Magic Lamps

I think their equaliser was always coming after that wasteful first half. Shame we could have really put that game tombed early on. Hazard needs to man up the and stand his ground. He so!often is so poor when needed most. Also Comte should have reacted more quickly. 2 points lost on city so early despite our piss easy start. Shame. We fail to be ruthless in front o goal time and time and time again for years now, yet we seem to be powerless to do anything about it. This really has to be a mental issue. Plus we need a finisher from midfield to add to Costa goals.

Lol. True. Probably has some journos living in his guest chamber and conference centre with personalised ad wall downstairs. Thh I have tried to process the fact that Luiz returns since midday and still have no idea what to think of it from a footballing perspective. Hi he sure a hell will be great for the atmosphere in the dressing room and around the club.

Still not enough. We should aim for triple figures in the cash cow loan business. Great way to refinance these days.

Before we condemn anyone, we should wait for some inside on how this turns out. We could barely have sold him for much more than 20m and if he has to reach like 20 games over 3 years for the deal to become permanent it is the best possible outcome.

Watching the sky deadline day coverage why is there such a hype about Jim White? He has got Hayley McQueen and Kate Abdo besides him FFS.

Can't remember much of his time in England but those highlight reels make him look very technical, great Seems to be an accurate crosser, decent aerial threat, quick and like most tall lanky guys stronger than he looks.I like his first touch and that swagger about him when he moves. Tho YouTube videos are absolutely useless to assess the defensive ability of a player, but hey if it is Ivanovic he is replacing effectively he can only be an upgrade. He even has the same height the which dismantles the only argument Mou defended Iva's selection continued with.

I really think we should cut him some slack. I think he has improved distinctively from his form of last season and year. Yes he has been outshone by the far more talented Kante but he has made more tackles than his pivot partner, created more chances and looked a bit more like his imperious vintage form esp vs WHam. I particularly like those dynamic tackles when he just somehow steals the ball with his long legs and thereby co times his attacking runs. Yes he is offensively shit which is why I do not think he should be employed in that box to box role but defensively has been solid enough to vindicate his selection. Esp vs WHam he and Knte completely shut em out giving us an almighty dominance in midfield.

Despite being absolutely delighted about our two last minute wins, I fear that those are the type of oppositions we should sweeps aside with the quality we have. So, while heralding Conte's ability to instill fighting spirit into the team this early on, we should address why we made such hard work of it in the first place. IMO we still do not have the mechanisms to breakoppositions down quickly enough. Only few teams have the technical tools to dominate an opponent throughout the whole match and score after minutes of posession and dozens of passes. We certainly do not belong to that group. Consequently, we should focus on a more direct build up play from midfield instead of relying on our wingers to carry the ball out of our own third as they have to in most cases. I am sure having Cesc rejoin the starting XI will remedy some of those issued but I am not convinced it will suffice.

Unfortunately all reports linking us with him refer to that weaintgotnohistory wish list. That is why I think there is absolutely nothing I it even though this guy is probably one of the best young left backs in the game.

From someone who has watched him regularly he is not that slow. I'd say he is about as quick as Oscar or Cahill who both are decent sprinters. He is defo quicker than Mata as seen in the CL last season. Also he is by no means a bad defender. He just is not very compatible in his style, spending too much time running and tackling. He is a rather tactical defender with good positioning and marking. Don't forget he still is only 23 and yet has tons of international experience already. His progress in recent years has been steady and I am sure he can adapt to the league.

First things first WHam was crap tonight. That being said they were so poor because we did brilliantly to contain them with our pressing and tightening the midfield. Kante and esp Matic were absolutely relentless in their tackling and closing down. Also Cahill won about every header against that Carroll Donkey. On the downside we could not put the game to bed because we failed to create many clear chances and scuffed the ones we had resulting in the equaliser as always. But instead of giving up we pressed on and our individual brilliance and the belief therein got us over the line. The hunger and fighting spirit we are already showing has me buzzing for the season. I observed some interesting aspects about the individual players performances which I will cover more deeply in their threads: jt and iva did not perform as badly as we feared but they both lost even more pace as expected which was obvious today. So kudos to Cahill and azpi who made some really important challenges on the run. Even though both were indirectly at fault for the equaliser you can't really blame them since they practically both were fouled at the free kick and goal respectively.

I knew this would get dug out after Mou mobbed him away. I was not a fan of his when he still was in his prime due to his constant inability to maintain his peak form for more than 5 games per season (there is a long post from about him earlier in this thread) . Now it is even worse, he simply is done. Has played professional football for about 15 years now and similar to Rooney is simply over the hill. And this at an age where his great idol just came off a season scoring 30+ goals for club and country.... squad player for 200k per week? no thank, spent force, even though the way Mourinho has ousted him is utterly disgusting.

True. But I'd imagine this signings having already silenced those critics with a series of extraordinary performances in pre-season. Heck how many people here are calling for Moses to be kept and he has not even been half as good as Chalobah. Also the guy Nat would replace in the squad is John Obi Mikel. That alone should suffice.

I can so see this happen. Typical Chelsea to be in the market for top class players and then buy some no name after missing out.

