BlueLyon

Thats because our level right now is Willian and not Hazard.

If he stays he will truly be one of Chelsea greats. When Terry, Lamps, Drogba refused offers left and right, Chelsea was undisputed top 4 club in the world. Regular semifinalist in CL and PL contenders. Chelsea has been way below top for a while now, despite two titles in last 5 years. We havent shown proper ambition in a long time. If Hazard who is world class still stays here, that will be a massive respect.

If anyone wanted to buy Kepa, we could easily demand at least 90m. He cost us 70m, add 7 year contract and good season in PL. But we shouldnt sell tbh, if we do it will become habit. We must should show the world that best players we have are not for sale. And Kepa did very well so far.

I didnt mean any small, weaker player. Cesc had bad balance and Jorginho has weak frame, which makes them a target for pressing. We have little Hazard, but he is doing great in PL. And we are discussing DM, all teams you mentioned above had strong or quick DM in Busquets, Casemiro, Fernandinho etc. Its not so much problem with AMs where you can put Modric, Silva who can be smaller. But even then, these guys are well balanced with superb hold up unlike Fabregas or to a lesser extent Jorginho who sometimes plays quite ferocious, but sometimes he gets completely bullied and doesnt even fight back.

Ndombele or Aouar Id take anyone in a second. Both realy realy good players with different qualities.

Yeah but does his contribution outweight the defensive liability? Sarri needed technical DM, it makes sense for not playing Kante there. But why we didnt go for someone like Rodri then who offers that + defensive stability? I honestly expected more from Jorginho, but he realy dissapointed. Dont realy care about assists or goals from him that much, but he definately isnt as influental in set up as I expected. Neither is he as reliable as I expected, its shoking how many times he gives the ball away in dangerous positions. Last but not least, he got easily read by most PL sides and then he cant do anything which results in entire team being shit. If you depend so much on one player and that player can be stopped so easily, whats next?

He isnt as great defensively as he was, but in prime he was excellent. His ball qualities are also unbelievable for a DM indeed. His composure is perhaps one of worlds best. Last season they almost went undefeated in laliga, thanks to him, Stegen, Umtiti and even Pique. He was never fast indeed, but his positioning was quality and he did cover alot of ground in games. The fact he doesnt cover alot of ground due to his speed or whatever was always a myth. But he is indeed in decline at 30. He is decently tall and strong, something Jorginho is not. Matic was slow too but I had nothing to say against him because he was still very strong, proper DM for a while. Its part you need as a DM. Either movement, speed, strenght etc. Jorginho has neither and if he was superb creator, it would make sense to have him, but he racks average numbers in PL. So what exactly Jorginho has to be considered special? He is average defender, average creator and his is nowhere near reliable as I thought. He makes stupid pass/loses possesion in dangerous area every game. He is good, not world class marker and passer but that alone shouldnt make him undisputed starter.

I despise the cunt but lets be honest he is fantastic DM.

Fabregas was pass master but we got completely destroyed in midfield number of times because he was slow, immobile and gobshit under pressure. I remember even prime Matic couldnt do it by himself in that Psg game. Hopefuly we never target such midfielders again. You need balanced midfielders that can offer something on both ends. Lamps, Ballack and Essien did their job in most cases. Players like Jorginho, Cesc they get bullied and destroyed every second game. You cant build a team to go far in europe with those.

