robsblubot

I honestly don’t understand the hate: Alonso is a great player. yeah he’s got weaknesses, but he brings so much to the table imo

Wow Morata and hazard are combining well please just apply the finish once just once

For the record I liked Moses sub - thought he was as poor as Baka.

Come on that was good run by Morata, but once again no finish to show for it. bakayoko can’t even win 50/50s so poor.

Slow from Conte - arsenal are dominating and have for 15min wff

Morata actually played well in the first half - just his finishing was nowhere to be found. alonso is playing well too. Moses not so much. Tibo is just fantastic... a bit better final touch from either hazard (who’s also moving well) or Morata and we will score.

wrong choice by alonso: too close to bend it. SHould've tried to blast it in. ^^ indeed Cest is playing very well

Time to recall?

Finishing is a lot easier to improve than the other technical skills. Practice and drills can do wonders over time. Far more diff to tech one to become a footballer. cant imagine anyone singing, scouting, or watching morata and imagining him as the finished product. for me the issue isn’t so much morata but the fact we abruptly lost our established striker due to his instability (him being a nut job). the second issue we have is, again, lack of strength in depth esp considering how inapt moratas sub is (bats). Anyone asking for bats to start is... just stop please. Grass is always greener when sitting on the bench.

Super strong arguments! You had me at FIFA. I will be sticking with my ridiculous opinion though - thank you.

Well, do you really have to watch more of him to see that he has better technique than Baka? How long does it take, and how natural is it, for him to take the ball and move it along? Pretty good first touch and passing. No, he’s not that agile and his runs will be mostly be of the simpler kind, but solid player.

Yeah that (that bit that was cut short) pertained attacking sides and number of goals scored... I think it has more to do with the league than anything else, but like you said, we disagree. we may have a slight disagreement on where hazard stand, as I seem to rate him a a bit lower than you and others around here do. Not really sure he’s better than coutinho for example, and I am not a fan of coutinho. Given a choice right now and I’d pick kdb over him, again personal preference (vision >>> dribbling). Perhaps because I’m originally from Brazil and dribblers are a dime-a-dozen there. On the contract situation, I say sell him for a very high sum sooner rather than later... don’t do another Sanchez. If the club cannot replace him with another key player or, at least 2 quality players, then it’s anither issue altogether. get attached to players at your own peril... it’s a very short career and they ultimately make decisions solely based on money. If you are a hazard fan first, fine, but as a chelsea fan, life goes on just fine.

I feel you are making good points that are slightly contradictory. you claims he’s cool and enjoying his football, but at the same time you claim he’s right up there with Ronaldo even mentioning Ronaldo’s drive as something hazard lacks. That I cannot agree with. hazard in my view lacks creativity esp with the final pass, the assist. I could put money on that his stats would go lower at real esp goals. no I disagree - they score a bit more goals and it’s mostly due to how terrible the opposition are. Tough games it’s all he same to me.

Well I happen to think that Hazard improving in a more attacking side is just wrong and illogical why? Because the personal stats, the ones that count when comparing players at the top don’t necessarily increase and often actually decrease... While the collective attacking output of an attacking side may be higher, the individual stats are divided amongst all attacking players! There are only so many assists to be made or only so many goals to be scored. Will a team double the number of goals by sticking a second striker up front? Won’t a single striker score more goals individually if being the focus of the team? anyway, the (attacking) point is at the very least, debatable. Yeah you gave me a: he’s a nice guy and loves Chelsea and his life and won’t force a move. Which for me is precisely the reason he will never really compete with the other top players. And I have to confess I don’t particularly buy it: when a top side really wants a player they ultimately get him. yes he could force a move like Coutinho is doing right now even when He plays well. It sucks but players do that all the time. fair enough on the NT but I will refrain my judgement after Russia.

On talk chelsea he is indeed top 3, elsewhere he’s top 5-10... lists come up from pundits and players all the time some include Eden, while others do not. For me the causality cannot possibly be established as easily as some around here claim: too many variables and all the supposition around what he would be able to do in a more attacking side is just that, supposition and wishful thinking from his most ardent fans. But for the sake of argument, let’s assume we know that he would indeed become top 3 player (Messi shouldn’t be in the mix imo). Then the question I have is why does Eden play for a club that does not make him a better player? A defensive side team instead of attacking minded? Why is he satisfied having to play with these “donkeys” (personally find the idea that he carries a bunch of donkeys nonsense)? PSG paid Neymar’s release clause and took him increasing his wages... the transfer market is pretty competitive and the best players draw the best wages. So, why is hazard stuck at chelsea? Does he lack ambition? If so, Wouldn’t that also affect his game at chelsea? Does he love chelsea so much? (hope folks aren’t that naive lol) Finally, he needs to show up at the international stage. It’s usually KDB pulling the strings and Eden pretty subdued in WC/important games.

