Diego Costa

[rantdeville 195]

10 cards are 2 games ban, does 15 means 3? At this rate we can be looking at that sort of stuff unless Costa stop doing the dirty work.

Geez, now I'm having trouble remembering. But it's something along the lines of accruing yellows in sets of 5, before certain time periods throughout the season. So, it would be like saying 5 yellows by December is the first suspension; 10 before March is the second and 2 games; 15 before June (the end of domestic competition, in theory) is the third and 3 games and then after 15 he has to sit before a board and serve more severe punishments.

Can anyone tell me if I'm close or if I'm just talkin out of my pooper. God knows I've been wrong before -__-

[CHOULO19 24,332]

Jose Mourinho believes Diego Costa is unfairly being booked because referees have a 'certain image' of Chelsea striker

Hard to disagree..

Yes, a couple of his cards have been wrongly awarded, but you can also argue that he's been lucky to escape bookings more than once and even a sending off ve Sunderland. Certainly the last yellow was not unfair if that is what Jose referring to. It was a dive, there are no two ways about it.

[pHaRaOn 2,131]

No way it was a dive. Huddlestone fouled him.

[Flavio 2]

I think some of you missed my point at my first post. Of course Costa has scored an amount of important goals, but almost all of them come when teams are playing well. Yes, there might be one or two moment of rebounds balls, but generally that is what happened until now, at Chelsea. This is my basic point, if you guys couldn't understand or accept this, we're better agree to disagree then because we have a different basic perception of it.

If you understand that point, then go on. What I really mean with not a 'deadlock breaker' striker is that, he is more like a clinical finisher category striker. He needs someone to serve him with a good pass or cross, then he will finish it without problem. Of course some of them might come at the crucial time, or when we're in deadlock situation, I never denied it. And I never said he is shit and try to be ungrateful, unappreciative or something, I just pointed out his style of play, what kind of striker he is. I don't get why people 'furious' with this tbh.

And based on that, after last match, I fully realized and conclude that he is not a 'game changer' striker, because he is so far never stand out when team are struggling (don't asked me why I came out with conclusion only after recent match, I want to making sure of it first, and I think I have enough of assessment from the beginning of season until our last match). When the score are draw and we're struggling, he is barely couldn't create good chances to score, leave alone to found the back of the net suddenly, by his effort alone so far. This is my point, that he is not a 'game changer', 'deadlock breaker' striker or whatever you called it. If after that he then scored, almost sure, it is coming from Fabregas or Hazard or Oscar or Matic brilliant link up of play first, and then send or pass or cross the ball to Costa to finish the job.

Well if some of you still couldn't get it or disagree with it, we're agree to disagree then.

I completely understand where you are coming from. When he's supplied with the right ball he will score. But out of all the goals he scored so far, none were of his solo effort. It's not a complaint; just noting his style of play is all. I really don't get why some people are so upset...

[LDN Blue 7,903]

Yes, a couple of his cards have been wrongly awarded, but you can also argue that he's been lucky to escape bookings more than once and even a sending off ve Sunderland. Certainly the last yellow was not unfair if that is what Jose referring to. It was a dive, there are no two ways about it.

Yea, I don't see a problem to be honest. He's right, Costa is learning and most of his yellows aren't actually that hard to understand, if he was an opposing striker I'm sure we'd be saying that sounds about right.

I don't think he's going to accumulate as many in the second half of the season. It's okay to be aggressive, but there's margins to what extent..

[Tomo 21,733]

When was the last time (before this season) we lost a player for too many bookings in the PL?

I can't recall, this season however we start like a house on fire look really good and 3 if our 4 best players convently get suspended due to too many yellows.

[Barbara 15,149]

When was the last time (before this season) we lost a player for too many bookings in the PL?

I can't recall, this season however we start like a house on fire look really good and 3 if our 4 best players convently get suspended due to too many yellows.

well if the teams can't stop us, someone has to... it's no coincidence imo, many of the yellows our players received were a joke.

[The Chels 2,502]

When was the last time (before this season) we lost a player for too many bookings in the PL?

