🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Gary Cahill

[zyzz 711]

The thing is some of us have been pointing out his habit of backing off against strong attackers and us being appropriately punished. Didn't he do this same thing with Adebayor or Toure recently? both? So many times...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UaVwkv5zIAk

he just hasn't learned his lesson

[robsblubot 3,595]

Well, it may be that he just does not posses the skill to not back away in such situations. I don't know, but I wouldn't assume it's just a mentality thing. He doesn't strike me as a very rounded player and can't really turn his body that quickly and sprint, which is something you have to do if high up on the pitch.

[Bosnian Blue 2,471]

Honestly, I have hardly ever see Cahill breaking up attacks, proactively putting his foot in like Luiz does sometimes. He only knows how to be reactive, backs off attackers and then only throwing himself to block shots! It gets even worse when he plays with Ivanovic and/or Terry in defence. All 3 passive defenders equal to recipe for disaster! :banghead:

Cahill being too cautious, Luiz being too rash. If only you could combine the two you'd get a perfect player.

[Mceachran 109]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UaVwkv5zIAk

he just hasn't learned his lesson

These first two were exactly the ones I was combining into one goal in my head. You're like, an internet wizard.

[Jype 6,398]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UaVwkv5zIAk

he just hasn't learned his lesson

Horrible, just horrible. And the worst thing is that just because he's English and by definition more of a no-nonsense kind of player rather than a flashy centreback who attacks a lot he usually doesn't get anywhere near as much stick as Luiz gets for his mistakes, which are becoming fewer and fewer if I might add.

Edited August 8, 2013 by Jype

[Tomo 21,751]

Well atleast the weird phenomena of over-rating Cahill is a thing of the past, thank fuck, he's a good squad player but thats it, he should never play in the big games (before someone mentions the Barca game he was great in the second half granted, but in the first half he was out of his depth and the main reason Barca were creating so many chances), he should be a cover for the lesser games and cups.

[nadavTKL 1,787]

Horrible, just horrible. And the worst thing is that just because he's English and by definition more of a no-nonsense kind of player rather than a flashy centreback who attacks a lot he usually doesn't get anywhere near as much stick as Luiz gets for his mistakes, which are becoming fewer and fewer if I might add.

Agree with every word. Cahill is so mediocre, i hate it that people dont see it most of the times, and the same people dont rate Luiz at all. Cahill dont know how to deal with quick technical players and his football brain is very limited. I realy dont like him in Chelsea, think he's an Everton-level kind of player, but i'll trust Jose to make our defense more solid even with him. Not alot of good CB's in todays football, not like before, so we might need to settle for this season.

[Fernando 6,585]

Jose's defensive system really plays to his strengths. In a deep back four, Gary really is a great CB.

lol at Gary a really great CB.

I will say that giving the PL is a bunch of crazy shit and not so much technical players like in la Liga, Cahill looks amazing!

But when we need to play those high technical games, David Luiz will suit us better.

Edited August 9, 2013 by Fernando

[Jype 6,398]

Agree with every word. Cahill is so mediocre, i hate it that people dont see it most of the times, and the same people dont rate Luiz at all. Cahill dont know how to deal with quick technical players and his football brain is very limited. I realy dont like him in Chelsea, think he's an Everton-level kind of player, but i'll trust Jose to make our defense more solid even with him. Not alot of good CB's in todays football, not like before, so we might need to settle for this season.

Yeah, not saying we should even consider selling him anytime soon because he is actually a pretty good defender against the typical English teams with not much flair and trickery but against the top sides we really should have better players than Cahill. Also the fact he qualifies as a homegrown player is important, not many of those left in the Chelsea squad when Terry, Lampard and Cole will be gone in a couple of years.

[Kojo 4,676]

That Yaya Toure goal couldn't piss me off anymore, what abysmal defending by Cahill, just abysmal. However it wasn't just Cahill, it was the whole team in general. God I hope we prove defensively next season, I can't bare to watch that type of defending again.

Edited August 9, 2013 by Kojo

[zolayes 14,489]

as Tomo said ,,a useful squad player ,,,nothing more .

[Kojo 4,676]

So Cahill - Terry doesn't work for us. We know that now.

Cahill - Ivanovic has never worked.

Cahill - Luiz hasn't been tried much but it's safe to say that very few of us would feel safe going into games with that being our duo.

(See a trend?)

Yet despite this, Cahill continues to get votes of confidence and comments (or excuses made for him) like "HES A GOOD SQUAD PLAYER!! SQUAD-DEPTH IS WHAT WINS TITLES!!!!!!!" (Barcelona and Bayern pre-Guardiola say hi.)

I'm putting this down to his nationality. Being English and being in the national team has swayed people's opinion on him from what I gather. If Cahill was South American he'd get triple the bashing Luiz gets. Probably rightly so based on performances.

For me this should be his last season with us.