You can’t possibly be this naive... do we selectively listen to managers and pundits when it fits our agenda or perhaps it fits theirs? of course they will say great things about eden - they all want him! That’s not the point again... we are pitting him against the best or some are. And it’s still a bit short of every manager... Or most managers... some not even managers. i will be convinced when they put money where their mouth is. Sign him as a key player perhaps replacing another... then we will see. im not trying to convince anyone - I have my opinion and you have yours.

Only folks in here keep comparing him to Messi and Ronaldo that was my point earlier. you seem to have some information that I don’t: what every manager in the world thinks of hazard so i will leave it at that.

Combine them and you’d end up w a very good player but right now they both just ok for me. one has the end game and nothing else; the other lacks the final touch.

It just hit me today watching him against Everton - he wasn't terrible and yet just as bad to me eyes, and it is something that showcases his IMO poor technique: it actually reminds me of zouma, but essentially it's players who just aren't that natural playing the game and need to adjust their bodies even to make the easiest of passes. It's not elegance when you look stoic when making a pass, but rather an adjustment in your upper body, so that you can actually make that pass. Natural footballers Do all that, dribbles, moves, when running forward, backwards, sideways, and when falling down. Once again, I hope to be at least somewhat wrong about him. Otherwise we will be stuck with a very inapt player for a very long time (or sell him at a hefty loss), but I've seen this before and it all ends up the same way.

haha yeah true that! Ironically he actually lacks creativity IMO: it's like you said, a "dancer", but sometimes a different take would work best, but he's always the "dancer."

nah he's better, but I wish he were as good as you make him out to be. I often speak with other PL fans, (most pool fans) and none seem as crazy about Eden as Chelsea and Belgium fans. Personally I think he's a great player, but nowhere the level of the best players in the word and never will be, again IMO. I have a different take here: it's not so much how good Hazard is but how insufficient our squad is, and esp the players you mentioned. Most hazard fans thing he'd blossom elsewhere due to the limitations imposed to him by the lack of overall quality in the squad, but I look a his game and just don't see it in him. He's like Ozil in different packaging: great player but without the drive and the ambition to become one of the greats.

Yeah he’s better than either one. However, given a chance for a straight swap between them and hazard I’d go fo it. They are inferior players, but not that far behind and sane has insane potential. goes back into the betterment of th squad vs keeping the key player. In the above case even money wise would make sense to swap. Id say we rate hazard a bit higher here than elsewhere tbh.

I only disagreed with this bit, "No one will miss Salah and Kdb if we brought top quality players instead.No one will miss Salah and Kdb if we brought top quality players instead." Because I don't really think it is possible for this club to buy that kind of talent. We only acquire real talent behind the scenes, when they are still unknowns, or at least not fully established. Keeping the likes of KDB and Salah, in my view, is really the only way to achieve that end and, like we both said, we fucked up. I'm not quite sure lack of ambition is the problem. Perhaps it is too much short-term ambition that leads them to make long-term mistakes like they did with Salah and KDB... or even Lukaku, who's a lesser player, but still valuable. Is it just showing they've got no long-term plan? What kind of squad do they want to build? What type of player do they want/need to build that kind of squad?

you mean Bats will start?!?

I will partially disagree here. It's literally part of the job description for coaches, scouts, and other staff members to judge player's potentials. The fact we sold Salah, as someone pointed out recently, after he had already upped him game and was scoring a lot of goals was really strange. Buying players of Salah and KDB quality is not easy! Even if you have the cash lying around you have to convince both, the club to sell, and the player to join you (vs a diff perhaps bigger club). It is much easier to buy them young like we did. We just failed to keep them happy... to give them minutes. The fact that we completely fucked up should not go unnoticed. @yuvala Sorry, but once again some of us did predict he was going to be a great player (at least very good). Not going to quote that post again though. It's all about ball control...