robsblubot

Willian offers one thing, which is work rate, which helps defending and occasionally attacking as welll (with pressing). right now either his injury was worse than I thought or he’s just not running for the manager. He’s not helping at all.

Never said he was(the best defender). we are missing experience as controlling the game. Two things luiz actually has in abundance. Especially considering how young the squad is. every time zouma kicks the ball up field, it just goes back to the opposition and here they are again in our face. Imagine deploying luiz in the middle or as a third cb today in the second half? I can certainly imagine he’d be able to help out. I think we are overly nice to players who force their exit.

Kante yes, once fit. cho, despite his young age had a pretty decent work rate, but then there is the contract situation. Will he risk picking up an injury without a contract? RLC is a long shot given how serious it was. Not even sure he will be able to contribute this season. dont think this is an overreaction. This was the worst opposition we are going to face and at home.

Of course we should have kept luiz. That’s the obvious part even if I don’t rate luiz as a defender. Again, my point is that while rudiger or luiz would improve things, the defending is poor all around especially in attack and wings. Young players do not defend well. They are not even physical enough to win 50/50s consistently enough to help us withstand pressure.

The attack does not hold the football and does not win 50/50s. The wingers don’t defend well enough. The mid gets overwhelm and so does the defense. the fact we have no passer in the back line makes things worse as the ball goes right back to the opposition. Esp when Zouma kicks it up field. rudiger will not fix this.

Sorry but that’s naive. Once again check luiz’ stats for us. Not to mention his silverware. it’s fine to diss players who leave, esp the ones who force their exit, but he’d definitely improve this shit show of a back line. He’s just as physical as zouma, but twice the footballer, as in he can actually play football. And then there is experience, but I guess folks here are in denial regarding that. Just can’t see the silver lining of losing luiz without a proper replacement with the same level of experience especially for the back and especially considering how many youngsters are being used.

Nothing lampard does makes any sense to me, but will give him the benefit of he doubt given his experience and success. Though dont quite understand what he’s trying to implement. Is it direct style? Assume so, because he does not seem to value passing from the back. He tries high press but players can’t keep possession as he employs inexperienced players with a more direct style up front as well. Only 2 mids are good consistent passers. so the result is that we high press for a little while, manage to score (so far) and then concede for lack of possession. While the back line isn’t great, our inability to keep possession and being bullied by weak opposition will always be a problem to any back line. The pressure will be difficult to handle for long periods of time.

Can only Fix that if he can play.

A team full of youngsters would guarantee we’d be fighting for relegation. I think once rudiger and kante are fit and playing regularly, it won’t happen, but some folks here are dreaming.

Bullied again in the second half. It will happen with youngsters, even tammy, despite his height and good finishing, can’t keep the ball up. It’s just normal for young players to lose 50/50 against senior heavier players. Tomori looks like a very good footballer. Won’t discuss the other one.

Right and I will make that very popular point again. I think it is risky to play him without a contract. And that’s for 2 reasons: 1. Until Jan, he cannot sign with another club, so picking up an injury until then could be disastrous to his career regardless of any insurance. So, I’m not sure we can expect 100% from him until then. And after that, his head will be elsewhere. And as a reminder, he is coming from a serious injury. 2. Given a player in this situation, why should we develop him at such a young age and inconsistency, just to lose him before he will become the final product? Give minutes to someone else. in short, he must sign to play. I truly hope he does, even with the reported figures, but only then.

Except Naples in uefa, but Yeah matic rejoined Jan 14, so while David helped in a few games before, Jose was not a fan o mikel (can certainly relate), he only got comfortable along with matic. the impressive thing though is the fact he never really switched to a midfielder on a diff training schedule. I noticed that he played quite a bit as a cb too. He looked far more consistent as a midfielder tho. He had more poor games as a cb based on stats alone. if memory serves, Luiz himself wanted to play as a cb, and refused switching to cm when offered. The current Brazil manager Tite, while managing corinthians (who beat us at wcc), was a big fan of Luiz in midfield. And apparently not as much as a cb.

Only starts as DMC or MC rates from who scored: —12/13 season 12/23/2012 Chelsea 8 x 0 Villa (MotM 9.0) 12/26/2012 Norwitch 0 x 1 Chelsea (6.95) 12/30/2012 Everton 1 x 2 Chelsea (7.4) 01/2/2013 Chelsea 0 x 1 QPR 6.77 above lamps) 01/09/2013 Chelsea 4 x 1 Wigan (8.4 2nd highest) 04/13/2013 Chelsea 2 x 0 Swansea (8.8 MotM) UEFA, MoTM 4–1 naples —13/14 season 12/29/2013 Chelsea 2 x 1 liverpool (6.54) 01/11/2014 Hull 0 x 2 Chelsea (8.9 MotM) 01/19/2014 Chelsea 3 x 1 United (7.07) 02/03/2014 Man City 0 x 1 Chelsea (7.7) 03/22/2014 Chelsea 6 x 0 Arsenal (7.94) I stopped looking here, so there might be more games.

