Belgiannutt

Maybe you should try the redcafe forum. Think you'd like it better there.

DP

Conte is ofcourse not at fault here. The man's been here for 3 weeks. Can't expect him to fix all the problems the last manager caused. He has already instilled a number of attacking patterns into our game, something that Mourinho couldn't accomplish in 2 and a half years. Mourinho is directly to blame for the shitty defence we have today. He chose to go with this back four. He had David Luiz yet chose Cahill and an aging Terry over him. He had Filipe Luis yet chose to keep playing Azpi out of position and Ivanovic at right back. It's just typical Mourinho. Short term over long term and it ended up biting us in the ass. Now we're in this mess and Conte and the board are expected to change a team, that was taught and designed to park the bus the moment we faced a side that could string three passes together, in 3 weeks and 1 fucking transfer window.

link please ?

Chelsea team today: Courtois, Ivanovic, Cahill, Terry (c), Azpilicueta, Kante, Willian, Oscar, Matic, Hazard, Diego Costa. Chelsea subs: Begovic, Blackman, Hector, Aina, Chalobah, Fabregas, Pedro, Moses, Cuadrado, Loftus-Cheek, Traore, Batshuayi. 4-3-3

Kante

It's on youtube. Not the best of quality but it's still good. Commentary's in spanish though.

Conte on Diego Costa: 'He has recovered. Now he is available for tomorrow's game. I am very happy I can count on him Conte: 'Diego Costa is Chelsea's player and for me this is the most important thing in this moment. Conte: 'Diego Costa is a Chelsea player and very happy to stay with us. Conte: 'The West Ham game is not too far - two weeks. In the future something can happen [with] the transfer market in and out.' Conte: 'I am pleased now to work with these players. There is a good attitude. I am working very well with these players. Conte: 'Against Bremen we finish pre-season. We start then for West Ham. I know the moment then will arrive to choose the players.' Conte: 'Kante is in good shape. He is working on the tactical aspects, through video analysis. I think tomorrow he can play.' 'The stadium is fantastic, wonderful. For me, the players, we are pleased to play the first match.' Conte: 'The American crowds are fantastic, they have great passion and enthusiasm and we feel this during the game. Conte on Kurt Zouma: 'Zouma is improving a lot. It's good news but we know his injury is very bad. He must take his time.'

http://www.faceoffootball.com/2016/08/02/koulibaly-chelsea/ If you click on Gazzetta dello sports in the article it will take you to a screenshot of a newspaper article in Italian that , according to thefaceoffootball article says we've put in a bid of 45 million euros or £38 million and are confident in getting him.

Would be an absolute disaster as we'd be obligated to start both as neither one of them would be happy sitting on the bench. The pairing just doesn't work. Both are too similar. Both need a partner that can cover their poor link up play.

This might seem like a kneejerk based on his performances as a striker this preseason but i've actually wanted to say this about RLC for a while now. I just don't see anything special about him. I don't see what he brings to the team. He just doesn't seem to have any stand out qualities and his workrate is average at best. Apart from being tall, strong for his age and having solid technique what exactly does he have that makes people think he's gonna make it here ? Being English ? Being from the academy ?

Yeah i don't get it either. I mean going after Lukaku when it seemed like we were going to sell Costa atleast made some sense as we'd be trying to replace him with another goalscorer. But now that Costa's staying we already have Costa, Batshuayi and Hazard for the 2 striker positions with the likes of Remy and Traoré as cover. That's more then enough so why the desperation to sign Lukaku ?

Haha tbh we should be winning this game fairly comfortably as long as we let our best players have a good run at them. If we play the likes of Oscar, Matic, RLC and Traoré again then yeah i could see us struggling to create again though. Honestly just hoping we get a CB and FB in as quickly as possible.

I am. Hoping we start with our strongest team. Only 2 more weeks till our first PL game so we do need to get the B team players out and start getting our first team playing together. Will also be interesting to see Kante and how long he gets. He arrived late but going by Conte's comments it did seem like he arrived in good shape so maybe he'll be able to immediately get 45 minutes. Would play with the same lineup as Chelsea4 posted with 1 change being Willian instead of Moses.

With Atletico signing Gameiro doesn't this rule out Costa leaving ? Atletico is the only club that actually wanted Costa and Costa apparently wanted to return "home". So surely he's staying now. Also wasn't it reported that even before they spent 32 million on Gameiro they didn't have the money to buy Costa.