I can't recall, this season however we start like a house on fire look really good and 3 if our 4 best players convently get suspended due to too many yellows.

One of the problems imo is that the AMs often appear reluctant to make tactical fouls when the opposition are countering us. I've seen Hazard and Willian make weak challenges or pull out completely quite a few times this season even when we're clearly defensively vulnerable. So instead of bookings being spread around the team, Cesc and Matic are forced to make a much higher proportion of fouls and they're picking up cards a lot faster.

[Gilvorak 3,734]

He's a killer and a fantastic finisher but look at 6:09 in this video. Quick return pass there and Eden's through on goal. Drogba plays that pass.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivjZakOZngg

Exactly what I'm talking about when I say his link up play is shit. As I said before his hold up play is excellent but he's terrible at combination football. That's simply something he has to improve on as Cesc, Hazard and Oscar all thrive on 1 touch play.

No idea why people are up in arms whenever you criticize Diego btw. Hazard, Cesc, Oscar, Willian etc all receive criticism, Costa shouldn't be exempt from it either.

[The Skipper 20,593]

No idea why people are up in arms whenever you criticize Diego btw. Hazard, Cesc, Oscar, Willian etc all receive criticism, Costa shouldn't be exempt from it either.

What you've said is fair criticism, it's one aspect of his game that he definitely needs to improve (one-twos, slipping people in and stuff). It's when the criticism is unfair where I'll disagree.

[BlueLyon 9,359]

Apart from some games, our whole attack was positioned bad. Something I think Mou should work on, but just cant. We dont use width, we dont use through balls enough (we have players to do it, but we dont). Our FBs dont get involved in attack enough (except Iva who then goes missing in defense).

Its not just Costa that is at fault in our combination football. Its whole attack, but we can improve and we showed it, but just not enough consistent. We are not fast enough and when you compare us to bvb 2012/2013 (i believe this is what Mou wants to achieve), we lack movement, vision and passing skill big time. Too many individual actions or we play so slow that our players get surrounded and defenses positioned. And then Willian/Costa or sbd loses the ball because he tries on his own and there is no movement around him/or they simply lack visio and skill to pass that ball.

And how many fucking times did player A run near player B with ball, while A should run in open space, away from B and then recieve the ball.

[Whiskey 173]

Apart from some games, our whole attack was positioned bad. Something I think Mou should work on, but just cant. We dont use width, we dont use through balls enough (we have players to do it, but we dont). Our FBs dont get involved in attack enough (except Iva who then goes missing in defense).

Its not just Costa that is at fault in our combination football. Its whole attack, but we can improve and we showed it, but just not enough consistent. We are not fast enough and when you compare us to bvb 2012/2013 (i believe this is what Mou wants to achieve), we lack movement, vision and passing skill big time. Too many individual actions or we play so slow that our players get surrounded and defenses positioned. And then Willian/Costa or sbd loses the ball because he tries on his own and there is no movement around him/or they simply lack visio and skill to pass that ball.

And how many fucking times did player A run near player B with ball, while A should run in open space, away from B and then recieve the ball.

Maybe we should try something like:

Schurrle - Hazard - Willian ?

[lionsden 4,689]

People fail to realise that a good link up and hold up play requires technical ability first and foremost amongst other things such as intelligence,tactical awareness and selflessness. Problem is diego isnt a technical striker, he has never been and as such lacks the ability to link up and hold up play effectively. We knew this (well some of us did) before buying him so should have little complaint that he's not what we want him to be. To me he's a taller version of falcao I.e excellent runs and good/great finishing in the box and not much else.I have said this all along and criticised for it when I pointed out that the signing of diego wouldn't solve our creativity issue against lesser teams.

If good/great link up play was top of the expectation list from our striker then we should have signed a striker in the mould of aguero,rooney,benzema et al instead

[DYC. 7,542]

He's a killer and a fantastic finisher but look at 6:09 in this video. Quick return pass there and Eden's through on goal. Drogba plays that pass.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivjZakOZngg

5:10

The importance of handling quickly (when required).

