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petre.ispirescu

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Everything posted by petre.ispirescu

  1. Exactly. I know some might say that it's a normal thing for Conte to favour an old centre back in his team, like he did with Barzagli at Juventus and Italy NT, but that it is a completely different thing because Barzagli had two partners in Bonucci and Chiellini both comfortable with the ball, players that can press and build from the back and suited for a highline. Not to mention that a three man defence is completely different from a back four and Barzagli always had the help of a wonderful and tireless wing back, Lichsteiner. I do have the utmost respect for the Stamford Bridge season ticket holders, but for me, and again my opinion alone, is that what they did, and I mean advocating for Terry to stay, was wrong and it might turn against them, and the team, as the season goes on. Should Terry be a regular starter, of course. I feel that the club, and Conte, maybe, had made an idea on Terry's future and that idea was for him to leave, but given Chelsea's horror season and the immense pressure coming from the fans, they had no other option but to extend his contract. For me, now it would be the perfect timing and I mean the absolute perfect timing to reshape the back line. Although Lukaku is one of my favourite players having watched him from his Anderlecht days, I do not get this obsession with buying another striker. And it is not because of the money because I do not care about finances, but isn't it ironic to spend 70m on (another) striker when in fact defence needs to be adressed ASAP? 70m would get you two VERY GOOD defenders (CB and LB) and paired with Azpilicueta and Zouma would give a new breathing to the whole team, not only to the back line. Whereas Terry, Cahill and Ivanovic could get plenty of time in the Cup competitions.
  2. I do not agree with you and let me tell you why. Take the Real Madrid and Milan 1st halves - look at that space between defence and attack, you could throw a nuclear bomb in there. Mildfielders have to basically do everything - defend, attack, take the ball from deep and bring it to the attackers, press high up the pitch, try to close the chanels etc. all this while the defence sits incredibly deep because of two players IMO - Cahill and Terry. You could see perfectly in the Real Madrid match how the pressing game works - centre backs very high (Varane & Nacho), with the full backs (Carvajal & Marcelo) taking attacking positions. This is it. Can't press high up the pitch and play with high intensity (as Conte likes to say) if your defence is nowhere to be seen and midfielders and attackers are left for dead. For me it is worrying, and it is my opinion alone, that the match last night was Terry's 5th consecutive one in which he played the full 90 minutes and also the 3rd consecutive one in which Terry, Cahill and Azpilicueta (LB) played together for the full 90 minutes. Terry to be given a new contract was such a big mistake IMO and I think that Conte would not have approved with this if it was his 2nd season in charge. But being in a new country, a new club, I get this weird feeling that he is afraid to drop the locker room leaders for now, although he was pictured as being a "hammer" in Italy and ruthless when it comes to team selection. I think he does not know what the fans' reaction would be should he drop the likes of Terry and Cahill, especially Terry after the fans advocated for a new contract, and I think he prefers to go safe in the beggining, let the fans see if this defensive line works, instead of reshaping it from the scratch. Why I think Cahill - Terry partnership is a disaster? Because they offer nothing other than leadership and positioning. Moreover they restrict full backs from their attacking duties because they (full backs) have to stick to Terry and Cahill because them two lack pace, can't press and are so poor with the ball at their feet. Watch Cahill - amazing how this guy is still at a top club. Can't hit a forward pass for his life, a simple and calm pass. Everything is rushed, it's like a pack of wolves is always behind his arse, he either plays it sideways to Terry, or bombs it to the other GK. This defensive line would be perfect for the likes of Swansea or Crystal Palace, but for a club like Chelsea would be such a travesty to start the season with Cahill, Terry and Azpilicueta at LB. And probably Ivanovic, too. Since Conte won't have the guts to drop the other two, he won't do it with Ivanovic either. Chelsea will have big problems with every team that presses high up the pitch and has decent players that can pass the ball. The only way to fight this is by doing this as well, or either we'll see the same old shit again, with full backs that never cross the half line, with Hazard as a left back and a clueless defence that either bombs the ball out of the pitch, or forward in the hands of the opponent GK.