Oh shut the fuck up and yes you are being racist for telling people to keep quiet because of their nationality. I'm Belgian and i don't want this transfer to happen. There are plenty of Belgians that have serious doubts about Lukaku. A lot of Belgians wanted Lukaku dropped for Batshuayi at the Euros so please keep your idotic generalizations to yourself.

But we didn't play our first team either. I could understand being upset if we had played the likes of Kante, Fabregas, Hazard, Costa and Batshuayi in the first half and lost the way we did but that's not what happened. I called it an uphill battle because Madrid simply have a lot more quality then we do. Not having our key players just hits us harder then it does Madrid due to the general difference in quality.

Would be a good option but Lyon seem desperate to keep him. Just hope we don't sign Lukaku. Last thing we need is to panic buy and throw crazy money at a very limited player.

Experience yes but there's a reason why the majority of those players you named aren't gonna be starting for us. They're simply not good enough. I understand that you wanted and expected a better performance from them we all did but let's face it Madrid have more quality in their first team and have better depth then us. This match was always going to be an up hill battle for us. My bad about the number of preseason games but even if we played more games Madrid and us still started preseason at the same time so i don't think we really had an advantage over Madrid. Like i said we need to get a FB and a CB. With the defenders we have now every system that isn't parking the bus would struggle. There really is no way around the fact we need to strenghten at the back.

Just rewatched the first half. Oscar and Matic are the main culprits for the goals. 1st goal Both of them are way too deep. Matic actually ends up stepping away from Marcelo and Oscar just flings a leg at Marcelo's shot. 2nd goal Oscar losing his man, Matic is too far away and doesn't get across quickly enough. (Cahill also anticipates (wrongly) that the players he's pressing is going to the outside instead he goes to the inside and passes to Marcelo who now has acres of space to run into) 3rd goal Again Matic doesn't get across quickly enough to press the player.

Fitness

If he doesn't want to be here sell him. No room for players that don't want to be here. Just play Batshuayi and Hazard as our front 2 and pray neither one of them gets injured. We'd have next to no depth but atleast it's better then splashing 60 million on Lukaku.

It is not easy to play this game against another great club after only two days of rest and a flight of four-and-a-half hours,’ he said. ‘I knew the team was a bit tired. ‘But today I think this match was very important for us, because after this game it is clear we need to work together always, without the ball and with the ball. If we think we can’t work together when we haven’t the ball, it is not possible for us and we risk repeating a bad season. ‘Today we weren’t a team in defensive situations. It is important to understand this because in the last game I appreciated that we were lot. Then I thought we could improve when we had the ball. Today we were better with the ball but bad without the ball. ‘It is important to keep concentration and to work together,’ the Italian added. ‘I know it is fatiguing to work without the ball but if we stay compact, like against Liverpool, we can win. If we lose this compact, if we think one, two or three players don’t want to work without the ball, it is possible we see another bad season.’ ‘Eden Hazard played 30 minutes and he is recovering a good shape. I like him in this position, like a forward, and he can be a good solution for us. Also playing as a winger. To play as a second forward he must improve his shape but he is working and he knows his shape can a lot in the same way as the other players.’ ‘Batshuayi’s shape is improving and he’s starting to understand our idea of football,’ said Conte. ‘I’m happy with his commitment. He can improve a lot. ‘Ruben is a bit tired but he tried to work and to fight for the team. I’m happy with his attitude and behaviour and I know he can play in this role and play good football. ‘I can say that today Costa is a Chelsea player. He didn’t play in these games because of injury and if he solves the injury and I see in training he’s in good shape, it can be possible to see him in the next game against Milan. But I can tell only this. ‘Today Costa is Chelsea’s player. Tomorrow if you ask me if Costa will remain with us, I don’t know.’ ‘My target is to become a team. My experience as a player and a manager teaches me if you want to fight for the title you must be a team inside and outside of the pitch. It’s important to understand this and transfer this thought on to the players. We must become as a family. This is the key to switch from last season. If we don’t understand this it is no good.’ https://www.chelseafc.com/news/latest-news/2016/07/conte--nothing-if-not-a-team.html

Conte : ‘Eden Hazard played 30 minutes and he is recovering a good shape. I like him in this position, like a forward, and he can be a good solution for us. Also playing as a winger. To play as a second forward he must improve his shape but he is working and he knows his shape can a lot in the same way as the other players.’ https://www.chelseafc.com/news/latest-news/2016/07/conte--nothing-if-not-a-team.html So what are everyone's thoughts on Hazard playing as a second forward ?