King Kante

I wouldn't say this was close to our first team. Tomori, Zouma (despite what people say on here), Jorgi/Kova (together), Giroud and CHO are not our first choice players. On top of this Dave is 50/50 with James and Chilwell was making his first start from a fairly long layoff. That is at least half the team that aren't starters. Spuds had Lloris, Dier, Auror, Bergwijn, Davis and Alderweireld start who are starters for them. Lamela and Sissoko are 50/50's. So in total, about the same. For sure, it wasn't a great game but lets not get hyperbolic.

Well the difference was (and this probably isn't popular) that we had Luiz who actually was very good at attacking the ball in the air. However, everyone likes calling him a clown so it cannot be anything to do with that at all.

I have to say CHO and Mount weren't great tonight and Emerson and Zouma did not really cover themselves in glory with the Spud goal, however, people are forgetting about the pivot. Jorgi and Kova offered zero protection once Spuds upped the ante and the ball just kept coming straight through the middle of us far too easily. This is why we seriously need a Rice/Partey type player. We are always overrun in midfield unless Kante is on song and even then he is super short so no use at set pieces.

Probably because their is an arguement to cash in on Kante now as his value could drop significantly very shortly.

Unless West Ham fold. We do have a number of players that fit a Moyes mold team - Barkley, Alonso/Emerson, Rudi/Zouma, Giroud. I think there is still potential for a swap plus cash deal.

No, I still do not think he is a bad LB2. I take him for what he is. I accept days like today as I also know there are days when he pulls a Tottenham, Bornemouth or Newcastle. Further, I am glad you quoted me from the SR thread. I say this because, there I clearly outlined other areas we needed to upgrade before LB2 (which I still maintain) and that we wouldn't be able to sell the players you listed easily for fees. So, really that post has aged ok.

The problem with Emerson is twofold. First, is that, like Alonso, he is best as a LWB and not great at LB. Second, is that he appeared to want to leave last season and looked liked he gave up. Alonso has a lot of critics but some of the performances Emerson put in last season where absolutely diabolical. As for his long term future, I think he is gone this window still. Most likely as a loan to buy with option as that is all we seem to do now.

We cannot loan CHO as we do not have the wingers to do it. I pointed out about a month ago, that currently all we have in the true AM department is: Puli (injury prone), Ziyech (new to the league with questionable robustness) and CHO. My solution was to loan a Coutinho/Bale type player to give us a go to player to help us this season as it is going to be tough for three of them to get through all the minutes to a consistently high enough level. For me, Mount and Harvetz need to be played in CM, which is what I have said all along. However, this idea was seen as crazy.

He is Karius level. It is not just a confidence issue, he is just that level. I said this a few months back, but Kepa is just dire there is nothing about his game, apart from his ability to spring back up after saving, that is top level.

I would disagree that he was good in the initial part of Sarri's reign or that he was good throughout his whole Palace loan (of which I think he only played 24 games with some of those being sub appearances and with a lot of his starts he would get subbed off.) In both seasons he took a while to get going and had niggly/long term injury problems. My views on Barkley v RLC is that both are deeply flawed players. For me, Barkley lacks any football intelligence and doesn't have anywhere near the ability on the ball that some people give him credit for. However, he does make a good fist of recovering the ball and is able to track runners from midfield. RLC on the other hand is completely dire off the ball and cannot a) play 90 minutes of football (even in his good Sarri spell he was always subbed off between 60-70 mins looking knackered) and stay off the treatment table to even play 60 minutes consistently across a season. However, he is good on the ball and can be a difference maker. Hence, as both players are essentially going to play back up to Mount/Havertz the question has to be, which one do you prefer? If you favour pure ability on the ball and are unconcerned about fitness, then RLC is your boy, if you want someone who will always be ready and can help close games out, then it will be Barkley. To be honest, I do not really have really strong opinions on which one gets to stay as I think both of them are seriously flawed. These flaws are also why I will not lose any sleep over the final decision as I accept one has to go and who ever does stay will continue to infuriate but in different ways.

