Chelsea Transfers

[killer1257 3,282]

How many of the 15 goals conceded were from corners? Maybe my memory has failed me but I don't remember us looking so vulnerable from every corner last season. Since the restart, we have looked like conceding from every corner. Conceding corners these days is like conceding penalties to the opposition. 

I remember that we were conceding a lot from corners because Rüdiger and Luiz are garbage defenders and have no positional awareness. Especially we conceded after the second half started. But I also remember we were garbage when we defended indirect free kicks. So, maybe someone can get deeper into it

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[King Kante 1,474]

1 hour ago, Jason said:

With the exception of Luiz, Hazard, Pulisic and the young players, Sarri had the same squad last season and the set piece problems never became as apparent as now. We had some issues back then but I don't recall us looking like conceding from every set piece under Sarri. 

This isn't a popular opinion but when it comes to set piece defending I think Luiz being missed. I say this because, as I noted in my previous post, there is not really a height issue per se but a skills/desire level. People complain about Luiz a lot but one thing he isn't is a pussy. In fact he was the most determined and enthusiastic of our CB's at attacking a ball in the air and also had better heading skills than Zouma and better reading of the game than Rudi (although this is more to do with the level of these players than saying Luiz is great.) 

On another Chelsea forum that I used to be a regular on, I said last Summer that we were going to have three serious problems this season and that was: defending set pieces, defending against a counter and scoring our chances. My solution was to keep Luiz and play him in the central CB position in a 352/343 as that would have then allowed us to have three CB's to protect the useless Kepa at set pieces, Alonso could then just do his thing in the LWB role as he scores and assist more consistently in that position than any of our CM/AM's (ok not Puli, but he was new to the league) and lastly we shouldn't have been so wide open on the counter because if the DM/last CM got caught out as you should always have Luiz back there to mop up like he did under Conte in title winning season. 

This idea was shot down on there however, as people cried that Luiz was the biggest clown of all the CB's and that Rudi/Zouma/Tomori were 'big and strong' and would protect Kepa (who was apparently coming off an amazing season and would be our 10 year GK.) As for the goals they did conceded that we were pretty screwed but thought the counter attack issues wouldn't manifest so we were better off with another CM to chip in. 

[ZAPHOD2319 4,476]

If you're going to go, go strong!!

 

[Tomo 21,733]

On 04/07/2020 at 11:13 AM, King Kante said:

This isn't a popular opinion but when it comes to set piece defending I think Luiz being missed. I say this because, as I noted in my previous post, there is not really a height issue per se but a skills/desire level. People complain about Luiz a lot but one thing he isn't is a pussy. In fact he was the most determined and enthusiastic of our CB's at attacking a ball in the air and also had better heading skills than Zouma and better reading of the game than Rudi (although this is more to do with the level of these players than saying Luiz is great.) 

On another Chelsea forum that I used to be a regular on, I said last Summer that we were going to have three serious problems this season and that was: defending set pieces, defending against a counter and scoring our chances. My solution was to keep Luiz and play him in the central CB position in a 352/343 as that would have then allowed us to have three CB's to protect the useless Kepa at set pieces, Alonso could then just do his thing in the LWB role as he scores and assist more consistently in that position than any of our CM/AM's (ok not Puli, but he was new to the league) and lastly we shouldn't have been so wide open on the counter because if the DM/last CM got caught out as you should always have Luiz back there to mop up like he did under Conte in title winning season. 

This idea was shot down on there however, as people cried that Luiz was the biggest clown of all the CB's and that Rudi/Zouma/Tomori were 'big and strong' and would protect Kepa (who was apparently coming off an amazing season and would be our 10 year GK.) As for the goals they did conceded that we were pretty screwed but thought the counter attack issues wouldn't manifest so we were better off with another CM to chip in. 

I think the main miss above anyone else is Courtois, I kept screaming till I was blue in the face that he's so comfortable claiming set pieces he probably saved us atleast 10 goals and numerous heart stopping momemts a season minimum (looking at what's happened since that was probably a wild under estimate) but no one cared because he wasn't throwing himself around making saves for the camera like a certain (overrated) someone up in Manchester was.

He may be an odious human being but he's a bloody good keeper, if he was still here he would be operating on another planet to every single keeper in this league bar Alisson.

