Billy Gilmour

[Special Juan 28,115]

52 minutes ago, chippy said:

Yes, a vvery encouraging start but they hype is OTT and Keane saying Billy already looks world class was way OTT.  Remember how things went tits up  for Mceachran and Kakuta, so best to not get too carried away too quickly.

The praise from Fabregas is more worrying in all honesty, when Cesc speaks like he did of BG then we really need to stand up and listen.

[chippy 342]

42 minutes ago, Tomo said:

Kakuta wasn't even that good and McEachran was talented but passive. Put it this way, his little brother is better than he was, however he's not on our radar regarding first team promotion while Josh was considered our next big hope. Aswell as that demonstrating just how much our academy has improved it also shows just how desperate we were for a talent to come through.

Now we've actually got a score of elite prospects coming through the ranks there's no need to pretend whoever today's versions of Kakuta and Bamford are something they're not.

Kakuta turned out to be no good but he did have potential when he was young. Ballack raved about him while Carlo said Kakuta and Mceachran were the future of Chellsea. Josh had one outstanding game for us away in the CL, but rumour has it he had a bad attitude. But, yes they are long gone now and it is fantastic to see we now have lots of young players pushing for places now, which is what we've wanted and hoped for for years.

[killer1257 3,282]

Kakuta turned out to be no good but he did have potential when he was young. Ballack raved about him while Carlo said Kakuta and Mceachran were the future of Chellsea. Josh had one outstanding game for us away in the CL, but rumour has it he had a bad attitude. But, yes they are long gone now and it is fantastic to see we now have lots of young players pushing for places now, which is what we've wanted and hoped for for years.

Kakuta had a serious knee injury when he was young and lost a lot of pace due to that. That is why he shifted into an AM. Nowadays he seems pretty good. Was immense against PSG.

But Boga for instance was way superior to Kakuta at youth level

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[Special Juan 28,115]

Selected for the under 21's to play for Scott Gemmill

[Jase 43,479]

4 minutes ago, Special Juan said:

Selected for the under 21's to play for Scott Gemmill

 

[communicate 2,703]

18 hours ago, Special Juan said:

The praise from Fabregas is more worrying in all honesty, when Cesc speaks like he did of BG then we really need to stand up and listen.

Fab is right though however. I don't listen to Roy Keane praise, that is bs. But fab praise Billy quality in term of offering passing angle, quality on the ball and decision making. Those are true . But imo the next step is the hardest part if he want to become elite. In epl I don't think his future is as sole holder, he will need to play higher where not only he will be asked to feed player between the line but he need to find killer pass. Plus he will play with less space. 

[Fernando 6,585]

To think all this talent would have gone to waste with Mourinho, Conte, Sarri and who knows what else manager. 

That's why the work that Lampard is doing is the dream that I always had. 

Keep up the good work, and hope that also Lampard improves as a manager in the next season or two. Because this season he has also made some rookie mistakes which was expected. 

[Vesper 30,100]

How ‘little boy’ Gilmour is making a huge impression at Chelsea

https://theathletic.com/1662484/2020/03/08/billy-gilmour-chelsea-little-boy-jorginho/

Ross Barkley had two assists, Mason Mount scored his first goal since December and Willian and Pedro sliced infield from the wings like it was 2016 — but Chelsea’s clear man of the match against Everton was the 18-year-old at the base of midfield that Olivier Giroud affectionately referred to afterwards as “the little boy”.

Billy Gilmour’s other nickname could be “the scourge of Merseyside”. Five days after making Fabinho go viral for all the wrong reasons in a 2-0 FA Cup win over Liverpool at Stamford Bridge, the slight Scot left Everton chasing shadows with pretty, probing passes that powered Chelsea’s most convincing performance at home all season.

Watching him scamper around and between established, highly decorated professional footballers at Stamford Bridge this week, it is staggering to remember that Gilmour was signed from Rangers’ youth academy less than two years ago. He went into this season expecting it to be a consolidation year with Chelsea’s development squad.

Even when Lampard told him to move permanently into the first-time building prior to the March international break, no one thought his breakthrough was this close at hand.

First Premier League starts are not supposed to look this composed. Gilmour completed 74 of his 80 attempted passes, more than anyone else on the pitch. Many of them were short and simple and a good number were forward. Every one of them helped Chelsea move the ball with pace, precision and purpose around Everton’s half-hearted press and into their front three.

“He’s receiving the ball in difficult areas on the pitch,” Lampard said of Gilmour after the match. “If you don’t move it quickly, firstly you don’t get the rhythm in our play and it breaks down from you, and secondly if you give it away in those areas it’s dangerous. You need confidence to do that.

