lionsden

Luiz is a sad reflection of the sorry state of defending and sharp drop in supply of genuine world class natural defenders today. Hence why comical defending even at the highest level occur with alarming regularity like never before. Baresi and maldini, for e.g, were far more technically gifted than Luiz will ever be yet all the plaudits they received came off the merit of their ability to actually defending bloody well rather than their ability to pick out a team mate, Jesus wept. I'm too old school for this ....

Football is so fickle. from hero to zero in a matter of months. what a shame. despite everything that has transpired , I still see him as the best playmaker and most technically gifted player in our squad. he deserves better and I hope he leaves permanently to join a club that would fully appreciate his qualities.

If he has any common sense and ambition, he would make his next transfer move a permanent one. It was clear as day light mou doesn't rate him when we bought William and Schurrle.

Azpilicueta for me was the undisputed motm as far as all round 90 mins performance is concerned. Oscar, Ivanovic and lampard did well too.

Mata on the bench once again

That's the job of central midfielders. what a team essentially requires from its playmaker (AM) is chance creation and assisting goals. he shouldn't get any credit for doing secondary task if he fails miserably in his primary duty and objective as an AM and main playmaker of the team. I don't even think he's assisted any goal at all in the league this season and that speaks volume.

That's the million dollar question. I expect to see Ivanovic having plenty of possession down the right flank and being generally rubbish at crossing yet again. we lack ideas atm. sometimes I wonder what they do in training.

I disagree. We are just not very good at creating chances and has been the case since the Roman era. ( I don't count Drogba bullying defence as being creative). I;m referring to the ability to constantly split open opposition defence with different array of offensive arsenal i.e long range through pass, diagonal balls, excellent overlapping runs and crossing, cut backs, quick combination passing. That has never been our identity since Roman took over. we were actually far more creative during the Zola, Di matteo, gullit era. Drogba and lampard have, for so long, masked our deficiency in that regard. Ancelotti's first and double winning season was the outlier, an exception rather than the rule. creating chances is just not our forte, it's almost as if we are cursed. . . .no matter how much we invest, or the players we buy, it never changes anything.

I say we fix the issue of our inability to break down packed defenses first. otherwise it would be another case of chelsea striker s) in this case,falcao, frustrated and isolated upfront due to lack of quality, clear cut chances being created and left to feed off scraps. That slow ponderous build up play, shit crossing (ivanovic i see you), lack of creativity from deep and from our AM's and so on would only lead to yet another (potential) big money flop. People look at the stats of world class strikers in awe but fail to realise the amount of chances they actually miss due to the sheer volume of creativity they are provided with. and by creativity I'm referring to the one on the pitch rather than on paper. . . because on paper, we should be one of the most creative teams in the world but we aren't, far from it. Whenever I watch teams like PSG,Bayern,Barca (when they are on form), Dortmund, Juve et al, they never struggle to create clear cut chances one after the other in most games regardless of the opposition and the tactics,

he's not crafty enough to be able to dictate the game and link up play to the level where you can build a team around him imho. You build your team around players that I have already listed in the last post and not Oscar. He simply lacks the IT factor that every top quality no 10 possess. but we can agree to disagree.

It's my opinion ofcourse and it's a good thing that I don't allow popular opinions/perception affect my judgement. When I think of playmakers who play behind the strikers, I think of nimble, crafty and intelligent players like Iniesta, Totti, Zola,Silva, Ozil, mata et al oscar certainly looks out of place in such company as he lacks the vision and creativity of those type of players.

I have always believed he's not a playmaker and is massively overrated and nothing I have seen over the past year has changed that pov. I see him as a very poor man's Thomas Muller. . . .whether he will ever reach Mullers height in terms of ruthless efficiency and productivity that the German is known for, remains to be seen. But people expecting him to be this creative monster are sadly mistaken. He's not a no 10 for me.

Because the universe would cease to exist and we had lose every single game by 10 goals margin.. . . .so i have heard.

The moment we stupidly and unnecessarily splashed out on two wingers (willian and schurrle) in the summer. it signaled the end of KDB's as a chelsea player. wherever he goes in jan or summer, I wish him well.

