Ruben Loftus-Cheek

[LAM09 6,854]

Him ahead of Oscar. I hope Hiddink does the right thing.

[Leif 6,006]

Funny? Or sad?

 

[Special Juan 27,586]

Simply put, sad. The level of performance has been the lowest of the low from this team, and by everyone at one point or another and we still can't give him more time on the field.

It's a fucking piss take.

[Reddish-Blue 2,412]

36 minutes ago, Special Juan said:

Simply put, sad. The level of performance has been the lowest of the low from this team, and by everyone at one point or another and we still can't give him more time on the field.

It's a fucking piss take.

He should of gone on loan to the Championship rather than sticking around with the Chelsea reserves.

 

[Stats 7,073]

I was watching our U21 game with Spurs the other day and Jody Morris was spot on with what he said. He was basically saying at this point last year, RLC and Baker were ahead of Dele Alli in terms of England level. Alli was not even an U21 international till later on in the season while Baker and RLC were in the squad often. However because Alli has gone to a PL club where he is given chances, he is now overtaken them and seems a certainty to be on that plane to France while RLC will not even be a contender. Baker has been playing, albeit he seems to have been dropped by Vitesse first 11 for a few weeks now and it is in an inferior league so he too will not be a contender for England.

However if RLC was at Spurs right now and Alli was here, Alli would no way be in the England reckoning because quite frankly, he would not play.

 

And it is not doubt Morris who watches RLC closely, believes he can make the same rise as Alli. This is what he said:

"Ruben has had a couple of runs in the team and I think he’s a top, top player. If you look at the attributes, he’s got all the attributes. It’s just how he progresses. Obviously, that’s down to him getting a few chances and down to himself, so it will be interesting to see how he does progress. But for me, he has got everything you need to become a top player. Dele Alli’s rise has been incredibly fast and why can’t Ruben do it?"

 

 

[Special Juan 27,586]

If he had got good game time we could be in a good position to judge him, he hasn't, so we are left to judge on him bit part roles.

Alli has gone and got game game time because he is trusted and the management have shown faith in him. I will tell you why Ruben can't do it, because the management and big wigs at this club have no balls what so ever, if they had the lad would be playing a lot more now because the performances from our midfield lads has been nothing short of tragic. There is no way on gods green earth RLC can be any worse than Matic has been this season.

It's an absolute travesty what we have seen this season with this football club and it's also a complete joke the lack of time this kid has been given to show what he can do.

 

[Weckerz 3,781]

Without wanting to sound overly critical:

He's quality but fuck me he's 20 years old and jogs around the pitch like he doesn't care. He'd be twice the player if he showed some urgency.

He's fine going forward but I wouldn't trust him to be our CM as of now, in that regard I agree with Jose.

Maybe it's just me though; perhaps he lacks matchfitness

[OhForAGreavsie 5,904]

14 minutes ago, Weckerz said:

he's 20 years old and jogs around the pitch like he doesn't care. He'd be twice the player if he showed some urgency.

That's not the problem. The problem is that I was saying this about Ruben three years ago and it's still necessary for it to be said. The blame for this cannot belong to Ruben alone. His coaches have undoubtedly tried to help him but whatever they have tried has not succeeded in getting the message across. Ruben won't become the player he could be unless he unlocks that urgency.

One slight, but I think vitally important, disagreement with you; Ruben is not active enough when we have the ball either.

[lucio 5,418]

i don't agree, saw him chasing back down the wing, and smashing someone off the ball. not everyone has to bee a workhorse. team looks better with him in it. i thought our midfield selection was perfect today. oscar cesc, matic, rlc  

[OhForAGreavsie 5,904]

13 minutes ago, lucio said:

i don't agree, saw him chasing back down the wing, and smashing someone off the ball. not everyone has to bee a workhorse. team looks better with him in it. i thought our midfield selection was perfect today. oscar cesc, matic, rlc  

I agree, not everyone needs to be a workhorse but Ruben does need to be more active. He does jog around too often when he ought to be getting on his bike, particularly when we are in possession. When we're on top Ruben needs to get on the ball more and have a bigger influence on the game. There has been some improvement in as much as we are now complaining about him jogging. When I first observed, and commented on, this behaviour he would often walk. This is not wrong and it is not an exaggeration. Ruben would do something classy in development games then walk while watching play move on and drift away from him. I wanted, and want, to see him follow the ball to support play or get beyond. Waiting for him to do it was often very frustrating.

