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Yeah hazard did well in the world cup, but think his actual contribution against the tough sides was not there, otherwise perhaps Belgium would’ve made to the final. against Brazil, de bruyne was the key player imo. Hazard has a corner to Fernandinho. yeah it’s going to be interesting to see what hazard will do at real. I personally think his style does not gel that well with better players. He will see more spaces though.

Sure but Neymar is better at shooting from afar. Yeah maybe I’m overrating Neymar key passes. Still think de bruyne is way ahead than both esp in key passes and passing in general. kinda hard to remember a great tough cL match where either one dominated.

Think they do belong in the same tier, and both slightly overrated. Hard to call hazards game complete when he’s that poor at shooting from afar. It’s kinda important skill. Would also give Neymar the edge for off the ball movement and key passes. dribbling is where hazard is way ahead. Id take de bruyne over either one in for a tough match where you need a win. I have learned recently that Neymar is actually very dedicated at practice. I mean he obviously parties a lot, but is usually in amazing form.

Yup. And that’s only back in action. Then the most difficult part after such injury: regain match fitness, confidence... to become competitive again. As in not being afraid on every step. We need to forget about them for next season. Hope for the best but expect the worst.

Feel some people here don’t fully realize how serious cho’s injury is. It’s the worst for an athlete. reading Williams thread, some are expecting him to play a big part in the next season, and that’s very unlikely even in the best-case scenario.

Barcelona is trying to balance their squad with a tactical defensive winger like William. He can’t attack for shit, but can certainly help make a team more robust. think Barca are tired of getting destroyed in second leg CL matches and want to be able to close down shop when needed. I’m far from a fan, but it would be extremely stupid to let him go during a ban. We don’t have many options for the wings, and certainly not with William’s characteristics.

“Louca varrida” (br-pt) which closely translates to batshit crazy! Funnest sayings in both languages too imo. honestly put Alonso there and he’s twice the player bakayoko is. Better first touch, passing, just as tall and slow, but can score too. No, he will not win you over, just pointing out how bad bakayoko is. kepa’s strong end of season is definitely promising. He’s got potential and I’m happy that he’s definitely at least a good goalie. Whether he will eventually become a great goalie, well that’s still to be decided.

Fair enough. I did not say mikel did not play his part. Same with Meireles, but it always baffles me why mikel stayed for so long considering how little playtime he got... always bit parts (consider the time he stayed at the club). Him getting more playtime coincided with our worst moments in that period. we might have developed 3 different younger players in that time. With likely different levels of success. However, the incredible thing is how limited mikel game was. I mean he could do only two very specific things: tackle and pass in very short distances. He had a lot of difficulties with long balls and pretty much every other aspect of the game. i mean we criticize drinkwater here but that guy is a lot more rounded than mikel (no pun :)). He can shoot score, hit a long ball. Mikel never did any of these things. still bakayoko can not even control the football, so it’s silly to go on and talk about other aspects of his game.

This is by far the best Portugal team I’ve seen by far. I still think they are short of challenging for a WC win mostly because of depth and weaknesses in certain areas, but definitely good players all over who need to be scouted. carvalho does look PL made with all that power and good on the ball. guedes what a shot! On the other end, Netherlands looked poor in certain areas, esp the right side. They had spaces on the wings but the balls in had little to no real quality. Perhaps just youth and they still need to improve.

As eden’s biggest critic - the only one - this sums up the situation perfectly: hazard leaves and bakayoko returns. let me make my opinion perfectly clear (for posterity ) drinkwater is twice the player and I still wouldn’t want him/either in the roster. bakayoko is the worst midfielder I’ve seen at chelsea. Worse than mikel and even Meireles. the days of purely physical mids are long gone. Bakayoko has no place in modern football (at least not elite) regardless of manager, style, or formation.

Ridiculous call up. Brazil manager Tite is getting lots of flack for William and Fernandinho. The Latter is a good player for city and awful for Brazil... though imo he’s overrated in England. Actually nobody understands William getting called up. He’s done nothing for Brazil.