[Puliiszola 519]

On 7/4/2020 at 10:34 AM, Tomo said:

Has he been spending lockdown with Mourinho? First ditching the regista's and scrapping our progressive football now this.

Just because we ditched the regista, does not mean out play has not been progressive.

[Tomo 21,733]

23 minutes ago, Puliiszola said:

Just because we ditched the regista, does not mean out play has not been progressive.

Yesterday was a lot more like it especially in the second half (which has eased my fears some what) but the previous game reminded me of watching us in Conte's last few months style wise, City pressed self destruct which allowed us to take advantage but the Villa, Leicester and West Ham games were boring as hell.

If Lampard does want to go down the route of a sitting DM with two attacking based midfielders then he needs to go out and sign an appropriate player to do it, sticking a box to box player who's past his prime there is not going to cut it.

[Jase 43,479]

12 minutes ago, Tomo said:

Yesterday was a lot more like it especially in the second half (which has eased my fears some what)

Not sure how much I would read to that, TBH. Watford seemed like they were content to just take a 2-0 loss and run. Barely had a go at us. The fact that they were happy to leave Kante, Zouma and Christensen have the ball in the first half was telling, because they know - and we all know - that they are unadventurous with their passing. 

[Puliiszola 519]

1 hour ago, Tomo said:

Yesterday was a lot more like it especially in the second half (which has eased my fears some what) but the previous game reminded me of watching us in Conte's last few months style wise, City pressed self destruct which allowed us to take advantage but the Villa, Leicester and West Ham games were boring as hell.

If Lampard does want to go down the route of a sitting DM with two attacking based midfielders then he needs to go out and sign an appropriate player to do it, sticking a box to box player who's past his prime there is not going to cut it.

I think this is very unfair on kante. He was really good at breaking up the play against villa, city and Watford.

Against Leicester, it was completely different as Gilmour kept losing the ball in such dangerous positions that it was hard to recover even for someone like kante. 

Imo, kante as a sitting DM has given us immense protection which is kind of showing even in terms of goals that we have conceded from open play.

Villa - conceded from a set piece

City - set piece (no one at fault though, poor class)

Lei - lucky not to concede, but well we did not

Whu - 2 of them

Watford - barely a shot on goal. And we saw the difference when Gilmour came in.

I mean if we improve our set piece defending, we would have had 3 CS, 1 kdb masterclas, and disaster class from rudiger.

Again, just my opinion, but kante has been really good as a sitting DM. 

[Tomo 21,733]

20 minutes ago, Puliiszola said:

I think this is very unfair on kante. He was really good at breaking up the play against villa, city and Watford.

Against Leicester, it was completely different as Gilmour kept losing the ball in such dangerous positions that it was hard to recover even for someone like kante. 

Imo, kante as a sitting DM has given us immense protection which is kind of showing even in terms of goals that we have conceded from open play.

Villa - conceded from a set piece

City - set piece (no one at fault though, poor class)

Lei - lucky not to concede, but well we did not

Whu - 2 of them

Watford - barely a shot on goal. And we saw the difference when Gilmour came in.

I mean if we improve our set piece defending, we would have had 3 CS, 1 kdb masterclas, and disaster class from rudiger.

Again, just my opinion, but kante has been really good as a sitting DM. 

It depends on what context we look at things. Do I think he's been decent in terms of individual performance? Yes but I think he lacks some vital skills to play in that role. Also given the fluitidity and build up play we lose by putting him there instead of Jorgi or Gilmour the trade off has to be that we're much more solid defensively, and I'm just not sure we are (even yesterday there were a couple of occasions Watford were a through ball away from a 1 on 1 with Kepa).

Kante is more of an proactive hunter, sitting in sticking 100% to his position and playing the patience game just isn't him, even if he learns to reign it in a bit more often there will still be times he instinctively evades position to hunt an interception/tackle and if that backfires we're all of a sudden really stretched (that was a problem for him even at his absolute peak playing there, case in point Ozil's goal against us in that game that forced Conte to overhaul the system), an example since the restart would be where the late free kick Villa got against us, he had to bring Grealish down because he evaded position and got turned.

[King Kante 1,474]

4 hours ago, Tomo said:

I think the main miss above anyone else is Courtois, I kept screaming till I was blue in the face that he's so comfortable claiming set pieces he probably saves us atleast 10 goals and numerous heart stopping momemts a season minimum (looking at what's happened since that was probably a wild under estimate) but no one cared because he wasn't throwing himself around making saves for the camera like a certain (overrated) someone up in Manchester was.

