robsblubot

agreed immediately combined with Eden to create a clear cut chance, which he missed by very very little - it was a nice (difficult) finish. Looked promising... Starting XI made no sense esp without Giroud.

agree, but that's the point. We have to cut our losses whatever they may be. He's a terrible player... there is no "recovering" as he still needs to learn how to play....

Just watching the Watford game (yeah fuck me!) and thought Hazard had a poor first half. He looked lively and had an overall good game in the second half though, esp compared to his teammates, who did not show for the game. That's a proper key player performance (reacted well to adversity) despite a horror team showing.

Moses in the team is not a problem if he starts few games. Decent squad player, but just not skillful enough at this level. Alonso is twice the player and folks here don't like him... I'd say Moses is very much liked at TC

We've been had. It happens... club needs to realize it ASAP and move him quickly. The 20m+ loss is nothing compared to the millions and millions lost by sheer incompetence regarding KDB, Salah, and Lukaku.

I have to object concerning you being the greater mikel critic... agree with the rest though I’ve always thought mikel could only do the very simple... well Baka does not seem capable of doing the simple at all.

sounds and look promising, but just a word of caution: youngsters often are way ahead of their peers in physicality, which typically levels out when they reach the senior team.

Conte not having full managerial powers may or may not be a bad thing. Look at the wonders Jose did with it: do you remember KDB and Salah (not to mention Lukaku)? If they are not good enough to play in his fabled starting XI, they are sold. Now, whoever hires jose should know that.

good player and decisively a better footballer than Bats, but would anyone restart the FM season to add him?

did we sign a player?! Actually got one good player from a big club? WOW! Welcome!

Rich anything rather - being a footballer has little to do with it. He wasn't that famous either. I'm mostly against current DUI laws, because what precisely is being criminalized by DUI laws? The wrong substance in your blood while driving? (others are allowed) This is a long discussion, but even the statistics used to promote DUI laws have all causality incorrectly assessed. One thing I can guarantee is that law enforcement (as well as lawyers) all over the world, is really concerned about driverless cars. Uber already ate into DUI by a lot, driverless cars will just put an end to it. With that long caveat out of the way, in the case of Alonso, the DUI law makes perfect sense because he committed a crime. His alcohol impairment (many diff things can impair human beings enough to disrupt driving) contributed to causing a fatal accident, hence the criminalization makes sense. Of course being rich always makes you appear less "impaired" to society.... Now back to football I think TC fans have the team they deserve: a key player who does not score a lot. A striker who does not score much and an overall squad with few goal scorers. After all, the one player who keeps on scoring important goals for us is constantly criticized for having the same characteristics he always had before we signed him. And after all he just scores lots of important goals, which in football is not that important.... being a low scoring game, what's a goal anyway?

would 'yes' be the right answer? I know you are being sarcastic, but right now if we need a goal with 15min to go, and you need to pick between Salah and Hazard, I don't think that's an easy choice... from a purely stats and probabilities pov, you might want to stick with the player more likely to score. However, your lineup may already have plenty of goal scorers, so dribbling and movement might be preferable. Would be very good for that manager to have to deal with that dilemma though... only if a club could muster such a feat Honestly, Hazard is fair game... like he said himself, Messi is the best player in the last 15 years or so (after Diego). Which makes the rest fair, and as far as I am concerned, fun game (and I did see the very end of Maradona's career - fully agree with Eden about messi). Why do we keep comparing Hazard with the likes of Neymar like someone else asked? because it's fun!

Yeah will have to agree to disagree. Neymar is better than hazard in every aspect of the game for me. if I need to win a match and can pick ANY attacking player in the world, well that’s how I rate how decisive a player is/what’s his effect in a game. Who is more likely to win games one way or another. hazards poor finishing will follow him wherever he goes and will always hinder him in such comparisons. Still a great player just not as big as folks here say he is, again, for me.

heh not sure I follow the whole debate around wastefulness in possession - which is indeed entirely about system, instructions, and team movement. The most obvious and glaring thing, and what most use to rate key players is exactly that: how decisive they are. Hazard fans seem to see something that the numbers don't show. The ones who do notice that, blame the team and say he will hit his stride when he moves away. I find far more likely that at 27yo, this is Hazard's ceiling. Just different opinions, but for me there are a number of more consistently decisive players than Hazard, Neymar included.

