Willian

[LAM09 6,750]

I am so done with Willian, lol.

Wake me up the next time he scores/assists. Oh wait, we shouldn't expect that from Willian, he's in the team for "balance". So i'm guessing because we didn't concede today Willian must have played great.

You ain't the only one. This balance nonsense is getting on my nerves. Where was the "balance" against Tottenham?!

His stats for a RWF must be amongst the worst in the Prem, and to make matters worse; he cost £30m!

It's unbelievable.

[Tomo 21,733]

I am so done with Willian, lol.

Wake me up the next time he scores/assists. Oh wait, we shouldn't expect that from Willian, he's in the team for "balance". So i'm guessing because we didn't concede today Willian must have played great.

Ok, let's tell our winger's never to track back.

So who will help Ivan out when Baines and Piennar are bombing forward and combining on the left?

[BlueLion. 21,491]

We should change his song to "He hates woodwork".

[Shakez 755]

I am so done with Willian, lol.

Wake me up the next time he scores/assists. Oh wait, we shouldn't expect that from Willian, he's in the team for "balance". So i'm guessing because we didn't concede today Willian must have played great.

A player played well, and was involved in 2 of the goals while covering for both fullbacks. This gives players like Hazard/Oscar/Cesc alot of freedom to do what they do best. Heck he even played better than Hazard this match (who was invisible in the first half), for our system to work we need good pressers. I see Costa, Willian, Matic do that alot every game they play, Oscar too. But not at the same intensity and speed as Willian does.

Mourinho likes him and goes as far to say that he always gives a performance. Next time watch the game before you come here spouting bullshit.

[CHOULO19 24,332]

We should change his song to "He hates woodwork".

Looked more to me like "he hates scoring"!

[Henrique 9,133]

Willian's one-touch play is generally very good, probably because he doesn't have time to think.

Towards the start of the second half today Willian had the ball on a counter attack and he was in a good position running down the right wing. Men were arriving in the box unmarked and he had several good options available to him but he hit it out for a corner. That's typical Willian. He had a good game today and was unlucky not to score but you can see evidence of his poor decision making (low football IQ) in pretty much every game.

To be honest you can tell everything you want about Willian, but to be honest saying he never chooses the right option is a pretty stupid thing to say about him. Its not a surprise people saying nonsensical things in this topic are typical Xurli fan-boys The worst aspect of Willian's game is the amount of times he hide behind defenders instead of trying to avoid the opposition defense, and the amount of times he decides to make a simple pass instead of shooting on goal, but thats is really changing in recent games.

[Henrique 9,133]

I am so done with Willian, lol.

Wake me up the next time he scores/assists. Oh wait, we shouldn't expect that from Willian, he's in the team for "balance". So i'm guessing because we didn't concede today Willian must have played great.

I'm done with that kind of stupid comment, if you can't see Willians importance in 2nd and 4th goals only because he was not the last one to make the final pass and then get one more score in the "assistances" stats, then I'm done with you. I bet you didn't even watched the game.

[Hamilton 2,120]

Love his workrate but we can expect more from our rw imo

[The Rising Sun 710]

tries to hit the ball too hard almost every time he gets a chance at goal.

He is making himself the prime candidate to be replaced in the starting 11 this summer.

We need more quality and goals/assists from an attacking player on the RW, and at some point of time, his "effort", which is respected by everyone, is not enough anymore.

Just to give an example of another player who makes similar effort as willian, SANCHEZ.

If we had Hazard Oscar Sanchez as our front 3 with Costa. That is what will happen this summer IMO. A new RW for sure.

[Magic Lamps 11,653]

A worthy successor of Maloud and King Kalou in Chelsea's proud tradition of defensive wingers.

After closely watching him vs Swansea and rewatching some material from last season I think I have identified his main strengths and weaknesses and most common patterns of play. I know most of you are probably aware but I would like to summarize them once again.

+He always tracks the fullback (yay) and sometimes even tackles.

