Cesc Fàbregas

[bababoom 4,478]

His passing is amazing, whether it's from deep or behind the striker. Yesterday he basically controlled the game from deep. I can't believe anyone would say his 'general passing' isn't great lol that's his main asset.

[BlueLyon 9,359]

are you aware that gives him a 90% in pass accuracy and that's still outstanding?

I don't understand people's instances on Cesc tbh. I understand and can even relate to those having a hard time accepting an ex-Arse skipper at the Bridge. It left a bitter taste in my mouth the first days of the speculation but I was sort of sold already when he was announced and one week later I've changed my favorite player from Hazard to him... That's me, Mrs. Adaptive. I know some people will take longer, especially given his history with Lamps. I get all that. I have a hard time understanding their interpretation of him technically. He has weaknesses just like the next guy, but they seemed a bit overestimated now and some of them don't even match the reality - as for example, the level of his pass. Short, long, easy, under pressure, he's a great passer, his stats state as much and in terms of pass stats don't lie much. Accuracy could be debatable, but in all honesty it isn't because unlike Mikel his passes aren't backwards and to side. He has the best through balls stats, one of the best assists stats - those two stats are 100% precise. There's no taking away from them, just as goals. I don't get how come he isn't a good passer with those stats (although my opinion on him isn't based on them, but they'll make do to backup my point here).

No I didnt meant that. For example Xavi or Alonso or whoever will almost never make a bad simple pass in center of the pitch. Cesc does that occasionaly, giving opponent a chance to counter attack us.

[The Skipper 20,593]

No I didnt meant that. For example Xavi or Alonso or whoever will almost never make a bad simple pass in center of the pitch. Cesc does that occasionaly, giving opponent a chance to counter attack us.

That's not true, plenty of times Xabi Alonso has given bad balls for example, but that's because he's direct and takes risks like Fabregas. Fab is just as good a passer as Alonso.

Xavi not so much maybe but that's because of the tiki taka philosophy, so he doesn't take as many risks as the previous two.

[Fulham Broadway 16,975]

2m more than what the bindippers paid for lallana.

Best signing of the Summer, and we fucking got him. Orrible cunt, but our orrible cunt.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/chelsea/11031433/Chelseas-capture-of-Cesc-Fabregas-is-the-best-Premier-League-signing-of-the-summer.html

[edetarod 2,155]

no matter how good he plays, there is atleast one moment in each game where he gives the ball away in a dangerous area which leads to a chance for the opponent

[Daniel1980 1,425]

^^^ This is an exaggeration.

2m more than what the bindippers paid for lallana.

Best signing of the Summer, and we fucking got him. Orrible cunt, but our orrible cunt.



http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/chelsea/11031433/Chelseas-capture-of-Cesc-Fabregas-is-the-best-Premier-League-signing-of-the-summer.html

Huh, I didn't know this:

Mourinho sees Fabregas as the man who can knit his team together.
Incredibly, Chelsea attempted fewer through-balls for their strikers last season than relegated Norwich and considerably fewer than their title rivals.
They expect Fabregas to address that problem. Manchester City’s David Silva played the most through-balls per game last term, but Fabregas beat his 0.59 average in each of his last five seasons for Barcelona and Arsenal.

That's pretty sad if true.

[BlueLyon 9,359]

That's pretty sad if true.

Torres DOES lack service then

[Myself 793]

Torres DOES lack service then

https://vine.co/v/MYraODMjm9F

hush

[guddy6969 188]

Iceman10 (Forum Member) on Today, 6:06 pm

a_fourteen wrote:Seriously hope we dont boo him at the Emirates like Judas and Nasri. I dont miss him but booing him would be small time. Like Everton do with Arteta.

It all depends on Mourinho and his mind games and whether Cesc feels obliged to play along. Mourinho tried it a few weeks back in terms of saying that Cesc wanted to join Chelsea over Arsenal. Cesc has not played along so far, but that was likely the prelude, and going by the petty way that Mourinho has behaved in the past, inc. with RM Spanish players for having relationships with Barca Spanish players for the good of the NT, Cesc may eventually relent and play along with the mind games out of fear. I hope it does not happen.

