Kenedy

[CHOULO19 24,332]

14 minutes ago, Tomo said:

Marcelo, Alves, Alaba too, also Piszczek was a striker till about 24

Id happily cash in on Baba to see Kenedy and Ake fight it out, in my opinion the desperation for Ivanovic to be dropped has led for him to be seriously overrated and even in some cases trying to pass off even his abysmal displays as good.

Completely agree. I've made that point myself before. To date, imo, Baba's only good performance has come against PSG. 

Was thinking the other day, would anyone take Baba over Bertrand in their team? We really need not to repeat that same mistake with Ake and Kenedy.

[Blue-in-me-Veins 4,067]

Having Baba, Kennedy, and Ake means either we'll be shopping for a brand new ~€20M LB in the summer.. Or you know, Azpi at LB again for another season. 

It's the Chelsea way. 

 

 

[Tomo 21,681]

Just now, Blue-in-me-Veins said:

Having Baba, Kennedy, and Ake means either we'll be shopping for a brand new ~€20M LB in the summer.. Or you know, Azpi at LB again for another season. 

It's the Chelsea way. 

 

 

Honestly wouldn't mind Azpi staying at left back providing a quality right back is acquired, he is better going forward from that position than made out, he has been involved in a fair few goal chances since Guus came in.

[Tomo 21,681]

2 minutes ago, CHOULO19 said:

Completely agree. I've made that point myself before. To date, imo, Baba's only good performance has come against PSG. 

Was thinking the other day, would anyone take Baba over Bertrand in their team? We really need not to repeat that same mistake with Ake and Kenedy.

Honestly, to me Baba feels a bit like Van Aanholt, better at defending than the Dutchman (it's hard not to be), but to me his alright at times excellent attacking covers some horrible defending.

Also he needs to buck up mentally if it's true he was a mess, this was (rightly) let go but Kenedy was actually responsible for CrystalPalaces winner on his debut, but he never let it affect him and carried on, if Baba let that error get in his head so much that Guus had to take him off that really isn't a good sign.

[Kieran. 6,317]

I guarantee Baba was a mess because Guus told him he got the hook. Not because of one dumb mistake.

[Blue-in-me-Veins 4,067]

9 minutes ago, Tomo said:

Honestly wouldn't mind Azpi staying at left back providing a quality right back is acquired, he is better going forward from that position than made out, he has been involved in a fair few goal chances since Guus came in.

Nah fam, that Azpi ar LB gig is up. Right footed RB, Left Footed LB. enough is enough. 

we're not a reinventing the wheel here at Chelsea by playing ONE inverted full-back. If it were two, maybe, but playing one has seriously hampered our attacking play.

 Azpi's not ambidextrous like Baba,  and even after playing at LB for 2 years now, he has no confidence in his left foot. Seeing Azpi have to shift the ball to his right foot to play any type of pass wastes so much time.

Secondly, Hazard is left to do all the leg work by himself on the wing, and defenders can easily double team him. Atleast with Baba/Kennedy, there's a threat of a dangerous ONE-TIME cross being played if he lays off the pass to the runner, but any pass to Azpi becomes a labored exercise in seting up the ball so he can whip it in with his preferred right.

Scenes, if Conte continues the Azpi at LB massacre. 

Hazard needs all the attacking help  we can devise for him so he isn't going up against 2 defenders every time on the wing. 

[Tomo 21,681]

13 hours ago, Blue-in-me-Veins said:

Nah fam, that Azpi ar LB gig is up. Right footed RB, Left Footed LB. enough is enough. 

we're not a reinventing the wheel here at Chelsea by playing ONE inverted full-back. If it were two, maybe, but playing one has seriously hampered our attacking play.

 Azpi's not ambidextrous like Baba,  and even after playing at LB for 2 years now, he has no confidence in his left foot. Seeing Azpi have to shift the ball to his right foot to play any type of pass wastes so much time.

Secondly, Hazard is left to do all the leg work by himself on the wing, and defenders can easily double team him. Atleast with Baba/Kennedy, there's a threat of a dangerous ONE-TIME cross being played if he lays off the pass to the runner, but any pass to Azpi becomes a labored exercise in seting up the ball so he can whip it in with his preferred right.