+He can shift the ball to his right rather quickly

+When he has space he usually carries the ball a good 30 yards forward with his pace and dribbling skills

+has a really neat technique

+when his best passing option is obvious he always delivers a pin point pass

+delivers the pass to the assist extremely often (twice vs swans e.g.). If this stat would be counted he would lead it.

-if he has no space or no clear option what to do he always does something stupid

-if he wants to shoot or cross he always shifts the ball to his right and runs after it. Every defender knows this

-he has almost no end product

-has really bad luck

-awful set pieces

-aimless crosses even if they pass the marker

-horrendous decision making

Whether it is low-football IQ or Jose telling him to limits himself offensively it is just not effective enough to warrant a starting place. And I don't believe this balance shit either. It is not that he is Philipp Lahm on the wing. Kalou also tracked back every time. Still he had some end product. Willian is just predictable. If he would at least go to his left at times - just for variety. On the other hand he is smooth in his movement and passing, keeping the game flow, so I see why Mou likes him. But even for that he has too many turnovers. I still hope he will have that stand out season like Malouda in 2009/10 in his late 20ies when suddenly all his tricks came off and he was one of our better players. But until and after then we should look for better alternatives.

[Hkibou 622]

+delivers the pass to the assist extremely often (twice vs swans e.g.). If this stat would be counted he would lead it.

I was very circonspect when I read your assumption, so I decided to do the research and verify it.

First of all, I dont see where you count two pre-assists for Wilian vs Swans. First goal, no pre-assist ; second goal Oscar's pre-assist (Wilian's pass is pre-pre-assist ^^) ; third goal no pre-assist ; fourth goal Willian pre-assist ; fifth goal Hazard's pre-assist.

So as for my research, I based it on the video below + Highlights against Tottenham, Watford, Newcastle and finally Swansea.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fyu-PD-nnHs

The research is a bit incomplete because in the first video one can't always see who made the pre-assist. For some I looked at a highlight video of the game, but couldn't find some of them. But I dare say that 90% of the pre-assists are taken into account in my research.

As for the methodology, I counted as pre-assist every last pass before an assist EXCEPT when it is clear that the last pass before the assist had nothing to do whatsoever with the make-up of the goal. For example I considered that Terry giving an easy 5 yards pass to Fabregas in midfield, then followed by a 40 yards pass from Fabregas who spotted Costa's run does not count as pre-assist from Terry. It's all thanks to Fabregas imo.

Also, I counted a pre-assist even when the pre-assister is also the scorer. For example Hazard's goal against Tottenham, with a beautiful one-two with Fabregas : Hazard is credited one pre-assist, even though he also scored. Seemed fair to me.

So here are the results :

Hazard : 14 pre-assists

Fabregas : 6 pre-assists (four of them are from corners : Fabregas takes the corner, someone heads the ball toward the far-post, and another one pushes the ball in the net)

Costa : 4 pre-assists

Ivanovic : 3 pre-assists

Wilian : 3 pre-assists (one against Maribor, the quick corner against Newcastle, one against Swansea... and that's all)

Oscar : 2 pre-assists

Luis : 1 pre-assist

Cahill : 1 pre-assist

So, your assumption is wrong, Willian is nowhere near leading the "pre-assist competition", Hazard is by far the leader.

And I have been quite gentle with Willian, because I counted a pre-assist against Maribor where it shouldn't have been counted. It's a pre-assist for Filipe Luis, who crosses for Hazard, and it ended up with an own goal of a Maribor's defender : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9pB2OXKAGFA

2m10 in this video you can see the goal I'm talking about, I thought he deserved to be credited a pre-assist because he helped set-up the goal very much, but technically it is not a pre-assist.

Some observations from this research : Oscar has only two pre-assist (the one against Swansea for Fabregas' assist), and Matic has none ! I really didn't expect these results from both these players.

[Barbara 15,149]

I was very circonspect when I read your assumption, so I decided to do the research and verify it.