This is all well and good but RLC is 25 in January, he isn't 21 anymore. Further, he has serious deficiencies (zero off the ball work) in his game, that were still clearly there when he had is sole consistent 3 months for us at the end if Sarri's reign. Let's be honest, RLC has been riding a hype train since he was 16/17 and there hasn't been any hard proof that the talent he showed in the youth ranks can translate to the pro game on a consistent basis. Sure, he is silky on the ball when in the mood and fit, but that has only been glimsped twice which was the middle of his spell at Palace and then Feb/March-May 2019. That is about a total of 6 months for a 24 year old bloke that made his debut at 17.

Indeed. He is very good at finding space and timing his runs. The problem on here is that it is quite clear that a lot of people must've been only looking at stats, Twitter and Youtube clips of him prior to signing as what we have seen isn't really a surprise. Further, today he was much better as he was playing in the position that I have said all along he would/should play for us i.e. No.8/No.10. Yes, he did play No.11/No.9 last season but if anyone had actually watched him, they would've spotted that he wouldn't get away with playing those positions in the PL due to his playing style. Further he is has been a slow starter in pretty much every season he has started. For me, I am not expecting him to be fully up and running until November at the earliest and even then, he should be given this season to acclimatise.

For me if RLC was sold I wouldn't lose any sleep over it. The guy is pushing 25 and has yet to prove he can keep himself fit for more than six months, still does zero work off the ball and continues to dine off the hype that he built up 7 years ago. For sure, Barkley is similar but I do not really see much difference as whilst RLC has a little more quality on the ball at least you know Barkley can stay fit.

He has 2 years and 9 months left. There was a clause in his contract that was activated last season. SFL confirmed this in the Summer. https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/football/2020/jul/10/tammy-abraham-activates-one-year-chelsea-contract-extension

Whilst it was only Barnsley, Tammy played well today. For me, he isn't starting material for a top 4 club but he is a very good squad option atm and he still has time to develop. For me, a CF can only really be fully judged at 25/26, especially when they play as a lone CF, as it is similar to CB in that it requires a lot of physical strength and experience to play it properly. For me, even if he only ends up long term as as CF2/3 that is good enough as a CF2 will cost you £35m+ these days.

I am not so sure. Rudiger was pretty dire last season. I have said it for a while now but if Rudi/Zouma/AC leave it is hardly a surprise as each one of them is compromised by some fault in their game. People disagree over which one is worse but the fact of the matter is that it is dependent on your own preferences in what you want to see in a CB as to which one you want to keep.

I really hope Mendy is better than Martinez as he just put in another very good performance tonight.

Unless he was actually a second choice and we haven't been able to get the first over the line.

I am sorry but tactically that was absolutely diabolical. Further, SFL should've brought a CF on at half time for Jorgi as well. As I said, in that situation he isn't of any use as he hasn't got the legs and secondly we then wouldv'e had someone to target. Honestly, shocking stuff.

If it is me, my changes would be Tomori for Jorgi and Giroud for Harvetz. Kepa James Tomori Zouma Alonso Mount Kante Kova Werner Giroud. Essentially hit the long ball to Giroud and try to get flick ons on Werner. Giroud needed for set pieces. Jorgi is not a good idea in this situation as he does not have the legs to get through the yards.

It was a red card but and AC has probably made the wrong move as going a goal down is probably preferable to going down to 10 men with a whole half to play. However, the midfield should never be giving Henderson all that time and Kepa should be off his line a lot quicker as he can see the whole play.

I do not want to see Bale under Jose in a Euro Championship year in which Wales have qualified.

What happened? He has always been like this as I and a few others have pointed out. Off the ball he is really poor, on the ball he isn't quite as good as everyone makes out. Only people that do not see it are those still riding the hype train. Yeah, Giroud or CHO for RLC is the answer atm. However, it is worrying how they are making Mount, Kante and Jorgi run around in circles. This is why I kind of see he logic in a DM/Rice being targeted. Agreed.

Villa have had a £16m offer for Martinez accepted. Wouldn't he be a safer option than Mendy?

Yes.