Chelsea Banter Archive February 01 2017

 

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01 Feb 2017 18:15:31
I think we need to look to a real quality player to replace Moses. I think he's done a fine job and has definitely earned his place in the squad but his positional defending at the back post is pretty bad and he just lacks quality within the final third at the other end.

Same could be said of Alonso on the other side, although I see him as more reliable. I do still think Kenedy could be excellent in that position, especially when we have to break teams down.

Overall I'm glad we didn't sign anyone yesterday. Ake a natural successor for Cahill, Aina replacing, the already departed, Ivanovic, Chalobah must come in for Matic, Musonda to see time for Pedro and Willian and, RLC should now see more minuets (otherwise he would have got a loan) and when Baker returns he should eventually replace Fabregas (who was excellent when he came on yesterday). I'm even hopeful some sense can be banged into Solanke, he signs a new deal and gets a few minuets towards the end of the season.

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01 Feb 2017 15:32:48
Ed is it true we had scouts watching Maxine Lopez yesterday and are we interested
Hanks

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{Ed002's Note - Not as far as I know.}

01 Feb 2017 10:06:08
I was at the game last night and I'm reading posts this morning and it was like I was at a different match , seeing hazard being slagged off and Moses and William , all I can say is it must look a lot different on tv than in real life , the worst 2 players by a country mile was matic and Cahill.

all matic was doing was scooping the ball up in the air , and get caught in possesion , the game was to quick for him and he really struggled , you could see his lack of technique, we needed our midfield to hold on to the ball to help us move up the pitch as a team.

Cahill just keep booting it away and it kept coming back , it seemed like he was inviting pressure , just kept happening , Willian was ok good work rate , every time he had the ball in there half he was isolated and had to turn and play backwards , hazard was the only quality number 10 type on the pitch for both teams , the ball seemed to stick to his feet and he could go past 1 or 2 players at a time , he held the ball up so we could get up the pitch , and he linked quite well with Costa a few times.

like I said it probably looks different on match of the day because in real life you can see the whole pitch , you can see work rate of the ball , and you can see when defenders just boot the ball away when in reality they had 5-6 options to pass

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{Ed001's Note - it is more to do with the person watching, as most people even at the games merely watch the ball, rather than the full game.}

01 Feb 2017 10:12:57
I sort of agree with you cat . I thought hazard actually was by far our best attacking player. Also though Luiz and Kante played well . I thought that matic, William and costa had off days though . But at the end of the day the result was a good one and the performance wasn't bad.

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01 Feb 2017 10:23:43
Yeah I suppose ed but every single time Cahill had the ball it seemed like he had 15 yards of space, he always had options to play it line to alonso he had option to play square to Luiz, matic was always available if Cahill had the confidence to pass past there press, and all day long mosses was in 30 yards of space on the right touch line, so if he wanted to switch it he could.

this is the main reason I'm going to watch the game back this morning because, it wasn't just my opinion it was everybody around me that Cahill was really bad, he was ok at heading it away, but every single time he would just kick it away under not much pressure and it kept coming back.

I'm curious to see on to if it looked like he was being pressed into mistakes, because in live play he had enough space and Time every single time, he's not good enough on the ball to play 3 at the back, 100s of people around me all agreed he was the worst player on the pitch from our own fans point of view

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{Ed001's Note - I am not arguing with your opinion mate, just pointing out that not everyone at the game spots the things you do. That is why clubs employ professional scouts, otherwise they could just ask any Tom, Dick or Harry in the crowd for an opinion.}

01 Feb 2017 10:51:23
Before you start crying mate, I'm not slagging Hazard off. I think he's most people's favourite Chelsea player including mine. All I'm saying is I think inconsistency will always be in the way of him being world class. You can't be world class if you're not consistent that's why I think Sanchez is the better player and that's not being biased.

