King Kante

€3m apparently.

Yeah, I would imagine that additional amount was broken down into 5 categories: La Liga CL Ballon d'Or Goals Appearances What the actual break down of each was is anybody's guess. However, I suspect we will hit at least two of those La Liga + appearances (unless it was something crazy like 200+).

Matic is one of those players who is limited but effective if given the correct role. We got decent money for him and sold him at his peak value so I am not that upset we lost him. However, at times this season i.e. against all the smaller teams who have beat us up, we really could've done with him. Further, as his fee essentially went on Baka, the sale wasn't as great as it should've been.

Probably explains why he looks 28 already.

I do not doubt SFL has a high intelligence level. However, an IQ of 130 is regarded as genius. In fact a lot of IQ tests do not go beyond 130 - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/IQ_classification - for those that do when you start getting to 150 you're talking astronaut level. I very much doubt SFL is at that level.

He won't be sold. For me, I wouldn't send him aboard. I would look at getting him a loan to a Brighton/Southampton/Bournemouth (if they stay up)/Brentford (if they come up) i.e. a ball playing lower PL side.

In an ideal world we would transplant RLC's brain into Barkley's body.

Mount sets the tempo to a lot of our play and gets involved in the build up. Whilst he doesn't have the raw stats in goals and assists I am pretty sure he would rank pretty highly in '2nd' assists i.e. the assist played to the person who got the assist. For instance, our first goal against Watford was primarily down to Mount's work prior to giving the ball to Barkley, so whilst Barkley got the assist, it wouldn't have been possible without Mount's work prior. This also applies for the 2nd against Villa, where it is his give and go, breaking the lines and taking the defender that opens up space of Giroud. As for his actual stats in goals and assists the ones you've outlined are slightly selective as you could also say 6 goals and four assists in 46 games. For me, Mount will be needed in the midfield as also presses really well. You take him out of that line up and Puli will be the only one that will be doing enough.

Palace are exactly the type of team I hate us playing against. They will stick 10 men behind the ball in a low block in a well drilled manner at try and hit us on a counter with Benteke up front and Zaha and Ayew springing from the block. Further, they have a very good set piece taker in Milivojević and absolute tanks in Cahill (who knows everyone in the squad) Dann, Ward, Benteke and Zaha to aim at. For me, Palace will not even have to play well to get a win so long as the do not concede too early to us.

Yeah, and not only that but we really needed him in the second half's against WHU and Watford. Whilst SFL does a few tactical/selection things that really piss me off (Zonal at set pieces, leaving us wide open on the counter and selecting Batsh*t over Giroud for half of the season) I can slightly see the idea behind those (ok maybe not the counter.) However, the thing with Jorgi is just plain crazy.

No way is Mount getting dropped. That would be beyond harsh. Replace Sancho with Ziyech and put Mount in Ziyech's position and I reckon that is what SFL ideal is, with Giroud playing the bench role when we need more physical presence. Not too sure where it will leave Tammy as Harvetz could play the CF3 role with Kova/RLC coming in for him if Werner/Giroud are out.

Personally I cannot see it. However, if there is some sort of £45m+ deal (or decent swap) on the table it would explain why SFL is wrapping him in cotton wool.

I was a big TC fan too and said the exact same thing when people used to cry about his shot stopping ability; for me whilst not the greatest stop stopper he was one of the most effective GK's as he cut so much off at source. However, people these days love their Youtube clips too much. As for the player himself, I am also of the unpopular opinion that whilst he is clearly arrogant I do actually believe he was told by the club he could leave in March 18 and when they missed out on Alisson they tried to hold him to his last year. I have slightly mixed feelings about him not being loyal but I am also someone that keeps my promises. So, to an extent if he did get promised he could leave that Summer, he was well within his rights to make the club follow through on that promise as it wasn't his fault they hadn't scouted/negotiated properly.

All in all the kind of performance we needed after the shit show midweek. For me, Zouma needs to start against Palace as I expect them to play Benteke upfront and he will just bully AC and Rudi. Mount was MotM as he run things from midfield very well, Giroud has take the starting CF role, Puli is great and hopefully will only get better, whilst I think Willian is doing enough to keep his place (not something I have always said.) As for Barkley, he is currently reminding me of Batsh*t in his purple patches. Anyone that knows football can his he has no football brain but he is getting fairly good stats; isn't it 3 goals/3 assists in 7 games now? For me, this will hopefully mean we get a decent bid for him which we should take. Kante is also a worry as that looked like a hamstring. Not a fan of him in the No.4 position but he is definitely a starter for us so hopefully it was just tightness. Jorgi also looks done at this moment, not entirely sure why - unless there is some deal to sell him.

