Kurt Zouma

[Tomo 21,685]

9 minutes ago, Jason said:

How about not playing during this second wave, third wave or whatever of the pandemic that has forced countries to go into lockdown again? How about letting players finish the season with their club and let them go play all those international games with their country in the lead-up to the Euros next year (similar to what happened after the restart last season at club level with the domestic and European competitions), instead of risking everyone's health with all the unnecessary travelling, going from one team's bubble to another etc?

If we want to play international football right now, fine, then play only the competitive matches. Why have another stupid friendly on top of the competitive games? International managers, especially, often complain about players being worn out by the time they get to a summer tournament and all and here they are, organizing a friendly, a needless match that risks the players to the virus, to injury etc in this already congested season. How is this even logical?

Like it or not, the pandemic has forced people to change the way they do things, has forced people to adapt to the circumstances, has maybe forced people to do things in a way that they probably don't normally do. People shouldn't act like everything is still normal and try to force things to look normal right now. Nothing is normal at the moment. 

Football has adapted, they're playing without a crowd (or in some country's reduced numbers), putting tight safety measures in to protect players which has worked excellently (football wouldn't have got the green light to resume let alone carry on during lockdown 2.0 had they not) and players have to follow strict rules when away for a match (for example no one would have raised an eyebrow at Greenwood and Foden getting a bit horny in normal times). Also every player will be tested before they switch from club to International bubbles.

Furthermore is players playing for international's (most of whom in country's significantly better off than England right now) any more "outrageous" than letting Everton or Liverpool (in the country's hot spot) host for example Southampton (where there's no real problems with the virus at this point).

Footballers are safer than they've ever been right now.

[Jase 43,479]

14 minutes ago, Tomo said:

Football has adapted, they're playing without a crowd (or in some country's reduced numbers), putting tight safety measures in to protect players which has worked excellently (football wouldn't have got the green light to resume let alone carry on during lockdown 2.0 had they not) and players have to follow strict rules when away for a match (for example no one would have raised an eyebrow at Greenwood and Foden getting a bit horny in normal times). Also every player will be tested before they switch from club to International bubbles.

Furthermore is players playing for international's (most of whom in country's significantly better off than England right now) any more "outrageous" than letting Everton or Liverpool (in the country's hot spot) host for example Southampton (where there's no real problems with the virus at this point).

We've gone through this before. Going from one team's bubble to another is always gonna be risky because we don't know how the other team's procedure and protocols over the virus. As we have seen across the top leagues or leagues within a country, the procedure and protocols aren't the same. Some appear to be done less rigorously than others. What happens if one country plays another smaller country and that smaller country don't have a proper testing in place and their players happen to have the virus, end up affecting the other team's players? Then what?

14 minutes ago, Tomo said:

Footballers are safer than they've ever been right now.

That's not true and you know it. We have seen many cases among clubs in Serie A, Ligue 1 recently. We have also seen an outbreak at Shakhtar Donetsk, Dynamo Kiev, Ajax for example that forced them to play weakened teams in the Champions League. There are also other examples. 

[Tomo 21,685]

8 minutes ago, Jason said:

 Some appear to be done less rigorously than others. What happens if one country plays another smaller country and that smaller country don't have a proper testing in place and their players happen to have the virus, end up affecting the other team's players? Then what?

If we start playing what if's we may aswell just shut football down again just to be on the "safe" side.

10 minutes ago, Jason said:

That's not true and you know it. We have seen many cases among clubs in Serie A, Ligue 1 recently. We have also seen an outbreak at Shakhtar Donetsk, Dynamo Kiev, Ajax for example that forced them to play weakened teams in the Champions League. There are also other examples. 

Safe as in terms of the measures being taken mean that they're almost certainly clear of Covid when they're on the pitch and they're also a lot less likely to pick up the standard illnesses aswell as pre Covid most players would have soldiered on if they feel like shit whereas now they won't be allowed to chance it.

Yes players have caught it but if anything that strengthens my point about how strong the safety measures are and that it can be caught at club level just as much as International.

[Jase 43,479]

6 minutes ago, Tomo said:

If we start playing what if's we may aswell just shut football down again just to be on the "safe" side.

