Chelsea Legend 11

If Lukaku scores 20 goals it will more than make up for the amount of times he loses the ball. Lets face it, its rare an out and out striker is heavily involved in the build up play. A strikers main objective is to finish any move created, he should get the last touch. Only time we will rely on him to be involved in a move is if we play more direct in which case he will have to hold up the ball. With a two striker system I'm not bothered with Lukaku as the out and out 9. And to be quite frank about it, what was lacking here last season is the passion for the badge. We need to be welcoming people who are passionate about Chelsea...

I've wanted him like forever ago. He's not the fastest player on the pitch which is why he hasn't been linked with bigger clubs but his servicing, set piece delivery and his aerial ability make him a tantalizing piece! Hasn't had the best of seasons in recently but still an upgrade to what we have.

I'm just hoping we give this dude time to build his philosophy and instill Chelsea with an identity. This is the time to do it! He WILL bring through the youth(vital given the transfer market) He WILL have us playing beautiful football, and he will return Chelsea to the summit... given time. I just hope Roman understands Rome wasn't built in one day(pun intended)

Pretty sure the wage package convinced him and its done the same for Koulibaly, he's not the problem here its that low life Di Laurentiis.

You should spend some time and look down Tancredi's time line... Its comedic gold the amount of things he claims to be in the know of and ends up with egg on his face. He is the worst blogger out there(I refuse to call him a journalist)

For those that would love to have Di Laurentiis as an owner.

Moses has plenty technique. The year before we acquired him he led the premier league in successful take ons. He's a good squad guy and he's homegrown too.

Dude stop embarrassing yourself. Height and weight in football does not apply in the same fashion as it does in boxing... Your 'analogy' makes zero sense. I don't give a rats ass about you as a footballer and to mention your ability as part of an argument when we're comparing Kante and Matic is so ridiculous. Firstly no one knows what you look like and secondly no one has ever seen you play. I can easily say I'm 5'2 and 100lbs and that I find it easier to play against big strong players because I can dribble past them much easier. Whether or not that is true is neither here nor there. And if you go back and look at what I quoted you will see exactly why I'm talking about Kante and not boxing or my football ability.

The entire post match interview.

ya this needs to end... I found your point about boxing and football amusing because it made ZERO sense. So because boxers have weight classes are you advocating the same should apply to football? Has it ever dawned on you that the reason you lost the ball countless times has more to do with the fact that the player is better than you? Fellaini is 6'6 and an awful midfielder. So bad that he's most commonly used as a target man in the 18 yd box. I think what is traditionally known as power is changing in this league. Power doesn't mean physically outmuscle your opponent, if it did Pulis' Stoke teams would be winning outright every year. Power in this era has more to do with fitness levels which is why Kante was so coveted and got nominated for player of the year. The thing that is separating the Prem from the other leagues is the speed with which it is played at. Kante has the ability to read plays and close in on an attacker faster than anyone I've seen in this league. It is this that makes him so successful especially when couple with his fearlessness. Matic is big but he hasn't been effective in reading plays the last year and a half he's been a step slow and constantly looks like a headless chicken. Many people here say 'its just one season, everyone had a bad one' well the same can be said for his good season. When we reacquired him in January 2014 he played like a beast right up until January 2015, perhaps that good form was also just a year? I hope he can bounce back but I'm glad we got Kante.

We're not using any width. Liverpool have taken away the middle of the pitch we need to play through the wingers

LOL. This is football brother. If you hit someone its called a foul and you are penalized... Can you tell me who the big beasting players were for Leicester? What about the defending European Champs Real Madrid? There is more than one way to skin a cat, even Conte's Juve team didn't have huge hulking midfielders... Well unless you consider 19yr old pogba huge and part time Khedira

http://www.goal.com/en-gb/news/24102/icc-2016/2016/07/27/25998842/hazard-i-want-to-be-the-best-player-in-england-again?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter I don't know why he keeps saying I didn't want to leave the team after this season. So if we win the league next year he's off?

I'm inclined to think any deal for Stones is contingent on Everton securing an adequate replacement. I think the price for Stones is high for this reason.

Ya. What's your point? You think ready to slot in defenders grow on trees?

His agent is at the Napoli grounds you have to believe something is happening

Their owner is a loser.

I guess we'll have to see. In the two games played under this new system we tried to different tactical deployments the first was a pivot with Matic and Mikel(they we dog tired)that looked awful. The second was with one dedicated anchor(matic) and a metronome(Oscar) it worked extremely well. Cesc is too important to the team not to play I would be shocked if Conte goes against what he's been preaching and leave a guy like Cesc on the bench. If you think 4-2-4 doesn't suit Cesc well it didn't really suit Pirlo and Vidal so he changed it. He's been banging on about finding a system that works for the players he has, not adapting his players to fit into his system. Its been his hallmark for years now. I believe we will ultimately have two functioning systems. One in which Cesc is in the team and playing as the main cog and the other where we have more legs in the midfield and utilize Matic, Cesc and Kante.

Nobody believes that...

I think you can play Cesc next to Kante, its pretty much the exact reason why we want to acquire him. Kante covers so much ground and offers nothing in the attack, what I envision is Cesc having a roaming role and the ability to go anywhere on the pitch with Kante and our back 4 restricted to pressing high to win the ball back with the occasional situation where one of our fullbacks look for overlapping opportunities. Remember we want to be a possession based team and in order to do that we need someone dictating the play from the middle. None of Matic, Mikel, Kante, Chalobah or even Oscar can effectively achieve this(Although there was a marked improvement from game 1 to game 2 when we went from Matic and Mikel to Matic and Oscar. Cesc will have to work harder but he can function in a midfield two.

Kante plays A LOT bigger than his actual size. He has a fearlessness about him that many people in that role don't possess

I don't know dude... If we are gonna play 4-2-4 our CB's are going to have to be adept in high pressing and also possess great speed. To me, Kalidou is close to a complete defender. He has pace, power, good technique, reads plays extremely well, knows when to press and wins the ball when he does go, in fact the only thing he can add to his game is goal scoring. As a pure defender its hard to think of better 25yr old then Kalidou. Now granted its only one season but the tools are there and you'd have to think Conte can get more out of him. If we come out of this window with Koulibaly as our first choice left sided CB our spine will be solid. Courtois, Koulibaly, Kante, Hazard, Costa. Who in the prem would have a better one?

Lets just leave it here, the potential of this move happening is greater than the potential of it not. Is that clear?

it doesn't prove anything if the odds of the opposite happening is more likely than what you have proposed. More often than not a player who declares he wants to leave gets the move.

I think you get my drift.... For every player who you can say "the player wanted to leave but the club refused..." I can find at least 2 players who did leave after declaring they don't want to be there.