He may be an odious human being but he's a bloody good keeper, if he was still here he would be operating on another planet to every single keeper in this league bar Alisson.

I was a big TC fan too and said the exact same thing when people used to cry about his shot stopping ability; for me whilst not the greatest stop stopper he was one of the most effective GK's as he cut so much off at source. However, people these days love their Youtube clips too much. 

As for the player himself, I am also of the unpopular opinion that whilst he is clearly arrogant I do actually believe he was told by the club he could leave in March 18 and when they missed out on Alisson they tried to hold him to his last year. I have slightly mixed feelings about him not being loyal but I am also someone that keeps my promises. So, to an extent if he did get promised he could leave that Summer, he was well within his rights to make the club follow through on that promise as it wasn't his fault they hadn't scouted/negotiated properly. 

[OneMoSalah 8,774]

7 hours ago, Tomo said:

I think the main miss above anyone else is Courtois, I kept screaming till I was blue in the face that he's so comfortable claiming set pieces he probably saved us atleast 10 goals and numerous heart stopping momemts a season minimum (looking at what's happened since that was probably a wild under estimate) but no one cared because he wasn't throwing himself around making saves for the camera like a certain (overrated) someone up in Manchester was.

He may be an odious human being but he's a bloody good keeper, if he was still here he would be operating on another planet to every single keeper in this league bar Alisson.

 

3 hours ago, King Kante said:

I was a big TC fan too and said the exact same thing when people used to cry about his shot stopping ability; for me whilst not the greatest stop stopper he was one of the most effective GK's as he cut so much off at source. However, people these days love their Youtube clips too much. 

As for the player himself, I am also of the unpopular opinion that whilst he is clearly arrogant I do actually believe he was told by the club he could leave in March 18 and when they missed out on Alisson they tried to hold him to his last year. I have slightly mixed feelings about him not being loyal but I am also someone that keeps my promises. So, to an extent if he did get promised he could leave that Summer, he was well within his rights to make the club follow through on that promise as it wasn't his fault they hadn't scouted/negotiated properly. 

Courtois had a offseason when Jose got sacked (probably similarly to what Kepa is having this year) though and not the best start at Real prompting a majority of the people on this forum to say shit like they thought he was finished or never would be as good as he was before. It just shows how fickle football can be. I would say as good as Alisson is, Courtois is on his level. 100%. He is and always has been undoubtedly one of the best GKs in Europe since he started making real headway at Atletico playing every week.

That is why I am also going to keep saying regarding Kepa that this season is a one off imo. We have to give the guy a chance, he will be better next season and if we can improve our defensive approach in phases of games and set plays, everyone in the back 5 will look better not just him. Its no secret that I keep banging on about the organisation and that helps a lot. As weve seen in various games this season and in the past with other managers. Maybe Kepa will never be world class or achieve anything near what Courtois and Cech did before him but he is still a good GK. The price tag will always bring scrutiny and he has been inconsistent this season, although Cech and Courtois also had similar moments in their spells here but I don't think he is a second rate GK. 

I mean our consistency all over the pitch has been really bad. Bar Kovacic perhaps. He is the only one who has done consistency well over the course of the season. Although again, his goals and assists can still go up because he should be very capable of getting a total of 10 goals a season at least through scoring and assisting imo. I mean Matic (okay different players) got what 8 or 9 assists under Conte the year we won the league and he has half the natural ability and skillset Kovacic does imo. 

[MoroccanBlue 5,296]

So if this is what Lampard wants moving forward, surely we should sign a proper DM/holding midfielder?

Maybe hijack the Partey transfer whilst offloading Jorginho?

[Vesper 28,765]

CHELSEA, MANCHESTER UNITED TO BATTLE FOR PAU TORRES

http://www.thehardtackle.com/news/2020/07/05/transfer-news-chelsea-manchester-united-to-battle-for-pau-torres/

Chelsea have reportedly entered the race to sign Villarreal defender Pau Torres, who is also on the radars of Manchester United.

According to a report from the Daily Mail, Chelsea will battle with fellow Premier League outfit Manchester United for the signing of Villarreal’s Spanish centre-half Pau Torres.