  3. Musa is a striker. Nampalys Mendy is Kante's replacement.
  4. This defence is the recipe for disaster. If Conte thinks he can improve this shower then he is out of his mind.
  5. No, it wasn't me. I've just read about it a couple of days ago on different web-sites and comment sections. It appears that Chelsea has introduced the 20% sell on clause in both De Bruyne and Lukaku's contracts at that time. No one knew about the sell on clause in De Bruyne's contract either, until City closed the deal and Chelsea received £12m out of it. On the other clauses -I've read in the The Times: I know what you mean by saying that Chelsea should wait for someone else to buy him and cash in those clauses, but I feel the club and Conte are determined to take him back and Lukaku has his mind set for a return as well. Can see him handing a transfer request should this drag too long. And to be fair, I don't know why would Everton want to play hardball on Lukaku & Stones' transfers with less than two weeks before the EPL kick-off. It's crystal clear the two of them want out and prolonging this would do them more harm than good. Should Lukaku and Stones leave, which they will, no doubt about it, Everton are left with two poor back-up strikers and a 33 yo alternative for Stones. They will cash in big money for the two and must act quick if they want to find decent replacements. I think they are stupid if they plan to drag this until late August.
  6. You know, all this talk about transfer fees and shit, it really starts being so boring. I buy the Home, Away and the 3rd kit every two seasons for around 300 Euros. Why do I do this when I can easily go to a Chinese depot outside my city and buy all three of them (perfect replica) for less than 30 Euros? Because it's my choice, my money, I pay for something genuine and I don't give a fuck if someone tells me I'm crazy for paying that much for a piece of cotton. You guys have no idea about all the bonuses included in Lukaku's contract at Everton, but you like to jump at every obscene amount the lousy media throws. Chelsea will not pay 65m to Everton because: 1) Chelsea get 20% from Lukaku's next transfer. So, there is a 13m discount right from the start (should Everton accept a 65m bid). 2) Chelsea get a lot of performance related fees, plus a bonus should Lukaku gets sold for more than 28m. Which he will. 3) Everton still have not payed the entire 28m for his transfer for Chelsea. So more money to be deducted from here as well. This is why Everton hold for more money, because at this point, with all the clauses, they only get around 45m and are probably looking for something in the region of maybe 53-55m.
  7. Exactly, this fabricated quote comes in total opposition with Conte's philisophy. I've read a lot of comments on Italian forums (and youtube videos) from Juventus fans talking about Conte's obsession with attacking even in the 95th minute, instead of defending deep, trying to protect the result. It was a comparison between him and Allegri, mainly coming from anti Conte fans (still bitter because of the way he left and his comments on Juventus' transfer policy), but still, gives you an idea on his tactics.
  8. http://www.ruhrnachrichten.de/sport/schalke/aktuelles/Neuer-Linksverteidiger-Baba-Schalke-war-die-beste-Option;art15837,3078633 Complete bullshit. Here is the article in Ruhr Nachrichten. Nothing about Conte's tactics or Baba Rahman leaving because he is "too offensive". Baba Rahman says that Conte told him that we would not be a starter, hence he (Baba) asked Chelsea to leave and thinks Schalke was the right choice. That's it. Fucking English media trying to wind up things.
  9. Crazy amount of sheer experts in this thread. Makes me wonder when will top clubs start to approach some of you since your scouting knowledge is so vast and you can predict a player's trajectory only by watching shitty streams and match highlights. Conte wanted him once, wants him again, Lukaku is a Chelsea fan, wants to come back to the club and play for Conte. What is wrong with that? He's just turned 23 and is probably 4-5 years away from hitting his peak. All this while scoring for fun at this age. And it's not only about goals, but he's even assisted more goals than our supposed playmaker, the untouchable Oscar. And some of you still think Oscar should be given ANOTHER season to prove his worth, while Lukaku is bashed from the start because of his poor touch and gestures lol...
  10. Read an article in Kicker about his contract extension until 2019, they mentioned the release clause, but nothing on a supposed expiry date at the end of July this year. If there is such thing in that contract. This is from May, this year, when Arsenal was pushing for him. Kicker say the release clause is active throughout the whole contract (until 2019). http://www.kicker.de/news/fussball/bundesliga/startseite/652838/artikel_wolfsburg_rodriguez-vor-dem-absprung.html#omsmtwkicker
  11. Fickle scousers, they would not even have gone to Wembley if it wasn't for Lukaku's brace against Chelsea. He single-handely qualified them for that semi vs United.
