Sideshow Luiz

Probably the wrong time for Courtois to pull his International-break "I love Madrid" talk.

I'd be really excited if we could get him.

That's always been the concern, but he's managed to stay healthy this year.

Rather go for Wilshire. I think he's been really good this season.

People came on here to moan and turn something in to a shit-show?

He's being so much more direct these days. His worst quality was always putting his foot on the ball and bringing the attack to a stand still.

Fair. It was more of a "don't get your hopes up for Fred" type of a post. Fred-lite, we can do.

Fred is going to City, if the reports have any truth.

This is part of his development, he's having a poor spell at the moment. If you want to be one of the first names on the team sheet for a club like Chelsea, you have to keep your focus for 9 months, sometimes 3 matches per week.

Going to Real Madrid isn't going to solve that problem.

Now that there has been some time for reflection: Which was the worse performance, this or a few years back against PSG when they dominated us with 10 men?

That's because we're better than them at everything.

Sampaoli. If he was in the running when we hired Conte, why is his name not coming up?

That's because he just has to come up with a plan with what he's got. Wish someone was of more quality? Tough, work around it.

That low fee would also suggest that the wages are astronomical (I don't actually know). As the selling club, it's easy to take a hit on the "transfer fee" if you're just selling it to yourself.

Should have been last summer instead of Zappacosta. Though, if he comes in and Moses is out, that's a big upgrade over 2 seasons.

You don't remember that? It's one of the things that I'll always remember about him. So, whenever the "Willian is shit, sell ASAP" threads come out, I think, "Yeah, we could do better, but I like him, so I'm okay for him to stay". This happened at the Bridge 2 years ago when we beat Spurs to mathematically eliminate them from the race (this was in the first half IIRC, not sure what the score was at the time). The caption in the tweet is wrong though. He was showing it to the Tottenham supporters when they were giving him some stick. Even better.

I'd imagine so. I think this is part of a young player's experience. How to keep focused for an entire campaign. Especially in a role like his.

Rough week for him.

That's still fairly sparse considering that he was our 2x player of the year. Though, I have to admit, I thought it was even less than that.

I didn't think at the time that he was being rotated here. It seemed like he was only playing bit parts in the League cup, or substitute appearance. I remember feeling at the time that Jose wanted to make an example of him. Can't find it anymore, but I read something similar with his time at Porto. Last person I'd accuse of being big headed is Mata.

Must win vs Little Man

I love how he's so quick and agile that he's able to take a nip for the ball, but still get right back in to position if he doesn't get it. I thought that quality was at its best on Tuesday night.

Haven't seen him play. but his name comes up on this article: https://statsbomb.com/2018/02/taking-em-on-digging-deeper-with-dribbles/ Digging deeper in to dribble statistics. He's 3rd on the list of Passes + shots after a dribble takes them in to the box. Take a guess at who 1 an 2 are. Well, #1 is so far ahead of the field, and probably not a surprise.