GDeep (Forum Member) on Today, 6:21 pm

Cesc is a dirty little rent boy now, hope our fans let that be known... ARSE. :0)

[BlueLyon 9,359]

https://vine.co/v/MYraODMjm9F

hush

I saw that haha the guy is so shit its not even funny anymore

[Chelsea Legend 11 4,062]

His general passing isn't that good?

I think you're overestimating his slowness and I don't think you've watched Cesc Fàbregas enough (and I don't mean this in a patronizing or derogative way) if you say he isn't a general good passer... I'm surprised to read that...

I agree completely with Mourinho. He's the key we were missing in our puzzle (it's easy to talk about striker, because we played with only one last season - and that's summing all three we had together, meaning we had half of one with Samuel and a quarter of one with either Torres or Ba). He takes us to a new level. People label Mourinho as defensive all the time, but a team to afford, need and want a player of Cesc's caliber isn't a team defensive oriented. It's a team willing to take risks, to want to bring it to the next level. His speed on the ball and off the ball isn't that much important when we have a high press system that proved to work really well and players that can offer him cover. We have pace-y players to make runs to receive his balls, so he isn't missed there either. We missed a brain when we had a lot of muscles and a tad of geniality with Hazard, but Cesc is definitely the brain we've missed. We lost that with Mata and Mata didn't do it the way Cesc does (not better, not worse, just differently, although Cesc is way more versatile than Mata). Hazard can have his fun moments of a genius more freely now, there's someone behind him doing all the thinking. Schurrle can hopefully run and move smartly because there's someone to catch him. Oscar can share the burden of being creative (as it isn't natural to him) with someone else. (and for God's sake, I'm not even remotely implying Eden or any of our other AMs don't think, they do, it's just Cesc is a brilliant, fast mind that sees the whole story in his head in seconds, before executing it).

In a nutshell Fabregas is the player we (or at least me) hoped Josh McEachran would've become. Tempo guy who can pick a pass and has a beautiful picture in his head to pick out passes.

Its a shame Josh has regressed so much, really thought Carlo had him looking good early in his career

[Myself 793]

I saw that haha the guy is so shit its not even funny anymore

It's genuinely depressing.

[Stats 7,060]

That's pretty sad if true.

Torres DOES lack service then

They see Torres upfront and realise there is no point of doing a through ball because as usual he probably will do anything but score. His own teammates know he is that bad they are not bothered to even attempt a through ball to him

[Amblève. 4,995]

They see Torres upfront and realise there is no point of doing a through ball because as usual he probably will do anything but score. His own teammates know he is that bad they are not bothered to even attempt a through ball to him

It's pretty depressing I can see this being the truth, lol.

[Madmax 9,219]

It wasn’t something Jose Mourinho was so willing to touch upon last season, and he certainly didn’t mention it as much as he did the obvious flaws up front. Yet, now that Chelsea have made their major change in the area, the Portuguese was better prepared to discuss the other deciding factor that denied his team the 2013-14 English title. There were not just issues at centre-forward. There were also issues in the very centre of the pitch.

“We want to give the next dimension to our game in midfield,” Mourinho said last week. One less charitable description might be that his midfield has finally gone from a flat 2D to a more modern 3D, let alone any dimension beyond that.

The lack of imagination in his central pairing became painfully apparent in the game that probably most cost Chelsea the league, the 2-1 home defeat to Sunderland.

It certainly brought all of their issues to a head.

Although Mourinho so clearly lacked a main striker to put the ball in the net, he also lacked a midfield director to perceptively put the ball in the unseen dangerous areas when other avenues were closed off.

One stark feature of that game - as well as so many others - was the attacking trident of Eden Hazard and two others trying to make things happen but missing the nuance either in front or behind for their efforts to be consistently productive. They too often hit roadblocks. Those attackers could so often have done with a bit more dynamism either side, in order to alleviate the pressure on them to produce, and to let them hurt teams further forward. Chelsea as a whole, meanwhile, could simply have done with someone to suddenly direct the play.

It is no surprise Mourinho apparently asked for that type of deep midfielder last summer, or that there was initial interest in Xabi Alonso.

