laura90

Werner. Watch our goal compilation from the last season. We downgraded our play by removing Werner for Lukaku. We needed Chiesa type, hard working goalscorer, not Lukaku, who is neither against decent opposition. For his size and shape Lukaku sure has the ability to shrink and get in the pocket of any quality defender he faces. Of course, this ability of his couldn't be seen alongside his stats of goals scored. I just knew all this jokes about Sterling being in Reece's pocket would backfire on us as soon as we were linked with him.

Just one signing to dismantle entire team. Both attack and defence. You couldn't make it up. Proper knock down. That's what he is to this team. Our attack wasn't perfect. Still we managed to create many chances while remaining defensive solid. Thanks to pressing, ball recoveries in advanced area, good movement off the ball shown from our front three. We were able to stop other teams from playing. That's how we won CL. Our most productive player in front three, as limited as he was, was involved in around 30 goals and still created plenty of of chances that were missed by him or others. But it was he who created them. Now Werner is removed from the team. Our major creator and major goal contributor. Others changed positions. Removed to a striker waiting ball to land on his feet. Who should have had the ability to create his own chances, like his predecessor did, and score from them. We see how it works. We can't press with him to save our lives. To compliment this striker we downgraded our fullbacks to average attacking wingbacks who are and will be targeted by any decent opposition and as latest games have shown, are major source of opposition goals and our defensive downfall.

It's pretty unrealistic to expect player to have good game against top team when he spent easier games sitting on the bench. Same goes for Chilwell. Lukaku effect indeed. Look at our team in CL final against this team. And look at the team that started defending it against Zenit. Do you see changes? We had three attacking players who were interchanging, passing between them, creating chances (not finishing them), pressing, recovering ball and so on. Now we have two attackers and finisher who is there waiting for that ball to put behind net but does very little to recover it. In CL our full backs/wing backs were James and Chilwell, fast players in their 20s whose prime task was to defend, and attack later. Even if they weren't perfect we changed them with worse. Now we have Alonso and Azpi as our fullbacks /wingbacks. Slow players in their30s whose main task is to provide final ball to Lukaku and interchange with two attackers first (Alonso) . And defend later. We are more vulnerable in defense, even if we continue with five at the back. Granted James was wingback against City until injured, but wasn't wingback against Zenit or Spurs. Havertz is on the left, Werner was on the right. Rare are the ones who remained in their positions. This team is formed to bring the best of our golden finisher, who is paid 200 mill to shine against Burnley and Wolverhampton. CL final team is dismantled for that purpose and people question why is everybody out of form. And yet, despite all the changes we play with ten man against top teams with our star walking around while we are out of possesion.

When he doesn't score his lack of skill and poor first touch are the object of ridicule. His antics on the pitch. His behavior on the pitch and of the pitch. If he, God forbids, gets into not scoring series, it gets into his head and he becomes very awful persona. On and of the pitch. Unlike other misfiring strikers we have seen.

Those pics from Porto, posted in the match thread, would have never been taken had Lukaku led our line. We are weaker and will be against City, Liverpool, United. We play with ten men, Lukaku is isolated. And maybe even Brentford , West Ham, Soton, basically every team in the PL that has very good defender able to pocked him. He disrupted our build up play, offering very little except goals. Which is fine, when he scores and we win. He was moaning, pointing and sulking today, sometimes hard to even watch. This type of behavior doesn't do any good for the rest of the team. Played six games, scored in three. Needs to do it more often or he will become: Kepa Arizzabalaga II. For Chelsea football club. Because everything he can offer except his goals is so negative and ugly that can place him right beside Kepa in the stands.

Pivotal player in our last win over them was sitting on the bench. Havertz. Werner didn't have match under his belt this season, only two ten minutes sub appearances. And he starts the toughest game of them all - was he even match fit? All of our midfielders are out of form. Lukaku efect. It's only matter of time before teams start attacking through Alonso. We saw glimpses of it today. It wont be а pleasant sight. Lukaku has to continue his goal string again 'small' teams or we are in danger to be found out really soon. It's not this loss that is worrying. It's the weaknesses it showed.

Lukaku has always been this type of striker and always will be sadly, when he scores it's all great. When he doesn't score, everything he lacks is highly visible. Keep calm and accept it, top four in the Premier League with Lukaku up front is great achievement. As good as it gets. Even Man Utd failed to carry it out.

