SeB

Debuchy was a versatile midfielder, he played DM and RM before he realized there wasn't any proper RB in France, since a discussion with Lille's coaching staff he plays there. He's good offensively even if defensively he's not 100% reliable. He has the tactical awareness due to his versatility but he forgets himself sometimes. Though he's faaaar better than Van der Wiel defensively of course. French best defensive RB is Sagna, Debuchy is a very good alternative between a proper defensive compartiment and an interesting will to go forward But he has an excellent mentality, he was captain at times this season with Lille. He's the perfect pro footballer who wants to improve, incredible determination to prove himself week after week now he's been given a run with the French NT (what's incredible with him, he does not consider him good enough to sort his games like many would do in his position).

Thanks On a personnal plan, my family isn't really fond of football and I moved at several places in France. I didnt grow up in a place where a club was firmly etablished. I'm from Tours, I follow Tours that I can see playing in their stadium. Otherwise I like Lille and Lorient, mainly for their playing culture, the way they are managed for years Go to the magnificient WhoScored.com http://www.whoscored.com/Regions/252/Tournaments/2/Seasons/2935/Stages/5476/PlayerStatistics/England-Premier-League-2011-2012 then chose "Player Statistic" then "Offensive". Sort by "Drb" and just put your mouse on the dibble rate per game and you'll see the absolute figure Moses has 95 dribbles in 36+2 games, Hoilett 87 in 34 games. Moses is 25th and Hoilett 21th in Europe

I've a theory about Kakuta's Fulham loan: Mark Hughes knew like every one that Carlo wouldn't end the season and because he eyes the Chelsea job for years, he probably wouldn't have offend Chelsea by refusing Kakuta. But of course, Fulham was overbooked in CAM position with Dempsey, Gera, Dembele, Andy Johnson behind Zamora. I really don't agree with you about Coyle, I rather think he's done a fantastic job. I wrote this before the boxing day, a comparison between Blackburn and Bolton http://mypremierleag...011/12/20/2602/

I agree about Hoilett but not Dyer. Moses is a very interesting player. Medias speaks about him since he's 16, says every big club (Arsenal, Inter, ManU, Chelsea etc...) want him yet he eventually chose Wigan where he'd play week after week after Crystal Palace was forced to sell him. Martinez did use him well, not with an enormous role just when he arrived. He was a substitute, then he was a 3rd choice behind Cleverley and N'Zogbia on the wings and now the two left he was a starter. He has a genuine potential: he's quick, solid, skillfull and shots well. But his main struggle is to try to manage his athletic abilities because he lacks often lucidity or the ability to produce several runs in a short period of time. Last season he was really inconsistent in his play, a good action then disappears for 4 or 5 minutes. This term he gained game time (36+2 games for 8+13 games) but also volume of play, more presence in the game etc. But he's of course far from revealing all his potential. Hoilett is a very good player even if he's not Paulo Ferreira's mentality. I still hope we could hijack Monchen GLadbach's deal. He can do everything in the last tier: playing on both wings, support striker and false 9. A kind of Ashley Young (good crosser, good assist provider and passer into space) with a far more varied palette of dribbles and probably a better shooting ability. Dyer is overrated, he's very much SWP style. He manages to make a little difference because he's little and quick, his gravity point is low. But he looks at his shoes when he dribbles, he cannot shot, cross etc... properly. Everytime the same dribble

Oh god The fact is that the Arsenal recruitment is rather very heterogeneous so far. Podolsky is awfully overrated, he's a mediocre player. Giroud is a very good pick. The main thing they lacked was variation in their play, Wenger seems to want to add different players for a different game plan not based exclusively on ball possession around the box anymore

I missed a lot of Premier League games (15) because I'm a youth coach on Saturdays. Until December I did download the games to see it later but after I stopped to do it. My proudest or shameful achievement (it depends of the point of view lol) is to have watched 114 Premier League games this term though

I'm not a lawyer but I think that everyone can report something and from then, the police decides to investigate, just a procedure... But in fact Ferdinand did not hear it not QPR so if something really happened, there would have been a case opened because even more it's upseting to hear a racist slur, condemning the rival club by his iconic player is enticing. It's a supposition from me but maybe the long report has no link with the Euros, maybe this report is regarded as not important and so then, add to the list to all the rubish legal procedures the justice has to fix

There won't be any ban for the alleged Ferdinand affair. Something only a spectator noticed and reported to the police. Something nor QPR nor Chelsea players have heard about on the pitch etc... I could also report a random player for a slur toward another, but who'd have an evidence of it ?