The 23-year-old Torres is a product of the Villarreal youth academy. Having made his first-team debut for the club back in 2016, the defender was loaned out to Malaga in the 2018/19 campaign, wherein he performed well. Since returning, the Spaniard has become a first-team regular at El Madrigal.

In the ongoing season, Torres has featured 31 times across all competitions, chipping in with two goals and two assists as well, playing a key role in the Yellow Submarine’s ascent to fifth place in the La Liga standings. On the back of his impressive performances, the 23-year-old also broke into the Spanish national team in November last year.

Torres’s rise to prominence in the past year or so hasn’t gone unnoticed, with a number of top clubs across Europe lining up to sign him. Arsenal had been credited with an interest ahead of the January window, and are still monitoring the Spaniard. Barcelona, too, are in the mix along with Manchester United. And now, Chelsea have also entered the race.

Chelsea have made plenty of progress in Frank Lampard’s first season in-charge at the club. But, defence has been an issue for the West London outfit throughout the course of the campaign. They currently have four centre-backs on the books in the form of Andreas Christensen, Antonio Rudiger, Fikayo Tomori and Kurt Zouma. However, none of them have been consistent enough.

Of late, Lampard has been using Christensen and Rudiger as his first-choice defensive pairing and Tomori, too, enjoys the backing of the manager, which has led to question marks over the future of Zouma. The report states that the club are open to offloading the Frenchman in the summer, and replace him with the 23-year-old Torres.

However, they will have to stave off competition from Manchester United, who are understood to be closely monitoring the Villarreal star as well. Harry Maguire’s arrival has led to a marked improvement at the back for the Red Devils.

But, they can do with adding more solidity given that neither Victor Lindelof not Eric Bailly has totally convinced, while Maguire has shown that he, too, is susceptible to the odd error, as was evident against Tottenham last month and Bournemouth this weekend. Plus, with the future of Phil Jones and Marcos Rojo unclear, bolstering the centre-half department would serve United well.

Torres penned a new contract with Villarreal last year, extending his stay at the club till 2024. The Spanish international reportedly has a release clause of £45 million, which the suitors will need to trigger in order to sign him.

Chelsea, in spite of the current financial climate, have shown that they have the pull to splash the cash in the market. Manchester United, though, might be a tad unwilling to do so, given that they are prioritising the transfers of Jadon Sancho and Jack Grealish. It will be interesting to see how this transfer tussle between the two English giants plays out in the coming weeks.

snip

[Pizy 18,368]

Declan Rice again very impressive here. Very calm, mature midfielder for someone his age. And highly mobile for someone so big.

You have to imagine that of Frank wants rid of Jorginho, Rice is the obvious pick to replace him.

[killer1257 3,282]

Declan Rice again very impressive here. Very calm, mature midfielder for someone his age. And highly mobile for someone so big.
You have to imagine that of Frank wants rid of Jorginho, Rice is the obvious pick to replace him.

Kante will still play, so why waste money on a player that will only sit on the bench?

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[Vesper 28,765]

4 minutes ago, MoroccanBlue said:

So if this is what Lampard wants moving forward, surely we should sign a proper DM/holding midfielder?

Maybe hijack the Partey transfer whilst offloading Jorginho?

Partey would be a beast, he has been my number 1 veteran DMF target for ages

the only DMF's who interest me and are remotely available (Ndidi is not), nor the 3 top WC ones like Kimmich, Casemiro, Rodri)

Sandro Tonali
Eduardo Camavinga
Declan Rice    (CB as well)
Thomas Partey
Marcelo Brozovic    
Rúben Neves   
Denis Zakaria   
Boubakary Soumaré
Aurélien Tchouaméni
Florentino

Wild Card Marquinhos (CB as well)

[Vesper 28,765]

1 minute ago, killer1257 said:

Kante will still play, so why waste money on a player that will only sit on the bench?

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sell Kante (really try to work a swap for Varane or for Marquinhos + cash or another player) or we suffer the long term consequences at a multiplicity of levels

I am 100% confident I have been right, am right and will be right on this

[Pizy 18,368]

4 minutes ago, killer1257 said:

Kante will still play, so why waste money on a player that will only sit on the bench?

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Much as I love Kante, he's injured frequently these days. WH will probably demand £80m for him if they stay up anyways so it's a moot point.