The Skipper

Malcom and Fekir infinitely better than either of Pedro (who’s on a decline) and Willian.

Courtois Azpi Luiz Christensen Rüdiger Bakayoko Kanté Fabregas RLC Hazard Musonda Morata Abraham Only players CFC must build around (in terms of general squad, different options) even if Conte leaves in the near future. Everyone else is pretty much expendable imo.

Yeah, I think I was wrong. If this is what he’s like in training etc. then I expected too much from Michy I guess, and Conte’s right - looks like Michy is better off somewhere else where he’ll play all the time.

I don’t get the first bit. He has one dreadful game, you’ve said nothing about his performance... hinting he should look to leave? Or as you put it “he would be a fool to sign a new contract”, what!?!? What a load of shite. The team is built around him, has been for years, he has a shocker and your talking about him having bigger ambitions? A lot of people mention Eden and Ballon d’Or but I’m sure we would rather see the club win titles than him win an individual award, he’s probably the same. I have been thinking about this since the end of the transfer window, the Palace game has nothing to do with the comment. Either way, Hazard was shocking, but is he a problem in the overall system? No. Does he consistently hold the team back? No. When Hazard has ONE bad game I’m not going to criticise him for it, especially if you take factors like the fact that he’s had no pre season, and that he usually is a slow starter anyway. That should explain why people aren’t sticking it on him more for you. You're also getting it twisted completely. I don’t want to see Eden win individual awards or anything ahead of CFC winning trophies at all. I haven’t said this anywhere, this is literally just an assumption you’ve made. I’m saying this from Eden’s perspective, why’s that so difficult to understand? I think the club’s ambition’s gone down, and I think that that’ll result in some top players like Eden leaving unless we get that ambition back. We’re nowhere near as attractive as we used to be, we’re not challenging for the title, and we’re not spending big anymore. That doesn’t mean I actually want him to leave. This is a general view that has nothing to do with how our games play out per se. Of course I want Eden to stay, just if you’re looking at it from his perspective - he’d be a fool if he’s looking after his own best interests to sign a new contract if the club’s ambition keeps going down, when he’d start in any team in the world - not even just for himself to get any Ballon d’Or’s but also important trophies in general. Putting words in my mouth son.

Iheanacho Abraham Iwobi Ndidi Mikel Moses A very nice front 6. Tammy should go Nigerian. Also, I’m up for selling Michy and making Tammy our second choice next season.

PSG are better than us.

Because he’s the only talent that has Ballon d’Or level talent, and if he was serious about winning it or even challenging then it probably ain’t happening at CFC. That’s my entire point. The best want to be with the best no?

It’s a different case with Eden who is by far the most talented at the club. Only player at the club that has Ballon D’Or level talent. I obviously don’t want the club to fail Jason. Just that if I were in Eden’s shoes and had his ambition - I would think twice about signing, or as I’ve mentioned before in this very thread I would demand that the club improve the squad properly to match that ambition. The club’s going downhill. Recognising and acknowledging that does not mean I want to see CFC fail.

Of course I’d personally like him to stay at Chelsea but from Eden’s perspective I’d be thinking about leaving because the club’s lost ambition big time. He’d be a fool, but he’d be my fool.

He’d be a fool to sign a new contract.

Can not wait for them to face City.

Don’t blame him, blame Conte. No one is forcing the manager to pick Cahill. Saying that, we are just so nervous at the back when he plays. It affects the whole team.

Well, he’s justifying why Conte doesn’t like him.

Yeah I meant Fabregas can be a useful squad player.

Cesc and Baka were fine today. See how much better we created and ran the midfield when we didn’t have ineffective Batshuayi and brain dead Willian in the second half? Conte got his selection wrong, and some key players like Hazard, Luiz and Azpi also had bad games. I don’t feel like we lost the midfield battle today per se - it was more to do with how bad the back three and front three were. Midfield actually played alright.

I’m talking long term. We need players from the academy for European football and PL regulations and Abraham, Musonda, RLC and Christensen are our top talents. Bakayoko was one of the few players who actually played well today. Cesc is a specialist midfielder with a top footballing mind and also had a good game today.

Yep, all not good enough. People might say this is reactionary but honestly, we should be building our squad much better than this. Said it before but we need to build this team around these players exclusively: Courtois, Azpi, Luiz, Christensen, Rüdiger, Bakayoko, Kante, Fabregas, RLC, Hazard, Musonda, Morata, Abraham. Everyone else is just expendable.

Can’t agree with this sorry. Pep is too disrespected, his idea of football is almost revolutionary. What he did at Barcelona alone was legendary. What he’s about to do at City will be as well imo. Imagine a talent like Hazard under Pep for example. Look at how De Bruyne is evolving into the complete playmaker under him. Conte has done ok with Hazard but he hasn’t pushed him a level above yet, like Pep has with KDB.

They are so so clear and Pep has most of the players he needs to. He still wants to get Alexis on top of this. Proper ambitious club. Our board should be ashamed. Much rather City win the title though.

Conte almost justifying why he didn’t bring on Michy against City, he has no presence whatsoever. Doesn’t want to come short to link up play. Concentration off. Pretty sure even Llorente would’ve been more effective at CFC atm.

Why are you pretending like he’s never played in a more effective system defensively than what’s currently going on at Arsenal with him. He looks much better playing for Germany where he isn’t that much of a liability defensively. Or under Jose at Real - how did he cope there? Have we forgotten how effective Özil was in one of the best counter attacking teams in recent times? Why can’t that translate into Conte’s system? Why can we only have two or three legit technicians in our team at a time? We’ll never evolve as a team with this attitude. Özil would’ve been much more effective against City imo - as I mentioned he’s far more comfortable in the final third than Fabregas - never mind that Cesc has a personal disaster class. You need to understand that although they have some similarities, they play in different areas of the pitch. Why does he have to track back so astutely when we’d play Bakayoko and Kanté in the team? Let’s not pretend that playing Fabregas was the main reason we got dominated against City, it goes much deeper than that. Mesut isn’t the hardest working player but you’re completely overstating how poor he is defensively when he’s shown numerous times in his career that he can work in a less adventurous system (Germany, Real). What exactly do the two 10s in Conte’s system do that Özil can’t defensively?

Özil can actually operate further up the pitch a lot more comfortably and effectively than Cesc. Cesc can’t play 10 properly. I’m not advocating that we sign him to play in the midfield two like Cesc does, this, his defensive capabilities isn’t that important.

Özil and Rose in January: Hazard Morata Özil; Fabregas Kante; Bakayoko; Rose Luiz Christensen Azpilicueta; Courtois.

He’s actually a lot more useful in the final third of the pitch than Fabregas. Imagine a Fabregas that was comfortable and actually great playing as an AM/10/RF. That’s Özil. I actually think Conte’s 343 and 352 suit him to a tee. Hazard Morata Özil is an excellent front three in any permutation (xx-x or x-x-x). Would be a good Fabregas replacement. Even if we wanted to, both could play together. Imagine Morata Hazard Özil Fabregas Kante Bakayoko in a 433 for example. That’s a very nice, creative and dynamic team imo.

Should be looked at as an option imo.