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Chelsea
- Thread starter Red Reign
- Start date
Chelsea looked horrible. And Arsenal looked fantastic. Arsenal could have won by 6.
That's 3 games in a row in which Cahill has gifted a goal because......well, he sucks. But everyone knew he sucked before the season started. Not much changed for them. Their defense with Ivan and Cahill will only allow them to go so far. Poor Ivan looked lost ALL game. What you can't do, retrospectively, is play Fabs and Matic against Arsenal's midfield. They can't keep up and Hazard seems intent to not help AT ALL on the defensive end. Not sure if Conte instructed that or what.
That's 3 games in a row in which Cahill has gifted a goal because......well, he sucks. But everyone knew he sucked before the season started. Not much changed for them. Their defense with Ivan and Cahill will only allow them to go so far. Poor Ivan looked lost ALL game. What you can't do, retrospectively, is play Fabs and Matic against Arsenal's midfield. They can't keep up and Hazard seems intent to not help AT ALL on the defensive end. Not sure if Conte instructed that or what.
No likes a bragger, RR.
Jik and I are having fun.....he started it in the QPR thread....suggest you know the whole story before weighing in, in the future....
Is there a worse back 3 (of 4) than Ivan, David Luiz and Cahill in the EPL? Gooooood Lord that was awful. Zouma can't come back soon enough. Also, why hasn't Conte moved Alonso in at LB and Azpi over to RB?
Also there has to be some movement with those players at the winter break... Fabs doesn't want to play D and Matic doesn't have the attacking prowess. They get absolutely no attacking creativity out of central midfield.
And when has Hazard ever helped on the defensive end? :O O:
Alonso played midweek and I thought he looked fine against a toned-down Leicester squad. You are correct, Fabs and Matic can never play in mid together. I'm not an Oscar fan, who goes AWOL for huge stretches of matches, but he's a better option. Fabs can't play a whole game against a fast midfield. Matic looked good for one game. He actually had periods against Arsenal where he played well though offered nothing in attack. That's just not good enough when Kante is that man.
Yeah, I liked what I saw out of Alonso, that's why I said that. When he gets into the attack, he sends some beautiful crosses in - something that Chelsea needs considering they don't get that normally from their usual wide players in Hazard and Willian (although he does it more than Hazard). He might not be a great defender (jury still out on that), but he can't be worse than Ivan.
I remember you saying that about Oscar in the past. I like what Oscar brings, just wish you would see it the whole time he's in.
Matic seems to be the odd man out in this situation as he more or less does exactly what Kante does, just worse. Although I suppose the same could be said for Fabs. And Obi Mikel. It did seem though that Kante's ability was actually neutered by having both Fabs and Matic around him, which just can't happen.
Also I'd like to see Conte start Michy up top with Costa... go on the attack right away, rather than starting 3 Dmids...
What Chelsea needs is a true box-to-box midfielder. I'd give Chalobah a real chance here, but Fabs and Matic would piss and moan and completely destroy any semblance of chemistry.
Something brought up in other forums is Courtois. He's a personality zero. He doesn't command the defense and certainly doesn't get in the face of defenders that don't give 100%. Can you imagine what Neuer would do if one of his fullbacks jogged back when the defender gets by them? This is something that is gaining some traction with me. For all the ability, he doesn't command respect and effort. That's a problem I've never considered.
Chelsea is really screwed up. The effort is simply not there outside of Azpi, Costa, Terry and Willian. And it's balls-to-the-wall in the EPL. When you give 80%, you get beat. Simple as that.
Unless Conte can figure out a way to improve effort, it won't matter. They can't sit by and let the players dictate another year if it doesn't get corrected. Fortunately, I think most logical Chelsea fans finally understand this and won't have major issues when major changes are made. But, that's for next summer's transfer window.
Somehow wishing upon a miracle for 4th place is the goal. But very unrealistic, I think.
Going 4-4-2 as you suggested, is what I'd do as well. It gives them an excuse to get only one of Oscar, Matic or Fabs on the field and gives you ample justification to yank them if they aren't playing full-on. Unfortunately, it's come to that.
Yeah, totally agree with the B2B MF. Oscar can be that... for usually about 8-10% of the match. Obviously not enough. Even if they can get an attacking mid, they might be ok just because of Kante's work rate. I think he was a fantastic buy, it just didn't make sense keeping both Cesc and Matic. I love Fabs' passes and Matic's effort so far this year, they just come up short too often. Maybe even RLC - he showed some moments last year - Conte just has to be willing to play the young guys which hasn't happened thus far.
And that is sooo true. Even last year, he was doing things that weren't making sense. I was watching it thinking to myself, can we get PC back? I mean he's gotta have 5+ years of top Goalie ability, should have kept him instead. TC needs to be sold for that massive profit they keep predicting.
Fourth will be a challenge, but if Terry comes back soon and Zouma is able to come back at his previous ability, that will make a massive difference in that back 4. Use that diamond-like MF with Kante, Willian, Hazard, and Oscar/Fabs/Matic/Obi Mikel/RLC/Moses with Costa and Michy up top... that should be more than enough to compete for that 4th spot.
Just read another rumor article saying RA is going to open up the checkbook to overhaul things... I'll believe it when I see it.
I'm most certainly NOT a fan of Loftus Cheek. He's young so he gets a pass but he doesn't do ANYTHING well. I'm not sure what they could get from him to create a world class player. Opposed to a guy like Moses. I cringe when he comes in the game, but I could imagine a time when it clicks for him and he's all-the-sudden a must play. Can you imagine if we would have pulled off James? One guy would have solved out entire midfield, as I think he would be GREAT as a b2b guy, and he wants to play it. Wholesale sell-off all our crap and add one great player to the back. Lose all the poor effort and age and get world class in return. sigh. It would have been fantastic.
I'm just so intrigued by what he 'could' be... I guess that's what youth does! Haah. His size just seems like it should play somewhere, I just don't think anyone knows where. I think they need to give Moses a chance to play that AMid role, just to see if he has it in him. When he has come on as a sub, he plays with plenty of energy so maybe he can be a B2B/AMid.
And I'm guessing RM wouldn't have allowed James to go unless they got Hazard back... which I woulda said, absolutely.