Ivanovic isn't reliable anymore as a CB. Though his distribution did dramatically improve since he's there, he doesn't seem comfortable switching endlessly between CB and RB for 2 seasons now. Tactically he hasn't his marks anymore, he's often lost when he has to cover properly. I think he's a right back now, not a CB anymore.

http://www.20minutes...-debuchy-bouche Fuck you Spike !

^And they plan to sell Ba to Fenerbahce for 11m after one season.

But we can offer him enormous wages, he'll chose the club where he'd play the most often. I remember at Tours, he has never hidden his admiration for the english game and as he was the striker of a promoted team in 2nd division he was scouted by Celtic and Middlesbrough. He stayed. He could have gone anywhere but he chose then Montpellier who ended how everyone know, as champions 3 years after being promoted

You also think so ? I might shock but I wasn't especially happy with Di Matteo's appointment. He's an icon at Chelsea and I don't want to damage that image if we have to sack him during the season. He didn't changed that much things to be honest: he came to some elementary basics in terms of team organisation: pressing, mutual covering, team balance (Mikel) and direct support for Torres (Mata definitely central and not leaving his wing position anymore). The dynamic he managed to launch if we can see it like that was mainly due to the whole club's (players, staff, board) ability to touch the FA Cup and the Champions League within easy reach (just some rounds left before the final). Those preparations were perfect for a club who aims a Cup, not a Championship. There was the same lack of everything under Villas Boas than under Di Matteo in Premier League Of course, we can point to facts such as the schedule (2 or 3 games every week, not really time to change things drastically) and of course the achievements. But for me it's not enough to pretend to lead the club for a whole season. We can etablish a list long as an arm of the teams who ended well the season after replacing the manager by his assistant. The process is quite simple: you make every player focused again, you change what went wrong tactically with a new approach (it's different of when someone from the outside is signed as the replacement, in the case of the assistant's appointment the main thing changing is internal communication) I just try to be the more pragmatic as I can, the definition of a championship is that there's 2 or 3 teams only able to win it. It's impossible to aim at the start of the season to win a cup. The Champions League is a mix between the two: 7 or 8 teams can pretend to win it, it's impossible to name less than 5 teams in September. It might be bizarre but I'm not satisfied by that when I know Di Matteo will lead the team for a whole season There's no secret in Football, building on unexpected success rarely leads to a situation of dominance the years after I've a huge respect for what Di Matteo represents for Chelsea FC but I've also big doubts about his managerial abilities. His career is short, he left on a high at MK Dons considering he arrived after Martin Allen and Paul Ince, he left after one year and a failure to gain promotion via the play offs (so we don't know how he would have handle a second season). At WBA it was interesting on his 1st season because he gave the impression he could end the season as 1st during the winter. The start of the next season was based to the enormous dynamic of the season before (something like 5 or 6 game lost in a whole Championship season). But things went wrong and he didn't manage to change anything. Though Hodgson showed in 3 weeks that the matter wasn't nor physical nor due to the lack of quality of the squad. At Chelsea Villas Boas was even forced to justify his utility (It's not usual to see that sort of statement about an assistant) during the season. I've a pressentiment based of Di Matteo's apparent inability to handle moments where he's back to the wall and he has to change things. The only thing I want is to avoid a 10 games unwinning streak before an eventual sacking. That's why I also don't want Zola as a manager in the near future, I'm far from convinced by his managerial abilities. Chelsea lasted almost one month to announce that Di Matteo becomes the permanent manager. A real will to keep him would have been materialized in the week after the CL win. But it lasted one month to announce he has a 2 year contract, probably with a release clause based on objectives after one year Ancelotti's contract renewing after the double seemed evident and the club acted that way, Di Matteo's one does not appear as clear as spring water. It's not without a meaning for me. Of course, Di Matteo won the CL, he deserves to lead the team at least for one year considering the targets such as Capello, Guardiola etc.. aren't available at the moment. Everything seems clear that if it's not next season it will be the next one that we'll se a big fish as manager.

