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I’ve backed him and I still think there is a good LB in him. He’ll get back to his best/reach his potential at some point in his career. However I don’t want it to be upto us to get that out of him, to either wait for him to build his confidence up and also have an injury free period. When he isn’t good he’s anonymous. i will also say though I think he has been scapegoated heavily for the goal today (on Twitter). I think that goal was coming as soon as the first header was won for any team in the world / any defender in Emerson’s position.

This is quite interesting, you’re right. Werner has played his whole top flight career in a two up top with Poulsen, essentially. Poulsen in some respects shares Tammy’s unique qualities, in that he’s tall and strong but also very mobile, pacy and hard working. From what I’ve seem/know it seems Poulsen can link up more naturally than Tammy but is less of a goalscorer. Tammy is naturally more of a goalscorer but the link up is something he has worked on/still working on. In either case I think both work hard on improving the deficiencies in their game. Anyway, just saying this as if Werner came in, it could well be worth considering him and Tammy up front together.

Enjoying life at Inter. I am rooting for him and Conte this season.

I disagree he is/was more naturally talented than Tammy. Similar records at youth level, but I was usually underwhelmed by Solanke at youth level. Tended to not be involved in play but pop up with a penalty or a short range goal. Tammy since the moment he made is U21s debut showed his characteristic work rate and tenacity, and played out wide plus through the middle - testament to his all round game.

https://twitter.com/premiersportstv/status/1185892207980634112?s=21 Boga doing Boga things vs Conte

Reason I said that is the official Chelsea twitter account after the game made a tweet insinuating it had been decided that James officially has two assists: But since then different statistical sources all say different things. One for the ‘dubious assists panel’? 😂 Yeah with the RJ for captain thing, to be clear I’m not saying he should get it now of course. But if he has a good season, aka ends this season as the undisputed first XI RB, he would really be someone I heavily consider for reasons I said in first post. I really hope it doesn’t come across too much like I just saw him play that Grimsby game and thought ‘he’s my captain now’ I thought for a while rather than Rudi/Jorgi it maybe could be a youth player, and James is best candidate for that out of our players coming through. Another thing/reason I’m for this is all fans like RJ..this is rare 😂 Even with some of our best young players, or senior players, there’s still a minority, sometimes sizable portion of fans that maybe don’t rate them. Mount, RLC, Jorginho, Abraham, everyone. James doesn’t have that. Maybe he will over course of season, but even the most skeptical of youth fans buy into him right now. He had a similar effect at Wigan.

I’m trying to be conscious of not putting too much expectation on this guy but at the same time I can’t help but be excited by him. He can pass, cross, shoot, he’s strong, he can defend, he can beat a man, the strength and aggression, the mentality.. in fact, if this season goes well for him, I would want him to be captain. May seem crazy but the way I see it, he is (in my opinion) already one of our more talented and complete players, he has extensive previous leadership history (captaining youth sides and even Wigan) and it would kind of symbolise Frank and Jodie’s new era of the academy. Feels right. for similar reasons I also thought about the possibility of Mount getting it, but James just has more likelihood of making position his own in short and long term (no slight on Mount). And also..it seems he officially is credited with two assists tonight.🔥

I agree I was harsh on those chances he made in their description. They were v good chances he made. I still standby my overall point that, in essence, it was just an average game at best. For reference (to show it’s not just Alonso I’m singling out but also because he had a similar game yet no one would describe his game as good). Azpilicueta also made two (even three, can’t remember) good chances and scored a marginally offside goal. Still for the amount of times both full backs had the ball, in space, it wasn’t good enough. I think we’re roughly on the same page though. I also get you rate performances kind of differently to me (I may be wrong but it seems key moments such as a goal/assist/good chance can make/break how you rate a performance, for me it’s very much everything over 90 min).