Playing that pass first time took out 3 (!) players. Control the ball first, maybe taking an even extra touch, before passing and the space and time for the receiver is gone, something we see quite often. One of the main reasons of the struggles when facing a defensive team.

Loved that pass.

[Bir_CFC 3,455]

I find it funny when people use a couple of highlights to make an assessment. Was no one watching earlier in the season? He made some amazing 1-2s. But just cause they didn't result in a goal, no one bothers remembering them.

I wish I had the time to go back and look at all his match highlights, I guarantee I'll find several great link ups and passes. In fact, that's one of the things I explicitly saw that he was pretty good at. Not as good as prime Drogba, but it was not something I would ever note as a weakness. He's just not on form at the moment.

[Rapkun 668]

I personally think his current drop in form is a mental problem. for the last couple of weeks he was trying so hard to score a goal and failed to, he seemed more bothered about it as each game passed. That's very understandable especially for a striker. and to be fair, the attacking mids are not providing him a great service. the best chances he had mostly came from cesc.

obviously that must have worked his mind up and he started being more selfish and less focused. The goal on saturday was very important for his confidence, I'm not sure if people here felt the same or not but as soon as he scored he looked more comfortable and confident in everything. he even tried to link up with Eden afterwards which in the last couple of games he would never have done.

[BlueLyon 9,359]

Maybe we should try something like:

Schurrle - Hazard - Willian ?

I think Mou has to allow bit more freedom to our attackers, work on attacking tactics and bring proper RW (or Willian/Schurrle improves soon).

Surely Mou is capable of teaching our team to have planned attacks. He is great at setting up counter attacks, but when we play against organised defense, we are bit too slow and players seem to not realy know what to do (for example we never use width, and we rely on individual skill too much). This is where Mou could still make plenty of improvements on our team, but I feel he wants realy solid defense and that decreases our attacking potential. Secondly, our attackers are mostly young and not long together, there will surely be further improvements from them and they will be more consistent, regardless of Mou tactics.

[Barbara 15,149]

What you've said is fair criticism, it's one aspect of his game that he definitely needs to improve (one-twos, slipping people in and stuff). It's when the criticism is unfair where I'll disagree.

I find it funny when people use a couple of highlights to make an assessment. Was no one watching earlier in the season? He made some amazing 1-2s. But just cause they didn't result in a goal, no one bothers remembering them.

I wish I had the time to go back and look at all his match highlights, I guarantee I'll find several great link ups and passes. In fact, that's one of the things I explicitly saw that he was pretty good at. Not as good as prime Drogba, but it was not something I would ever note as a weakness. He's just not on form at the moment.

Somehow I agree with both of you...

I think it's a weakness of his game, but I also think he was much better than I expected. If someone complains about his lack of technique (or unconventional technique negatively) I'll agree to them to a certain extent.

What really bothers me is that he was worshiped here for months - with the same limitations, after all he didn't improve or got worse in the time span of one month - are now being really harsh on him. He was the best thing since sliced bread and now he's shitty? Come on, he wasn't/isn't either. He's a very useful striker for us, that already won us matches, that has been key, that went through a blip, a very small drop of form and who has a few areas of his game that he can improve and some weaknesses he won't ever improve. None of those weaknesses limit his usefulness though. He's exactly the kind of striker we needed imo. I think we have complimentary strikers, which is always good.

Suarezes and Agueros aren't found everywhere. Aguero is VERY injury prone and a cunt (I like most of Costa antics and approve of them because except with the Ramos episode where he spitted on him, he never kicked and stepped on opponents like Aguero has so many times, he's a cunt) and Suarez who is the cunt of the cunts, a cheater and whats not, score 5 against Norwich but seem to struggle very often against big teams or in big matches (I could say he bottles, but maybe some will think that's too much).

Still they're amazing strikers, I'd have Aguero - I wouldn't have Suarez, but just because they're better than Diego on some aspects it doesn't mean Diego isn't what we needed.