Safe as in terms of the measures being taken mean that they're almost certainly clear of Covid when they're on the pitch and they're also a lot less likely to pick up the standard illnesses aswell as pre Covid most players would have soldiered on if they feel like shit whereas now they won't be allowed to chance it.

Yes players have caught it but if anything that strengthens my point about how strong the safety measures are and that it can be caught at club level just as much as International.

The virus may not even show up in players when the test is being done given there is an incubation period. We should be minimizing the risk of players getting the virus as much as possible (on top of not being overplayed) but here we are, trying to increase the risks.

And this is not about playing 'what ifs'. It's about taking pre-emptive measures, making pre-emptive decisions rather than only react to it when it's too late. 

[Vesper 27,437]

Everton and Tottenham ‘sent offers’ for player this summer – Club wanted close to €45m

http://sportwitness.co.uk/everton-tottenham-kurt-zouma-chelsea-transfer-rejected-45m/

 

Everton and Tottenham ‘sent offers’ to sign Kurt Zouma from Chelsea this summer, but saw their efforts rejected by the Blues.

That’s according to L’Equipe, who cover the player’s situation with France following his impressive displays for Chelsea.

The French centre back has established himself as the first choice alongside Thiago Silva at the beginning of this season and, a couple of blips aside, has earned rave reviews.

His displays have seen him return to the France setup for this international break and L’Equipe explain that the player knows this could be his last chance to impress, with a new generation waiting in the wings to replace him.

He needs to leave his mark, ‘as he has been doing in his club for the past few months’ where he has ‘won over’ Frank Lampard.

Things, though, could have been very different. The newspaper reveals that both Tottenham and Everton ‘sent offers’ for Zouma this summer and he would not have ‘looked unfavourably’ on ‘starting a new cycle’ at either club.

However, these approaches were rejected by Chelsea, who made it clear they wanted ‘nearly €45m’ if they were to sanction a sale.

That presumably never happened given he ended up staying, and it’s ended up working in everyone’s favour, with Zouma establishing himself with Chelsea instead.

It’s not surprising to see both of these clubs linked, though.

Everton remain admirers after Zouma’s loan spell there under Marco Silva, and Mourinho actually signed Zouma for Chelsea back in 2014.

There’s an established relationship with both clubs, but given they got the centre backs they needed from the Championship instead – in Ben Godfrey and Joe Rodon – it would be surprising to see this rumour come back again.

[NikkiCFC 7,635]

New contract it seems. Well deserved. He really won me over in the last 12 months.

Unlike him, Chris and Rudi should be sold. Next summer is the last chance to cash in with both having contracts expiring in 2022. 

Silva will get +1 option so we will have him next season no doubt.

Not sure it is good for young player like Tomori to sit on the bench so maybe he should go on loan.

So for next season: Silva, Zouma, maybe Tomori and we should buy new CB or maybe even two.

Ginter is possible, we should try swap for Chris, he already played there.

[OneMoSalah 8,619]

On 06/11/2020 at 0:58 PM, Jason said:

The virus may not even show up in players when the test is being done given there is an incubation period. We should be minimizing the risk of players getting the virus as much as possible (on top of not being overplayed) but here we are, trying to increase the risks.

And this is not about playing 'what ifs'. It's about taking pre-emptive measures, making pre-emptive decisions rather than only react to it when it's too late. 

The thing is, regardless of club or international football, if you have one you need to have the other. It’s unfortunately that simple. Friendlies or not.

International friendlies not being played could also be argued as why did clubs play pre season friendlies also? Yes international friendlies are a bit annoying and have been for a huge time but they allow managers to do what club managers do in pre seasons, change team line ups, try new systems etc in the run up to competitive games or tournaments.

If we start saying only play club football and not internationals, will it be long before someone turns around and says why are teams playing in the CL or Europa League as this could also increase the risk of catching COVID? Travelling for a footballer can be from a coach from London to Liverpool or a god knows how many hrs flight to Baku. Your still going to be slightly at risk either way despite all the safeguards and actions put in place because the nature of this virus is that you can catch it anywhere, its basically world wide, its not limited to one place so be it needless friendlies, competitive games in domestic leagues or European matches, it doesnt really make a difference where its played or what sort of games it is because your still just as likely to catch COVID going to play Chelsea v Brighton than you are going to play for Brazil v Argentina or something. Its not like most European teams and international teams are not taken precautions because they will understand players may be going through 3 or 4 airports to get to wherever they have to go also and ultimately they want to ensure the players they’ve picked are going to be able to play.