Jorgi is definitely banging SFL's Mrs.

Yeah, this is why I think Mount may end up a No.6 once he fills out a bit. He does a lot of leg work, is quite good at intercepting, keeps the ball fairly well under pressure and breaks the lines well. For me, I do not think he is going to get 15 goals a season, so I think No.8 may not be optimal as you want a better shooter. That said, he is still only 21 so he has plenty of development left. RJ thinks he is a midfielder. I have said it a lot but whenever he plays he drifts in and essentially takes up a DM position. Further, he is not that quick so the more I see him the more I think he will end up in midfield. Yep, best player on the pitch today. Yeah, I am in no way a big Zouma fan but he has played well today. I am still of the opinion you cannot play him against a team that presses but in games like this where you have a team in a low block and a unit like Deeney upfront he has to play as he then does the dirty work. Also, loved the knee in Deeney's back.

I'd rather any starting PL GK over Kepa.

Must be banging SFL's wife or something.

Yeah, I have been thinking the same thing this afternoon. Wouldn't be surprised if SFL goes 343.

Willy Dave. AC. Zouma. Alonso Jorgi/Gilmour Kante. Mount Willian. Giroud. Puli For me, I think Rudi needs to be dropped as he has been awful and not doing any basics. Kepa I want dropped as I can no longer handle his facial expressions that make him look like he has just come out of a session with Z like Marcellus Wallace and his general incompetence. Willian stays as I do not know what condition CHO is in and Pedro is better later on in games when things open up more.

Well yes, it is not just height. It is also down to our players also being massive pussies (Kepa, AC) and/or incompetent at defending set pieces (Rudi, Tomori, Tammy, Zouma.) However, saying height is the issue is more politically correct for a manager than saying a player is a pussy or incompetent.

I agree all those players can go (well I would keep Alonso and have him as LB2). However, the problem is wages. All those players earn 100k plus (with the exception of Tammy) so I doubt they will go to Bayer as their top earner is on €90k per week and I do not see them breaking that for any of the listed players.

Sarcasm. I think we have a chance of signing Harvetz as there seems to be a lot of buzz, however I hate it when some non-entity ITK gets posted as it just gives them extra exposure.

This isn't a popular opinion but when it comes to set piece defending I think Luiz being missed. I say this because, as I noted in my previous post, there is not really a height issue per se but a skills/desire level. People complain about Luiz a lot but one thing he isn't is a pussy. In fact he was the most determined and enthusiastic of our CB's at attacking a ball in the air and also had better heading skills than Zouma and better reading of the game than Rudi (although this is more to do with the level of these players than saying Luiz is great.) On another Chelsea forum that I used to be a regular on, I said last Summer that we were going to have three serious problems this season and that was: defending set pieces, defending against a counter and scoring our chances. My solution was to keep Luiz and play him in the central CB position in a 352/343 as that would have then allowed us to have three CB's to protect the useless Kepa at set pieces, Alonso could then just do his thing in the LWB role as he scores and assist more consistently in that position than any of our CM/AM's (ok not Puli, but he was new to the league) and lastly we shouldn't have been so wide open on the counter because if the DM/last CM got caught out as you should always have Luiz back there to mop up like he did under Conte in title winning season. This idea was shot down on there however, as people cried that Luiz was the biggest clown of all the CB's and that Rudi/Zouma/Tomori were 'big and strong' and would protect Kepa (who was apparently coming off an amazing season and would be our 10 year GK.) As for the goals they did conceded that we were pretty screwed but thought the counter attack issues wouldn't manifest so we were better off with another CM to chip in.

The problem with those players is that: AC is weak in the air RLC may stand 6'3" tall but he plays like one that is 5'7" Tammy is like Bambi on Ice Zouma is good in the air but he has no finesse to his heading as whilst he gets his head to most things, God only knows where it is going. Giroud is very good and is on par with Drogba and Costa. Alonso is decent enough but doesn't have the highest levels of desire. Rudiger is all lost at sea on virtually every ball that comes in. So, all in all, we may have enough 'tall' players but most of them are bad at aerial duals, despite their height.