Gary Cahill

[Tomo 21,751]

That is just scapegoating him imo. When he has made these last-ditch tackles, please provide me the evidence where they were specifically his fault for being 'out of position'. If you are saying he is the sole reason, I completely disagree. Also I think many are just looking at his bad games and ignoring the many quality games he has had for us. It is not because he is English or the PFA being blindised that he was in the team of the season last year.

He was really good last year, no one will deny that, however things that are being said are not scapegoating.

The issue's and concerns are valid, im not convinced he can go out alone (ie without Terry) and the sample size so far backs it up, World Cup, the late RDM days, he has yet to show he can play at the level required without JT and sometimes can struggle with him (that's why I and other's cringe at the thought of him being captain) and until we see otherwise that will be a valid concern.

Cahill is a good player but will never be a world class one like Terry is or Zouma has the potential to be, I don't see the shame in admitting that.

[Nike 373]

He was really good last year, no one will deny that, however things that are being said are not scapegoating.

The issue's and concerns are valid, im not convinced he can go out alone (ie without Terry) and the sample size so far backs it up, World Cup, the late RDM days, he has yet to show he can play at the level required without JT and sometimes can struggle with him (that's why I and other's cringe at the thought of him being captain) and until we see otherwise that will be a valid concern.

Cahill is a good player but will never be a world class one like Terry is or Zouma has the potential to be, I don't see the shame in admitting that.

I highly doubt zouma will be world class. ZOuma is the lukaku of the CB position....

Physical god, but not so great everywhere else.

[LDN Blue 7,903]

That is just scapegoating him imo. When he has made these last-ditch tackles, please provide me the evidence where they were specifically his fault for being 'out of position'. If you are saying he is the sole reason, I completely disagree. Also I think many are just looking at his bad games and ignoring the many quality games he has had for us. It is not because he is English or the PFA being blindised that he was in the team of the season last year.

When I have time I will show you, off the top of my head I can't remember specific games and goals. I'm not even discussing this season, I'm talking about last season and even before. It's not scapegoating at all, because even when he was put on a pedestal here I was saying the same thing and so were others.. It's not a bandwagon movement. I'm not saying he makes this mistake all the time, as I said before, he is a good defender. He does his job professionally and us having one of the best defensive records last season was why he was in the team of the season.. I've never said he's shit. But he's not world-class and we can/should do better.

[LDN Blue 7,903]

I highly doubt zouma will be world class. ZOuma is the lukaku of the CB position....

Physical god, but not so great everywhere else.

Too early to make any sort of assessment. Both that he'd be world class or that he's "the lukaku of CB".. He's actually more athletic than he is physical (have you seen the height on his jump for example?).

[Tomo 21,751]

I highly doubt zouma will be world class. ZOuma is the lukaku of the CB position....

Physical god, but not so great everywhere else.

He's not got the best technical ability compared to say Kalas, but in terms of pure defending, he is really really good.

Lukaku went wrong by trying to focus on his weakness too much (technical ability) and with it neglected his strength's a bit. The complete opposite to say Bale who accepted his technical limitations and focused on what he was great at, Lukaku should have done the same from the get go.

[Nike 373]

Too early to make any sort of assessment. Both that he'd be world class or that he's "the lukaku of CB".. He's actually more athletic than he is physical (have you seen the height on his jump for example?).

true. wrong words. i mean athletic.

Lukaku plays like a pussy for a beast. Zouma positioning and reading of the game is no where near his french predecessors, but his athletic ability is probably the best since thiago silva and mangala.

However, I highly doubt he will ever overtake mangala, kos, or varane in the near future.

[LDN Blue 7,903]

true. wrong words. i mean athletic.

Lukaku plays like a pussy for a beast. Zouma positioning and reading of the game is no where near his french predecessors, but his athletic ability is probably the best since thiago silva and mangala.

However, I highly doubt he will ever overtake mangala, kos, or varane in the near future.

Hmm.. We just need to see more of him to be honest. I'd like him to get a run alongside Terry so he can work on positioning, I'd be very nervous if he was paired with Cahill instead.

I kind of feel we will incur a CB crisis. Ivanovic doesn't look like playing CB any time soon, we know about Cahill and Terry could pack up soon enough. Zouma is cover, but we don't know about the future of Kalas (if he's even ready!). We're going to need to sign at least 2 competent, world class, CBs soon enough.

[Nike 373]

Hmm.. We just need to see more of him to be honest. I'd like him to get a run alongside Terry so he can work on positioning, I'd be very nervous if he was paired with Cahill instead.

I kind of feel we will incur a CB crisis. Ivanovic doesn't look like playing CB any time soon, we know about Cahill and Terry could pack up soon enough. Zouma is cover, but we don't know about the future of Kalas (if he's even ready!). We're going to need to sign at least 2 competent, world class, CBs soon enough.

exactly...

Cb is going to be a huge problem later on and for a team like CHelsea that is built on cbs.....

CB>CF>CA>AM>GK, order of priority for chelsea imo. Zouma needs first team action to really assess his ability. In france, he wasnt really that great reading the game, but people were also enamored by his athletic ability and age. Kind of like lukaku was...

the one thing is that their isnt that many cbs in the market that can replace jt, which is the problem.

[Chelsea Legend 11 4,062]

cahill ranked best defender in the Premier League

http://sportwitness.ning.com/forum/topics/chelsea-star-ranked-best-defender-in-the-premier-league

Who's doing the voting?

[Chelsea Legend 11 4,062]

LOLOLOL... we had not conceded a goal for over 400 minutes and yet one of our CBs was "piss" poor for a month...

some people!!!

Cahill's been garbage I don't see what the argument for him could be. With Matic in front of him the exposure was minimized but overall Cahill has been a shockingly poor CB. He always looks like he's a deer caught in the headlights, Harry fucking Kane made him look like a school boy for fuck sakes... He's average at best and awful at worst. Zouma isn't ready yet but man I'd like to see him get a few more games...

Jose can't be watching him and saying "yup! Gary is gonna be my rock in the back after JT retires..." No way in hell does Jose feel comfortable with Cahill, he's in the team because he's English and we don't have a lot of capped Englishmen in our squad.

[Chelsea Legend 11 4,062]

Because then we can actually play our best FBs. And whilst he'll probably make the same mistakes at CB - backing off too much and losing concentration - he can't be much worse than Cahill and his staunch fans (including Jose) might actually notice his mistakes.

But Fullbacks haven't been the problem it positioning and pace of our CB's.

[zolayes 14,489]

Who's doing the voting?

strikers from other clubs