BlueLyon

Lemar would be great. He can play literally anywhere in midfield. Would be a top replacement for Oscar. And I realy like his play style.

Brilliant game so far...great to watch. We are realy clicking.

Well we need to loan Bats in january. If he cant get a game today, no point in having him. Let him get minutes at another PL club on loan and maybe he gets back in team next year. Anyway Im pumped for this game, Come on Chels!

If Tibo was ever to leave, we better get replacement before that. As long we get GK ala Donnaruma or Oblak, I wouldnt mind who is better; Tibo or those two. Just like no one minded we didnt have Buffon because we had Cech, althrough Buffon was better at one point. Thing is we would still have top GK. Now if we sell Tibo and settle for Hart, that would be problem.

Kroos to leave RM...I thought its christmas, not fools day.

He scored winning pen against juve in supercopa. Had decent game too.

Chelsea have by far the best schedule for festive period. By far. No other team gets that much rest in between games, so hopefuly we take full advantage of that. Bournemouth are no pushovers, they play well. And I think we will miss Kante more than Costa. There is no one as quick, energetic and dynamic as Kante. Hopefuly Cesc and Matic get the job done or maybe we will even see Nate who is still quicker than both. Bats needs to take his chance, but we will also need the best of Eden.

Dont get me wrong, he is good talent, I love watching Monaco, but right now we need to fix other areas first and then seek for backups in DM area. Anyway I hear he would only arrive in summer anyway so its likely he wont be helping us win title.

I meant that Bakayoko passing is likely not gonna get him spot in top team. He is Mikel-level at that and regardless if he is brilliant tackler, your DM needs to be sound technicaly. Both Essien and Yaya were that, but Bakayoko is not (because some pointed out that he is similar). So if he is only going to be back up, why not just have Matic for back up and buy a top midfielder to play next to Kante? (not in january but in summer obv.)

Been great in some games, but in the end it didnt turn up well. That money is far too good to refuse. Thanks for the memories and goodbye.

Well maybe it could work. But his passing is realy average. Essien and Yaya both had brilliant passing abilities and great tecnhique. Essien not to that extent as Yaya, but he was still very composed passer. Bakayoko even tho he is young, his passing is worse than Matic. Apart from that he is top player and well, if Conte wants him then so be it.

You recon 3:5:2 would work in PL tho? Without wingers (not that in 3:4:3 we have natural wingers, but still), it would be quite difficult against some teams. If we intend to play 3:5:2, we would definately need two absolutely brilliant attacking wingbacks to add width. Moses and Alonso are good in current setup, because they get supported by Eden and Pedro, but if they were alone, I think quality of our attack from wings would drop.

Im not sure why people talk of his weight. If anyone ever saw him play, you will see he has great balance like Eden. That and ability to control the ball along with his agressive style of play gives you great midfielder. Sure he wont win headers, but when the ball is on ground, its harder to take the ball away from him than from Matic. Oscar was always weaker in duels. Consistency was one thing, but his balance was much worse. He got bullied by most players and couldnt glide through defensive lines. I believe if we get Verratti, maybe not right from the start, but in two years he will be absolutely world class midfielder.

I know and perhaps long term he will end up one of their best players. Im just saying that if you pay 70m for someone, it doesnt mean you will get such good player who will give you great results. Football is 11 men sport and I rather bring someone that fits the squad and coach, than sign overrated player just because he is big name in football and people ''believe'' he can improve and win you games.

And? United paid 90m for Pogba. They are 13 points behind us. Signing quality players is one thing, signing overpriced marketing stars is another.

If everything was black and white, Leicester would demand 50m for Kante if they thought "well Higuain was 80m, Kante is surely worth half". There are crazy deals in football with fees that players are never worth in first place, but reach it because of club owners or marketing like Pogba, Bale, Higuain,...but you also have reasonable, sometimes very very cheap deals like Kante to Chelsea, Ozil to Real etc. Just because Higuain cost 80m, it doesnt mean Costa would cost 100m if he was to return to Atletico in summer. There are gentelman deals based on actual worth of players and for the sake of players wishes. Those who are paying 100m for Pogba, 70 for James are crazy. The only two fees of giant proportions worth of it are Ronaldo to real and Zidane to Real.

