Chelsea 1-0 Crystal Palace

[TheHulk 1,427]

 

[calculatingInfinity 1,443]

2 minutes ago, Pizy said:

Thiago Silva is so ridiculously good. Should not be possible to still be the best defender in the toughest league in the world at nearly 40 years old. He’s insane.

Need to offer him a new 2 year contract. He doesn’t rely on pace at all so that’s not even a concern as he gets a year or two older.

 

It is very impressive. But I do think he has shown signs of aging (about time isnt it really?), and not always been up to his usually high standard. I would certainly not give him a 2 year deal. 

[TheHulk 1,427]

Deserved.

[Pizy 17,861]

Mase needs to be benched for a run of several games now. Please. We have 3 new attacking players and can afford to let him rest. He’s a total passenger out there and looks completely detached from the game. 

[TheHulk 1,427]

 

[TheHulk 1,427]

 

[bluesman2610 1,241]

1 minute ago, Pizy said:

Mase needs to be benched for a run of several games now. Please. We have 3 new attacking players and can afford to let him rest. He’s a total passenger out there and looks completely detached from the game. 

I was thinking the same thing watching the game there was a good stretch where I couldn’t remember the last time he had gotten on the ball. He needs to decide right now he needs to play further back if I was him I’d be studying Lampard tapes with any free time I had. 

[Pizy 17,861]

5 minutes ago, bluesman2610 said:

I was thinking the same thing watching the game there was a good stretch where I couldn’t remember the last time he had gotten on the ball. He needs to decide right now he needs to play further back if I was him I’d be studying Lampard tapes with any free time I had. 

It’s got to be either extreme fatigue after all the football he’s played over the past year or his contract situation is weighing on him. He’s an absolute shadow of the player we’ve seen for the last few years.

[milka 3,308]

26 minutes ago, Vesper said:

£62m well spent!!!

😞

compared to him, we will dream of Marcos Alonso 

[cosmicway 1,263]

At last a win. Against weak opposition but a win.
I liked Gallagher most.
And Thiago. But we are going to cry when Thiago leaves us. He 's 38 and remember how Ivanovitch lost his form all of a sudden ? Iva was one of our top players in 2014-15 and also for Serbia, then nothing - he had to stop playing and he was only 31.

 

[manpe 10,857]

A scrappy win but 3 points and a clean sheet on top of that is all that matters at the moment. Hopefully it gives a moral boost to take on and win against Liverpool. 

[OneMoSalah 8,619]

Still a lot of work to do. Win will keep the wolves at bay for now, but we have to play much better and quickly. 

[NikkiCFC 7,623]

57 minutes ago, TheHulk said:

One year more for sure and get rid of Koulibaly maybe wait until 2024 for Gvardiol.

We have already two top left footed CB prospects in Badiashile and Colwill. No need for Gvardiol. And no chance tbh. 

[Vegetable 790]

6 minutes ago, manpe said:

A scrappy win but 3 points and a clean sheet on top of that is all that matters at the moment. Hopefully it gives a moral boost to take on and win against Liverpool. 

Nothing boosts morale as well as the owner, who doesn't care much for financial loss and is openly talking about selling key players apparently

[Johnnyeye 7,415]

55 minutes ago, TheHulk said:

 

if only we could shave off 10 years of his age…

[OneMoSalah 8,619]

3 minutes ago, NikkiCFC said:

We have already two top left footed CB prospects in Badiashile and Colwill. No need for Gvardiol. And no chance tbh. 

Yeah Gvardiol moves dead in the water. You don’t sign a similar age and profile of player on a 7.5 year deal. To go and spend 100m on the same type of player. 

[Laylabelle 9,305]

Woooo this brings our goal difference up to 1!! How amazing...

[Superblue 6,333]

59 minutes ago, TheHulk said:

One year more for sure and get rid of Koulibaly maybe wait until 2024 for Gvardiol.

I feel the long term plan for the club is four centre backs - Fofana, Badiashile, Chalobah and Colwill. All young, two natural left sided, two natural right sided.

I think if Silva can continue at the rate it would be foolish to let him leave yet, especially when in likelihood we'll be disposing of a lot of experience in the squad in the summer. People can have their own views on the likes of Jorginho, Azpi, etc but these are still players that have won big games, big trophies through their careers and losing that level of experience in a dressing room at times can present a problem, especially as the club on paper is looking at getting a lot younger overall in squad profile.

I'd be inclined to sign Silva up for another year, and loan Colwill out again for one more season of regular football just to polish him up further before he comes back here.