Supermonkey92

Heres an idea, he has no one to replace them with. We had 4 cbs including ivanovic. Zouma has been injured which made it 3. We only bought Luiz after the Burnley game. After the performance against Burnley, the defence deserved to stay the same. By Liverpool Terry was injured and hasnt been able to play. So for Liverpool, Leicester and Arsenal the only options for centre back have been Luiz, Cahill and Ivanovic. Go figure.

True that second goal was class. I think strikers should always hit the ball into the ground in those situations. Its so unpredictable the keepers panic.

I had such high hopes for Alonso. Doesnt look like he can sprint and i think his defensive positioning is all over the place. He has s left foot though and looks like he has some dangerous crossing.

He played well against Burnley and kept his place for Swanses. He played well against swansea and kept his spot for Liverpool. It helps that Alonso is new. Hopefully cogs start turning now.

Id sell him in his prime years. Good player who can win games by himself, but i no longer see him head and shoulders above other players in the premier league. He just doesnt consistently have the final pass or finish to rely on him as the match winner. In order to build a team that doesnt rely on one player so much we could cash in. I dont want him to leave, but his place is a quality player among others in the team. No doubt the loss and swansea is clouding my opinion and ill be eating my words soon enough.

I agree that i am really frustrated with the timing of Conte's substitutions. He never seems to make one before 70 minutes, and even then mostly after the 80th minute.

The performance wasnt close but the result was. The two arent the same thing. Liverpool's dominance wasnt turned into chances let alone clear chances. If Cahill thumps the clearence into the crowd no second goal, forgetting about the disaster defendinh for the first. Or, just keep the entire game the same but fabregas scores the free kick at the end and its a draw. The result absolutely could have changed due to minute details, regardless of how badly we were outplayed. Regarding the performance of the two teams in the first half, Conte cannot in my eyes be seen to have any significant fault.The midfield was strolling around, they didnt even chase shadows, they waved at them as they walked by. Except, of course, Oscar who would frequently leave the guy behind him (thus destroying whatever shape the team did have) only to chase a CB who plays it around like a family teasing a dog with a bone! Such stupidity is frustration which gets the better of a naive and unintelligent player.

Its important you realise how good Liverpool can be. I dont think they are as good as the media an the bin dippers think, but its almost normal in the past year for them tp take city, Arsenal, united and spurs to the sword. We arent talking some random performances either. Some times they are useless, sometimes they're rabid. One isnt more common than the either, its like a lucky dip. But a squad that can do that cannot be described as average. They are dangerous but notoriously inconsistent. Our Squad certainly isnt able to outgun the other big teams as often as they have, regardless of whether you think we should or not. Klopp didnt masterclass the quick free kick for the first goal, or the quick throw and good finiah from Henderson. Apart from Origi's header chances were pretty thin. Similarly, Conte cannot be faulted for the shambles that was our first goal, or the folly that was Cahill's excuse for a clearence for the second. He cant be faulted for a naive Oscar or a lazy Matic. That has to fall on their shoulders. The moment players step on the pitch its down to them. A halftime talk a 3 subs is all a manager can do. The halftime talk seemed enough today for an improvement. The subs were undoubtedly wrong, but he is again limited by a squad on shoddy players apart from Batshuayi and Fabregas, the latter of which he doesn't think fits the style he's going for. Conte deserves criticism for his subs but only when remebered the background situation.

