BlueLyon

Why at his age? He is already considered as one of best GKs in world, not just young. But completely agree, he has age on his side and his potential is scary. But Im talking about his performances now and not in five years. That said, if you want to compare GKs at his age; Cech was better at that age. Buffon was better at that age. One could say Casillas was better at that age too. Today, Oblak is doing realy well for Atletico too for example. Then you have De Gea who is 2 years older, but is having second realy good season. Problem with Tibo is not quality, but consistency. Like kelz said, he can have awesome match and then concede stupid goal. Cant keep a clean sheet to save his life. And I dont even blame Tibo for anything, Im just saying he is not as good as people point out. He is regarded world class. He is in very same bucket as Hazard or Matic or Costa, despite being the youngest. If those can get blamed week in week out for bad performances, so does Courtois. He is not playing good enough and deserves to get some stick. And I dont think Tibo is world class yet, but some here certainly do. And they refuse to blame Tibo for some mistakes, while shitting on Hazard or shat on Costa when he was out of form week in week out. That said I have watched Cech for like decade and if Tibo gets anywhere close to him, Ill be more than happy.

Same can be said that De Gea would kept Cavani shot... Thing with Tibo is that he has awesome match like against Psg and then still concede stupid goal. Best gks would take that match to end as draw. He is good GK but right now De gea and Neuer are better. Buffon too. Historicaly Cech, prime Casillas, Kahn etc are all doctors to Tibo. That said Tibo is realy young and will get among best no doubt. But atm he is just not a man that can win you game.

Quite overrated. Even at his best he still is big step behind best gks in terms of influence in matches.

Im not even saying Conte would not succeed because its harder league. Imo he wouldnt succeed because of his training methods. It worked for him to play same players in italian league, but it wont work in england because they will get tired. Allegri, Ranieri, Ancelotti etc are all italians but IMO they could succeed in england. It has nothing to do with league or nationality. Its just Conte methods that IMO wont work here.

Would love to see Hiddink and Drogba in board roles next season.

Why Conte doesnt suit league? Because his training methods dont suit it. Italian league is one thing, english is other. The competition and rhytm are much more difficult than in italy. He burns players and if our players couldnt cope under Mou, how will they survive under Conte? Conte is known for playing same players and doesnt like to rotate much which could be problem. He didnt even pick Insigne for italy despite he is on fire this season. Hazard would be burnt out soon under Conte. And our players warriors? Who? Who is willing to run whole game relentlessly regardless of result and fight for every ball? Willian, Azpi. Who else? Maybe Costa. The rest of the team is too slow or doesnt work hard enough to follow Conte methods and succeed. Not to mention Conte had great defense at juve. His team is oriented on balanced and organized defence. He would have lot of work with buying top defenders and midfielders and then creating a team out of it. He had bunch of italians and passionate players like Vidal at juve, which created special bond and mentality there. It would be alot harder to do that here because few players actualy showed they would 'die' for club. And without such players Conte wont get far. Not to mention we will be back to square one with defensive tactics once again. I like strong defense, but with balanced play. Im sure if we pick Conte, we will watch more and more bunkers in every bigger game. And with all attacking players that we have, why not go for something more? Hiddink is doing fine job for example, IMO conte is just too defensive. Plus we dont have single italian here. Conte is known to be great mental leader and having so many italians back at juve surely helped create strong bonds and relationships. Never underestimate team players. Here I feel he would be somewhat out of place unless he brings couple of players he worked with before like Pogba, Vidal, Chielini, Verratti etc but good luck with getting any of those.

There was a through pass to Hazard resulting Eden and another Norwich defender (cant remember who) ran after the ball and Hazard looked quite slow despite sprinting, leading to Norwich defender reaching the ball first. I know Eden of last season would definately reach that ball quicker. Maybe he didnt run full speed, but if he did he would be one on one with GK... He definately looks less agile and turns around slower than last year. and IMO that is reason for his worse dribbling. His mentality and fitness are nowhere near top. But Im sure he will come back though.

Well he did play 3:5:2 and as soon Alegri took over, he restructured team to 4:3:1:2 with same players (bar Evra, but that makes you question, why didnt Conte buy natural LB in three years) and reached CL final. Probably (hopefuly) Conte wont play 3:5:2 here, but I dont think he suits this team or league. He demands full loyalty and trust and has hard training. We dont have team of warriors and fighters anymore, not sure how current bunch of players would suit Conte, because no one can make for example Cesc a heavy worker,

Is it just me or did he actualy lost A LOT of pace?

Surprised our best and key player is performing so bad for this long now. Its not impossible that reason for our poor form is terrible form of Matic, afterall he was key player to our midfield and we all know how important role that is.

Should Conte arrive, we will definately buy a combatative hard working CM/B2B, something the club needs either way with or without Conte. He is perhaps too similar to Mou, he realy demands very hard training from players and Im not a fan of his aged 3:5:2 formation. Appart from that, we will see...

True but I dont see Cesc to be here for longer time. He is not dynamic enough for either CM or CAM.

Yeah thats more due to fact that we dont have any other good leaders as alternatives not that Cesc is actualy a good leader. Which is quite sad realy after seeing we had Terry, Lamps, Ballack, Cech at same time. Just because Cesc can talk on pitch and organize should that make him leader? To be leader you need to put club before yourself. Sacrifice yourself. Have history with club. Every time when we are losing and then I see Cesc just wank around the pitch like he couldnt give two fucks says enough that he is not a leader and even less a captain. Not that others are more suitable either but Cesc is no captain to start with. Would rather see Cahill or Azpi right now.