The likes of this Ajax, Shakhtar cases etc could of just been sheer unluckiness or could have stemmed from an incident which we seen with Tammy Abraham and Ben Chilwell having a gathering for Tammy’s birthday. All the precautions being in place is good but players need to follow them. Even then it could be a member of staff that catches it. Also you look at who these guys are at home with wives/girlfriends etc. What are their jobs? Are any of them nurses, doctors or school teachers etc? Its not necessarily just down to travelling. Then if one gets it goes to training and gives it to someone else or 7 other people, you cannot just cancel football. 

Also players will undoubtedly want to play international football, theres no bigger feat to most footballers than playing for their country. Even if they play for clubs like Chelsea, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, lets not forget how big international football is to players. You’d say win a CL at club level or win a World Cup and 99/100 would say World Cup.

I can see the argument for the overplaying side of it with shorter pre seasons etc but we are in a league which is so financially profitable now because of television rights so its not exactly as the Premier League didn't bring this upon clubs. Obviously nobody overseen this virus coming but they've always fucked clubs for scheduling and it wont stop if it stands in the way of them making mega money unfortunately. 

[Jase 43,479]

9 hours ago, OneMoSalah said:

The thing is, regardless of club or international football, if you have one you need to have the other. It’s unfortunately that simple. Friendlies or not.

International friendlies not being played could also be argued as why did clubs play pre season friendlies also? Yes international friendlies are a bit annoying and have been for a huge time but they allow managers to do what club managers do in pre seasons, change team line ups, try new systems etc in the run up to competitive games or tournaments.

If we start saying only play club football and not internationals, will it be long before someone turns around and says why are teams playing in the CL or Europa League as this could also increase the risk of catching COVID? Travelling for a footballer can be from a coach from London to Liverpool or a god knows how many hrs flight to Baku. Your still going to be slightly at risk either way despite all the safeguards and actions put in place because the nature of this virus is that you can catch it anywhere, its basically world wide, its not limited to one place so be it needless friendlies, competitive games in domestic leagues or European matches, it doesnt really make a difference where its played or what sort of games it is because your still just as likely to catch COVID going to play Chelsea v Brighton than you are going to play for Brazil v Argentina or something. Its not like most European teams and international teams are not taken precautions because they will understand players may be going through 3 or 4 airports to get to wherever they have to go also and ultimately they want to ensure the players they’ve picked are going to be able to play.

The likes of this Ajax, Shakhtar cases etc could of just been sheer unluckiness or could have stemmed from an incident which we seen with Tammy Abraham and Ben Chilwell having a gathering for Tammy’s birthday. All the precautions being in place is good but players need to follow them. Even then it could be a member of staff that catches it. Also you look at who these guys are at home with wives/girlfriends etc. What are their jobs? Are any of them nurses, doctors or school teachers etc? Its not necessarily just down to travelling. Then if one gets it goes to training and gives it to someone else or 7 other people, you cannot just cancel football. 

Also players will undoubtedly want to play international football, theres no bigger feat to most footballers than playing for their country. Even if they play for clubs like Chelsea, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, lets not forget how big international football is to players. You’d say win a CL at club level or win a World Cup and 99/100 would say World Cup.

I can see the argument for the overplaying side of it with shorter pre seasons etc but we are in a league which is so financially profitable now because of television rights so its not exactly as the Premier League didn't bring this upon clubs. Obviously nobody overseen this virus coming but they've always fucked clubs for scheduling and it wont stop if it stands in the way of them making mega money unfortunately. 

I don't know why you went on a long rant because no one is saying international matches should be cancelled entirely but since we aren't living in normal circumstances, adjustments should be made. We shouldn't try to pretend like things are normal, when it isn't.

You're not wrong in what you said about international friendlies but just what is the point of them now, in this congested season, when managers don't even have their full squad available and/or are saving their first team players for the competitive games? The international friendlies are nothing more than to make money. IIRC, there weren't even any international friendlies - in addition to 2 other matches - being scheduled during these international breaks in previous years. Usually, it's just the 2 competitive games or 1 friendly and 1 competitive game. But this season, with the congested schedule, football federations and national teams thought it was a good idea to have 3 fixtures crammed into the international break. It's just like Kroos said yesterday, football players are just puppets to FIFA and UEFA. 