The stats make the problems as clear as some of the stagnation of their play. Chelsea attempted fewer through balls in the league last season than relegated Norwich - with an average of 1.4 per game - and far fewer than the rest of the top four.

That is all the more surprising because they focussed a higher proportion of their attacking touches through the middle of the pitch (30%) than any other side except Swansea - at 33%. The figures for individuals go even further.

Most conspicuously, none of Chelsea’s main central midfielders except Nemanja Matic even averaged 0.1 through balls per game, but the Serbian arrived halfway through the campaign and tended to occupy the more defensive role.

It is much the same story for key passes per match, with Chelsea’s central midfielders strikingly far down the list. Oscar, who was afforded the central role in the attacking trident most often, averaged only 1.5 per game and picked up just 2 assists

The problems are implicit, but Mourinho has made his solution explicit: their other high-profile signing this summer.

“[Cesc] Fábregas is the player we need to modify a little bit the profile of our game, which we need,” the Chelsea manager finally admitted. “Fábregas is this kind of player which I like to call ‘the seven’, because he’s not the six and he’s not the eight. Normally, the seven is the winger. I also call the 7 the guy in the midfield who’s a six and eight at the same time. So he’s a seven and we need him a lot.”

The stats also indicate that Fábregas is capable of providing a great deal, and certainly what Chelsea have lacked. Although he has not really played in that “seven” role since leaving Arsenal for Barcelona in 2011, due to the positioning of the likes of Xavi pushing him further forward, he is evidently adept at it. His figures make some reading.

If the former Arsenal midfielder can replicate anything like the impressive thrust he showed from his time in the centre while playing at the Emirates, then Mourinho has more than resolved his problem. The combination of Matic and Fábregas certainly looks one of the most complete midfield pairings on paper.

It certainly has so much more nuance than a one-dimensional John Obi Mikel alongside a Frank Lampard far off his driving best. Matic provides the range of movement and muscle, Fábregas then offers that next step that was so conspicuous by its absence over 2013-14.

It could well lead to Chelsea making the key step in 2014-15.

[kellzfresh 7,229]

Each time I read we attempted fewer through balls than Norwich, it bemuses me.

How bad was our lack of movement to get less than 1.5 throughpasses per game?

This is another reason schurlle must start, we need the runs as much as the vision from fabregas.

[MrExcalibur100 7,124]

It's a typical Whoscored "stat attack" article that forces far-fetched stats together to prove a point. I've seen so much nonsense articles like that there. I tend not to take them seriously. For instance, it would have been more helpful if the author compared the stats from 2012/13 to 2013/14 to show it's a recurring problem we've had. The author then draws a conclusion that this must mean a "lack of imagination". The fact that Newcastle are up there in the so-called stat tells you everything you need to know. They were so "imaginative" under Pardew last season of course.

Seriously, the point is our possession based play, movement and attack build up paled in comparison to City and Liverpool last year. Or even Everton, a team with far less flair players and finances. They don't have a Fabregas or Hazard but they play much better than us. That's what we need to improve on drastically. The system. Fabregas might be a great player but just placing him into the starting XI isn't going to fix our problems. But whatever. I remain optimistic for the season of course.

[The only place to be 11,313]

Iceman10 (Forum Member) on Today, 6:06 pm

a_fourteen wrote:Seriously hope we dont boo him at the Emirates like Judas and Nasri. I dont miss him but booing him would be small time. Like Everton do with Arteta.

It all depends on Mourinho and his mind games and whether Cesc feels obliged to play along. Mourinho tried it a few weeks back in terms of saying that Cesc wanted to join Chelsea over Arsenal. Cesc has not played along so far, but that was likely the prelude, and going by the petty way that Mourinho has behaved in the past, inc. with RM Spanish players for having relationships with Barca Spanish players for the good of the NT, Cesc may eventually relent and play along with the mind games out of fear. I hope it does not happen.

GDeep (Forum Member) on Today, 6:21 pm

Cesc is a dirty little rent boy now, hope our fans let that be known... ARSE. :0)

I just think it's hilarious Arsenal fans spend most of their time in big matches booing players who have left and WON stuff.

Such a pathetic little fanbase.