I realy like what Lahm said recently about clubs and players. He said something along the lines that all great clubs need core of homegrown players who grew within the club and present the meaning of club on and off the pitch. These players are the simbols of club and their success. They identify themselfs with the club. When they play they play not only to win for themselves but also for the club. Do we have any such players after Terry leaves? You cant just buy such player and he will suddenly become Chelsea through and through. There is no surprise teams like Barca, Bayern dominate europe. Or United couple years ago with Giggs and Neville and Scholes etc. Or us with Terry and Lamps and even Drogba. Our team is talented as never before yet I dont see us achieving some greatness in next couple years because we simply dont have great players. We have talented, skilled, maybe potentialy world class players but not great ones. Not after Terry leaves. I hear alot about no player is bigger than club. But truth is clubs achieve greatness because of great players. I started following Chelsea because they had so many players I realy liked and style of play that was based on speed and strenght. Back then I was just a kid when I saw first games of chelsea and if it wasnt for the players who played there like Terry or Zola I dont know if I became such fan. Maybe it would happen anyway like destiny or maybe it was just a coincidence that Terry and Lamps were playing for Chelsea in part of my childhood and I started following Chelsea because of that. Eventualy obviously the love for club grows and now I would support it no matter who plays and what the results are. But my point is you identify with players not club. And every club needs such players. To get results and bring more fans. Currently we have no such players and its real shame about that. No money in world can buy you Terry. He is Chelsea in the true meaning of the word.

40 votes for Cesc. Are people blind or just naive that he can succesfully lead us as captain?

Payet what a wonderful player he turned out to become.

That kid could become top player under Guardiola.

If we actualy bring Conte and he deploys 3 (5) man defence I will shoot something. That system is outdated as fuck. Most italian teams have switched back to 4 defenders (Napoli, Juve, Inter). Take a look at Italy or Netherlands NT who have (had) 3(5) defenders. Poor for a while now. Then look at juve under Conte in CL. Did nothing. Then Allegri takes over switches to 4 defenders and reaches CL. Only reason I dont want Conte or Sampaoli is because of their system of 5 defenders/ 3 defenders and two wingbacks. Also we only have one good CB. Then we would need two more (and even getting one good will be a difficult task, never mind two). Who would play wingbacks then? Willian and Azpi? Or we would need to buy two of those too. 3:5:2 is simply outdated. About Aurier; quality player and I wouldnt realy care about his character as long he plays well. But unless we switch Azpi to LB permamently, no point in getting him.

Thats exactly what we need to be right now, patient and have faith. Costa proved it, sure Eden can too. One thing is to expect miracles from Oscar who never actualy led us, but Eden did and sure he can lead us again. I get it that its hard to trust players in hard times, but irony when fans bash players as soon as they hit hard days while at same time bash board for not giving youngsters a chance and have some trust in players. Unless Eden decided to do a Balotelli and is not giving fuck for anything anymore (which is highly unlikely), then we should do everything to keep him. Because when the boy comes back to best he will be on fire. Not sure about you but I want him to wear chelsea shirt when he does that.

Or have some faith in Eden and keep him...its not like we dont have money, besides we already lack ball possesion players and we would sell one who is best at that in our team. The other scenario would be selling Hazard who would then perform better than half of our team combined and we would buy overpriced and overrated replacements. Sell Hazard for 80m and bring Stones for 60m for example would be the biggest bullshit in history of football.

With his CURRENT attitude he is on right path to follow Quaresma, Balotelli etc. He is not injured, he is super talented and the whole team is performing better than two months ago. Except for him. Either its some mental block and he just needs fresh start next season or he simply doesnt give two fucks anymore for whatever reason which would be odd. But seeing him play, you can see he has ability, but he doesnt realy care. Not to mention his physical condition. Last couple seasons he was realy quick and agile, this season he is alot slower. When dribbling he doesnt even take on players to beat them with skill and speed but rather passes to someone else. I realy like Eden, but he needs to pick up next season. Hopefuly we dont sell him because there are no replacements for inform Eden. And his comments about Psg and Real are getting absolutely ridiculous. All the talk he makes and if he was in super form ok, but right now he is far from it and should rather think on how to get back to best instead of what he will say in next interview.

We lost to Psg 3:1 two years ago aswell and turned around:D Also this season Porto ran us over on their stadium, but at SB we looked very very comfortable the whole match.

Just laughing at Pirlo comparissons...only thing two have in common is passing in open play. And even then, Pirlo could execute those passes under pressure, he could keep the ball under pressure. Cesc cant do either of that. Then we come to set pieces. Pirlo is good fk and corner taker. Cesc, for someone with his vision and passing, his corners and FKs are absolute shit. He had decent game tonight tho, but he will never have fighting spirit or influence that lets say Veratti has.

Dont mind the result we are still winning this tie. Thoughts: Oscar for Hazard was bad move. Baba is quite great on ball. Improve his defending and we could have our own Alaba. Courtois despite all the brilliant saves he makes, he just cant bring game to end always concedes goal. Either bad luck or just lacks that something extra. Cavani shot was pinpoint but from that angle Courtois should do better IMO.

When Mikel of all people scores equalizing away goal you just know you will end up winning champions league Come on boys!