I'm not a fan of Luiz, however with the way He and Mata have been used sparingly this season gives the rumor/leak about the Rooney swap in the summer more credence. if people want to use the form argument then Lampard, hazard and Oscar (recently) have been untouchable despite poor form which indicates favouritism and contradicts jose's fairness and equality policy . Bottomline is that he doesn't rate mata and before anyone reference his quote praising him, I will just say that i'm a firm believer of action over words. Even the tactical argument he's been using to justify his treatment of mata doesn't make sense as Ozil who is very similar to mata in terms of work rate and defensive capabilities, was one of his "untouchables" at madrid.

Any wants to bet that we buy another AM/winger in jan or summer?. I wouldn't be surprised one bit.

Selective argument at best. How convenient of you to omit their inability to retain their best players as the major reason for their demise. Selling the likes of Henry, fabregas, RVP,Nasri,Song, Cole et al was the main factor rather than their focus on youth integration and since we haven't shown the tendency to sell our best players then how exactly are we likely to turn out like arsenal if we show more commitment to youth development and integration.so because we want to nurture Chalobah for e.g means that we would sell ramires?.

Just off the top of my head from Past and present. Ronaldo lima, romario, Henry,Van basten, Del piero,Batistuta,Suarez,Rooney,Aguero,van persie. should i go on or you want more names? These strikers never need (ed) clear cut chances in order to score. they are/were so technically gifted that they routinely made defenders look like complete mugs and could consistently create their own chance all you have to do is pass them the ball anywhere, in and around the box. The truth is, we lack creativity as hard as that may sound given the wealth of attacking midfielders we posess and until we fix that problem buying another mechanical striker would never be the solution the current set up and situation.

Yes and if it fails keep spending. that's the only way forward. didn't you get the memo

sadly that attitude of throwing money at the problem and lack of trust and faith in youth is entrenched deeply in the club's culture from top to bottom,from the board to the coaching staff to the fans. Can you imagine the outrage from fans if we announce that we won't be buying any central midfielder and striker in the near future as we are looking to put the faith in Ake, chalobah and Lukaku?. It would be hilarious to read messages like ffs they aren't good enough and inexperienced, Roman buy Gundogan, Pogba, Cavani . . .buy everyone, anyone ffs anyone.

Perhaps clubs that have had success in this area should have adopted our strategy of battering their most promising youngsters to submission with heavy loans and wait patiently in the hope that they would be "ready and good enough" when they reach their prime before blooding them into the team, instead. Wenger, Klopp, Guardiola et al missed a trick there. How dare Jupp Heynckes turn Alaba, a teenager who had barely reached puberty and unproven, into a first team regular before reaching his prime. Our policy on youth integration is clearly the best and the blue print for others to follow

Post of the year. sums up my feeling quite succinctly. it's no coincidence that our strikers (whoever it is) continue to score poorly on the clear cut chances per game chart since the 09/10 season. We clearly don't have a player with the ability and vision to consistently thread the defense splitting through balls and diagonal passes from deep. that's how top teams often break down pack defenses. You will never see clubs like Juve, Bayern,Dortmund struggling to break down teams that camp in their own half because they have that much needed creativity from deep. And the baffling thing is, the so called expert, i.e scouting department, analyst, coaching staff, emenalo et al fail to spot and address this glaring problem instead they continue to buy more attacking midfielders.. . yeh that would help The non existent attacking threat and ineffective overlapping runs and rubbish crosses from Ivanovic and Ashley cole doesn't help matters too tbf.

Let's sign another expensive striker that relies heavily on the creativity of the players behind him to flourish in a team that often struggle to consistently create clear cut chances. genius idea.

I wouldn't follow or practice the "throw money at the problem" or "throw enough shit on the wall until one sticks" policy that's for sure.And I would try to think outside the box and apply common sense, use club's resources more efficiently and fix the team's major weakness for one instead of spunking millions on players we don't actually NEED. But what do i know since i'm not a football expert like Stuart pearce and Jamie redknapp.

I dfon't even know what you are talking about right now. who cares who's more talented of the two, that's not even the point here. even though it's highly debatable. The point is, Juve provided a platform for him to develop and succeed as a player. the same cannot be said of chalobah and our other talented youngsters Pogba was playing poorly for the man utd reserves and that was a fact not an opinion. fergie was reluctant to throw him into the deep end which caused him to lose motivation and desire and pogba even said so himself. Juve coming in for him was the change he needed at that time in his career and the trust and faith they showed in him is the reason for his development as a player. that was my argument. I'm willing to bet that the opinion oh you and others would have been different had Pogba continued to rot in Utd's reserves instead of . . . .