He's good at putting the ball in the back of the net but too often he lets the opposition do exactly that to us.

Oh really?

This is the centre back that has made all those last ditch tackles to save our arses against the likes of Arsenal and Spurs.

He plays the most games and rarely concedes penalties or commits dangerous fouls. He's a great addition the team, very good consistent centre back. Just becase he's not Vidic doesn't mean he's shit. He only lacks a certain quality, that's why he will make 6-7 mistakes a season, as he doesn't instantly know what to do against some players and he can make the wrong decision.

Besides that he's a very good centre back. I god mad at him for not closing Yaya Toure down when he was clearly going to go for the shot, but the positives easily outweigh the negatives.

And being British has nothing to do with it. No go on go talk about me when I sign out in a minute.

[NishC300 1,865]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UaVwkv5zIAk

he just hasn't learned his lesson

Yea I guess he needs to learn (asap!) that u can't back off against top players.

[Jase 43,479]

lol at Gary a really great CB.

I will say that giving the PL is a bunch of crazy shit and not so much technical players like in la Liga, Cahill looks amazing!

But when we need to play those high technical games, David Luiz will suit us better.

Think you should highlight the entire part of what Choulo said about Cahill rather than quoting him out of context with only "Gary really is a great CB".

What Choulo said there is true anyway. When our game plan is being very defensive and play on the counter (e.g Barcelona & Bayern last season), Cahill will flourish mainly because he is an expert at throwing himself in to blocking shots. BUT whenever we attempt to play an attacking game especially against the better sides, his deficiencies as a defender are exposed as clear as daylight and in turn, will leave the back 4 exposed as well. Cahill is not defender to play against the top tier sides but rather against the 3rd tier or lower sides.

Well atleast the weird phenomena of over-rating Cahill is a thing of the past, thank fuck, he's a good squad player but thats it, he should never play in the big games (before someone mentions the Barca game he was great in the second half granted, but in the first half he was out of his depth and the main reason Barca were creating so many chances), he should be a cover for the lesser games and cups.

TBF, Cahill wasn't the only one who looked shaky in that 1st half against Barcelona. The whole defence or rather the whole team did. There wasn't any real organization to our defence, midfield, attack. We were just lucky that Barcelona's finishing was hopeless and thanks to some last ditch clearances and tackles in the end.

[NishC300 1,865]

as Tomo said ,,a useful squad player ,,,nothing more .

Nothing more!?!?!? He's useful for breaking Colin Murray's heart!

[Tomo 21,751]

Oh really?

This is the centre back that has made all those last ditch tackles to save our arses against the likes of Arsenal and Spurs.

Yes he is really good at last ditch challenges, but what you have to ask is why does he have to keep resorting to them? I have never seen a player have to resort to so many.

[Tomo 21,751]

TBF, Cahill wasn't the only one who looked shaky in that 1st half against Barcelona. The whole defence or rather the whole team did. There wasn't any real organization to our defence, midfield, attack. We were just lucky that Barcelona's finishing was hopeless and thanks to some last ditch clearances and tackles in the end.

I know we all over the team lacked organization but the rest of the defense was unorganized but Cahill looked overwhelmed with the stage he was playing at, although like i said whoever spoke to him at half time done a sterling job because he was a different player in the second half.

[Kojo 4,676]

Yes he is really good at last ditch challenges, but what you have to ask is why does he have to keep resorting to them? I have never seen a player have to resort to so many.

Because we are the most unbalanced team in the world, and players can get past our defence as it has very little aid from the rest of the team. But yeah I suppose that's all Cahils fault, or maybe we should go put Salomon Kalou upfront still

[Peace. 4,352]

The fact that Cahill makes so many last-ditch challenges has nothing to do with the fact that we're an unbalanced team. Actually, it has some connection because if we were better in defense then he would obviously have to make less of these challenges... Though that correlation isn't strong.

... That's because it is the way whom Cahill plays — plain and simple. He isn't an aggressive defender, he's rather (quite) passive. He doesn't jet out in order to dispossess the oppoenent or to make an interception. He neither does stay on his ground to block the opponent's path. He relies heavily upon his sharp ability to make last-ditch challenges. He constantly give up ground to the opposition's players, and drops deeper and deeper until the opponent decides to finish his action (shot/pass/cross/...).

That's the reason for which he has to resort to this kind of challenges so many times. The way he plays gives time and space to opponents to be dangerous. That's why he had a fairly good spell during his first six months stint here ; di Matteo set up the team with a deep defensive bloc/unit (especially against Barcelona and Munich), and as a matter of fact, it gave way less space and time to the opponents to work in — the flaws inherent to his game were partly nullified. But this past season, he has been found out ; the defensive bloc wasn't as deep as it was, and his style of play turned out to be quite risky — the flaws inherent to his game were stressed out.

[Sidzeret 2,257]

Definitely an upgrade over Alex