Filipe Luís

[Special Juan 28,091]

True but that is exactly how I feel about Luis. He was the best LB in Europe last season and is an excellent addition. He gives us a much better dimension going forward and like Courtois we pretty much know what we are getting with him in the team.

Agree 100% mate.

[RoyalBlues 4,050]

And you think that playing him against Schalke in the group stage is a huge step that might damage his confidence and whatnot?

I dont get why you and others talk about him as if he was a little puppet. He's an established world class top LB and he played for A.Madrid.

I personally feel it's better to give a guy a chance to "prove himself" and act on that, rather than be overprotective and scared.

Now IS the time to let him pay when all our players are fit. Imagine having to just throw him in there if say Terry gets injured and we are instead FORCED to play him. That would send the wrong signal to the player AND "hurt his confidence if he fails".

I didn't said that he is better still not playing against Schalke. If he is ready and Jose think he is ready, he will. If he is ready and Jose think it is the right moment to start him against Swansea, so be it. I just think he need to observe how English teams plays and get used to the system we play first before making a full debut, and nothing wrong with that.

If somebody ask, "then why not like Costa, who settling in immediately?". I would say it is because Jose knows best Costa style of play and could fit in our system here in an instant. And also because we don't have a real striker last season, so he is given chance immediately.

In my opinion Luis is completely different case. Last season we have the best defending record, and our back 4 were very solid. It is very risky, to changed one of them and put Luis in immediately. The risk is that we could lose our balance to our greatest strength from our team, which is our defence.

Yes, I never doubt Luis quality and what he could bring to our squad. He is our LB dream after Cole left. But, he has a different style with what we used to play. Jose had played him several times in preseason, and then in our first PL match he put Azpi instead as a LB. From my point of view he is obviously not there yet. Whether we have to adapt and afford to his style of play, or he has to adapt to our system, one thing for sure it needs time.

[ZanSnake 1,211]

To me, is it the medium of balance and 'stability'. Last season, 'Dave' was able to perform to such an extent not only to be able to close out of the greatest left-backs in the word out of the CLUB, but was also awarded for the fact he wasn't an actual left-back but actually a right-back!

Of course, it would be hard not only to break through a role that was impressively established by someone like Cesar (who to me was an excellent buy!) but also to encourage a manager like Mouriho to choose him above him and adapt to both the conventional style that Jose implies towards his players and the playing-style of the EPL.

Not saying he won't be successful here, just saying that after 3 games in the EPL is hard to determine his debut season here.

[The Chels 2,502]

I didn't said that he is better still not playing against Schalke. If he is ready and Jose think he is ready, he will. If he is ready and Jose think it is the right moment to start him against Swansea, so be it. I just think he need to observe how English teams plays and get used to the system we play first before making a full debut, and nothing wrong with that.

If somebody ask, "then why not like Costa, who settling in immediately?". I would say it is because Jose knows best Costa style of play and could fit in our system here in an instant. And also because we don't have a real striker last season, so he is given chance immediately.

In my opinion Luis is completely different case. Last season we have the best defending record, and our back 4 were very solid. It is very risky, to changed one of them and put Luis in immediately. The risk is that we could lose our balance to our greatest strength from our team, which is our defence.

Yes, I never doubt Luis quality and what he could bring to our squad. He is our LB dream after Cole left. But, he has a different style with what we used to play. Jose had played him several times in preseason, and then in our first PL match he put Azpi instead as a LB. From my point of view he is obviously not there yet. Whether we have to adapt and afford to his style of play, or he has to adapt to our system, one thing for sure it needs time.

We had a great defensive system - the defence itself is not exceptional. Luis could easily replace Azpi's defensive work and offer a lot more going forward. Azpi and Ivanovic have hardly been solid defensively, both regularly getting beaten and Azpi quite often failing in maintaing the offside trap (Leicester's 1v1 and Swansea's 2nd goal come to mind). Azpi's attacking threat is non-existent and even when he cuts in onto his right foot his delivieries aren't great. I don't understand what adaptation Luis has to do: he's played and excelled against the very best in Real Madrid and Barcelona.

[TheOneChan95 225]

We had a great defensive system - the defence itself is not exceptional. Luis could easily replace Azpi's defensive work and offer a lot more going forward. Azpi and Ivanovic have hardly been solid defensively, both regularly getting beaten and Azpi quite often failing in maintaing the offside trap (Leicester's 1v1 and Swansea's 2nd goal come to mind). Azpi's attacking threat is non-existent and even when he cuts in onto his right foot his delivieries aren't great. I don't understand what adaptation Luis has to do: he's played and excelled against the very best in Real Madrid and Barcelona.

Good point. I think his 1v1 marking is great but recently he has the tendency to play people onside. Happened for Spain as well when iirc he played Valbuena on which led to Remy's goal. I'm sure Jose would have noticed this and will sort it out soon though.

I think Luis should start vs Schalke. He is no rookie who needs hand holding imo and should do just fine while offering more going forward than Azpi on the left.

[RoyalBlues 4,050]

We had a great defensive system - the defence itself is not exceptional. Luis could easily replace Azpi's defensive work and offer a lot more going forward. Azpi and Ivanovic have hardly been solid defensively, both regularly getting beaten and Azpi quite often failing in maintaing the offside trap (Leicester's 1v1 and Swansea's 2nd goal come to mind). Azpi's attacking threat is non-existent and even when he cuts in onto his right foot his delivieries aren't great. I don't understand what adaptation Luis has to do: he's played and excelled against the very best in Real Madrid and Barcelona.

The difference is that I made my assesment based on what we did last season until final match of preseason. Our back 4 consist of Azpi, Ivan, Cahill, and Terry are very solid.

If you asked me about our defender performance this season so far (4 match), I am agree with you.

About Luis, unfortunately it is not me nor you are the boss. Jose is the boss, he knows the condition inside the team, we don't know what's the problem and I trust his choice.

I think, whatever the problem Luis have at the moment, or how good Luis was last season, Jose feel he is not ready yet. That's why Jose still stick with our main back 4 for the first 4 match, despite some of them have already made some mistakes, I believe they are still the best choice at the moment, if Jose think so.

Also who can guarantee if Luis replace one of them, we will not conceded a lot of goals against the likes of Everton and Swansea? Nobody. Yes we made some mistakes that should not happened, but Everton and Swansea are in their best performance too. We are not playing against Qphaha or something, who is the shittest team in the league.

[Special Juan 28,091]

I don't think it's anything to do with being ready, in my opinion it's all to do with how good the likes of Azpi and Brana are. Dislodging them is a huge problem.

[BlueLion. 21,491]

As much as I love Azpi, I see this season following the exact same route as last year. Like Cole, Azpi has started as our number 1 left-back, but I can see Luis getting his chances and taking them with aplomb.

[RoyalBlues 4,050]

Well, we are not buying 15+ millions player for a backup LB. When the time is right and everything is set he will be our first choice LB.

[Daniel1980 1,425]

Filipe Luís @filipeluis · 2h

Ready for @ChampionsLeague #CFC #UCL

Does this mean he's starting?

[Term-X 7,891]

Filipe Luís @filipeluis · 2h

Ready for @ChampionsLeague #CFC #UCL

Does this mean he's starting?

Before the Swansea game, Willian posted a picture of himself next to the Swansea logo with the date.

He played zero minutes.

[Daniel1980 1,425]

Before the Swansea game, Willian posted a picture of himself next to the Swansea logo with the date.

He played zero minutes.

And here I got my hopes up.