Scenes, if Conte continues the Azpi at LB massacre. 

Hazard needs all the attacking help  we can devise for him so he isn't going up against 2 defenders every time on the wing. 

Sorry but i disagree, i think Azpi has been top notch at left back, i always believed his lack of forward play under Jose was more down to instructions and the play he has been involved in under Guus has vindicated that thought.

Since the Dutchman has came in he has has two shots well saved by De Gea and Hennesy respectively, assisted Rubens first Chelsea goal, scored against West Brom, was directly involved in the link up play for two clear cut chances against Everton and sent in the cross for Willians chance at The Emirates. If Baba in a five game spell did even half of that there would be post after post about how we've missed that type of play from a left back, also a right footed left back helps against the growing influx of left footed right winger, as it stands who would you rather go up against Messi? Baba or Cesar? I think even the biggest "Cesar back to right back" campaigner will say the Spaniard.

Don't get me wrong i wouldn't complain if he's moved back to the right next season and we give Ake or Kenedy a shot at left back but equally i wouldn't be too upset if we sign a top right back (Aurier any one?) and keep Cesar on the left for the reasons i gave.

If the links for Bonnuci wanted by Conte are true, imagine this back four with Tibo behind them.

Aurier---Bonnuci------Zouma-----Azpi

Not many would be breaking that down.

[lucio 5,391]

even if azpi contributes some moments on the left, his whole awkwardness on the ball and one footedness will limit our play

[OneMoSalah 8,614]

Kenedy is not a left back. Please stop playing him there. Redmond beat him a fair bit, I don't care how talented Redmond is (hes alright nothing special to be honest) a proper LB would of done better. Great goal though, shows why he should be playing as close to the opposition net as possible. 

[LAM09 6,547]

Showed tonight that LB isn't his position, full stop.

[the wes 7,212]

i like this kid but hes a waste at left back 

[nyikolajevics 2,422]

Man of the match: Lee Mason.

[Miguelito 459]

Well he definitely showed he's not a natural left back. But his positioning was the bad part. Obviously he's going to struggle in that aspect since he hasn't played there much. Only way to improve that is practice and play there in the game.

We should definitely keep him there though. I don't think he has quite enough talent to be a top class winger, but he definitely has the potential to be a top left back.

He certainly wasn't that great today but I thought it was encouraging display

[manpe 10,855]

He has played some two matche in total at LB, of course he's not going to look natural. Taking that into consideration I thought he did really well, but I felt safer soaking the pressure with Baba and I think this substitution was exactly for that.

Btw didn't Mourinho give him his first game at LB against Norwich too?

[Yeboii 1,844]

16 minutes ago, manpe said:

He has played some two matche in total at LB, of course he's not going to look natural. Taking that into consideration I thought he did really well, but I felt safer soaking the pressure with Baba and I think this substitution was exactly for that.

Btw didn't Mourinho give him his first game at LB against Norwich too?

His first start as a LB was against Norwich I think. Maybe some tactical reasons there that we can't see, but the coaches can see?

[manpe 10,855]

Just now, Yeboii said:

His first start as a LB was against Norwich I think. Maybe some tactical reasons there that we can't see, but the coaches can see?

Mourinho gave a tactical reason for that game and it made sense because of Ivanovic playing at RB being able to convert to CB if need be. Now we had no options to switch to three central defenders, so the reasons must have been different.

[Tomo 21,681]

1 hour ago, OneMoSalah said:

Kenedy is not a left back. Please stop playing him there. Redmond beat him a fair bit, I don't care how talented Redmond is (hes alright nothing special to be honest) a proper LB would of done better. Great goal though, shows why he should be playing as close to the opposition net as possible. 

He picked up the ball overlapping Hazard then ran into the space he had and got his shot away, space he wouldn't have been granted playing left wing.

His goal if anything strengthens the argument to play him at full back.

[Jase 43,479]

2 minutes ago, Tomo said:

He picked up the ball overlapping Hazard then ran into the space he had and got his shot away, space he wouldn't have been granted playing left wing.

His goal if anything strengthens the argument to play him at full back.

That's just one example. You're saying as if he wouldn't be able to score at all if he was playing as an attacking wide player instead.