He created two decent chances at the end, as did Azpilicueta over the course of a match. It wasn’t really a good performance, barely average really. Lost his man for second goal + lost an easy bouncing ball in run up to free kick for second goal, did little defensively with Tomori covering him, needless yellow. Not really much to gas about..for the amount of times he and Azpi had the ball in space they should be doing much better.

good work from the man

I’ve always been a fan of Tammy and thought he could do a job for any top team as a squad player - but watching him I think he has some potential to be a starting striker for a top 6 team..I am not sure if he’ll reach that potential but it is worth starting him this season to further gauge him. Either way we should probably buy a new striker next summer, but the type of striker we bring in could depend on how Tammy does. I’ve always rated his ability to get goals in any way possible (Bats has a bit of this as well, opportunistic, poacher like qualities), how hard working and tenacious he is and that he is actually quite decent at hold up play already, hence I always thought he’d be a great asset to any PL squad, even top teams. However he’s developed other parts of his game since Bristol City, which seems time ago now. For instance, I’d always been wary that, for a striker, his shooting technique from anything over 15-20 yards was quite poor unusually. Wasn’t strong at laces or curlers. It seems he’s developed that part to his game, the goals he has scored against Norwich are soooo much more varied than the Bristol City goals, that shot against United that hit the post. Even Villa he scored some nice goals that I just don’t think he’d have scored at Bristol or Swansea. He’s not great a always striking ball cleanly but that rate of development is encouraging. He is also turning into a unique striker who is not only capable of holding ball up, is 6”5 but can also run in behind and can be a threat running at defences. I am very interested to see how he develops.

It is early times but yes it was such a random loan. Logically, why would they play him. They have great depth in DM and CB. It feels like, sometimes, both English teams and fans think they can send any young player, no matter how inexperienced, to a Bundesliga club that isn’t Munich/Dortmund and they’ll be automatically due for a great loan (Oxford, Smith Rowe). A bit of arrogance and naivety about it. Mount, Abraham built up from low levels to get to first team now, I am not sure why they gave this aggressive loan to Ampadu when he just needs to play. A Championship loan would be perfect, give him a 40 game + season to work with.

He created a good number of chances, Christensen’s was one of the best of the match.

Although he is 25 it is quite unusual that he has only made 127 appearances at club level, all competitions - only 79 league appearances!

Two quality goals today

I made a comment midway through second half of last season that Emerson would be so much better if he developed a bit of confidence, aggression and proactiveness to his game - and how Andy Robertson does that really well. Tbh I thought it would come soon enough with being more comfortable as he got more games under Sarri but it never did..under Lampard now it seems to have come and he looks so improved. In attack and defence. In fact perhaps his defence is the most impressive improvement. Only two games but looking good. I also agree that in last two games he has been good everywhere other than final ball..but it also shows that to be a strong full back it’s not just the crossing..eg with Azpi and Alonso their poor crossing wasn’t the only thing hindering them. With Emerson he’s still able to support the attack quickly, break lines and interchange play quickly. And he plays out from back well. Maybe/hopefully the final ball comes. Still, in last two games he has hit crossbar, tested ‘keeper (against United), created the Pulisic offside goal and I believe scored his third pen in a shootout for us now, while injured, good effort.

I have heard Nuno Tavares at Benfica is one to watch.

Not really sure about this. Going to the Championship I think would’ve been a better bet. He needs to just play at this point in his career - in fact I think he should’ve gone on loan even if just for 6 months last January to get him the ‘kickstart’ he needs appearance wise in senior football. I just do not see how he can ever get significant gametime in midfield or CB with the competition RB Leipzig have there. Why would a CL level club play him over their talent? And if fans/the club think he is good enough as he’s that good a talent..well he should have stayed here if that was the case. I hope he proves me wrong and someone like Christensen did literally go from academy player to Mochengladbach starter so it is possible but I see this going similar to Smith Rowe or Oxford getting Bundesliga loans when it’s obvious they’re not going to get the gametime they need.

Considering we’ve invested in Zappacosta, Emerson and Marcos Alonso in last four years from Serie A it’s hardly unrealistic the club would go after Aina.

Interestingly only linked with Moses but not Alonso. After his first season there were of course those heavy links with Sandro but not really any strong links for first choice RWBs.

He’d definitely work in Liverpool’s system, and he’d probably be used at RB for City as well, though in aware Pep originally used him in midfield. At Barce he would definitely start at RB over what they have. He still has a good record for Germany and mainly has played RB for them more than anywhere else.

He is listed as 5”11 which is probs accurate..that pic looks like he could be 5”10 but can’t see what their feet are going and Luiz’s hair can exaggerate things.

I don’t think James is slow at all but not lightning quick, similar to TAA although James seems better at carrying the ball.