You don't have to read papers to know if a player will hit or not. Some people consider in France that Premier League as the country which championship hasn't any good goalkeeper and where wingers are shite. It's awful to think the Gervinho-Sow combo was regarded as two of the best players in Ligue 1. I follow Giroud since he came at Tours 4 seasons ago, he passed a new step every season (look at the summary I made the page before) and everytime he managed to improve his playing level. Why not one more time ? Especially because he's a good mentality, not like the Gervinho, Gomis, Gignac. And he hasnt Chamakh's 15 years old striker mentality At the moment I think he could be a 1st choice at Spurs, Everton. At Bayern, Arsenal, Chelsea where he's linked he can be the 2nd choice. But with the guarantee his 2nd season would be really even better than the 1st. I don't like the quick considerations like "Eredivisie or Ligue 1 is full of overrated players". Like everywhere there are good or overrated players, the main thing is to be able to sort them

Neither do I, I'm rather thickheaded when it happens to look what happens in the world of football outside UK

Yes, it's a facepalmesque rumour considering there is probably only 2 football players called Salomon in the world but the guy seems to be worth it

According to the Daily Mail, Chelsea were scouting Venezuela and Malaga striker Salomon Rondon who appears to be a very exciting prospect. I don't usually watch Liga and I've never seen him play but from what I just read on him I might find an opportunity to see him play. His valuation is £20m He scored 11 goals in 29+8 games whereas he was expected to be benched at the benefit of Van Nistelrooy. He's excellent in the air (4th FW in terms of aerial duels won per game, 89/185 and 2.4 per game) thanks to his 1.86 m (6 ft 1 in) height and 86kg (do the conversion yourself lol). I just chat with a Valencia fan who said to me he's a great finisher with a great positionning in the box, he's also very good on the ball: 2.6 shots per game, 0.5 dribbles He has good assisting stats as well: 4 assists and 26 key passes, fouled 1.8 times per game. He commits 1.1 fouls per game and loses the ball often though 2 times dispossessed per game (tackled) and give 1.7 times the ball back to the opposition http://www.dailymail...mon-Rondon.html http://www.whoscored.com/Players/25964

According to reports in France he has a 12m€ relase clause in his contract

Not disciplined at all, he's everywhere he shouldn't be. Clean tackler no, Vieira is a clean tackler, M'Vila puts impacts in his challenges and his tackling technique is poor. It depends of what we call passing skills. I tend to include the relevance of the passing choices in it. After 4 season at high level, M'Vila is unable to understand the rythm to put into the game. But he's the dynamo of his team Rennes, that explains the inconsistency of the team and the M'Vila dependence. He sends a 60 yard diagonal when he has to play short and keep possession and the opposite. He has a good potential in his diagonals though, but the most important is still to know when to do one It's not a problem of stamina I think, one more time it's just to know when to bring support or not. He barely provides support to the offensive players by example (but I think he could be a bit better with a real DM beside him)

Yes, perfectly Milneresque. Average/good everywhere, nowhere good. He's not a DM (poor tackler, often out of position), not a CM (not intelligent in his passing choices), not a box to box (too slow, not decisive)

You should really go on Carfree Chronicles' tumblr, every week they unweil a new animated gif of a Mikel's sideway pass I don't know when people will understand Mikel is restrained in a role and that he's not just a random bloke because we have nobody else to put there. Oh my god. No he's far from that amount, he's just an average player If you can say to me in 3 seconds where M'Vila's is the best on the pitch, you can be sure I'll worship you because for 3 years now I didn't manage (like many other french supporters) to do so.

Laurent Blanc is making a press conf in 1 hour so they are expected to comment it. At the moment they're waiting for the SMS questions from the listeners

No, they said he's expected to come until 18:00 GMT+1 so 17:00 in UK. It's 16 PM at the moment in France It's the show's summary atm

He's expected to come up until the next 2 hours (the shows lasts 2 hours)

Lucky as I am, I understand one or two words of french, I'll report it there lol I though the whole England was focused on the Queen's Diamond Jubilee and that everything else was blocked for the moment. Who knows that Chelsea TV'll have Hazard 1st inteview ? It's just a tacit assumption isn't it ?