That was then. And it’s still trusting an external address, which is hardly evidence. He may say that and then to his agent/parent, “get me out of here!” and once again, is it fair to demand that we become Real Madrid? Would anything less suffice to eden? in other words, isn’t it the same as just saying that he wants out because we are not big enough nor will we ever be big enough for him? sorry I still don’t trust player words at all (all PR). The word professional is the opposite of a fan.

Sorry but you don’t really know that, do you? I mean I hear this argument over and over, but it could just be wishful thinking. Now if the argument is just that we are not as big and powerful as Real Madrid, that’s the case for every other club but Real Madrid. Would acquiring a couple of quality players magically make eden want to stay and not join his dream club? I don’t buy that. It’s not a recent thing either. His stance did not change over the years.

Long range shooting is a very important skill in competitive football esp in important games for obvious reasons. It’s also a skill our team lacks big time. Even eden is terrible at that. but yeah, coutinho offers little more than that, perhaps the occasional key pass. He’s a bit like Eriksen in that he vanishes often. and he definitely needs that free role too. Does not chase or work for the team hard enough, so you gonna have to play for him. it might have been worse... we could be going after james Rodriguez should we be happy for the ban?!

Can’t disagree with that. That’s why for me, eden behavior and now wanting to leave put him outside of legend category. True but he was already playing well below his normal. Still hurt a bit, but it’s not like he left us at his prime or anywhere near that. Hazard wants to leave. He wanted to leave for real for years. Regardless of competition. So, that reasoning (compete at cL) does not make sense to me. There are no guarantees real will compete there in the next few years either.

You are right of course, but there are no friends in football. This is hardly his retirement, so he’s making a rival - all top clubs are or should be our rivals - stronger. And if we build a good team that can challenge cL in the near future, hazard will very much be a rival, despite all the history behind. While this is a fair move to him, it is also not good for the club esp during a ban. That’s why footballers aren’t and can’t be fans... he’s thinking about his career and himself, not the club. As he should.

Different formation, system, and tactics, so no not going to happen. Emerson is a very traditional LB. He was poor in the first half along with a few other players (against arsenal), but grew with the team in the second half. He defended well and even produced that great early cross for giroud. Does not look like Cl quality atm, but who does in our squad? Kante? The rest will need to improve or be improved on.

Yup and I think the position or arms and hands will become more important then. Perhaps the only thing they will be looking for since intention is gone. perhaps keeping arms behind will be a good idea then. Luiz is well trained in that.

Hah can’t believe there are folks here who think that was not a pk. stupid? sure, but one Very obvious handball. The position of his arm is calling for a handball all along... looks like it’s a basketball block... refs are instructed to look for that type of thing. Some defenders have even been putting theirs hands in the back and it’s debatable whether that’s necessary, but stick it out like that in the box and it Will be called every time, especially with new rules.

This is hard fought final. Every tackle counts. Every shot or pass has legs thrown in front. If folks can’t appreciate this, sorry.... this is also football and it happens a lot in finals. Quite a few WC finals just like this over history. liverpool is just a far superior team. And all their players are hard working. Even the stars track back and make runs without the football. Look at salah he never stops running. the unlucky part for fans is having a poor side like spurs in the final. They are the lucky ones to have made it. Should have been city had Laporte not fucked up.

Klopp will likely address the poor pool decisions in the back. They’ve been just kicking it upfield at times. game should improve in the second. Still as poor as pool was, Tottenham created next to nothing.

Yeah. The idea is prob to get Lucas on when pool players are more tired, but don’t think they’ve caused enough trouble to liverpool thus far. firmino is hurting pools midfield. And their movement off the ball has been bad. Still salah and mane look like they will score if given half an opportunity.

Tottenham May have possession but no shots on goal so far. Pool still more likely to score.

Don’t feel so good about Chelsea fans. We do the same to our players. Not comparing with Ramos, who’s an excellent dirty player, but Alonso comes to mind. Ivanovic before that, but that’s football. We are a fickle bunch.

Just watched that header again, absolute top finish! that took place when the game was still tight. And as goals do, it changed the game. Their players moved forward just a bit, their stance changed because then they were chasing. That allowed spaces to players that can use them well, like Eden and surprisingly enough Pedro who had a massive game. that assist to Eden for the fourth was just showing off..