question about it. He has always looked eye catching. Other than in-form Hazard, he is our best ball carrier and has always looked looked way better than Oscar for example. Oscar has however always, up to now, produced more. 2. Willian's work rate is, and always has been, fantastic. 3. He has definitely been our best player so far this season. 4. In terms of attacking production from open play, we are not currently getting any more from Willian than has ever been the case. We are still seeing the missed chances and the missed opportunities to create chances. I say again, Senhor Borges Da Silva is fluid, beats players and looks good but achieves too little. 5. Neither Oscar nor Willian is good enough for the team Chelsea want to be. We need upgrades for both.

It is not possible for a face to look disinterested. Stan Collymore loves the word but he has no clue what it means. Disinterest is a legal state of being, you cant demonstrate it with body language. It is something you are, or are not. It is possible to look uninterested however. Every time Collymore, and other football people, use the word disinterested, they think they are saying someone is, or looks, uninterested but they are not. That said, the enormous popularity of football suggests that if the word disinterest continues to be misused in discussing the game, its meaning will eventually morph so that it comes to mean what Stan and his mates think it means already. That would be a shame. We have two perfectly good words, disinterested and uninterested, to convey two entirely different concepts. Why confuse the issue?

No he does not. Willian is producing from set pieces. Currently. History tells us this won't last, even Ronaldo has been in a dead-ball slump. When the purple patch fades, we'll be back to assessing Willian's contribution in open play. Maybe it will change and we can really celebrate but my guess is that it will be the same as it ever was; looking great but achieving little.

Exactly so. Take away what he is accomplishing from dead-ball situations and how different does this version of Willian look? Not very I'd say. If he's able to continue this level of output from free-kicks that would be something but let's see it happen before we get too bullish about what he's doing.

Actually I wouldn't put his lack of output (across his Chelsea career) down to an absence of vision. His problem has been that even when he does see the right option, he just doesn't execute it often enough. I'm still in the we need an upgrade camp but I'm obviously pleased that his dead ball productivity is high at the moment.

I was not one of the 3 who liked him but he played very well, no doubt about it. Pleased for him.

You're probably right, on both counts, but I'm very happy with Begovic. He didn't cover himself in Glory re their goal but, as we know, all keepers mess up sometimes. It's inevitable. Overall he's been good for us and I'm delighted we have him. I have no fears whatsoever about him starting games.

I don't think some people fully accept how bad we were, in terns of squad quality, last term. Jose dragged us over the line by having the guts to set the team up in the only way it could win. This season: - Fabregas has continued his post November 2014 form to demonstrate why Barca let him go. Matic has continued his post November 2014 form in attempting to justify the decision to sell him to Benfica in the first place. Costa's one trick is looking even thinner than it did after October 2014. Our difference maker on the left wing has been replaced by a replicant. (He did look a bit leaner last night mind. Maybe he's trying to see if too much bulk has been a part of the problem.)

Fair point, although in fact the deal is for a minimum of 3 and a maximum of 5 games over a 3 year period, not 3 games a year. Still likely though that there would be a lot more resistance to Association football being played at rugby HQ than about gridiron or anything else. More games they have, the more chance that Washington will come over so this is good news as far as I'm concerned.

How is this news to anyone here? Even before last season ended, Jose was talking about the need to beef up the squad. He talked about wanting to get the business done early and at one point mentioned needing 3 or 4 players. This from the man that always gives a formulaic 'just one or maybe two" reply when asked about off season squad building. He was going as far as he possibly could to say this squad ain't good enough; which is the one thing all of us here agree on. The anti-Jose crew didn't listen when I and others pointed this out during the summer, preferring to imagine that Jose was complacent and then blaming him for it. They won't listen now either. Still, a man hears what he wants to hear And disregards the rest Even me sometimes I suppose.

It's very likely that this is what Chelsea asked them to say. They would certainly have liaised with CFC brfore making any comment.

Apart from the passing at crucial moments. Which has been generally poor.