As I wrote a few months ago, he has quality and time. The sooner he sorts this the better however.

[manpe 10,861]

Maybe he has really bad stamina and is conserving himself? This would explain why he's not used more often or for full games (except today, where being active wasn't that necessary). But the way he plays when he has the ball is great, he's a really menacing physical presence, but this is not enough to break through in the PL. I agree, at the moment he's best suited as CAM, not CM.

EDIT: I thought he was great today, championship level is too easy for him.

[lucio 5,418]

Ruben Loftus-Cheek ‏@rubey_lcheek  28m28 minutes ago

Great win! First 90 mins for myself in a while. Well done to @oscar8 on his hatrick

 

not going to be sprinting after everything when he barely gets game time. needs to conserve energy to impress in final third. play him regular if you wan;t peak energy and application 

[robsblubot 3,595]

9 hours ago, Weckerz said:

Without wanting to sound overly critical:

He's quality but fuck me he's 20 years old and jogs around the pitch like he doesn't care. He'd be twice the player if he showed some urgency.

He's fine going forward but I wouldn't trust him to be our CM as of now, in that regard I agree with Jose.

Maybe it's just me though; perhaps he lacks matchfitness

Mikel has been tutoring him...

[chelseafan26 293]

Had a brilliant game in my opinion. On the ball, he is just brilliant. Needs to make those runs though, specially when he is playing as a no.10. But that aspect is going to come with experience.

[CHOULO19 24,332]

Thought he showed some very good flashes, but I'm not going to lie, I'm not a big fan of that performance. Maybe he was given sort of a free role by the manager but his lack of desire to track back and hold position when needed would have definitely cost us against better opposition. 

[scargo 75]

He don't know how to run? so lazy.

[OhForAGreavsie 5,904]

On 31/01/2016 at 7:35 PM, manpe said:

Maybe he has really bad stamina and is conserving himself? This would explain why he's not used more often or for full games (except today, where being active wasn't that necessary). But the way he plays when he has the ball is great, he's a really menacing physical presence, but this is not enough to break through in the PL. I agree, at the moment he's best suited as CAM, not CM.

EDIT: I thought he was great today, championship level is too easy for him.

I am, and always have been, less worried about Ruben's level of activity when the oppo have possession, than I am about the situation when we have the ball. When Ruben has the ball himself he's fine, but otherwise he's got to up the work rate to make more of an impact. I started to review yesterday's game to look for evidence to back up my comment and didn't have long to wait.

At about 0:01:33 he chased a Fabregas pass down to the corner flag, flicked it over the left back's head and was unlucky not to draw a foul when he was bundled over. Then, at about 0:10:44, he collected a pass from Brana on halfway and dropped a simple, first time, ball back to Matic. In the intervening 9 minutes plus, Ruben touched the ball once. Even then it was not because he engineered himself into the passing pattern. Rather it was because he closed down the left back and got a block in. That's 10% of game time; time during which his team was utterly dominant and created numerous chances.

Yes, it is possible for a player to make important contributions without touching the ball, and yes, any player might experience a passage of play like that from time-to-time. This is not a one-off for Ruben however. I've been banging on about this aspect of his game for three years. This is not about Ruben's team mates failing to pass to him, this is about Ruben working harder to support play, find space and make angles which enable him to receive the ball. Ruben has to be helped to acquire the knack of getting into possession. Only then will what he can do with it make enough of a difference for his team. Even Butch Wilkins noticed and commented on Ruben's lack of involvement yesterday.

Edit: Anyone who has read my opinion on Ruben before will already know this but just to be clear, I'm a huge RLC fan and am desperate that he should make it with Chelsea. If that is to happen, he will have to pay attention to this issue.

[joaosoares 12]

He should get more chances. IMO he looked better than Matic and Mikel this season.