Lol got an absurd amount of flak by saying pretty much that. Poor cho and bad Sarry... the irony here is that cho’s fans, some of which accused me of not thinking forward, imo are the ones not thinking forward enough... I mean past a single player. the next chos are watching all this with interest, and so are their agents. Club looks very week in contract negotiations and planning, and reckon this one is on marina.

Warning: Norwich just lost in the Carlin cup to a pub team, which imo emphasizes the point we are still very much a work-in-progress.

I will always wonder what is the love affair between EPL and players without any skill whatsoever. Glad to see the current England manager thinks differently.

I will write my last post here, and make my point, so not to dwell on it. zouma is a fucking terrible footballer and I wish he played elsewhere, esp a direct rival. But he’s here, so I just hope that he wins high balls, tackles and doesn’t fuck up. As for becoming a better player, he won’t. His technique is just not good enough at this level. He will hold us back in a different footballing era, when defenders played a different sport. Ok now I will just crawl back under the same rock. Enjoy your Zouma.

So you are saying I will have to do your homework? Ok once I get a to a real computer will do... but reckon a mere search on here should do. @tomo yes! Playing a cb (even good on the ball) as a cdm will naturally make a team more defensive. So only a good strategy against tougher opposition.

This is factually incorrect. Please check your records... several games with 100% success rate. once again factually incorrect. Surprised by how many folks got this one wrong. and no I will not do your homework.

quirky Luiz will always be made fun of, but arsenal defending, as a team, was ever more comedic. Of course bbc won’t write about it, after all the money is on eyeballs not on how to watch football games. I mean we are talking about Luiz' performance when in the first half Arsenal was pretty embarrassing. it’s going to be a very long season for arsenal and Luiz, because he will be exposed and we all know how he does when exposed, no real news here... how old is he and folks are still being surprised by his play style and weaknesses? Had that naive manager put Luiz as a cdm to disrupt the attacks of a far superior side, well, that’s too hard to imagine except that Jose has done it before. And it actually worked very well in these type of games. for folks who think zouma is a better player, even defender, there is always rugby... You might be missing that football is a game about controlling, yes! The football. And no, CBs do not play a different sport.

Increased presence in the US marked liked priced in.

Yeah poor opposition no doubt. Will provide a different challenge as they will likely employ a very low block, so not a whole lot of spaces to run behind their defense. definitely a confidence builder and a game to be on the younger side with the starting XI. Perhaps give rudiger his first start if ready? I think a good gauge for the quality of the opposition is just to think how important a player our “beloved” willian would be for them.

It’s all opinions, but if someone thinks zouma is good on the ball... well there are always other sports to watch. Do you notice that zouma always adjusts his body posture before making the easiest pass? Often even sticking his hands out a la bakayoko for balance. That shows that the task is laborious and unfamiliar to him. Handling the football is just not natural to him. It will be exploited and errors forced. On the ball, he’s exactly the same player and it is something that rarely changes. in other words, regardless of how solid and good at defending zouma becomes, he will never be city (or any possession side) material.

Heh call it whatever you want - couldn’t care less. Like I said, I disagree. I do not expect him to do anything like that against better sides. Would liked very much to be proven wrong here.

What ire?! Because some of us think he’s not the second coming like you? That I in particular prefer a different type of attacker, essentially more skillful? That I don’t see tammy ceiling as being that high? I have no issues with Tammy getting minutes this season, or starting yesterday, given our lack of choices. You’ve been reading the wrong posts from me and without context. I only argued that for the super difficult initial games we had, a more defensive approach was needed, and one with giroud (or no striker) bc tammy does not help defense as much. regarding Norwich, then I just can’t agree. They are shit and their defending was shit. Despite the excellent finishes, it’s not like tammy had to lose his markers, they were just not very close to him. All our players made free runs into empty spaces which will not be available against stronger sides. And once again, our regents would be their star players, especially the much maligned Willian. folks here are talking about two boats: tammy is bad and Tammy is good. But it’s a bit more nuanced than that. He fact u it’s sent lukaku packing should give a hint at what is at stake here once we intent to fight silverware again, hopefully soon. Regarding the stupid generalizations again, from other posters, was always a big fan of RLC, because he always had the most important for me, which is skill.