MrExcalibur100

Has he even touched the ball?

Terry and Zouma are light years behind Luiz and Azpilcueta in actually carrying the ball from defense to initiate some attacks. Ball playing CB's are very important in a back 3. We can't build any attacks from the back as a result. Begovic continues to pump balls to Wolves players and our players are hitting glory passes trying to score without actually building anything. Conte needs to make a sub at half-time. Sub out Zouma for Azpilicueta and have a word with Begovic and the rest of the team to show some patience in their approach. This is embarrassing.

Fabregas is playing like fucking shit. He's supposed to be our midfield controller but he's looking for glory balls every time. Is he okay in the head?

Whatever happened to the idea of trying to pass out from the back and why are Chalobah and Fabregas looking for hollywood passes? I'm starting to get worried about us moving away from the concepts that served us so well earlier this season. The only time we look like a good team these days is when we counter.

Why the fuck are we playing so many long balls?

I haven't really browsed through this thread and while in my opinion, Verratti is the best central midfielder in the world these days, have we seriously considered the tactical ramifications of partnering him with Kante? He's only 5'5 and Kante is 5'6. You can get away with it in other top European leagues but we'll get murdered in the air in this long ball league. We even have some problems now Azpilicueta's height. How will we deal with a striker dropping deep to win the first ball against that Kante and Verratti? And there's the second ball to worry about.

Fair enough Yeboii, but Conte has to consider what is best for CFC first rather than what is good for Batshuayi. It's in our interest at this stage of the season that Costa is back scoring goals. Conte really should have given Batshuayi an opportunity earlier though. I didn't agree with the decision to play Hazard as a false 9 when Costa was suspended, even though we beat Bournemouth.

I agree as do many others that Michy probably deserves a chance to prove himself but I agree with Conte's decision to start Costa. He's been pretty poor for a while now so this might be a good game for him to play himself back to form. Also, if he didn't start here, he won't play another full game for 14 days which has its drawbacks. It's also a competetion we're trying to win. There are plenty reasons for Costa to start actually.

That's a nice looking line up.

He will be my number one choice of realistic central midfielders we can sign in the summer. Fantastic under pressure. Good passing range, intelligent, work rate, close control in tight spaces, both deep-lying playmaker and a box to box midfielder, constantly averages a high tackle and interception rate. He's a complete player and already better than Matic. Under Antonio, he can become a world class player.

I've been watching Monaco a lot recently just to see Bakayoko more against Ligue 1 opposition. The games weren't really competitive so he wasn't pressed or tested defensively, but with the ball he's fantastic. A powerhouse, skillful, holds on to the ball and makes good forward thinking passes. Another thing is he's always ready to make positive runs with the ball at his feet and it's very difficult to stop him. Against Nice and Montpellier especially, he was really good but against PSG, he looked laboured. Let's see how he fares against a top class midfield and intense game-planning in the form of Manchester City and Guardiola. I like him a lot. He has a greater engine on him than Bakayoko and is a solid passer though he's not the physical specimen Bakayoko is, obviously.

I haven't noticed any difference to be honest. The difference is 2 months ago, his selfishness worked for him, but now it's becoming more pronounced. Would have been 4-0 if he just passed, then Giroud goes down the other end and pulls one back for them.

ZLATANNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN!!!!!!!!!! Thank you !

Matic just fuck off already.

Matic is shocking

What I think happened was Costa probably felt some pain in his lower back and complained to Bertelli, our fitness coach, about it. Bertelli and the medical team felt it wasn't serious and Costa then proceeded to throw his toys out of the pram. The reason for his latest outburst is not really about his head being turned by China, that sounds stupid. The fact still remains we'll be without one of our best players in one of the most important games of our season for reasons entirely about said players' attitude. He needs to be fined heavily by the club and we have to start looking for alternatives to Diego in the summer. We can't have player who constantly disrespects our coaching staff. That hasn't worked for us in the past.

I'll love Lacazette as well. He'll fit in very well with our inside forwards. But it's another name that won't be possible until the summer.

I'm not really surprised about this latest Diego Costa saga. He's already shown in the past he has little respect for the club or the fans who chant his name in every game. He's also shown he has no respect for Conte after the way he humiliated him against (ironically enough) Leicester. I think it's now a question of which transfer window he leaves not if he leaves. He's not going to be a Chelsea player next season that's for certain. There's obviously a risk selling him in January but remember, we won the Premier League in 2014/15 with him being injured a lot in the 2nd half of last season. Hopefully in the summer we're able to get a striker who has good ball control and isn't tunnel visioned. And who also isn't a complete nutter.

I disagree with your views on Conte's philosophy in the build up. It's not passing the ball to the flanks. There are many detailed analyses on his approach to the build up phase. http://outsideoftheboot.com/2016/07/22/antonio-conte-exploring-italys-tactics-at-euro-2016/ As for Bakayoko. You said it yourself, his passing is not that great. For me this is a big problem if he's going to be played next to Kante in a midfield two. One solution might be to play him with Fabregas and Kante in a 3-5-2, but this takes away from the overload advantage we've had in th half-space with Pedro and Hazard. It also puts too much pressure on our wing-backs to generate attacks. For me, Bakayoko is not the answer to our central midfield problem. I'll rather sign Dahoud.

Bayern, Barcelona, Madrid, even lesser teams like Dortmund and Juventus will take the Spurs team to the cleaners in their own backyard. They got humiliated by decent Champions league opposition in their group. It says a lot about our technical level and the technical level of the English league as a whole.

I won't mind someone like Mahmoud Dahoud at Borussia by the way. I'm not sure if he's ready to make the next big step but he's the mold of midfielder we need next to Kante.

Oh believe me, I definitely understand the type of football Conte wants. I've done a lot of reading about his system and watched a lot of his Juventus team and us obviously. That's not the point. Conte also wants to pass out from the back. In Juventus, he had a deep lying playmaker in Pirlo that was crucial in this aspect. In Chelsea, Fabregas can help us to a certain extent, but we need a central midfielder that can combine both technical and physical aspects. I'm not convinced Bakayoko can do that. Or Nianggolan for that matter. I'll love Vidal, but he's older now and I'm not sure he wants to leave his comfort zone in Bavaria.

Okay, let me state it this way. If you're going to play with Kante in a midfield two and one of the goals is to implement a certain philosophy, i.e build up play, mostly from passing out from defence, you need to pair him with a deep-lying playmaker or at least someone with that skillset. I don't consider Bakayoko a player with that skill-set. My first post had a clear context from my other posts in the match forum which you were probably unaware of.

Oh please give me a break. Bakayoko was not the decisive factor I was clearly talking about the match in Monaco. Monaco don't play anything like us and don't play our system. Again, if you think Bakayoko is the one that will come in and dictate play from midfield, then I don't know what to say. I think you're one of those that like to be heard for the sake of it.

So we need Bakayoko & Fabinho? It was a Spurs reserve team. I watched the game, Bakayoko was hardly the difference between the two sides. It was their fullbacks and Lemar that gave Spurs problems.