First of all, I dont see where you count two pre-assists for Wilian vs Swans. First goal, no pre-assist ; second goal Oscar's pre-assist (Wilian's pass is pre-pre-assist ^^) ; third goal no pre-assist ; fourth goal Willian pre-assist ; fifth goal Hazard's pre-assist.

So as for my research, I based it on the video below + Highlights against Tottenham, Watford, Newcastle and finally Swansea.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fyu-PD-nnHs

The research is a bit incomplete because in the first video one can't always see who made the pre-assist. For some I looked at a highlight video of the game, but couldn't find some of them. But I dare say that 90% of the pre-assists are taken into account in my research.

As for the methodology, I counted as pre-assist every last pass before an assist EXCEPT when it is clear that the last pass before the assist had nothing to do whatsoever with the make-up of the goal. For example I considered that Terry giving an easy 5 yards pass to Fabregas in midfield, then followed by a 40 yards pass from Fabregas who spotted Costa's run does not count as pre-assist from Terry. It's all thanks to Fabregas imo.

Also, I counted a pre-assist even when the pre-assister is also the scorer. For example Hazard's goal against Tottenham, with a beautiful one-two with Fabregas : Hazard is credited one pre-assist, even though he also scored. Seemed fair to me.

So here are the results :

Hazard : 14 pre-assists

Fabregas : 6 pre-assists (four of them are from corners : Fabregas takes the corner, someone heads the ball toward the far-post, and another one pushes the ball in the net)

Costa : 4 pre-assists

Ivanovic : 3 pre-assists

Wilian : 3 pre-assists (one against Maribor, the quick corner against Newcastle, one against Swansea... and that's all)

Oscar : 1 pre-assist

Luis : 1 pre-assist

Cahill : 1 pre-assist

So, your assumption is wrong, Willian is nowhere near leading the "pre-assist competition", Hazard is by far the leader.

And I have been quite gentle with Willian, because I counted a pre-assist against Maribor where it shouldn't have been counted. It's a pre-assist for Filipe Luis, who crosses for Hazard, and it ended up with an own goal of a Maribor's defender : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9pB2OXKAGFA

2m10 in this video you can see the goal I'm talking about, I thought he deserved to be credited a pre-assist because he helped set-up the goal very much, but technically it is not a pre-assist.

Some observations from this research : Oscar has only one pre-assist (the one against Swansea for Fabregas' assist), and Matic has none ! I really didn't expect these results from both these players.

I was going to take a guess and say hazard had at least twice more than Willian and that would be me being nice...

Thanks for that. Unsurprisingly results

[Hkibou 622]

I was going to take a guess and say hazard had at least twice more than Willian and that would be me being nice...

Thanks for that. Unsurprisingly results

You're welcome ! I'm also not surprised to see Hazard at the top. But I thought Oscar and Matic, and to some extent Fabregas (only 2 pre-assists from open play) would have more.

This just shows how Hazard has been paramount to Chelsea's results so far. If we take into account pre-assists, he has been the most decisive player ahead of Fabregas and Costa !

[Rapkun 668]

You're welcome ! I'm also not surprised to see Hazard at the top. But I thought Oscar and Matic, and to some extent Fabregas (only 2 pre-assists from open play) would have more.

This just shows how Hazard has been paramount to Chelsea's results so far. If we take into account pre-assists, he has been the most decisive player ahead of Fabregas and Costa !

I said in another thread (Oscar iirc) where Goals+Assists stats about our players were posted that Eden's stats would look soo much better if they included the pass before the assist. Unfortunately, in football they are generally overlooked and difficult to find. Thanks for posting them.

It's indeed not surprising at all. Our main gameplan going forward is playing small combinations between the players to create space and eventually create a chance. It's better suited to our players profiles and specifically Eden whose biggest asset other than his dribbles are his quick passes/derivations. He's the catalyst of our attacks.

A lot of people are praising Cesc for bringing more creativity into our team, and that's very far from being wrong. but a lot more people are forgetting to credit Eden also. Now that he has one more player with good technical ability to play with, he can express himself better. the blatant example of it is the goal against crystal palace.

