21. Ben Chilwell

[Mário César 825]

https://www.Chelsea-news.co/2021/12/images-ben-chilwell-joins-mason-mount-and-reece-james-with-ucl-tattoo/

LOL

[Fernando 6,387]

I admitted that I wanted chillwell when we was linked with him under Lampard. 

Now that we have him he has done good, but I have never really warm up to him. 

With his injury if we can buy someone else that is upgrade and sell Alonso then we will be set. Chillwell and another one that is better then both will leave us with a good position. 

If only we didn't screw it up with getting lukaku. Sigh. 

[Mário César 825]

Expected to return against Tottenham.

[Mário César 825]

"Chelsea medical staff are hoping that Ben Chilwell could return for the Tottenham match on January 23 after responding well to ACL physiotherapy,"

[MoroccanBlue 5,219]

1 hour ago, Mário César said:

"Chelsea medical staff are hoping that Ben Chilwell could return for the Tottenham match on January 23 after responding well to ACL physiotherapy,"

PRP injections?

[OhForAGreavsie 5,776]

On 15/12/2021 at 16:42, Fernando said:

I admitted that I wanted chillwell when we was linked with him under Lampard. 

Now that we have him he has done good, but I have never really warm up to him. 

With his injury if we can buy someone else that is upgrade and sell Alonso then we will be set. Chillwell and another one that is better then both will leave us with a good position.

Isn't it amazing how much better a player gets when he's out injured and can't play? Anyway I agree with you; if we sign a left back it needs to be an upgrade on both of our current options.

[Magic Lamps 11,473]

27 minutes ago, OhForAGreavsie said:

Isn't it amazing how much better a player gets when he's out injured and can't play? Anyway I agree with you; if we sign a left back it needs to be an upgrade on both of our current options.

Who would that be? 

Chilwell has been a brilliant signing imo. I did not like him in the first place but he has completely won me over. What should he have done more better during his time here? Has done a massive step up from his time at Leicester. Alonso is so inferior to Chilwell in all aspects of the game, that he is the one to worry about. Sign an upgrade on Alonso and we are set. 
 

 

[Mário César 825]

signing a upgrade to chilwell is not so easy.

at least, we need to try to sign a player better than alonso and emerson at least

[OhForAGreavsie 5,776]

1 hour ago, Magic Lamps said:

Who would that be?

You've got me there. I know @Vesper likes Theo Hernandez but these days I'm not watching enough non Chelsea football to really have a valid opinion. I will observe that in highlight reels he sometimes looks more about the power than the finesse to me. I'm sure someone will probably put me straight on that.

1 hour ago, Magic Lamps said:

Chilwell has been a brilliant signing imo.

This is the point of disagreement between us I think. Generally I have not been impressed and I believe a reading of forum comments about him would show that across his CFC career to date people here have raised questions about him. Indeed I think it is 'lucky' for Ben that this injury came at the back of a purple patch and so the short-term memories of him are positive.

Edited December 24, 2021 by OhForAGreavsie

[Blues Forever 1,232]

 

[King Kante 1,341]

11 hours ago, OhForAGreavsie said:

You've got me there. I know @Vesper likes Theo Hernandez but these days I'm not watching enough non Chelsea football to really have a valid opinion. I will observe that in highlight reels he sometimes looks more about the power than the finesse to me. I'm sure someone will probably put me straight on that.

This is the point of disagreement between us I think. Generally I have not been impressed and I believe a reading of forum comments about him would show that across his CFC career to date people here have raised questions about him. Indeed I think it is 'lucky' for Ben that this injury came at the back of a purple patch and so the short-term memories of him are positive.

I think you're right, if you actually look at his performances over the 18 months he has been here rather than the last two months he played. Part of the reasoning for this, I suspect, is tied to a lot of posters making out Alonso is so bad he would be lucky to get a place on the bench of a League 2 side. Hence, Chilwell gets more leeway as they can't handle Alonso playing. 

As for my perspective on Chilwell I do have two principle concerns with him. First is that he has been a very streaky player so far in his career. The second is how one footed he is. I have mentioned his one footedness a bit on here but people don't seem to have noticed it much. I would say to people when he next plays watch what he does when he is forced to play with his right/has no option to get it onto his left. What I have noticed is that he is ultra-conservative in that he will either a) turn back and break down an attack or b) play very simple passes back/sideways to keep possession. 

To some extent I am ok with the conservative approach as you don't want your LWB to lose possession high up the pitch, however I find it incredibly frustrating that he never tries to do something on his right when there is an opportunity to move the ball quickly to start/keep an attack going as it stops the momentum. 

That said, I do agree with others' that he was looking good this season, but things need to be tempered a little as he has gone through purple patches before and then tailed off. He did that in the first half of the 2019/20 season with Leicester then his initial start with us. 

Obviously, the hope is that he can keep his form up as he is now reaching the age where consistency is key and after that he'll need to work on his right foot if he wants to become elite. 

Edited December 24, 2021 by King Kante

[OhForAGreavsie 5,776]

4 hours ago, King Kante said:

I think you're right, if you actually look at his performances over the 18 months he has been here rather than the last two months he played. Part of the reasoning for this, I suspect, is tied to a lot of posters making out Alonso is so bad he would be lucky to get a place on the bench of a League 2 side. Hence, Chilwell gets more leeway as they can't handle Alonso playing. 