Every player from our front three last season was crucial for our chances creation. And our defense. Every one from the front three was crucial simply because neither one of them is especially talented, technically gifted or capable to create something on their own. Even Werner, last season had the highest contribution for goals scored in the team. Believing in our ability to create the same amount of chances with removing one of them was rather naive . Believing Lukaku is the striker to thrive from our reduced attacking play also naive. These days our full backs, or wing backs are bound to cross to Lukaku first and defend later. Lukaku addition only made sense to me if we were to switch to back four and keep the same number of attackers. Since we don't have players for that our entire build up play may suffer further. It will be big games where we will be found out. Liverpool, City, Man Utd and whoever we meet in the CL knock out stage. But something tells me we will find playing likes of Brentford and Southampton harder than Arsenal and Tottenham. With this cross it to Lukaku set up.

Our record signing and top earner. Our missing link in three man attack. Our powerful No 9 bought in to terrorize defenders. Against top team, albeit only the second game.

They were real warriors last night. Congratutions on point gained. World class performances from the most, especially AC and Mendy. We will need that warrior, fight till the end, never give up mentality and out of world performances from our defenders bar Alonso, and midfielders to get single point against top five teams in this League and in knockout stages of CL with Lukaku up front. Every single point will be extremely hard to get. And that will be the price for all those goals against midtable teams and relegation fodders like Arsenal. Several lows that concerned me. Why Alonso started? He can't defend against teams that press and fast counter attacking teams aka Liverpool. To make up for midfielder that we are missing up front in our link up play and chances creating, because we have our striker with questionable skillset there, maybe. It was wrong call. Liverpool attacked our left side, created pressure, Alonso prevented Mendy from seeing the ball clear and getting it, red car and penalty happened. It wasn't shock, either surprise. With Alonso there. Why was Havertz taken off? He is our most skilled player. Why Lukaku stayed in the second half when he was isolated and surplus? Wouldn't Werner be more useful in the second half when it wasn't about goals, but pressing and defending? Werner was way better in those aspects than Lukaku. Ironically, those balls that Mount and Havertz didn't pass to Lukaku, Werner would. I'm just not sure would Lukaku scored or tripped on them. Too many touches needed. Said it way before he was signed, we will play games against top five (City, United, Pool, Leister, Spurs) with ten man with Lukaku upfront and I will be saying it after City game I'm afraid. I wanted Chilwell to start with Pulisic/ Werner, Havertz and Mount upfront. Phantasy, I know.

God no. It would be all another level of tragedy had we paid record fee and record wages to a player from your first option. That's not the case with Lukaku. It's the second option. The thing is, he is so calm, well spoken, confident because everything was going in his favor in Milano. Even though he scored 17/18 non penalty league goals per season they adored him as if he scored 170/180. Everything was going his way, the coach, the game plan, slow defenders, everything was peachy . Therefore the smile and confidence. In Manchester, however, after the first ten games, nothing was going his way. Frustrating face, sulking, pointing fingers at his teammates, shouting for not passing to him, blaming teammates for not receiving his misplaced passes. Even got in the fight with Shaw. Loses his starting place. Goes away in hostile way. The real question for us is whether: 1. What happened in Manchester stayed in Manchester. 2. What happened in Milano stayed in Milano.

That is what I was raving about Lukaku transfer. He is getting 450 euros a week? 23 millions a year salary and 23 mil a year transfer? I thought Halaand, world class in the making, would disrupt our wage structure? But no, it's Lukaku that will likely disrupt it. Of all world class players. Lukaku. Never mind. On how much is Kante? How much will Rudiger ask for after this? Bayern situation didn't show us anything I see. And their turnover, revenue and stadium are much bigger than ours. WE play in better league. We really had to offer him 450 000 a week to come? He wouldn't come for less. Took advantage of our situation very well. At this price and this salary he better start scoring against top six teams ( 5 in 58 unacceptable for the player of his worth ) since he wont be benched, and we cant afford to lose our six pointers because we have flat track bully as our striker. It will be expected from the team to win the league with this overpaid superstar. That is what he is paid for unfortunately. And he has to help the team to win the League. Then everything will be worth it. Otherwise....

