The Skipper

It isn't a moot point to bring up at all. We're looking at their overall season, that includes all competitions, so we're counting all performances. You can't just dismiss it because Hazard didn't play in it. You don't need to explain how good Hazard was last season either, I'm not saying he didn't have a great year. I'm not downplaying Hazard's season at all. But let's not rewrite history and pretend that Hazard didn't have any support whatsoever last year, come off that. He wasn't a one man band. He didn't carry us as much as he usually does last season in my opinion. Costa was arguably the best striker in the world for the first half of the season for us last year until he went AWOL. Kanté was arguably just as instrumental as Hazard too. Fabregas was superb off the bench too. Of course Mbappé wasn't a starter until January - not sure how that's a negative or detracts anything from his performances last season. He was still arguably their best player in the home stretch of securing that league title. Considering Monaco weren't favourites whatsoever for the title, considering the CL performances alongside his games in the league, I genuinely think Mbappé overall had a better season, yes. If we look at both of their league forms solely, you can definitely argue that Eden was better in the league (I agree) but I have to consider his CL performances. I understand the value of sites like Squawka and WhoScored but don't religiously accept what they've concluded as fact. Mertens and Insigne were great last year, I love Sarriball, but they didn't win even the title last year, so how can you have them as the third and fourth best players last season for example? My main point regarding that is that we shouldn't conclude stats as facts, that's another debate for another day though. Maybe I place too much stock into the CL as a global platform on which a player performs, but its his CL performances that make his season better for me. That doesn't mean I rate him higher than Hazard or anything but Chelsea's 16/17 wasn't that impressive for me in general. It's close, but Mbappé edges it for me. For me, the more iconic the season the better. I think we'll have to agree to disagree.

I'm literally just getting to it now. Give me a few mins to read it and reply.

You don't have to explain that Eden is the better player between the two. I am literally just comparing the individual seasons both players had. You're getting confused. I'm literally just stating that Mbappé had a better season last year because he also had excellent CL performances. I literally said this: Also, you're diminishing the fact that Monaco beat PSG to the title... I know Ligue Un isn't PL level but Monaco's feat last season was impressive.

Same thing we said about guys like Ashley Cole and we’re still looking for a LWB now. Pedro and Willian should be upgraded on ASAP imo. Saying that, out of the two I’d definitely prefer if Pedro stayed.

Avoid.

Pedro is 31 at the end of this season, he needs to be replaced just as soon as Willian does imo.

I didn’t say that at all, you’re assuming stuff and putting words in my mouth. Read the post carefully.

Oh, yes he did. Monaco’s main man during crunch time in the season. Won Ligue 1 and dropped amazing CL performances against top teams. Eden just won the PL last year, and Eden is at an automatic disadvantage with him not participating in the CL. If you want to bring statistics into it then we can look at the numbers: Mbappé had 24 goals and 8 assists in 41 appearances (15 coming on as a substitute). Eden had a great year, yes, but this was Mbappé’s break out season at 18. An 18 year old performing like that in the league and the CL - last time we saw that with a player was Messi (UCL performance vs. CFC where he announced himself to the world). He performed just as well in his league plus has his CL performances to count on which Eden doesn’t have. I don’t really think you should use Squawka as proof that Eden was definitely better. Those stats only use league games, not the CL where Mbappé’s best performances happened. That algorithm also has Dries Mertens and Insigne (both good players obviously but still) as the 3rd and 4th best players last season. Don’t conflate better player with better season. I’m not saying Mbappé is the better player, I’m saying that he had a better season. Just like I can say this season so far, Eden is having a better season than Mbappé, I’m saying that Mbappé had a better, more iconic season than Eden last year.

This is my only worry. As long as we got someone like Oblak to replace him, I’m absolutely fine with it. Some other interesting keepers to keep an eye (who I wouldn’t mind to replace Courtois) on are Donnarumma or Kepa.

He’d be a great replacement if Tbo ever left.

Mbappé generally had a better season than Hazard last season though. The guys in defence that usually get recognition (Ramos, Bonucci, Silva, Pique etc.) literally do none of the things you described... Like @Fernando said, Azpi doesn’t get global recognition because he hasn’t really shined at the highest stages of the global platform (CL). He gets recognised in the PL though. Gary Neville and Carragher for example always call him the best 1v1 defender in the league.

As I said Lemar isn’t my first choice if we’re spending big money like that. Let’s say we add £20/30 mil on top of that and went for someone like Dybala. Mahrez is much better than Willian and Pedro imo. We should be selling these guys if opportunities rise. If you want to challenge City, we need to improve the overall quality of the squad and that includes our squad players as well. See Rüdiger for the sort of level our squad players should be on. @Jason^

Malouda is actually a great comparison. Lemar is a good player but he isn’t worth £80m. If we’re gonna spend £80m on a player then I’d rather us add a few more millions on to that and get a proper elite attacking midfielder.

Replacing Pedro and Willian for Mahrez and Lemar is a huge upgrade. Lemar wouldn’t be my first choice though.

Why not ship out Willian and Pedro and replace them with Mahrez and Lemar for example? Squad quality improved loads.

Even if you don’t rate him as a starter, you have to admit he’d make a damn good squad player. Overall quality of the squad increases so it’d be a top signing either way. Would be an Anelka-esque signing imo.

Didn’t score or assist but easily a 9/10 performance. So good.

If you watch the games you’ll see the RLC is a lot less active in the latter parts of the game.

Injured yet again. Don’t know why we forced signing an injured CM when we already had one of the books. Drinkwater should’ve contributed far more than what he’s done so far.

I would say: new league, no preseason and some new injury niggles, plus no rest at all for weeks because there were no other CMs (even though he just came back from a long term injury) could explain some of his problems at the moment. I think his main problem is the pace of the league. He seems to need like half a second or so longer to make decisions. Bernardo Silva at City is having the same problem - but Pep is integrating him into his side slowly because he has a fantastic squad at City. Something we couldn’t have done here whatsoever. The incompetence at this club is mind blowing sometimes. We signed an injured midfielder in Bakayoko - what do we decide to do again for his competition/cover? We sign an injured Drinkwater.

Hazard finished 8th in 2015 mate. Drop the stupid agenda.

Hazard isn’t in the 2nd gif. The one that Hazard was in is the one I said was bad. His finishing is something he needs to work on. I’ve said this before. Including his balance/athleticism. I’ve said before if he works on these two things, and masters them, he’d be an elite striker. I also said that I won’t be judging/concluding my thoughts on him this season because I knew it’d take him awhile to understand and adapt to the game in England. He’s done better than I expected overall so far.

The only bad one is the last gif. First one you had to go to his Juventus days to bring up (lol), 2nd gif is great goalkeeping. I agree that Alvaro has finishing problems (just look through this thread) but those are poor examples.

I agree he had a bad game but he has bad games so rarely it’s ok to look past this performance. Like there are no alarm bells.

Morata literally scored the win— nvm.