Point I was trying to make was that he isnt any better in creativity than any other DM, while being way behind in defensive aspects. That why I believe his job could be done by number of players who would also give better defensive cover. Busquets is excellent in defense, Xavi, Iniesta were superb creators, Xabi Alonso was quality defensive CM with playmaking abilities. Jorginho is very average defender due to his pace and phyisical limitations. But he is decent marker, I give you that. However his offensive output isnt any better than your usual DM in other teams like Fernandinho, Neves, Rodri, Busquets etc. He doesnt have a great quality to make him stand out as some want him to picture. He can do it all, but nothing realy exceptional. The question is does he realy offer that much in set up that outweights how poor our defense looks with him in the centre. Hell even average team like cardiff can completely annihilate our defense when they go on counter. We literaly have no midfield because everyone stays up and isnt fast enough to recover, except Kante. Once we get proper fullbacks, I excpect that to improve, but its all about balance. I mentioned Hazard because some point out Jorginho doesnt have any assist because of our finishers. Sure we dont have great finishers, but if Jorginho was actual deep playmaker, he would set up way more chances and at least couple would end up in a goal. But with less than one chance per game, odds are smaller. You win game by creating chance after chance, you dont count that you will create that one chance every game and attackers will score it. The odds are small there. You have to create and create to bring odds in your favour. Thats why it makes no sense in saying Jorginho doesnt have assists because strikers dont finish chances. He doesnt have assists because he attempts a creative pass few times every game.

Its nice we caught a winning run recently. And CHO, RLC are definately the highlight of the season. Hopefuly both remain next season. But we are hardly stable mate. Almost lost to Cardiff, but last two games were ok. We will see how we play against united, pool, leicester and then see if we have evolved. If the performances will be positive, then its a sign for better things. But right now anything is in the air. Sarri could revert back to his Alonso, Barkley, Willin, we might get destroyed again etc.

Bollocks. Excuses that he doesnt have many assists because we cant finish should not be acceptable. Hazard has 12 assists so far with same players around. Why? In whole PL season, he made 15 clear scoring chances. Jorginho made only 4. Hazard made 86 accurate long balls as opposed to Jorginho at 79. For better comparison, Fernandinho made 77 accurate passes and created 4 big chances, but offers much higher defensive ability. Henderson made 86 accurate long balls. Neves made 180 accurate long balls. Moutinho just over 100. Then you have chances created per game; Jorginho at 0,7 Fernandinho 0.8 Neves 0.8 Silva as LCM 2,3 All thar wrapped up, Jorginho is the type of player that doesnt attempt many long balls, doesnt create many chances. He is basicaly Fernandinho without the workrate and physicality. This season, he didnt prove himself to be a deep playmaker at all, regardless who stands in our attack. We have a decent distributor in Jorginho who is raking average atracking stats of any top DM in the league minus their defensive and physical contribution. He is hyped to be Xabi regen, but he simply isnt. Xabi in same spot averaged over 2 chances per game from same spot. And he was much better defender. That is what you call deep lying playmaker. He did have better stats in serie a though, but thats because he had more time and space to pick a pass. Thats never going to happen in PL, regardless if we have CR and Messi in attack. Its also a myth that only Jorginho can do this job and being crucial to Sarri system. Any of above mentioned could do it, as well the likes of Saul, Rodri, Thiago, Paredes etc. The problem with Jorginho is that in PL he isnt particulary dangerous creator, nor a strong defensive midfielder which results in many games when he was invisible. Kovacic is another problem. Plays in advanced role like Silva or De Bruyne but averages only 0,8 chanced per game, while other two rack over 2. Our midfielders are painfuly passive and hopefuly RLC plays as much because he at least has contribution in final third.

If pigs could fly, would that be good or bad for humanity? On one side you could travel real quick, but on the other hand, they would be much harder to catch.

RLC was bullying Rice entire night. He is realy becoming a complete package of strenght, balance, technique with a nice turn of pace. CHO was electrifying but one of his less influental performances so far. Gave the ball away a couple of times, but thats expected from a young player. He offers width, pace and plays quite unpredictable, which outweights his errors. Jorginho and Higuain had few realy terrible passes too that gave whu chance to counter attack.

Yahoooya

Very nice first half

How was this not a pen? Arnautovic went full body check without any intention to get the ball.