“I was going to say a rude word then. Yes, let’s go with balls. Jorginho has it, Billy has it too. One of the most pleasing things for me with Billy was that he showed those balls in the first half, but then when he stepped up and played one of the higher positions in the second half he instantly took it on board — arriving in the box, playing passes higher up the pitch.

“He showed he can do both, which is a great thing for me when I’m thinking about how the midfield looks.”

Gilmour didn’t claim an assist, but his positional intelligence and passing vision were key to both of the first-half goals that blew the game open.

For the first, he receives the ball in front of his back four with time to turn and quickly slides it into the feet of Mount, who has drifted into the space between Tom Davies and Bernard. Mount drives into the final third and finds Pedro on the left flank, continuing his run into the box where he receives the return pass on the turn and lashes a shot beyond Jordan Pickford at his near post.

It’s fundamentally great play from Mount, but the ball does not end up in the net if Gilmour is even marginally slower to realise that his team-mate has taken up a good position — on the half-turn inside the Everton half — to get Chelsea on the attack, and then find him with a pass ideally weighted to help him control, turn and run in a single motion.

Gilmour’s role in Chelsea’s second goal is even more impressive. Once again, he has possession just in front of his back four, but this time closer to the right side of the pitch than the left. As he deftly turns away from Richarlison’s pressuring run, he manoeuvres himself into a position where he has an opportunity to play a short, sharp pass into the Everton half.

Andre Gomes moves towards Gilmour, while being careful to make sure he still cuts off any passing angle to Barkley behind him. The most obvious progressive option would be to play a short pass into the feet of Willian, who is showing for the ball on the right wing. Lucas Digne, however, is in close proximity, and the Brazilian would likely be forced backwards on receiving the ball.

Gilmour recognises this, and finds a more elegant solution that takes Everton’s midfield line out of the game. He shapes his body to pass to Willian, getting Gomes to lean to his left, but then whips a short pass slightly across himself into the feet of Giroud, who has only shown for the ball a split second earlier. It’s a subtle fake, but it’s enough to fool Gomes into giving him the passing angle.

Giroud immediately lays it off to Barkley, and suddenly Chelsea again have the ball at the feet of one of their midfield creators with time and space between Everton’s lines. Barkley needs just one touch to slide an excellent pass in behind the visiting defence and meet the kind of run that Pedro has been making his entire career. He provides a clinical finish to a slick move, and the lead is doubled.

Gilmour’s brilliance in the lead-up to this goal is easy to miss in real time, but offers an insight into why so many people are so excited about him. It takes real talent to recognise what an opposition defence is giving you and exploit it, but the next level — manipulating opposing defenders into giving you what you want — is a special gift that very few possess.

The fact that Gilmour misplaced just five of his passes into the opposition half while playing with this degree of imagination and ambition is hugely promising for his future. Carlo Ancelotti paid a steep price for not emulating the tactical ploy of Marco Silva at Stamford Bridge last season, when Richarlison was tasked with ensuring that Chelsea couldn’t play through Jorginho.

Everton’s commitment to 4-4-2 this time around ensured that Chelsea had a numerical advantage in the middle of the pitch, and Gilmour took full advantage to run the game.

He didn’t do it alone. Barkley produced arguably the best all-round display of his Chelsea career against his former club, while Mount worked tirelessly with and without the ball beyond simply ending his goal drought. Both tracked back diligently, gaining possession a combined 12 times and snapping into tackles either side of Gilmour.

On a day in which Chelsea’s three most established central midfielders — N’Golo Kante, Jorginho and Mateo Kovacic — were all unavailable due to injury or suspension, their individual performances and collective balance indicated that at least in one area of his squad, Lampard is not short of depth.

Jorginho may come to regret the unfortunate confluence of his Premier League and Champions League bans. In addition to producing similar stats with the ball at his feet, Gilmour was also solid defensively for the second time in a week against high-level English opposition.

The closest we got to a Fabinho-level gif from this Gilmour masterclass was a short clip of him losing the ball to Gomes on the halfway line, then immediately chasing down Richarlison, shepherding him into pressure by the touchline, and then calmly picking his moment to time a clean tackle that left the Brazilian tumbling on to his backside and Cesar Azpilicueta dribbling the ball upfield.

In 60 minutes as Chelsea’s deepest-lying midfielder against Everton, Gilmour was not dribbled past once. That is partly a mark of the protection he received from Barkley and the tireless Mount, but it’s also testament to his own positional discipline. For context, Jorginho has only achieved the same feat twice in the Premier League this season — both times against a very defensive Newcastle.

Last season, following the January sale of Cesc Fabregas to Monaco, Maurizio Sarri lamented that he had no one in his Chelsea squad capable of playing the Jorginho role. If he had taken a walk over to the academy pitches at Cobham he might have spotted Gilmour — though to be fair, perhaps Gilmour wasn’t ready a year ago. He clearly is now.