As for my perspective on Chilwell I do have two principle concerns with him. First is that he has been a very streaky player so far in his career. The second is how one footed he is. I have mentioned his one footedness a bit on here but people don't seem to have noticed it much. I would say to people when he next plays watch what he does when he is forced to play with his right/has no option to get it onto his left. What I have noticed is that he is ultra-conservative in that he will either a) turn back and break down an attack or b) play very simple passes back/sideways to keep possession. 

To some extent I am ok with the conservative approach as you don't want your LWB to lose possession high up the pitch, however I find it incredibly frustrating that he never tries to do something on his right when there is an opportunity to move the ball quickly to start/keep an attack going as it stops the momentum. 

That said, I do agree with others' that he was looking good this season, but things need to be tempered a little as he has gone through purple patches before and then tailed off. He did that in the first half of the 2019/20 season with Leicester then his initial start with us. 

Obviously, the hope is that he can keep his form up as he is now reaching the age where consistency is key and after that he'll need to work on his right foot if he wants to become elite. 

I've made the same observation about Ben's right foot. I cannot for the life of me understand why any professional footballer should be one footed. Many, many times in every game the ball will be moved across the back and end up with the FBs/WBs. Too often, and not just in Ben's case, they are forced to ignore the good passing angle available with their weaker foot and have to play a conservative pass with their good foot instead. This annoys me more than anything in football most especially in Ben's case since in his debut he did actually make good use of his right foot quite a few times.

[MoroccanBlue 5,219]

45 minutes ago, OhForAGreavsie said:

. This annoys me more than anything in football most especially in Ben's case since in his debut he did actually make good use of his right foot quite a few times.

I do think we would benefit having an inverted LWB option that cuts inside being involved in the build up from midfield. Particularly against low blocks where CHO or Pulisic or Werner can stay wide.  We see this at City with Zinchenko and more importantly Cancelo. 

Sergino Dest would be an option. Can play RWB as well. 

[OhForAGreavsie 5,776]

6 hours ago, MoroccanBlue said:

I do think we would benefit having an inverted LWB option that cuts inside being involved in the build up from midfield. Particularly against low blocks where CHO or Pulisic or Werner can stay wide.  We see this at City with Zinchenko and more importantly Cancelo. 

Sergino Dest would be an option. Can play RWB as well. 

Interesting. I'll look at some vids but would he leave Barca? Probably have to wait till I'm sober though. Been at the port. 

Merry Christmas to you all.

[Vesper 27,435]

On 24/12/2021 at 01:47, OhForAGreavsie said:

You've got me there. I know @Vesper likes Theo Hernandez but these days I'm not watching enough non Chelsea football to really have a valid opinion. I will observe that in highlight reels he sometimes looks more about the power than the finesse to me. I'm sure someone will probably put me straight on that.

This is the point of disagreement between us I think. Generally I have not been impressed and I believe a reading of forum comments about him would show that across his CFC career to date people here have raised questions about him. Indeed I think it is 'lucky' for Ben that this injury came at the back of a purple patch and so the short-term memories of him are positive.

big problem is Theo is not available in January

[Vesper 27,435]

On 24/12/2021 at 00:26, Mário César said:

signing a upgrade to chilwell is not so easy.

at least, we need to try to sign a player better than alonso and emerson at least

well, upgrade means you are only talking about a handful of players on the planet maybe 5 

Alphonso Davies    
Andrew Robertson  
Theo Hernández   

very soon, if not now: Nuno Mendes

and arguably Ferland Mendy  (limited offensively though)

Leonardo Spinazzola  would be in that mix, but he blew out his Achilles

that's it atm unless you start tossing in two LMFers who also play LWB

Saka and maybe Gosens

[Magic Lamps 11,473]

1 hour ago, Vesper said:

well, upgrade means you are only talking about a handful of players on the planet maybe 5 

Alphonso Davies    
Andrew Robertson  
Theo Hernández   

very soon, if not now: Nuno Mendes

and arguably Ferland Mendy  (limited offensively though)

Leonardo Spinazzola  would be in that mix, but he blew out his Achilles

that's it atm unless you start tossing in two LMFers who also play LWB

Saka and maybe Gosens

Davies had a very dodgy last season has regressed massively from the level he had in 19/20

spinazzola and Robertson are significantly older than Chilly as well. 
gosens and Sala are definitely inferior to Ben

mendes and Mendy I have not seen enough but I doubt it. Real fans I know are rather critical of Mendy 

also all players on that list are a huge pull. If they became available we would not exactly be first in line under normal circumstances. Real, city and Psg will always overpower us in the t market. Possibly a consequence of how terribly we managed the salah kdb situations back then. But probably more down to wages budget 

 

[Vesper 27,435]

2 hours ago, Magic Lamps said:

Davies had a very dodgy last season has regressed massively from the level he had in 19/20

spinazzola and Robertson are significantly older than Chilly as well. 
gosens and Sala are definitely inferior to Ben

mendes and Mendy I have not seen enough but I doubt it. Real fans I know are rather critical of Mendy 

also all players on that list are a huge pull. If they became available we would not exactly be first in line under normal circumstances. Real, city and Psg will always overpower us in the t market. Possibly a consequence of how terribly we managed the salah kdb situations back then. But probably more down to wages budget 

 

Oh, I never claimed they were viable targets, was ust listing any who even a remote case could be make for

Davies seems to regained a lot of his form atm btw

and yes, age comes into play for some

I do feel confident in saying the first 3 would be an upgrade

and likely Mendes too, especially given his age and upside

the others are very flip a coin

Theo is, as always, my choice