If Everton don't accept a British transfer record sum for Rom, they are stupid. They were stupid not to accept 40m for Stones, who is only a moderatly above average player, last season, too so I could imagine them trying to keep hold even though he will never command such an inflated price again.

Atletico won't win shit next season since they are chokers. They had 2 glorious chances to win CL but failed miserably both times. We got a great chance of winning domestic silverware without European distractions. You get more than twice as much money for winning EPL than for winning the CL anyway. I think a top four finish + an FA and/or COC is within reach. Our rivals as of yet have only purchased hugely overpriced, overhyped players who will not drastically improve their first team. Our 2 major signings so far have been very sensible and greatly enhanced our chances of winning titles next season. If we can impove our defense, which I am sure Conte will, with or without signing new players, we can beat any team in the country on our day.

ONce again people are only painting in black and white. Lukaku ia good player. Not an average or even bad one. Simply a good striker. Is he a 60m striker? Ofc not FFS. But that is not even the point. What striker worth 60m is available? No one. Higuain surely is not one. Neither is Icardi or Cavani or whoevs. Moreover we need a long term successor, the one we hoped Costa would be. Esp for a 2-striker system we can't have enough forwards.. Whilst I am against this signing, in case Costa leaves, we need to replace a very good striker in a market where none are available so obviously, the board regards Lukaku as the lesser evil. What worries me most about Rom is that he is still pretty much the same player as he was 3 years ago. He might have slightly improved his first touch and spacial awareness but that's about it. He is still scoring mostly against weak teams and disintegrated defences like ours last season. And that is not because everton are a poor team. At Belgium he had every other creative player in Europe behind him. You'd exepct him to create space for Hazard there, why would he do better here? The only good game he made was against a desperate Ireland team. He only scores when he has space. Drogba was significantly smaller than Rom but he could create space left, right and centre, because he had the movement, the skill and most importantly the cleverness to do so. He was so smart in his utilization of his body, he always appeared bigger than he actually was. Lukaku is the exact opposite. When he gets surrounded or marked tightly by defenders, he loses his cool and the ball, instead of trusting in his superior upper body strength. When a well organised team does not mark him but covers the space around, he still can't make efficient runs behind. I don't know him personally but his constant lamenting in the press indicated that he is not really addressing those issues himself. Drogba also could pounce on a mediocre cross as he was quicker in his thinking and better in his anticipating of the curve of the ball. Lukaku needs it right to his head to even show his surprisingly tiny...err.. leap. Given time and space to run he is deadly though. He will just bulldoze defenders out of the way and finish with aplomb. That ofc if he is not too frustrated already. While not exactly a Zidane, Lukaku is by no means a horrible technician. His shooting technique is excellent from close to mid-range, he also knows how to shift his body to set up a shot and how to finish in tight spaces. Also his general dribbling has improved. I just don't know if that is enough. The way we play or more importantly the way opponents play us does not really let him exploit his strengths but rather would force him mould his game more into a hold up striker right in the front to make space, collect and defend balls where the space is the tightest. That is not his game. As with DAvid Luiz, RLC or even Willian, I must say, he does have all the tools, but I don't know if he has the head for it.

Actually it is quite decent. Hummels, benatia, umtiti, Bailly just moved, Juan jesus, too. Then there is Murillo,koulibaly, manolas, höwedes and this guy here. As for Mustafi he is a cool guy, relaxed, won't bitch around when he is on the bench, very mature for his age. Not a typical German defender tho. Spent the years most important to his development at Everton and sampdoria so he is robust, not too technical. Not a monster in the air but a very tenacious and composed tackler. Can play right-back if necessary. Would do a job here but I am not sure how high his ceiling is.

Well IMO Azpi is a competent right-back. Did not really make Pedro or Willian much better when they played there. I just feel we do not have a tactical balance between fullback and winger on either side yet.

I think he was talking about Willian, who is indeed rarely a goal threat even though he has worked on that massively. As for Mahrez a am surely not against signing him he is too classy a player but recent years have shown that our rw issue won't be solved with money thrown at it. We should only sign another one if someone there leaves or conte has a clear plan how to make this signing work.

This is probably why he got loaned out immediately.he was almost as bad as Iva.

Surely he would be the culprit again but honestly he did not do too much wrong apart from his horrendous mistake. Nonetheless he should be one of our fittest players but still looks too slow, esp mentally. Finally has to go or take an absolutely marginal role in the squad like 3rd the and 5th cb.

best player on the ptich together with Jose Mario and Raphael Guerreiro.

MOst important target in the transfer window is keeping the squad together. Losing Costa would be an enormous setback even if we get Morata. Sure, Even if we get Kante and Koulibaly we should still sign another CM and CB or at least trust s.o. like Hector or RLC there. we do not need to compete with the very top clubs anyway next season and on a domestic level I really think those can do a job esp with someone like Conte catalysing their progress

got at least on par with Löw in the tactical battle. getting a technically far superior GErman side into the penalty shootout is difficult enough. Tho it has to be said that Italy were never gonna score from open play against that rock solid German 3-man defence. But that is down to their lack of clinical finishers. Mind they had enough shots.