pretty good debate imo actually. They are spot on regarding the 3-cb system and how much it relies on the form and especially fitness of the wingbacks. The striker situation is unacceptable for this club - really showcases the laughable managerial situation the club find itself in. BTW, Conte has said he's not involved in any of the transfers. So, was bakayoko an Emenalo player? Someone ought to look into that deal - at the very least conflict of interests considering Emenalo moved to monaco immediately after the deal was done.

did not watch the game, so will take your (and others) word for it. I've already expressed my opinion of Baka as a footballer. However, what concerns me the most is how poor our entire midfield has been... and it has been painful to watch to be honest. I have not enjoyed watching Chelsea FC play for some time now. People obsess over other areas of the pitch, but most things happen in midfield, and ours has been piss poor for one reason or another. What really shocked me concerning signing Bakayoko wasn't so much his price tag, or how poor on the ball he is, but why on earth did we sign a player so similar to the destructor that Kante is. People would make fun of the kid who would write posts after posts about how Matic was better than Zidane, but Matic was def closer to Zidane (yes still a wide gulf separated the two) in terms of characteristics than Baka is. I guess it's normal to not understand our transfer policy these days - do we even have one or each coach/manager asks for the players they like (like that posted article alluded to)? In terms of tactics, which could def be playing a part too, I have a profound dislike of 3-CB systems and I've been able to see a lot of them implemented by diff teams in diff countries over the years. Successful or not, they all end up fizzling out like we have. My theory is that the system is too dependent on mechanics and movements, in that diff players from diff positions need to join in and help out in the midfield, and if movement isn't right, like when CBs end up being just CBs, the system becomes slow and inflexible. For example, as good as Christensen is, we miss David Luiz, because he helps the middle with his style of play, which in turn helps both center mids (as well as attacking players w/ quicker transition).

It’s not even that he does not score enough atm, but rather does not even get in positions to score... he’s still far way from first team material. bats needs a loan where he can play and we need better 2nd striker/fw... Tammy ain’t it... not yet.

Without knowing whether it was Bakayokos poor technique that did not impress xPerer today as it seems to impress a lot of folks here, and positively too! but perhaps because of the obvious: the level of the opposition, which led a number of our players to have outstanding games? Except of course Bakayoko who is being praised here for having been only good/decent - more like decent on my tv. But I can see now how this is going to turn into a new mikel thread, and rightfully so - Good for TC, not so much for chelsea fc.

We just have to explain to FIFA that we signed those youngsters for purely humanitarian reasons. they will never play professionally - at least not at Chelsea.

he does not need an actual break, just drills followed by more drills.... Once again poor finishing is fixable, depending of course on how driven the player is to correct it. It's not like he's not getting in the right positions to score (that would not be fixable), but his final touch has been senselessly poor. He's got technique, pace, so it's all there. He improved the team today against Norwich: the team scored before but created very very little and once he came on, our attack was much improved creating several chances that he, of course, wasted.

I've always wanted a manager who would be given at least a couple of season to build a squad, more than a good starting XI. Not being a fan of the 3-cb formation - because it (overtime) always ends up like what we see today (super defensive) - Don't think Conte is the guy who could do that job for us, so he's not, and never was, my personal pref as a manager. However, he was hired and I honestly don't know how much leverage he has, when selecting players and considering which of our players go on loan, so diff to say anything there.

On tv they say, “was that enough for a player to go down?” And imo that’s the wrong question. the right one is, “was that enough to impede the player? Could he have continued the play?” william could claim the former, but not the latter imo.

Now Morata needs to be exemplarily fined by the club - does not matter one bit if it’s a dive or not (and it was). entire squad needs a fine for diving...

It’s not only Morata, Eden seems to be in a similar slump of form... produced nothing so far.

Morata has improved our attack since coming on, but his finishing is nowhere to be found. Really terrible slump for a striker.... fact we only have one playable striker is on us.