Mainly, Eden fails to have good stats because; he's not a good finisher infront of the goal or prefers to pass rather than shoot when he has another teamate. his movement and runs are not there yet but to be fair his partner dont always provide him with the best passes.

He is an insane dribbler, he always create space for the others but his final passes are often missplaced/too strong or he simply made one unecessary dribble. I think he really needs to work on this last aspect of his game if he wants to be more decisive. It's nice to dribble but there has to be something at the end of it.

You often see him cut inside from the left, dribble past 1 or 2 players then fail to deliver that last pass.

PS: sorry for the off-topic, I'll happily continue in the Hazard's thread if needed.

[Rapkun 668]

I don't understand why he stops when he has the ball?

He doesn't have the vista nor the football intelligence to spot the right pass when he gets the ball. He retains it at his feet waiting for someone to ask for a pass or tries to outspeed a defender and then randomly cross the ball. Normally, any good footballer knows what to do with the ball before he receives it. That's obviously not the case with Willian.

[The Skipper 20,593]

I was very circonspect when I read your assumption, so I decided to do the research and verify it.

First of all, I dont see where you count two pre-assists for Wilian vs Swans. First goal, no pre-assist ; second goal Oscar's pre-assist (Wilian's pass is pre-pre-assist ^^) ; third goal no pre-assist ; fourth goal Willian pre-assist ; fifth goal Hazard's pre-assist.

So as for my research, I based it on the video below + Highlights against Tottenham, Watford, Newcastle and finally Swansea.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fyu-PD-nnHs

The research is a bit incomplete because in the first video one can't always see who made the pre-assist. For some I looked at a highlight video of the game, but couldn't find some of them. But I dare say that 90% of the pre-assists are taken into account in my research.

As for the methodology, I counted as pre-assist every last pass before an assist EXCEPT when it is clear that the last pass before the assist had nothing to do whatsoever with the make-up of the goal. For example I considered that Terry giving an easy 5 yards pass to Fabregas in midfield, then followed by a 40 yards pass from Fabregas who spotted Costa's run does not count as pre-assist from Terry. It's all thanks to Fabregas imo.

Also, I counted a pre-assist even when the pre-assister is also the scorer. For example Hazard's goal against Tottenham, with a beautiful one-two with Fabregas : Hazard is credited one pre-assist, even though he also scored. Seemed fair to me.

So here are the results :

Hazard : 14 pre-assists

Fabregas : 6 pre-assists (four of them are from corners : Fabregas takes the corner, someone heads the ball toward the far-post, and another one pushes the ball in the net)

Costa : 4 pre-assists

Ivanovic : 3 pre-assists

Wilian : 3 pre-assists (one against Maribor, the quick corner against Newcastle, one against Swansea... and that's all)

Oscar : 1 pre-assist

Luis : 1 pre-assist

Cahill : 1 pre-assist

So, your assumption is wrong, Willian is nowhere near leading the "pre-assist competition", Hazard is by far the leader.

And I have been quite gentle with Willian, because I counted a pre-assist against Maribor where it shouldn't have been counted. It's a pre-assist for Filipe Luis, who crosses for Hazard, and it ended up with an own goal of a Maribor's defender : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9pB2OXKAGFA

2m10 in this video you can see the goal I'm talking about, I thought he deserved to be credited a pre-assist because he helped set-up the goal very much, but technically it is not a pre-assist.

Some observations from this research : Oscar has only one pre-assist (the one against Swansea for Fabregas' assist), and Matic has none ! I really didn't expect these results from both these players.

Excellent post pal.

[Cescy 40]

...

Thanks for this. Hazard's stat is even higher than I excepted.

Should it not be 2 for Oscar though? @0.53 of your video, he plays a through ball to Ivanovic who gives the assist to Costa.

[JDY 1,290]

I don't understand why he stops when he has the ball?

It can be good and bad at the same time. Why lose the ball unnecessarily doing things 100mph like a Schurrle or Oscar tend to do? But at the same time you can slow the game down and kill momentum, like Hazard also did sometimes.