BlueLyon

No way is James playing on wing. Bit too slow for that but more importantly, it doesnt work tacticaly. Willian is worker and if James replaces him, we would lose pacy worker on right side who helps midfielders. Maybe he could work in three man midfield next to two pacy mids like Kante or as #10.

It doesnt help that both our strikers are penalty area masters but you can count their outside penalty area goals with fingers of one hand. Would be nice yes if we had someone who can pop a rocket now and then.

Just dont look for them while driving. I heard its bad for health.

True, I think we should focus on defenders first. But Hazard aside, our attacking mids are plain average in attack. Willian lacks end product, Oscar is inconsistent as fuck, Pedro is poor too. Moses, Kenedy, RLC, Cuadrado...lots of names, but no one in proper form. Would make big statement if we signed James. But right now, I think CB, fullback and perhaps even another energetic mid are more important than marquee signing because we need to balance our side. If we sign CB and then James instead of fullback/b2b mid, he will need to have damn great season on level of 2015 Hazard to cover for our poor defense. And I dont think James is that kind of player. And I question his motivation once he moves from his dream club Real to one without CL and incomplete squad.

Juve will probably play Pjanic/Marchisio-Khedira-Matuidi And with all the injuries Khedira and Marchisio get these days, he will play alot. Hernanes, Sturaro and Lemina are not in first plan anyway. Meanwhile Emery wants double pivot at psg and I think Verratti-Krychowiak will own that big part of season with Motta and Rabiot coming of bench.

Either next week will be most epic or most dissapointing in long time.

If Aina is good enough he will eventually start games. The problem is not with bringing another fullback here, but rather the trust we have in Aina. If Conte believes in Aina, he will give him chances. If he doesnt believe, it wont matter if we have 1 or 10 fullbacks because in such case even Willian, Zouma etc will play ahead of Ain as auxillary players. but I think Conte will give Aina chance either way. So if RR comes, it wont stall the progress. On other hand, if Aina wont be good enough, he wont be good enough. No point in playing him in first if he wont deliver.

Reports say he is close to Juve and the only problem is price. Juve doesnt want to pay 40m. Looks like we missed on another target.. Kellz beat me to it

Happens all the time. You go to toilet and germans score 7 goals. Yeah the game was fun but roma are such bottlers haha.

Anyone saw the roma porto game tonight? De Rossi got red card, Emerson came in to fill the void and got red card 6 minutes later. Just

Would be realy interesting though, since we have Conte.

Well Real bought Danilo for 30m last summer despite they already had Carvajal. Not saying that rumour is true tho...

Thiago Maia, 19 years old saviour from brazil. Then the dissapointment when he gets loan to vitesse in january because he is not ready to be anywhere near PL. Why not go for proven players instead. Agree with rest of the post.

Well thats exactly what I want to see first. Bats did well enough to get game or two as starter next to Diego. After those two full games it will be first step to evaluate him. Then we see what happens in half year, year etc.

Fabregas is far cry from perfect signing. His immobility and lack of effectivness in decisive games forced him out of Barca team. There is a reason why Barca decided to sell Cesc and buy Rakitic, despite the later doesnt have same quality. But he has proper mentality and performs his level of quality consistently. Cesc on other hand shows unbelievable skill in certain games, but then he is invisible in key ones. I see James similar right now. But he has age on his side. Obviously James will say he wants to fight for the place but it looks its second year when he will spend lot of time on bench. I see him as dude who is example of galactico. He made his way to real madrid and thats his greatest achievement. Doesnt want to leave RM for chelsea, because that would be step down even if he could play every week. I saw him many times but last year he was realy poor in decisions and got benched fairly. Top players play at best clubs or they play for smaller clubs waiting to be discovered. Pedro, Alexis, Ozil, Fabregas kind of players wont win you the Champions league unless they have perfect squad. Either they are not mature yet or sth, they simply dont deliver in biggest games. We never had fancy names ala Messi, Kaka, Zidane pre Sheva, but Drogba, Lamps and rest had wonderful mentality and professionalism, and despite James having twice talent Lampard ever had, I would not swap him. We should look for such players who have the grit and desire to get us back on top.

I do and there is a reason why he or Isco dont play in first 11. Flicks and tricks get you to one point. Efficiency and intelligence is something else. The only reason I would be happy with his buy is so that Eden has someone to play with. But speed of our midfield and defensive balance would get downgraded.

He doesnt realy fit in system, he has poor attitude but yeah lets buy him because he will show few tricks every game. Unless Conte knows exactly where James would play here, we should stay away.

If he does well (hopefully) it will be fine, but if not, you can already see the people get dissapointed, because the expectations and excitement are getting too high right now. Lets see the situation in january. If he keeps playing well, then only then I will get more excited. I mean, he was good in ligue 1 and has had great start to PL, but so did Oscar or Pedro. I would wait few months before getting all crazy about Bats. People get their expectations too high and then they can never be satisfied, just look at Costa thread. I hope Michy doesnt have few bad games because then people will start saying he is overrated lol. Give Bats time and if he has great season or even half of it, the hype should start. But after two games? Nah.

Im hoping this hype train stops soon because if Bats hits bad run, this thread will turn into Oscars. Apart from high price, little was expected from Bats. Good player, but lot to prove. I saw, Bats was influental in both games realy promising, but the thread looks like he is the second coming of Messi and the rants will be endless if he doesnt perform like that.

He scores goals. In this case got us 6 points out of 6. Yet some people find time to shit on him. Sure he is not at best, but not a single player in our squad isnt at their best. He is here his 3rd season and apart from injury period last year, he scored regulary and performed at least ok. Im still waiting for his 'lose shit and get banned for half year'. Meanwhile his scoring is more than just luck, I would think after all the good seasons he had. Costa scores goals. And as long he scores them, Im happy. He is who he is. If he likes to provoke as long he is not in opposing team, fine. If he gets suspended, we have Bats. If not, his fight adds spirit to our team. He doesnt have great linkup. So? Hazard doesnt score 50 per season. Ronaldo sucks in every final. Suarez needs 3 chances to score one. Ibra goes missing in many CL games. Etc etc. Costa has been decent at ball control for long time. He was also scoring alot when not injured or recovering. But yeah people expect him to magicaly dribble past 10 players or sth. Days of Drogba are over and currently there is no better striker on market than Diego. Or would some of you lot want a player who "is good overall" but wont score to save their life? Damn Costa with his personality might be problem, but is one of few who actualy gives a shit in our team. People been saying this for a while now. Whole summer. Sell Costa. Blah blah. Now two games in season, two winning goals that saved our asses from distaster of a start. Mind he is playing with Pedro and Oscar, Matic, Iva and other lot who cant pass a fucking ball. And then you expect Costa to perform brilliant over 90min. I would just like people start appreciating our players and more importantly supporting them. Rant over.

I realy hope he gets back, but he looks so slow these days and even less mobile than Cesc. Whatever happened to him, he lost his physical and defending atributes. I would give him another season and see what happens.

Yeah he needs to be benched. All the profesionalism he has, all the trophies he helped us win, his performances are poor these days and thats it. Been average for over a year and today game shown nothing else. And I could somehow see past his bad defending, as long he would not stop the team. But the whole right side is dragged down because of his poor passing and crossing. IMO the only thing he brings is height and experience. I would not go head in the wall, but if there is quality full back available, pay the damn money.

All the talk from Emery and Verratti about hoping Matuidi will stay looks like the player is seriously consisering leaving. If there is chance we should get him and play him next to Kante. That should bring enough pace to midifeld and that would compliment the lack of Cesc's pace.