Virgil Van Dijk

[Pizy 17,860]

2 minutes ago, Chelsea4 said:

The best game Luiz had was playing as a midfielder.

Years ago. In an emergency situation he can fill in for a match or two. Thinking about using him there with any regularity would be stupid.

[Chelsea4 1,521]

Just now, Pizy said:

Years ago. In an emergency situation he can fill in for a match or two. Thinking about using him there with any regularity would be stupid.

He is never going to play regulary but if needed he can be a great option.

[xPetrCechx 13,546]

 

 

[xPetrCechx 13,546]

[Georgy 439]

Don't mind VVD but Drinkwater would be awful.

[Jase 43,479]

3 hours ago, Pizy said:

Azpi moving to RWB I can definitely see. No way should Luiz ever play in midfield again unless there's literally no one else available on the day. Hope Conte never even considers that.

If the club simply cannot get a quality upgrade on Moses then signing VVD and moving Azpi makes sense.

I'm 50-50 on seeing Luiz in midfield again but I would think that's an option Conte might be considering if we're going to sign Van Dijk. Gives him option to shift things around. Otherwise, that signing would be rather pointless.

2 hours ago, calculatingInfinity said:

This is an idiotic way of looking at things. Conte no doubt admires a lot of players, and saying he is a big admirer doesn't mean he was ever first priority. But could end up being the realistic option after Matic left, as a bench option. Chelsea were never going to buy another midfielder, with  Fabregas, Matic, Bakayoko and Kante here. Had to get one out, before starting to put the signing into motion.

Big admirer =/= first priority signing, even without getting rid of your own bench options first.

Did I say that Conte being admirer of Drinkwater meant he had to be signed first over anyone else? No. All I said was, if Conte really wanted him, which is what Jim White seemed to be alluding to, then we would have gone for him a lot earlier or at least heard about this interest some time ago. Why this only appear now? If I'm being skeptical, signing Drinkwater is the club's idea and they have leaked out info to the press to make it look as if it's a Conte signing and not theirs.

Also not making the move earlier until we sold Matic is plain silly. We already knew early last month that Matic wasn't going to be part of Conte's plan and was going to be sold. We should have bought his replacement in sooner and if we had been smart, we would have done that. Get the wanted played in, then sell the unwanted player. We would be in a good situation then. Instead, we have left ourselves in a situation where everyone knows we need another midfielder and other clubs will try milk as much money as possible for us, especially when we're only 3 weeks away from the end of the transfer window. If the worst situation had happened and Matic's move broke down after signing Drinkwater, we would have 5 midfielders and that's not a bad thing is it with Conte talking about the lack of squad depth?

2 hours ago, Chelsea4 said:

Or maybe it's because we just sold Matic and there was no reason to sign him.We have bought Bakayoko earlier there was no reason to rush for a us to sign another CM. Van Dijk is needed with Cahill being awful and he is 32 years old,Azpilicueta is not good in the air and Christensen needs to time to understand our system.

Last season, we were fortunate to survive with only 3 midfielders plus a few backups in Chalobah and Loftus-Cheek. This season, we will likely be less fortunate, will play more games and the backups are already gone. Conte isn't deluded to think we can survive with only 3 midfielders again.

[Jase 43,479]

2 hours ago, Chelsea4 said:

Van Dijk is needed with Cahill being awful and he is 32 years old,Azpilicueta is not good in the air and Christensen needs to time to understand our system.

Also, we can complain all we want about Cahill but it doesn't look as if Conte will be dropping him any time soon unless he puts in a 1/10 performance every game!

Azpi is vulnerable in the air but the funny thing is, he was only really caught out against Spurs, wasn't it? Coped well in the other games, especially when we also played with another short defender to his right.

[Pizy 17,860]

10 minutes ago, Jason said:

I'm 50-50 on seeing Luiz in midfield again but I would think that's an option Conte might be considering if we're going to sign Van Dijk. Gives him option to shift things around. Otherwise, that signing would be rather pointless.

Did I say that Conte being admirer of Drinkwater meant he had to be signed first over anyone else? No. All I said was, if Conte really wanted him, which is what Jim White seemed to be alluding to, then we would have gone for him a lot earlier or at least heard about this interest some time ago. Why this only appear now? If I'm being skeptical, signing Drinkwater is the club's idea and they have leaked out info to the press to make it look as if it's a Conte signing and not theirs.

Also not making the move earlier until we sold Matic is plain silly. We already knew early last month that Matic wasn't going to be part of Conte's plan and was going to be sold. We should have bought his replacement in sooner and if we had been smart, we would have done that. Get the wanted played in, then sell the unwanted player. We would be in a good situation then. Instead, we have left ourselves in a situation where everyone knows we need another midfielder and other clubs will try milk as much money as possible for us, especially when we're only 3 weeks away from the end of the transfer window. If the worst situation had happened and Matic's move broke down after signing Drinkwater, we would have 5 midfielders and that's not a bad thing is it with Conte talking about the lack of squad depth?

Last season, we were fortunate to survive with only 3 midfielders plus a few backups in Chalobah and Loftus-Cheek. This season, we will likely be less fortunate, will play more games and the backups are already gone. Conte isn't deluded to think we can survive with only 3 midfielders again.