I hope he won't be loaned out, but Azpi and Silva aren't getting any younger, and Rudiger seems to be keen on big cheque as a free agent, with Christensen we need another, skilfull, ball playing CB and if that's Kounde, we need him. Albeit he is small guy. If Tuchel wants him we should get him. Fantastic debut for a young centre back. And academy product. Let's hope in time he will be able to play this good against tougher opposition.

RE Lukaku cost. It's senseless. We signed Costa for 35 mil euros I think. Sold him for bigger money. And he got us two PL titles. With entire team ofc. We will spend on Lukaku over 200 mil for what? 15 goals a year and keeping ourselves in the top four? You gotta be kidding. He will be expected to deliver titles , just like everyone else. We haven't spent this kind of money to remain where we had been for last couple of seasons. Such an odd transfer. For me little bit scary. Overpaying for a player to achieve goals he maybe doesn't have the tools to accomplish. Many things can go wrong. We so need him to hit the ground running, to have every luck in the world and I sincerely wish him that, now when his signing is imminent.

His signing to me shows a clear intention, determination even desperation to compete and win the title from our board. Desperation because we are in hurry, we simply can't wait. Maybe because City and Liverpool squads are getting older? That's why we were after Haaland, who was out of reach obviously, galactico in the making. We were ready to double his fee in order to get him this year. Had we succeed , title would have been a must. This season or the next. The same applies for Lukaku. We didn't spend 115 mil on 28 years old, taking huge risk by not being able to offload him if things turn sour, to just keep us in the fourth or third place. Closing the gap to City and win title this season or the next is a must, for him and for Tuchel. If we don't manage to win title or CL with him in the next two years, he will be a flop. Just like Havertz would have been too hadn't he scored that GOAL against City. How he is gonna achieve it matters very little. He may score 16 goals ( at least one more than Tammy in 2019/2020 season), and enable Havertz, Pulisic, Ziyech to score more, by occupying defenders and he is success. As long as he wins a trophy he is brought and got lucrative contract to win.

Big Rom has even bigger ago end a very bad attitude. His antics at Man United and fall outs with everybody and everyone got really bad from the moment Ole was starting Rashford instead of him. We have that big ego, bad attitude player after he enjoyed royalty status in Milan, where he was considered the king of Milan and we expect him to accept being rotated. OK. I guess he could have signed extra clause in his contract to accept Tuchel's rotation system and go with it and we could actually not see him in line ups for certain games. In that case, even I would be OK with this signing.

Lukaku wasn't Tuchel's first choice. He openly said after Tottenham game that some players didn't want to come. If the player he wanted didn't want to come does that make Lukaku his first choice? Lukaku was his best choice for this season. To compete. That's why he is here. But not his first choice. I also wanted Haaland at the early stage, but it became clear to me early on that it was not happening. My own preference was to skip on the striker this year and to get the other targets since we had really good team and good coach and we needed just slightly improvement from our attacking players to grab that fourth spot where our only competition is Liecester. And try again the next year. We really now have only Broja and Soonsup Bell to look up to and hope they miraculously develop into great strikers very soon. In my opinion.

May I? It's simple really. He will get you around 20 PL goals ( only one season above 20) but he will get you nowhere with them. You will stay where you are. If you are midtable club, you will stay there. WBA stayed there. Everton was in Europa League with him for the first season, but failed to return there with him for the next two seasons. They stayed where they were. Midtable. He went to Man UTD. Lots of goals from Lukaku. They where the second. The next season. Lots of goals from Lukaku. They finished sixth. He went to Inter. Excelled in pensioners, pardon, Italian league, but did he improve them in the Champions League? Lukaku is a goalscorer. He has the talent to find that net that better attackers than him don't have. He has that. Hence the goals. But problem is, he lacks almost every other aspect of the game. His first touch, his ball control, vision, inteligence. His overall play is worse compared to elite, world class strikers like Benzema, Lewandowski, Aguero to name a few . Elite strikers give you goals, but they also improve team play overall. They don't go missing against big teams. They often show their class right when their team is struggling. They are true talismans and they are not for sale for their teams. Lukaku, for all his goals is not on that level. But we paid for him as he was. We gave him wages, like he was. It's not my money, but it will make him nailed on starter for the next five years, regardless of his performances. Every club he went to didn't mind selling him. You may argue Everton and Inter needed money, but Man Utd didn't, yet, they couldn't wait to get rid of him. Despite plenty of goals he scored for them. With elite striker you only gain, With Lukaku, you gain some, you lose some. We will be getting goals against lower sides. And points. But we will struggle with him against big teams and in CL. IF he starts every game, we are at the risk of having one attacker less and ten men against top teams. If he goes missing as he often does. 1 goal in 20 games against top six in his last two PL seasons.. Chelsea fc does it's thing, signs second choice players but pays for them as they are the first choice. Panic buy at the best. Almost feels like act of desperation. In the long run it will be short term gain, long term pain. Where he will get us.? Right here where we are. In the League. Last 16 in CL. If we face easier teams in the group stage. As I said before, happy to be proven wrong. Welcome, Romelu Lukaku!