Maybe it has nothing to do with it, but Psg got Draxler for 35m. Now if you know Psg, Emery wanted to play Verratti as CAM with Matuidi-Krichowiak/Motta behind. That didnt work that well and even Verratti said he wants to play deeper. Like I said, it could be nothing but just maybe Psg signed Draxler to fit that CAM role. No idea where does that leave Verratti, because Emery wants to play with two strong powerful midfielders in pivot to keep defense in balance. Maybe, just maybe Verratti is actualy leaving, but could well return to Italy.

They were linked with Hamsik in summer but deal fell off. Not sure if Pjanic was replacement, but probably not. Funny tho, how juve is splashing the cash these days and they have worst team than one under Conte where they paid less than half of Higuain fee for Pirlo, Vidal, Pogba and Tevez. If Conte was given those funds, he would probably win CL at one point. Current Juve, I doubt.

Yeah thats true, but crosses are something I dont realy rate much. There are many factors even if the player has perfect crosses, it doesnt mean there will be many goals from them. Costa doesnt win many airballs anyway. Naturaly I would prefer left footed Lwb, but I would love to see Willian get a shot. We dont have many options anyway, and I can see Willian and Eden develop very nice partnership. For a winger, Willian aint that skilled, but for a wingback he would be perfect. If he can learn to defend and track like Moses, he can do it. He is quick and not easy to be pushed off the ball either. Marcos has peach of left foot and very good crossing, but most efficient actions are those where he interplays with Eden and midfield with quick passing. He is very good at that, just a tad slow sometimes. Willian is quicker and perhaps it could work, but surely he would need release the ball faster and not dribble and stop every attack like he does now.

He is italian. Nuff said.

Because they are greedy fucks. They wanted to replace him with De Gea back then but De Gea changed his mind. Now they see Tibo is getting better, they found new toy to play with. And Tibo might bite the bate, unfortunely. This reducement of Madrid ban could hurt us alot. First Tibo and maybe even Eden, who knows what will happen with those two if we win the league. Hopefuly they both stay.

Im very aware we need backup once Mikel leaves, but I dont see having Kante and Bakayoko on field the same time. Bakayoko offers very little more than Matic and its clear that at some point we will try to replace Matic with different player. In this case we would bring Bakayoko only to be either backup or Matic short term replacement until we get someone more allround (with better attacking threat, but still good defensive abilities; think prime Vidal). Sure atm there is no player of such quality available, but why go after Bakayoko? Unless he is backup or we will sell Matic in summer, I dont see need to have Bakayoko. Either Kante and allround mid with Bakayoko as backup and option for tough matches or Kante allround mid and Matic as backup or option for tough matches. Matic and Bakayoko at same time in squad even if one for first 11 and other for back up is pointless because both are the same type of player with Bakayoko slightly more athletic. Nevermind the fact that Bakayoko is young and needs time to play. Getting him for backup would be awful because it would stall his progress. And Kante-Bakayoko; regardless if Conte wants strong mid, those two will provide little to nothing in offense.

Very good player, but I dont realy see the need at the moment. Sure it would be good to have backup for Matic and Kante, but he is young and needs to play. Its pointless to bring him here unless he can get starting spot. That said, Kante is irreplacable, so it would be Matic. Kante-Bakayoko looks strong but lacks creativity. Like I said he is very good player, but we need creative mid, RW and perhaps LB before we go for backups in DM area where we already have two very capable players in Kante and Matic. We are also linked with Sidibe; where would he fit? He is also too good for being Moses backup

I wonder would it be a good shout to try him in left wing back role? He was always better on left side and his skills are somewhere between fullback and winger. He can run for ages (at least he could), he is super quick, he can hold on the ball, he is decent at tracking back. I would love to try it in cup games first and then maybe it works. The only con is see he is not exactly tactical guy. I doubt he would sit back if needed. Despite being coached by pragmatic Mourinho and now Conte, he still tries to overcomplicate things sometimes and go solo instead of cooperating. But if he could adopt, he would be probably brilliant. He doesnt have the quality for winger, but wingback, like Moses he could be perfect. He would link with Eden brilliantly and if he can work on defending which under Conte I believe he can, it would be damn amazing.

Very underrated player. He is the kind of signing that you dont expect much, but under Conte he could flourish. But he likes to go down in challenges, I like players who have some more balance to push through defensive line instead of looking for foul.