Well we were particularly bad tonight even by our normal standards. Our sub par players arent normally as sub par as they were today. That seems to account for the first half at least. Though this comparing one by one is very limited, at the end of the day its how a team plays together compared to the other. Our problem is, and has been for 2 years, intelligence. Willian doesnt actually have an idea what to do when he goes on impressive runs from deep. Matic roams forward, no clear option? Run down a dead end on the left flank or pass to apzi and wait awkwardly 5 yards away from him. Cahill seems to panic if the easy pass to Terry isnt on. Liverpool's team play like a unit, we only seem to do that against lesser teams but its a start. Last season our play was so disjointed it was baffling. But the ceiling for this team to play as a fluid but defensively able unit is held back by unintelligent and poor technique players

Lets not suddenly forget the previous four matches. West ham we played well even if they were crap. Last year when teams underperformed we still created didly squat. This year we have impotus, play out from the back more and make more direcr passes to wide players and Diego. Played well against Burnley, and well enough to have beaten Swansea by half time. We arent back to where we need to be, but its still progress towards it. One stat that actually means something to me is the shots we have conceded this season which is a massive improvement on last season. Even tonight when we were abysmal and dominated, we werent exactly peppered with shots, though Matic and Oscars lazy jog tried their best to make Kante try and close one attacker whilst keeping an eye on the other. At the end of the day, progress should be judged also on the style Conte wants. He obviously wants a mobile midfield which is why cesc isn starting. Whether he should sacrifice mobility for some fucking brains is another question. Conte isnt the messiah or the next guardiola. But then i honestly doubt guardiola could do much better with the starting 11 today.

I don't get this 'Liverpool's team is no where good as ours'. Where, exactly? For the record i think of Liverpool as a on the brink of top 4 team. Keeper and defensive mid, i get it. Id prefer Costa over sturridge but thats mighty close. Hazard over coutinho? Not sure anymore. Willian over Firminho? I dont think so. Oscar vs Llalana? Matic vs the dutch fella? Ivanovic vs Clyne? Heck James bloody milner seems about as good as apzi at the moment in left back and twice as good going foward. Its not just perfectly justified to point out how bad this team is, its neccessary to compare it to Liverpool's.

Exactly. Apart from Batshuayi there was not much i can fault him on. The players just performed poorly. After a team talk they improved. Remember, Pedro slips on rubber floors and Moses was born with tunnel vision. Fabregas and Batshuayi were the only choices, and against liverpool especially a 2 man midfield with cesc is risky.

Ive always felt top 4 was a fight for us this season, i was getting annoyed when othets talked like we are title contenders. First things first, Conte is a great manager. His league form with Juve showed that and the way he took a below average Italy team to neutralise Spain and Belgium made me think he is as good as Mourinho, Guardiola and Simeone if he was different. I think he's as capable as the first 2 with a good team . . . But we dont have a good team. We had the whole of last season to show us that. Kantr is the only first team change (until Luiz) remember. That's not enough to bridge the gap against the bigger teams. Matic and Oscar are not good enough. Period. Fabregas is unable to play the way Conte wants to play - he just doesnt have the legs! Our defence is on stand by until Zouma returns, and even then we are hoping he comes back as good as he was. Then theres more hope than expectation that Alonso is good enough. Only then can we finally escape Ivanovic and Cahill. But our wingers and midfielders are toothless. Willian runs with the ball until the final third and then nothing happens. We know this. Hazard is world class but does not have a good enough shot or final pass. We know this. Matic is a headless chicken defensively (and a lazy one in the first half today). Heck, the only reason Oscar is starting for us in midfield is because he can RUN. Thats his ace card. As a professional footballer he can run (that may pass as a second striker/ no 10, but as a CM he has no intelligence in pressing and leaves so much room. So that is what Conte is dealing with. A midfield of Kante and two crap players that have to make up for each others faults. A winger that is only good when the game is quick enough so he doesnt think and the other which is world class except the all important final touch. I dont doubt Conte, but he wont work this miracle. If Alonso comes in to kick Ivanovic out, we would still need to fix the gaping holes that are Oscar and Matic. Until then, judge Conte as he should be judged, with a team that finished 10th last season plus a quality midfielder.