  12. I used to like the idea of Chelsea selling him for good money since other players, average ones, go for exorbitant prices. But now I've cooled myself down, don't care anymore, just waiting for someone to make a bid, any bid, close the deal so we can say it's finally over. Absolute dross, needs to leave asap, four years lost by the club (plus another super player in De Bruyne sold) trying to make this donkey a focal point in our team. Enough is enough.
  13. @Blue_Fox_ What does he mean by "una follia: adesso Conte frequenta ristoranti stellati." Found the word by word translation, but the sentence, as a whole, what's he trying to say?
  14. footballghana.com broke the news on Baba Rahman's move more than a month ago, saying Conte is looking to replace him with Wolfsburg's Ricardo Rodriguez. They were spot on it seems and now that Baba Rahman's move is official, maybe we can expect Chelsea to approach Wolfsburg in the coming days? £21m release clause.
  15. Very impressed with Chalobah, Batshuayi, Cuadrado and Hazard as a shadow striker (Griezmann role). Defence needs to be looked at if we want to be challenging for the title this season. A ball playing centre back is a must IMO. Real Madrid made the difference in the 1st half by playing Varane and Nacho way over the half line and Carvajal and Marcelo as wingers basically, whereas Chelsea's defence stood clueless around our 16 yard box. This is how I see our ideal line-up once Zouma is back: Willian Diego Costa/Batshuayi Hazard Cuadrado Kante Cesc/Matic/Chalobah New LB New ball playing CB Zouma Azpilicueta Courtois * Courtois, Azpilicueta, Zouma, Kante, Willian, Hazard, Cuadrado definite starters. As much as admiration I have for Terry, Ivanovic and Cahill, there is no way any manager in this world would make a team play a high line and a high intensity game with them on the pitch.
  16. Boring affair, but it's nice for Conte to get one over Klopp early in the season. Last season's awful defending seems to be evaporating quickly, I feel it's going to be very hard for any team to beat us once we take the lead first.
  17. Off to Villarreal in Spain for £2.5m. Think he was worth a punt here as a 3rd of 4th striker to be honest. He was way behind in fitness levels I must agree, but things would have changed drastically under Conte's double training sessions.
  18. It was 7th heaven at RedCafe before the Dortmund game, but things have changed in a blink hahah. From absolute title favourites under Mourinho's supposed genius, they've now opened a thread wondering what would happen if Mourinho fails to finish in the top 4 Can't blame them though because any decent football fan that has watched United vs Dortmund the other day, plus Chelsea's matches the last three seasons, automatically knows they'll be playing that dull football from now on. Especially against the big teams. I only visit RedCafe maybe a couple times a day, but I can't help but feel that they are already afraid of Guardiola and want tomorrow's match against City to be cancelled so bad "Because of weather conditions" they say, but that's bullshit as far as I am concerned. They are afraid of what media would write should Guardiola give Mourinho a good spanking, with a mixed team, days after Dortmund humiliated them in a same manner.
  19. Had Chelsea been behind the bigger clubs, Kante would now be a Madrid or a PSG player. Chelsea is still one of the top attractions in world football, it's just the club's choice to be more cautious when it comes to bigger fees. Bayern have this policy since forever (£33m being the biggest amount they've payed on a player). And with Mourinho's departure we cannot say that the club has lost its spark it terms of attracting players that would have come here at the opportunity of working for a top notch manager because Conte is a coveted manager as well (e.g. Kante). He can always come up with the likes of Pogba, Bonucci, Chiellini, Vidal, Lichsteiner, Asamoah etc. when trying to convince someone to join him, players that he's taken to the next level during his time at Juventus.
  20. Maharez is the last target we could be thinking about, we have a plethora of wide players right now.
  21. Napoli forums must be in complete meltdown It's been what, a few weeks since Higuain has reassured the fans in a press conference he'd stay put in Napoli for another season? Pipita - Dybala
  22. Refreshing to see United playing the same dross, predictable & old fashioned 4-2-3-1. Non existent pressing game, just a bunch of players sitting deep, waiting for Dortmund to give away possession so that they can break on the counter. Even when Dortmund subbed in most of their youngsters. Mourinho can't and won't get out of his comfort zone for his life and I'm so glad we got rid of him. It's like he's stuck in time and thinks that the old tactics that used to work 8-10 years ago will bail him out of jail. He is so outdated in terms of tactical aspect it's unbelievable.
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