Euro play-offs need to be played? Fine. World Cup qualifiers need to be played? Also fine. It's not ideal in the current situation but at least somewhat understandable. However, just what is the point of playing the Nations League and friendlies? 

[OneMoSalah 8,619]

13 hours ago, Jason said:

I don't know why you went on a long rant because no one is saying international matches should be cancelled entirely but since we aren't living in normal circumstances, adjustments should be made. We shouldn't try to pretend like things are normal, when it isn't.

You're not wrong in what you said about international friendlies but just what is the point of them now, in this congested season, when managers don't even have their full squad available and/or are saving their first team players for the competitive games? The international friendlies are nothing more than to make money. IIRC, there weren't even any international friendlies - in addition to 2 other matches - being scheduled during these international breaks in previous years. Usually, it's just the 2 competitive games or 1 friendly and 1 competitive game. But this season, with the congested schedule, football federations and national teams thought it was a good idea to have 3 fixtures crammed into the international break. It's just like Kroos said yesterday, football players are just puppets to FIFA and UEFA. 

Euro play-offs need to be played? Fine. World Cup qualifiers need to be played? Also fine. It's not ideal in the current situation but at least somewhat understandable. However, just what is the point of playing the Nations League and friendlies? 

Its as you said, money making above all regardless. Same with PL Christmas schedule. Same with World Cup in Qatar being played in the middle of a season etc etc. 

Nations League is a bit odd aye. Again though, any chance for $$$.

The Euro 2020 play offs to go to a tournament, for Scotland, for Northern Ireland etc is a different story, its another chance to qualify for teams and can see why there shouldn’t or wouldnt be any objections. 

But overall even with the ever more so gruelling scheduling, they will not let us have club football without internationals friendlies included, as you’ve mentioned again the money side of it is a big factor also as well as letting teams use it to try things out as clubs do in pre-season. Obviously with UEFA and FIFA I would say right now money is the more important factor.

[Jase 43,479]

1 minute ago, OneMoSalah said:

Its as you said, money making above all regardless. Same with PL Christmas schedule. Same with World Cup in Qatar being played in the middle of a season etc etc. 

Nations League is a bit odd aye. Again though, any chance for $$$.

The Euro 2020 play offs to go to a tournament, for Scotland, for Northern Ireland etc is a different story, its another chance to qualify for teams and can see why there shouldn’t or wouldnt be any objections. 

But overall even with the ever more so gruelling scheduling, they will not let us have club football without internationals friendlies included, as you’ve mentioned again the money side of it is a big factor also as well as letting teams use it to try things out as clubs do in pre-season. Obviously with UEFA and FIFA I would say right now money is the more important factor.

But it's still stupid. It's stupid that we are at a point where making money is taking more importance than the players' wellbeing. What's there to enjoy in the "product" if the best players are injured or aren't at their best because they are being asked to play A LOT of games in a season? Without the players, all these stakeholders won't have any money to make. It's as Kroos said, the players are just puppets to those who makes these decisions. 

[OneMoSalah 8,619]

2 hours ago, Jason said:

But it's still stupid. It's stupid that we are at a point where making money is taking more importance than the players' wellbeing. What's there to enjoy in the "product" if the best players are injured or aren't at their best because they are being asked to play A LOT of games in a season? Without the players, all these stakeholders won't have any money to make. It's as Kroos said, the players are just puppets to those who makes these decisions. 

Its not as if this is the first season its been happening regarding the schedule. For over 10 years particularly in the PL and other British leagues the scheduling has been brutal and thats due to the money side of it now. COVID yes is a new element but it was the same with the whole swine flu incident also. By the looks of it, unfortunately, its just a matter of like it or lump it because it will take some incredible to stop football matches at the cost of losing that much money.

Even more so its like it or lump it for football players who are paid to play football and make more money than is imaginable for how ever much % of people on the planet. Yes its shit and yes theres more to money and whatever else in life such as your health and yes it sucks that there is pointless games such as friendlies and that its a congested fixture list but lets not forget they have the perks of having much better safeguards in place for COVID, more regular and easier access to testing for COVID than the millions of people around the world who watch football as well as the obvious other perks being a footballer has. They wanted football back like we did, so realistically what did they expect to happen? Euros have to be played this year also so the congested fixtures wont stop when the seasons done either. 