I cant argue with those points

Cant agree with you at all. First, we absolutely can compete with Juventus and even Munich on the transfer scene, aparr from German stars or big players in the Bundesliga, i see very little pull. And Old Alonso and a Thiago that was permabenched at Barca does not show pulling power. Regarding our own activity in the last few years, its promising. Last year we had a huge bid turned down for Pogba and it seemed mostly due to bad timing. Juventus had just reached the CL final and were considered a dangerous club again. The club also seems to feel it needs to prove it is a big club with keeping players. Torres from Liverpool was huge in January no less and the signing of Hazard was significant. Eden was no find, he was known by everyone. Do not underestimate the moneyPL clubs _in general_ are making. Current trends mean this will only increase and thats just for being in the premier league. As i said, smart sponsorship deals in the manor of United (as we have been doing) and a new stadium will give us financial clout that only PSG, Madrid and Barcelona could dream of matching. At the moment, exceeding is out of the question. Dont forget that United has bounced back solely due to money. No crap about tradition or reputation or players just hoping to play for them. Money is running the game and chelsea can join arsenal in fighting for scraps or they can stay with the times and realise that prices are inflating. Thankfully, the club seems focused on establishing a self suficient money train to rival United in the near future.

I agree with Conte, you should only buy if the player improves you. I also take it that this doesnt just mean better than a shoddy Cahill but good enough to play for chelsea and in the team the manager wants. Sure you could say that there were a decent number of cbs out there better than Cahill and Terry, but that doesnt mean they are good enough for what we want. The question isnt 'can we find a better defender than Cahill'? That's trivial. The more important question is can we find a defender good enough for a title chasing and CL competing team'? If the answer to the first question is yes but no to the second, we'll be in a merry-go-round like our leftback situation has been. Honestly, i dont care about 'finds' either. I think its time we look towards Juventus and Munich at how they do business. You have to spend money to compete. Thats how it is. Depending on unearthing a messi or Verratti is a waste of time. The *priority* will be buying ready players. Tha is the rule, 'finds' are the exception. Being a premierleague club we will always have money. Continue to build our global fanbase, sponsorship deals and new stadium will mean we should be buying top talent. Anything else is Wenger dream land

So let me get this straight; Chelsea spend the whole summer trying to buy a quality cb. People moan because it wasnt happening as early as Kante and Batshuayi. Even though the main target was a Napoli player who are notoriously hard to deal with and they also sell their star striker. The chairman admiys yesterday we bid over £50m for him. People moaned about are 'cheap board'. We had over, quality options. For BIG money turned down. Clubs just would not negotiate. Fast forward 2 days before deadline day. Everything looks dead in the water. 'Stupid board, cant they see we need a Cb?!', 'here comes another Djiloobobobodrilri'. We end up buying David Luiz back. The guy who was a beast against Napoli and Munich no less when we won the champions league - WHILE INJURED! - and partnered a midfield with matic which saw us shit down all top teams (city, Liverpool, United, Arsenal) with domination in the middle of the park that we havent really seen since (discounting king Kante). Because, in the situation we were in, it was really better to have just bought Alonso and waited for a world class cb (forgetting we need to get back into the top 4 first!) Cheer up. We didnt stick with Terry and Cahill in defence. We didnt sign a papylibidibidi. IVanovic may be benched! And we got the Geezer back with Spine and character this team hasnt had since Drogba and Cech left.

What has that got to do with david luiz?

You remind me of someone?

I thought i already said it! As soon as i clicked to comment the entire post appeared ready to submit so i assumed i hadnt already

Dont want this to happen. Very clumsy when pressed, easily rushed. Which is a shame because when he has time and space he has a great left foot. Passing, shooting or crossing you name it. Not a big game player though and wed be stupid to spend 70m.

Aina can play RB

Dont want this to happen. Very clumsy when pressed, easily rushed. Which is a shame because when he has time and space he has a great left foot. Passing, shooting or crossing you name it. Not a big game player though and wed be stupid to spend 70m.

Working pitchside hopefully. Whatever happens i hope Watford dont score near my end, hate having to push the fellas away from the pitch