Axel Witsel

[Marvin123 527]

ive heard he's definatley off to madrid, i could see him there myself tbh

[Hamilton 2,120]

so it will be Real, Milan or City probably..

[Strike 7,474]

not what we need atm. he is more of the direct attacking type. not the schemer we require

[Superblue 6,372]

http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/330483/Chelsea-and-Man-United-to-compete-for-Axel-Witsel-

From what I've heard the lad has massive potential. I haven't seen much of him however. Would he suit here? What type of midfielder is he (which midfielder in our squad does he most closely resemble)?

[mediator 2,026]

I'm belgian and i know him very well, he's got a pure presence into the midfield as Roy Keane did.

This could be THE real superstar of chelsea. The hard work? for him no doubt.

[KonohasOrangeFlash 2,607]

Isn't he more of a combative CM? We need a deep lying playmaker.

[Superblue 6,372]

I'm belgian and i know him very well, he's got a pure presence into the midfield as Roy Keane did.

This could be THE real superstar of chelsea. The hard work? for him no doubt.

So he's an Essien/Mikel type player?

His size and presence looks very similar to Fellaini.

[mediator 2,026]

It's a kind of yaya-touré.

[Spike 12,049]

Isn't he more of a combative CM? We need a deep lying playmaker.

He creates by destroying like Essien or Makélélé. The problems with all this FIFA terminology is that some players can fit the descripctions like a glove whilst others are a hybrid of different positions.

[mediator 2,026]

He can play cm, cam, or RW too. The most versatile player ever. Always 200%, won't never see a bad game of him.

He's got 3 lungs

[Leif 6,006]

I've not seen much of him, but isn't he just a younger version of Meireles pretty much?

[Jype 6,398]

From what I've seen him play he has always impressed me. 10 games or so isn't much but I like him. Benfica value him a bit too highly though.

[TorontoChelsea 4,064]

Haven't seen much of him but I'm starting to get pretty sceptical that all these Belgians are as good as advertised.

[KonohasOrangeFlash 2,607]

Haven't seen much of him but I'm starting to get pretty sceptical that all these Belgians are as good as advertised.

Same could have been said of Spanish players, years ago. Look how that turned out...

[TorontoChelsea 4,064]

Same could have been said of Spainish players, years ago. Look how that turned out...

Spain was very different. Everyone knew Spain was incredibly talented and their national team players were excellent and pretty much all playing at a high level. The problem was that they were always falling apart and under-performing. These were teams filled with fabulous players. Raul, Hierrro, Zubbizaratta, Guardiola etc..They were also making tournaments and doing OK in them but just not winning. They got to the quarter-finals in the World Cup in 86, 94, and 02. They got to the quarter finals in the Euro in 96 and 00. Belgium has not even qualified for their last 5 attempts at the Euro and World Cup. Belgium is currently the 53rd ranked team in the world. It's like comparing England (disappointing, often advance past the group stage, but never win) to Scotland (almost never get in.) Also,this generation of players generally first started playing regularly for Spain around 2004 and really became the core of the squad in 2006 when they made it to the round of 16 in the World Cup. The disappointments belonged to a different generation. On the other hand, it was this generation of Belgian players that finished third in qualifying. It was Fellaini, Hazard, Dembele, Witsel, etc...

My point is that if these Belgian players were all as good as people said they were, they would be cruising through the group stages of the Euro tournament. England won their group and the team was quite poor. I bet if you asked people here who had a more talented squad, many, if not most people would say Belgium but it's not true. I think a lot of this is the tendency to overrate players that we don't see as much which is something that happens constantly when assessing transfers. Now, I think Belgium is likely to make the World Cup. Their qualifying group is very easy and they should be improving, but this past qualifying for the Euro has all of these supposed excellent players and they finished with something like the 22nd best record in qualifying. This is not slight on Witsel or on any particular player for Belgium, just that I can't believe that all these players are great.