Football is effectively a business so after the months on end of some leagues not playing and losing revenues and stuff, teams and countries will want to play games to start making money from TV deals etc. If anyone was naive enough to think they’d stop friendlies and shit instead of wanting to be making money, well, as I said naive. They will never put footballers because the money they’d stand to lose would be hugely significant. 

[NikkiCFC 7,635]

 

[killer1257 3,282]

 

Zouma is so underrated.

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[Vesper 27,437]

CIES Football Observatory
n°313 - 16/11/2020

Weekly Post
Performance
Best heading defenders: Zouma at the top, Maguire 3rd

https://football-observatory.com/IMG/sites/b5wp/2020/wp313/en/

Issue number 313 of the CIES Football Observatory Weekly Post presents the 100 players from the 10 best European leagues who won the highest percentage of aerial defensive duels since the start of the season. Chelsea’s centre-back Kurt Zouma tops the table with 26 aerial duels won out of 27 (96.3%). Berat Djimsiti (Atalanta) and Harry Maguire (Manchester United) complete the podium.

Often criticised by his own supporters, the English international Harry Maguire lost only three defensive aerial duels out of 30. With 90% of defensive aerial duels won, he has the second best ratio in the Premier League ahead of Yerry Mina (Everton), James Tarkowski (Burnley), Jonny Evans (Leicester City) and Tyrone Mings (Aston Villa).

The five youngest footballers in the top 100 are all born in the year 2000: Loïc Badé (RC Lens), Matteo Lovato (Hellas Verona), Arthur Theate (Ostende), Sven Botman (LOSC Lille) and Tommy St. Jago (Utrecht). Only players having won at least 20 defensive aerial duels were included in the rankings elaborated using the data of our partners InStat.

Percentage of aerial defensive duels won

Top 10 European leagues (UEFA ranking). At least 20 defensive aerial duels won since the start of the season.

[Vesper 27,437]

31 minutes ago, killer1257 said:

Zouma is so underrated.

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the issue with him is that he only is effective to an adequate level with a lead the line, WC ball playing and positionally superb CB partner like Thiago Silva

even if we get 2 more years of of Thiago (and that last year, with Silva turning 38yo in the beginning is iffy) we still need to find a partner of similar skillsets for Zouma

that is going to be insanely hard unless we are talking about dumping £80m to £100m or so for a José Giménez type.

those types of players are incredibly rare, look at how long it took us to get one, and we only got him because he is 36yo

we had better start hunting for one

summer 2022 is surely the last window to bag one before Thiago starts to be phased out (as he will be 38yo for most all of that coming season) or at least playing his last full season as a starter

I do not see Malang Sarr becoming that type, unfortunately

Xavier Mbuyamba is only 18yo, and also had a bad knee injury, and probably will not be truly up to (IF he indeed as good as he appears) being a line leading CB for at least 3 years. or so (who really knows, it is so murky atm)

[Jase 43,479]

 

[Vesper 27,437]

Frank Lampard names the surprise Chelsea player he knew would be a 'big deal' when he took over

The 26-year-old has been a firm fixture in the starting XI this season

https://www.football.london/chelsea-fc/players/kurt-zouma-chelsea-frank-lampard-19410750

Frank Lampard has hailed the performances of Kurt Zouma and insists that he always knew the Chelsea defender would be a ‘big deal’ for him.

The 26-year-old had previously had a tough time with the Blues, suffering a serious ACL injury before being loaned out to Stoke City and Everton.

However, last season he was brought back into the first team, and this season he has a constant figure at the back.

The France international has started ten of the 11 Premier League games and formed a formidable partnership with Thiago Silva at centre-back.

[robsblubot 3,263]

Match(sic) against city showcased all my concerns with Zouma's passing. He's a good defender, but the game nowadays demands a bit more than that in a CB.

I don't feel as strongly as I once did that the others in the squad should be playing instead of him, but an upgrade here would help us reach the next level esp against strongest opposition.

Thinking someone like Soyuncu depending how well he recovers from his injury (though he's young enough for that).