 

[Fulham Broadway 17,306]

6 minutes ago, Vesper said:

though to be fair, perhaps Gilmour wasn’t ready a year ago.

 

[Vesper 30,100]

Nothing has fazed Gilmour so far – a senior Scotland bow would be no different

https://theathletic.com/1666711/2020/03/11/billy-gilmour-scotland/

How can a Chelsea player who controlled the midfield against Liverpool and Everton last week not make it into the national squad of a country that has not qualified for a major tournament since 1998?

That is the stripped-back question being asked since Scotland Under-21 manager Scot Gemmill confirmed Billy Gilmour would be in his squad to face Croatia and Greece rather than in the senior squad for the Euro 2020 play-off semi-final against Israel.

It is asked in such a direct, almost perplexed fashion, because there is an assumption that a Scottish player thriving at the elite level, even if only for two games, must automatically be included regardless of the competition. It is a case of working backwards to find someone to drop rather than who is best suited for a momentous occasion.

It is a condition engendered by a fanbase desperate for an otherworldly figure to inspire them, akin to Gareth Bale in Wales. The 18-year-old is not that type of player and never will be. His game is about subtlety.

Nonetheless, despite these flippant calls for Gilmour to be thrown into a game of such magnitude, he should have at least been named in the squad because he has a skillset that no other midfielder in the squad possesses.

If Gilmour was a centre-back or a striker he would undoubtedly be included due to the dearth of options in those positions, but he is unlucky that central midfield is the one area where Scotland are strong. Steve Clarke has Scott McTominay, Ryan Jack, John Fleck, Kenny McLean, Callum McGregor, John McGinn, Tom Cairney, Stuart Armstrong and Ryan Christie all competing for a place.

It was decided that it would be better for his development to play with the under-21s, where he is guaranteed minutes, rather than being called up only to not feature, as revealed in David Ornstein’s Monday column. Gemmill was clear that Gilmour could well be called up depending on injuries though, as McGinn only resumed training with Aston Villa last week after suffering a fractured ankle in December, while Jack is managing his troublesome knee and has missed several games since the winter break.

“He’s done excellently for all of the national age groups and moving forward I’m very confident that he will get to play for the full squad,” said Gemmill. “I met Steve Clarke and, right now, he’s happy for him to be selected for the under-21s. But, as is the case for all the players, that can change. The last time we played, Steve called and took Ryan Porteous.

“We’re talking about the national team here, it should be hard to play for your country. Everyone involved in it should be happy that is the case. He can only pick a certain number of players and has to have a balanced squad, as do we. Historically, there was a much bigger gap between under-21 football and the full squad but in recent times that gap has closed. All of a sudden you are seeing not just for Scotland but other associations where players are going quickly into the senior squad. It’s really exciting for all of our young players to know how close they are to it.

“We’ve all got a responsibility to help Billy maximise his potential. His recent performances have gone a huge way to confirming his talent that we’ve all spoken about. We’ve all got an opinion on young players and who is going to get to what level but until they get the opportunity it’s just talk. Billy has stepped up after being given the opportunity at a fantastic level at a fantastic club and his manager (Frank Lampard) has been unbelievable for him.

“Billy has shown he has the emotional intelligence to keep his feet on the ground. I’ve praised him for how good he is off the pitch as he is on it but this is a new test for him and he has to continue to push.”

It is worth comparing how other nations have managed the progression of similar young talents. Wales and Chelsea midfielder Ethan Ampadu, who is on loan at RB Leipzig, made his full international debut as a 17-year-old against France in November 2017, but Chris Coleman had already introduced him to the group in May when he included him in a training camp despite making just 13 appearances for Exeter in League Two.

Ben Woodburn was given his debut in September 2017 by Coleman when he too was 17 and had played just nine times for Liverpool. Theo Walcott had never played in the Premier League when Sven-Goran Eriksson saw fit to take the 17 year-old winger to the 2006 World Cup just months after Arsenal had signed him from Southampton after just 13 senior appearances. Wayne Rooney, whose rapid rise Gemmill witnessed up close as Everton, became the youngest England player at the age of 17 after he had made 26 appearances for Everton in the 2002-03 season.

But, in trying to strike the balance between pushing the player on to the next level and holding them back in case they are damaged by the step up, do Scotland err too often on the side of caution? John Fleck had to wait until November 2018 for a call-up, by which time he was 27, when there was a groundswell of support for his inclusion in 2009 when he burst on to the scene at Rangers. It was decided it was too much too soon.

Gilmour is already the third most experienced player in the under-21 squad with 12 caps, just four behind captain Ross McCrorie and one behind Fraser Hornby. He may only have made seven appearances for Chelsea’s senior team in all competitions, playing a combined total of 370 minutes, but he has shown unique traits which would help Scotland in a game where they will have the majority share of possession.

