Adnane

Give him the armband already !

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That's what you get with proactive defender, Pedro's clearance is as terrible as they get and I don't think all the blame should be on Alonso. He delt pretty well with his 1 on 1 situations, he is pretty decent on the ball and going forward and I don't blame him for these goals. Plus it's only his first half under a Chelsea shirt, we have been seeing these terrible displays from Cahill week in week out for the last 5 years.

People are blaming Alonso now ?

Seriously advise you not to watch it.

And should have been a penalty. Instead, he is out captain for the night. Seriously, please fuck off already.

Cahill again... Fortunately enough Luiz saved the day.

Hope I don't jinx this, but with the dynamism and technique of D.Luiz-Alonso, I hope that Ivanovic-Cahill don't start ever again when everyone is fit.

Wasn't actually talking about his number there, my feeling about his experience in Atletico is mainly based on his actual saves, he really had a capacity of producing miracle saves at some points, which he doesn't seem to have anymore, or at leasr slightly less.

Aguero is doing all that without being tall ( he is strong but Griezmann is no Oscar either ).

No creation ? Out of all current 9's he is probably the guy with the most skills, passing range, vision and dribbling abilities. He is world class, genuinely believe he would smash records for fun if he was in same conditions as Benzema, Suarez and Lewandowski, he plays at a solid team of course, but they rely way too much on their off the ball organisation and he has a shitload of defensive duties also ( which isn't bad, especially that the guy is pretty generous for a number 9 ). If we could replace Costa with him ( with all the love I have for Diego ) we would probably be doing the transfer of the year, unfortunately, for many reasons, don't see that happening, he's bound to go to a top top club because at this point in time the only upgrade you can have as an Atletico footballer who is playing at Ballon d'Or contender levels is the top 3 ( with maybe a surprise move to PSG as he is French ).

Genuinely believe his performance levels decreased in the last couple of years, but on the other side I also know he was pretty sick on his Atletico days, so that doesn't tell much does it ? Hit first season here was top class, had a few blips but he was top 2 in the league, at the moment he is still world class, maybe not top 3 in the world as he was at some point but he is still a great keeper. The main downgrade compared to Cech is his concentration and defensive organisation, thinks Courtois needs to work on that, our defence is already terrible but if besides that we don't have a proper organisation from the keeper ( mainly on set pieces ) then we have big big issues, I really believe Cech always made the guys in front of him defend better than they would do without him there ( which again, doesn't say much because Cech is probably one of the most intelligent keepers/players around as you can see from his interviews ).

From what I remember, he was something like a poor man's De Bruyne. Slower, less skillfull but better vision, passing skills and finishing than his brother.

Hope for them that they don't, already got a gem in Emry, which should be left alone by the ridiculous French press btw

Think it's too much overreacting here... The defeat hurts, they were obviously better, but he had his reasons for the late subs ( he explained them btw, bringing in fresh players near full time gives them edge over the opponents, worked in the past, didn't work thihs time, shit happens ). Also did anyone see his face during the post game presser, he must have been absolutely furious with the lads. And he started reminding of the danger of the Premier League straight away from the first defeat, sort of "Shouldn't happen ever again" thing. This is the right thing to do.

A demonstration of how one experience can ruin your whole career, even when you're ( presumably ) top 3-5 managers in the history of the game...

Couldn't quite remember the quality and range of his passing, he's really good with the ball. As mentioned here, we know what we get with him, for the most part, we get a sub-world class ball playing CB, just have to neutralize the meltdown here on his brainfarts ( which honestly can't even compare to Cahill's weekly show )

Life doesn't have to be black or white, can we just say that they were both average/average+ on the day ? Plus Oscar had a brilliant assist, his defensive work goes unnoticed most of the time because people are used to seeing him closer to the opponent's box. Didn't think Eden had a bad bad game either, he just struggled with his finishing and a few choices, I thought he should have gone for goal more on this game, but he has already showed in the first three games that he is progressing on that aspect so I can't complain. Gotta boss tonight's game though, nevermind, he has always delivered against Liverpool, in fact two of his best goals with us came against them.

Goodness me this is going to be some game !

Definitely not, he's better. ( Percentage of big chances converted since 2013 ).

This guy is a pure gem

Wow. He litterally was nowhere as bad as you guys suggest. Easily created our best movements, should have got a couple of assists and maybe a goal if he was more clinical on his one on one. One average ( not even bad ) performance and people are already claiming he is back to last season ? You guys are UNBELIEVABLE.

Okay, someone help me here, where do I start ?

Gotta love people here slagging off Eden with Cahill's topic inactive since July 30

That's actually a pretty decent set-up.