BlueLyon

This. Im starting to believe that for first time in quite a while, we are getting that powerful, efficient and winning type of football back. We were slowly losing it during end of old guard, but Conte managed to create new generation, tho it needs some reinforcements still. We dont play too beautiful (but we did play very nice for few months) and only reason for that is we have 8 points advantage and we will play every game till end in pragmatic way because Conte knows we dont have such dominant team we could just outplay every opponent 3:0 just yet. We play slowly, but we grind to final minutes. If we realy need to score a goal, you can see we step up in tempo and attack much better. Thats just Conte philosophy and personaly I love it. Some just dont see beauty in such football, some do. On side note, Cesc has to be one of the worst ball holding playmakers ever. His passing is out of this world yes, but the way he cant shield and control the ball in tight areas or when there is little bit of pressure, how anxiously he passes it away to defense or other player, instead of passing it forward or simply dribble through to safety. Veratti, Dahoud, Rabiot, Weigl, etc are miles ahead in this. Even some defenders have better skill at tricking rushing opponent and dribble to place where they aint pressed. Hell Azpi did that tonight in one case. Cesc just makes a mess every time when pressed and it ends up with either pass to defenders, or to nearest player who is not even in good position and let him get pressed by 3 opponents, just because Cesc cant handle it. Sure sometimes he makes brilliant pass, but that is far cry of what you want in playmaker. Cesc job today was to get the ball forward, but he chuckled every time, so Costa (who aint good at keeping the ball either, but at least he takes on defenders) and Eden had to get deep. I saw Weigl few games now, the kid needs to get some muscle, but other than that, he has everything to be next Xabi. Wonderful player for his age. Then I see Cesc, he was actualy impressing me past few games, but today again he went into hole hidding. Did anyone notice that situation, ball was in middle of pitch after WHU player didnt deliver it well, Cesc was very near it, if he just sprinted little he would catch it, but instead he jogged slowly towards it, while someone else who was further rushed towards it and just ran past Cesc. Situations like this, you have no place to chase CL with such players.

I guess you realy miss Torres days...

Van Dijk would be better option IMO.

Instead of showing he can lead the team in difficult time, all he does is whine and whine. And on difficult game in CL, I for one have absolutely zero desire to have such player next to me who will hit the exit as soon things get hard. All these players from Ozil to Alexis, James and Isco, they have plenty of talent no doubt, but zero character. Just dont get near them in summer.

If we lose the title, then we dont deserve it. And it will be black on white we are not good enough and we need reinforcements. The gap is quite big and we play City at home to even bolster it. If we bottle it, it will be our fault alone.

What about the fact that he is incredibly frustrating at link up? Yes he plays as striker and scores goals, but here, he would be winger. Barcelona sold him because frankly he was shit at linkup and one twos, despite he scored nice amount of goals. He is like a poor man Ronaldo and honestly I would not have Ronaldo in my team, much like Ibra, both excelent players but one man players, I prefer a team. And Alexis is the same, but not even that good. And while I think it would be good for us to have another clinical finisher, Alexis would either score the goal or fuck up the attack. He would be good addition, but there are plenty of players we should target before Alexis. Unless he would be our striker, but for that he aint realy the right profile of striker we need and we have Costa anyway.

I agree with you but those 100m rumours are ridiculous. He is nowhere near europe proven except for serie a where 37 year old Toni score 22 goals.

Costa is much better, but Bats in the very start of season wasnt bad at all for the time he got. But after few games, Conte stopped playing him at all and those 2min subs made it even worse. While Conte was amazing so far, his man management with Bats is terrible.

Im genuinely wondering why no one tried to play two such players in midfield (or maybe I dont remember it). Probably there is a reason managers prefer at least one creator in midfield. But both Kante and Radja are quite technical and maybe it could work if we deploy very direct and efficient counter attacking system. My prefered choice would be three man midfield with Kante, someone similar and playmaker. But then we lose wingers :/

This fucker is just amazing this season. Shame we have about 10% chance to get him because he loves italy...

Saints deserved it, but Ibra is just unplayable at times. On other hand, Pogba acting tough and all, but plays like 10m player not 100m one.

He misses games, but was present in majority of our most important games. We could almost always count on him. On other hand, Aguero is out of like half of key games gor City every season.

The second you mentioned Aguero...I stopped reading. You clearly dont get how football works I guess. Aguero on his day may be better than Costa, but he is either injured or banned half a season. Yeah a realy dependable striker right? And just because wr might have 100m, do you realy think City or Bayern would sell us their main striker? Anyway even so, neither Lewa or Aguero is worth 100m in first place. Get off that FM manager people. We play under Conte with a very pragmatic style of play. We will never be Monaco/Barca/City type of team to play possesion football and so. We play defense with good pressure and efficiency and we need reliable players for such football, which Costa is. Our striker priority is to be top goalscorer and Costa is that. Put him in Barca or Real and he will normaly get more chances to score and therefore even more goals. For all the shit Costa gets, there is only Suarez who I would consider better. And even he is on quite a decline this season. Talking of Auba or Lacazette or Lukaku, well you would be surprised how many attacks they fuck up too and miss sitters. If you go watch youtube highligts, doesnt make you expert on those players. But since it shows only highlights, yeah people start considering them miles better than Costa. Thing is if there were such strikers like Etoo, Drogba, Henry on market, I would understand people considering Costa sale, but they arent. Sure Costa is not world class player. But unless an actual undisputed better player comes available, not even 100m for Costa sale will make us a better team because atm there is no better striker to buy. And if you talk about overrall improvement of team, we have enough money to buy one or two top players without selling Costa.

He is just pissed that Griezmann is not coming here

At first I was certain for him to be sold (or at least not play in first 11) and instead get someone like Verratti, but since the later wont be available and if cesc keeps playing like this, we might just try to play 3 man midfield with Cesc Kante and another Kante type player next season.

2017 Chelsea fans support? Not impressive at all... Not pointing at you, but some shit you read on this forum even after team wins 3:1 is a disgrace.

For all the quality young Spurs lads have, their mentality is equal to a potato.

Costa reaction was hilarious

Well they make their teams play well, but defence is as important as attack. You cant go all out attack and have zero energy after 65min. I would say they are geniuses in a way, but at their own fault for picking such tactics. Games are won, not played.

Fantastic game but Monaco is example how not to play a game... 70min and players cant run anymore...

Arsenal with a massive upset against sutton last night...can they do it again against Lincoln city? #banter

Haha I dont take it too hard, tbh I find the thread funny enough, just wanted to say you are wrong about that respect-making fun of relation when looking things in bigger picture IMO.

So if three kids make fun of another kid, thats ok? What you said only works between people who know eachother greatly. If you joke about someone and that person doesnt see it, well its different, but still its not showing respect if I put a face of somene and compare it with potato. Making people laugh sure, but not showing respect. Lot of people joke about others for all the wrong reasons, and not just to make the world laugh.

He is promising, but his size can be a problem in PL. Not saying small players cant make it, but we already have Eden. Would be good if our RW had ability not only to dribble, but sometimes to push through defences like Bale or Robben do. Also Lemar created more chances at Monaco, so Silva is definately not the only one pulling strings. Even if he was sort of playmaker, you cant simply say he will replace Cesc. Having midfielder who can operate with ball and distribute it is crucial in today football. I would still prefer Lemar and by quite a big margin. Not saying he is better than Bernardo, but IMO he would fit here more. Bit stronger, heavy worker, can play anywhere and very direct. He can cross, pass or dribble, even score goals.

He will probably end up in Bvb for 10m... German media is usualy right.