Unlike Rooney, he has not physically matured yet despite improving his athleticism in the two years he has spent at Chelsea since his move from Rangers, and perhaps that goes against him as he can visually still look like a boy in a man’s game. But that is only until the ball comes to him.

He was recently moved into the first-team dressing room permanently by Frank Lampard who said he “ran the game” against Grimsby in the Carabao Cup this season, while Rangers head of youth Craig Mulholland praised the mix of arrogance and humility he possesses. Lampard said he is the type of No 6 who has the “balls” to receive the ball in difficult positions and be positive.

For all the depth Scotland have in midfield, a lot of the players share very similar attributes. Only McTominay, Jack and McLean could be viewed as candidates for the deepest role but all three prefer to play further forward and none scan the pitch or can produce incisive forward passes as well as Gilmour can.

Jack, McGinn and McGregor was the preferred trio in the last two games, both wins against Cyprus and Kazakhstan, but the first two names are doubts. McTominay is in good form for Manchester United since returning from injury but his best work has come since Ole Gunnar Solskjaer moved him forward away from a playmaker role.

Nothing has fazed Gilmour from the first time he stepped up to train with the Rangers first team, to moving down to London, to playing against men a foot taller than him, to captaining Scotland Under-21s at the age of 16. Giving him the responsibility to dictate play at Hampden on his debut probably wouldn’t either.

His talent allows him to move up the ladder seamlessly. While some players can look accomplished but then struggle under the pressure of a faster game, Gilmour is the rare breed who looks the exact same no matter the level or opposition. Clarke’s decision not to include him is not as mystifying as many believe but if it is only a matter of time until he is promoted then that experience alone would have been valuable.

[chippy 342]

18 hours ago, Fulham Broadway said:

 

Classic British movie!

[Jase 43,479]

 

[!Hazard! 3,394]

I think this sudden break from football due to coronavirus is good thing for Billy. The hype was starting to get out of hand, I mean people were starting to compare him to Iniesta after two games for goodness sake.

Now we know he can play, the manager trusts him and so do the fans and his teammates, and yet the hype has gone quiet due to obvious reasons and most people outside of Chelsea have already forgotten about him, which is a good thing. He gets to improve and train in peace rather than under insane pressure from (social) media.

Looking forward to seeing him play once football resumes, whenever that might be.

[Tomo 21,751]

On 26/03/2020 at 10:20 AM, !Hazard! said:

I think this sudden break from football due to coronavirus is good thing for Billy. The hype was starting to get out of hand, I mean people were starting to compare him to Iniesta after two games for goodness sake.

Now we know he can play, the manager trusts him and so do the fans and his teammates, and yet the hype has gone quiet due to obvious reasons and most people outside of Chelsea have already forgotten about him, which is a good thing. He gets to improve and train in peace rather than under insane pressure from (social) media.

Looking forward to seeing him play once football resumes, whenever that might be.

Idk I personally think the halt came at the worst possible time for us. Billy's emergence and the performances against Liverpool and Everton gave us some serious momentum and I felt we were lining ourselves up for a really strong finish, to add further alongside Billy's emergence Mason and Kepa were returning to form, Barkley and Oli were hitting a hot streak while Willy and Pedro were well and truly geared up and motivated for a last horrah. The Villa game was genuinely the most confident I felt for a comfortable win since during Conte's title season. Had we carried on from there then Frank would have had no choice but to leave Kante on the bench when he returned, now he's probably back to first name on the teamsheet when the league kicks off again. Also the odds of Ross and the experienced front three all being on the same rich vein of form they were in is next to none.

When the season restarts all that strong momentum we were building and picking up ahead of steam will be well and truly lost.

[Jase 43,479]

1 hour ago, Tomo said:

Idk I personally think the halt came at the worst possible time for us. Billy's emergence and the performances against Liverpool and Everton gave us some serious momentum and I felt we were lining ourselves up for a really strong finish, to add further alongside Billy's emergence Mason and Kepa were returning to form, Barkley and Oli were hitting a hot streak while Willy and Pedro were well and truly geared up and motivated for a last horrah. The Villa game was genuinely the most confident I felt for a comfortable win since during Conte's title season. Had we carried on from there then Frank would have had no choice but to leave Kante on the bench when he returned, now he's probably back to first name on the teamsheet when the league kicks off again. Also the odds of Ross and the experienced front three all being on the same rich vein of form they were in is next to none.

When the season restarts all that strong momentum we were building and picking up ahead of steam will be well and truly lost.

Nothing was going to stop Lampard putting Kante back in. I mean, we were doing well without him earlier in the season, for example, but every time when Kante was available, Lampard threw him straight into the XI.