Tiemoue Bakayoko

[Magic Lamps 11,677]

Maybe his best game so far. no misplaced passes, a few good runs and a a few nice tackles that the ref has been too harsh on. 

[BlueLion. 21,491]

Outstanding tonight. The only one who showed any sort of effort. 

 

 

[LAM09 6,809]

Deserves a lot of credit tonight. Probably his best performance since joining

[Beigl 1,387]

Looked better than Kante tonight. He is a different player when he plays with some sort of confidence. I hope Baka keeps it up.

[ulvhedin 508]

Yeah, but he still can't play quick pass or play long pass. Still can't bring quickly the ball to final third (and one good dribbling won't change that). Right now we have 2 midfielders who can't create.

[Polo7 3,496]

This is why we signed this guy. The last few games he has gotten better and better.

[Leif 6,006]

Lunatics. Every time he received the ball he swayed left, swayed right, turned around 90 degrees, and broke sweat just to decide which player to make a pass towards.

[El P. 1,354]

Tonight he wasn't shit as usual.

[ulvhedin 508]

2 minutes ago, Leif said:

Lunatics. Every time he received the ball he swayed left, swayed right, turned around and scrapped just to find a player to make a simple pass towards.

Exactly, not loosing stupidly ball and be solid defensively is MINIMUM he should be doing. He is doing nothing more. In what aspect is he better than Mikel?

[DYC. 7,542]

3 minutes ago, Leif said:

Lunatics. Every time he received the ball he swayed left, swayed right, turned around 90 degrees, and broke sweat just to decide which player to make a pass towards.

He's just not a very good footballer but I credit him for not crumbling like a cookie tonight. Thought he'd be disgraceful alongside an out of form Kante.

[Pizy 18,453]

Fair play to him. Solid performance. These PL refs really piss me off by constantly blowing the whistle on Baka, though. Seems like he gets punished repeatedly for simply being stronger than his opponent. Not all contact is a bloody foul which these refs seem to ignore.

[The Skipper 20,593]

53 minutes ago, DYC. said:

He's just not a very good footballer but I credit him for not crumbling like a cookie tonight. Thought he'd be disgraceful alongside an out of form Kante.

One thing about Bakayoko - he never really lets us down in the big games so far. Also at Monaco always turned up big time in the big games. 

Another positive performance. Almost carried our whole midfield with Kanté not doing too well. 

[robsblubot 3,544]

1 hour ago, The Skipper said:

One thing about Bakayoko - he never really lets us down in the big games so far. Also at Monaco always turned up big time in the big games. 

Another positive performance. Almost carried our whole midfield with Kanté not doing too well. 

did not watch the game, so will take your (and others) word for it.

I've already expressed my opinion of Baka as a footballer. However, what concerns me the most is how poor our entire midfield has been... and it has been painful to watch to be honest. I have not enjoyed watching Chelsea FC play for some time now.

People obsess over other areas of the pitch, but most things happen in midfield, and ours has been piss poor for one reason or another. What really shocked me concerning signing Bakayoko wasn't so much his price tag, or how poor on the ball he is, but why on earth did we sign a player so similar to the destructor that Kante is. People would make fun of the kid who would write posts after posts about how Matic was better than Zidane, but Matic was def closer to Zidane (yes still a wide gulf separated the two) in terms of characteristics than Baka is.

I guess it's normal to not understand our transfer policy these days - do we even have one or each coach/manager asks for the players they like (like that posted article alluded to)?

In terms of tactics, which could def be playing a part too, I have a profound dislike of 3-CB systems and I've been able to see a lot of them implemented by diff teams in diff countries over the years. Successful or not, they all end up fizzling out like we have. My theory is that the system is too dependent on mechanics and movements, in that diff players from diff positions need to join in and help out in the midfield, and if movement isn't right, like when CBs end up being just CBs, the system becomes slow and inflexible. For example, as good as Christensen is, we miss David Luiz, because he helps the middle with his style of play, which in turn helps both center mids (as well as attacking players w/ quicker transition).

[Sideshow Luiz 2,310]

I thought he showed a few positive signs tonight.  His biggest improvement was his desire to dribble through midfield with the ball.  He did it a lot more than usual, I thought.

Unfortunately, there were a few times where he had space after getting past his man, then just played a short square ball to someone for no reason, would effectively negate what he had done prior.  The needless short square balls in general need to go.  You can see team mates being surprised to be getting the ball a few times.  But, I hope this is the start of seeing some Essien-like runs through midfield.  I thought that's what we were getting.

We'll see.

[Stats 7,060]

6 hours ago, ulvhedin said:

Yeah, but he still can't play quick pass or play long pass. Still can't bring quickly the ball to final third (and one good dribbling won't change that). Right now we have 2 midfielders who can't create.

He actually done a brilliant long pass in the first half for Victor Moses. Was really impressed with the way he had the confidence to spray the ball across the flank and reach Moses the way he did. That is 3 games in a row now imo where you he is getting a bit better every game. Keep it up and glad Conte has shown faith in him.

[jernej93 565]

I was one of his biggest critics but his performance yesterday was great  People still try to find some details to slag him but I really liked his game ... he made 4 longs balls (100%) and 1 through ball (100%) to Hazard that should translate to assist if Hazard wouldn't trip over his own feet  

Very good through ball at 3:02 

 

[BlueLion. 21,491]

Haters gonna hate, it appears... if the nay-sayers reckon he was poor, how do you rate The Invisible Man himself, Hazard, who thought another 5-minute cameo followed by 85 minutes of selfish play and under-hit passes would suffice? 

[The Skipper 20,593]

6 hours ago, Sideshow Luiz said:

His biggest improvement was his desire to dribble through midfield with the ball.  He did it a lot more than usual, I thought.

Yeah. Completed 5 dribbles (2nd highest in the game, same as Hazard. Wilshere has 6). Performances like this need to be the very minimum from Bakayoko though. He’s taking some positive steps finally. Let’s see how he ends the season.