I hope they will stay firm and insist on lowering the price by including other player. Breaking Premier League transfer record for Romelu Lukaku, striker known as flat track bully who worked on his first touch at the age of 26, who showed ego and attitude problems at the last top four club he was at is a bit too much. If we break record for him, and he shows glimpses of form and attitude problems he has shown at United, we will be in very bad situation. Almost Kepa like situation. And people lowering significance of his Man United stint and looking only at his Everton and WBA form, may I ask you , are we midtable club, or are we top four club aiming to be title contenders? We must not break Premier League transfer record for him. They are in financial mess offer 60 million on deadline. He is not worth more anyway. Our first games are against tough teams, we wont miss him that much at the start of the season.

Are people really taking Pep's comment's about Lukaku serious? If he considered Lukaku world class why didn't he take him from United? What if he called Lukaku world class hoping we would fall in the trap and buy him, which we did eventually two years later. He is drinking champagne right now getting his Arabs to sign Haaland for 500 000 a week. He wouldn't give Lukaku 10% of that. Lukaku is the striker who lacks basic skills: first touch and ball control, no way Pep was serious in his assessment.

Lukaku is good signing for the middle club like Everton to get them goals to stay in the middle of the table comfortably. He haven't fail in that aspect. He would have scored many goals and he did. He isn't bad signing if we are determinant to remain on that fourth place. He will get us there. For quite some time. But Man Utd signed him to make them title contenders and to help them chalenge for the title. As a world class striker who can elevate team to the next level he failed at United. In fact it was when they got rid of him replacing him with their youngsters they became title contenders . Are we signing him to keep us in that fourth place? Then he is success. Are we signing him to make us title contenders? When he failed once. IN his 6 Premier Leagues despite all his goals scored he was never considered world class by anyone until we valued him as one. I would be OK with his coming if he was way cheaper and left us with possibility to sign simebody else in the near future. But putting all the eggs in his basket, I'm shocked. Just hope Broja shines on his loan I guess.

It's irrelevant how we signed Kepa. What matters is someone should have watched him playing. And it's obvious nobody haven't. It was probably what you said anyway. About Lukaku. I firmly believe his sudden form was due to easier league and easier opponents. He found his match after six unsuccessful years in the Premier League where he has shown plenty of awful first touches and lack of decent ball control. Many good CBs could easily pocked him. Two years later and he is world class striker worth 130 mill that will bring us title? He is so like Kepa, panic second choice buy. Nowhere good enough to deliver title but costs as he is. I really don't care how good he was in Italy. He scored fair share of penalties in that goal compilation. If Chelsea was part of Scudetto or Bundesliga we would have had much lethal players on our hands and wouldn't even have to waste 130 mil on Lukaku.

Hope and pray those are not the same guys who watched Kepa at Bilbao and admired his talent for a long time before we signed him. It is the Premier League where they should have watched him. In case many of you haven't watch him there either , here is a little reminder. I really really hope I'm wrong about this one.

What I really think about Lukaku can be said in just one sentence: Had he played that final on may 29 in Porto we would have lost it. Tuchel has good record against top teams. Lukaku will only make it worse. Will he be able to score against lower sides, maybe in the first two months, like he did at United, and later not so much. He struggles against smart defenders, and plenty of those in the PL. He is too expensive and it will be expected from Tuchel to deliver title with him, when in reality he can deliver only that fourth place we already can reach without him. Awful, awful signing that is only a continuation of the bad transfer decisions this club is has taken the last 5 years or so. I am so disappointed. I simply can't see him scoring goals with ease here like he did in Italian League. If Tuchel decides to bench him due to his potential underperforming what will happen? Disaster in the making. He is, at the best, top fourth striker and not in any case, title wining one.