Instead of playing his ideal creative DM, he opted to stick with Fernandinho due to his tenacity, work rate, defensive ability etc. Basicaly in another reality, he could play Kante in that position. Meanwhile Sarri wanted at all cost Jorginho type DM and stated Kante cant play there due to technical limitations. Thats the difference. In PL you need strong, dynamic DM. Pep realised that and adjusted to it. Sarri didnt and now we play with Jorginho who gets overrun on number of times. Fernandinho is getting old thats why he is going to be replaced soon. But if he was younger, he would be Pep's key player for quite a while.

I agree with this. Maybe Sarri can figure it out. However we wont give him as much funds to build his team and Sarri definately has way bigger issues than just figuring demands of PL. Rotation, subs, playing youth are also something he has to figure out. Id compare us with Klopp pool that looked awful at the start, but had glimpses, just like us. The difference again is that Pool absolutely nailed number of perfect transfers. Salah, Dijk, Robertson,...and integration of TAA. Meanwhile we are about to lose Hazard and board making average deals for years now. Its going to be hard either way.

Pep wanted to bring creative DM and it was said Fernandinho wont have key role in his team due to his style. He always wanted to bring someone technical that can pass long balls and control play. He was rumoured with bunch of players from Jorginho, Rodri, Neves etc. But due to circumstances he was sort of forced to change his idea of DM because Fernandinho work rate was irreplacable (evident in many games city played without him), Pep realised how important he is for his team and because Pep ideal DM target move didnt materialize (Jorginho). Pep always wanted technical, intelligent DM ala Busquets in his system. Fernandinho, while very allround and better than expected was always rumoured to be replaced. But Pep was partly forced to play him because he didnt have anyone else available for that role and in the mean time he realized that such player is simply crucial in PL. He adjusted his system with PL demands and he created a machine. As for fullbacks, I completely agree and even we need to do the same. We need faster, more dynamic set to create width and participate in build up. However when it comes to midfield options, Sarri had more options to make us more suited to PL, yet he wanted exactly the same thing as he did in napoli. As if Jorginho was the only player with required skill set. He wasnt. Pep didnt bring anyone from barca in bayern, nor did he bring anyone from bayern to city. He build new team with players that suit his style, but also PL.

Yeah but current state of this club, we will do the post RVP Arsenal rather than post Suarez Pool. Everything is pointing in that direction. I know we will move on from Hazard, eventualy it will be done, but honestly I think right now we dont have any sort of quality to build a post Hazard team. There is bigger chance we will be midtable team for couple years than top3 team, nevermind winning the title. We are increasingly showing less and less ambition, throwing less money, having lesser quality squad every year and our board doesnt have skill or capacity to build a young fresh team. People say we will replace Costa, but we never did. Hazard money will be invested in Pulisic and some sort of deal for Kovacic as soon we can buy again. Thats not going to get us anywhere near top and will never replace what Hazard offered to this team. It will have same effect like replacing Costa with Morata. Id have no problem selling Hazard if we went after the likes of Jovic, Pepe,...but the club will settle for way more inferior players, I dont buy that crap we will be better team after Hazard leaves.

Yeah but even Guardiola adapted his style to fit the PL with Fernandinho for example who is more of destroyer than creator, something Guardiola always demanded from his DM. Because thats what you have to have in PL. We play with Jorginho and our DM/CBs look like joke when we are countered. My point was that Sarri develops a team that will fit his style but also PL. Jorginho for example simply isnt suited best for that DM role because you have to be physical. We should have went for someone ala Rodri who is also good in defence and good distributor. But Sarri wanted to do the exact same thing with Jorginho in PL that he did in Serie A. He didnt consider the fact this is way more phyisical and faster league. Pep honestly dodged a bullet here.

Sarris biggest mistake was trying to change players to fit his Sarriball instead of adapting his Sarriball to fit the players at his disposal.

Arsenal drops points, Chelsea drops points. You know the drill... Better not fuck up this one for once.

This guy looked like the midfield version of Hazard in dribbling and ball control back at Inter or Real, but he looks worse than Oscar here. Side pass merchant and doesnt even try to take on players. Dont know if he is instructed by coach or cant do it in PL, but he turned to be a massive dissapointment for me.