I may be remembering wrong, but hasn't VVD been playing mostly as the left CB at Soton? I don't think he plays as the "sweeper" in the center like David does. I could be wrong. Even if he had been, he's good enough to walk into our XI in any CB role without moving Luiz around.

Think he'd take our defense and team as a whole up a level of he replaced Cahill. I'd be a hell of a lot more comfortable with him in the side against top opponents.

[Special Juan 27,101]

If this happens it will mean Moses is nudged out for Azpi, with VvD as the right sided back 3.

VvD Luiz Cahill

Azpi----------------------Alonso

[Chelsea4 1,521]

1 hour ago, Jason said:

I'm 50-50 on seeing Luiz in midfield again but I would think that's an option Conte might be considering if we're going to sign Van Dijk. Gives him option to shift things around. Otherwise, that signing would be rather pointless.

Did I say that Conte being admirer of Drinkwater meant he had to be signed first over anyone else? No. All I said was, if Conte really wanted him, which is what Jim White seemed to be alluding to, then we would have gone for him a lot earlier or at least heard about this interest some time ago. Why this only appear now? If I'm being skeptical, signing Drinkwater is the club's idea and they have leaked out info to the press to make it look as if it's a Conte signing and not theirs.

Also not making the move earlier until we sold Matic is plain silly. We already knew early last month that Matic wasn't going to be part of Conte's plan and was going to be sold. We should have bought his replacement in sooner and if we had been smart, we would have done that. Get the wanted played in, then sell the unwanted player. We would be in a good situation then. Instead, we have left ourselves in a situation where everyone knows we need another midfielder and other clubs will try milk as much money as possible for us, especially when we're only 3 weeks away from the end of the transfer window. If the worst situation had happened and Matic's move broke down after signing Drinkwater, we would have 5 midfielders and that's not a bad thing is it with Conte talking about the lack of squad depth?

Last season, we were fortunate to survive with only 3 midfielders plus a few backups in Chalobah and Loftus-Cheek. This season, we will likely be less fortunate, will play more games and the backups are already gone. Conte isn't deluded to think we can survive with only 3 midfielders again.

I didn't say that we have enough CMs but that there is no reason to rush to sign another CM. Bakayoko,Kante,Fabregas,Baker and another CM would be more than good enough.

[Henrique 9,133]

7 hours ago, Jason said:

Are we supposed to believe Conte is a big admirer of Drinkwater all of a sudden? If he was, we would have gone out to sign him a lot earlier rather than wait till now!

This Van Dijk interest doesn't make sense either. Why would we need another CB? Only reason I can think of is we are failing to sign other targets and so, we get Van Dijk and start shifting players into other positions (e.g. Luiz into midfield or Azpi to RWB).

I hope you realize it does not make any sense. So the fact Conte didnt sign Water earlier is a proof he is not admirer. Its like Conte is in a position that he can basically will buy every player in the world he admires as soon as he admires then.

Jesus...

[Jase 43,479]

1 minute ago, Henrique said:

I hope you realize it does not make any sense. So the fact Conte didnt sign Water earlier is a proof he is not admirer. Its like Conte is in a position that he can basically will buy every player in the world he admires as soon as he admires then.

Jesus...

Not my fault if you can't understand it...

4 hours ago, Jason said:

if Conte really wanted him, which is what Jim White seemed to be alluding to, then we would have gone for him a lot earlier or at least heard about this interest some time ago. Why this only appear now?

 

[termninja 5,290]

Considering that we got owned like bitches for every danm fullback in the market, now I hope we sign Van Dijk and have the following:

LB: Alonso

RB: Moses, Azpi

CB: Cahill, Luiz, Rudiger, Van Dijk, Christensen

That's 8 players for 5 active positions in our lineup. Not bad.

[Chelsea? 892]

Waste of money. 

Keep our back line the same and upgrade the wingback positions. Then next year finally sign another WC attacker and we are ready to be a world class club. 

Spending 50m for a marginal upgrade won't get us anywhere. Esspcially after spending 30m in Rodiger. 

[calculatingInfinity 1,443]

21 hours ago, Jason said:

I say that Conte being admirer of Drinkwater meant he had to be signed first over anyone else? No. All I said was, if Conte really wanted him, which is what Jim White seemed to be alluding to, then we would have gone for him a lot earlier or at least heard about this interest some time ago.

No. No you would not necessarily have heard of it already. I also think it's silly to think Chelsea have not already had contact with Drinkwaters agent and Leicester, even if the press did not know about it, and the bids hadn't started officially until now.

 

 

[Dimitr 488]

Get it done 

shit source. 

But must ,must ,must be true .

Chelsea are set to make a £60million move for Southampton defender Virgil van Dijk to ease Antonio Conte’s frustrations. [Mirror]

[Cosmin 2,484]

It frustrates me that we are always looking to improve our defense and midfield, but do not give a crap about the talent up front. We keep relying on Hazard and on players who already reached their pottential (Willian, Pedro).

[communicate 2,703]

32 minutes ago, Cosmin said:

It frustrates me that we are always looking to improve our defense and midfield, but do not give a crap about the talent up front. We keep relying on Hazard and on players who already reached their pottential (Willian, Pedro).

I think it is simply because we have a bigger need in midfield and wb area