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01 Feb 2017 11:34:05
I can't believe the negativity above! I thought that after the first 15 minutes we controlled the game and we were unlucky not to win. Eden Hazard is one of the best players in the World and, because of that, opposing teams set out to not give him the space to operate - almost every time he started on a run last night he was fouled (one time resulting in our goal) ; his inter-play with Costa was still our main threat. Costa himself was inches away from converting a Willian cross / shot and his run produced our penalty - Jeez, I don't know what you people expect. I am not even going to debate Willian as there are people on this site who will seemingly never accept what a glorious player he is.
Liverpool, having lost there last 2 home games and desperately needing to win not only to possibly challenge us but also to fight for top 4, were always going to start the game in a frenzy with the crowd behind them - and for the first 15 minutes we tactically set up as a back 5 and allowed Liverpool their 15 minutes - after that we slowly took control of possession - a master class in how to quieten a hostile crowd.
One last thing, I always thought that I would never see as good a manager at Chels as Mourinho Mark 1 but I believe that Conte tops even him - his substitutions and their timing last night were pure genius - I am sure the anti-Willians were screaming at their TV sets when Pedro replaced Hazard but, for me, Conte got it spot on, even bringing on Fabregas late to control possession when a more defensive substitution would have been the call from us amateurs. Conte = Genius.

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01 Feb 2017 12:20:18
You only just noticed? Cahill is useless and is holding us back. Play ake there and you'll see how a CB should play with the ball. Alonsos not a lot better, that left side is so weak. Ake and kenedy would be an improvement. Matic has been rubbish for a while, only plays on his left side and just hits it into space, dopy player. Need a 3-5-2 with chalo, cesc and kante, you saw how good kante played when cesc came on in a 3, allows kante to roam and pressure more higher upfield which leads to chances. Willian's crap, hazard needs cesc to play off as Costa Willian matic kante aren't getting him the ball enough so he drops deep.

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01 Feb 2017 12:50:23
Blimey, anyone reading these posts would think this is 2015/16 all over again!

This is the first year of Conte's management, he's had two transfer windows and half a season to work with what he's got whilst trying to bring in players, use players in different positions, attempting to integrate youth and retain experience!

Pre-season, I'm not sure there were many Chelsea fans who thought we'd be in this position come the end of January.

Sure, we can improve in certain positions, which team couldn't?

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01 Feb 2017 12:56:43
My personal opinion is that hazard done ok. He never had the best of games but neither did a few others. Having said this the team played well in spells and was very well organised as usual.

Luiz and Kante I thought were outstanding. Big mention for branna also as he's been an important member of the squad for nearly 10 years I think. He had some excellent games in finals, semi finals etc.

Glad nothing came of the ake rumour as the club need to now show some faith in these youngsters who have shown a lot of promise while out on loan. All in all a great point away from home leaves us 9 points clear with a good run of games coming up.

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01 Feb 2017 14:10:16
Does anybody remember last season. That was fun wasn't it!

We were okay last night playing a title challenger who were playing above themselves. And we still could've won it.

Players have good and bad games. Matic, Hazard, and Cahill have massively improved under Conte and have all contributed throughout.

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01 Feb 2017 15:51:08
Well I've now watched the game back on tv and to be honest Cahill and matic both looked poor live and on the tv, I wasn't by any means being negative I think we got 2/ 3 weak links and then think we have 7/ 8 really good players, with 2/ 3 new additions in the summer I bleive we could be 1 of the best in Europe and 1 of the top 5 favourite s for champions league, id say that's pretty positive

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02 Feb 2017 00:22:49
I agree Cat, but if we go in on to win the title, I wonder if the board will have learnt from what happened with JM and invest in the squad.

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02 Feb 2017 16:40:19
We have no choice mate, we could quite easily win the league by 10 points this year, and then both Manchester clubs spend £200 million each in the summer, Liverpool sort the defence out, Arsenal bring 1/ 2 missing pieces of jigsaw, Spurs get that 1 quality player to take them to next level, and all of a sudden unless we strengthen 2/ 3 quality players then we could go from 1st to 6 th, we got to be very mindful of that, if anything we need to pull away and make the gap bigger from our selfs and the rest, keep improving keep moving forward

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01 Feb 2017 09:22:59
Don't want to sound negative with being top of the table but I'm really starting to wonder if Hazard will ever deliver the consistency to be a Chelsea legend. I love him to bits and he's by far my favourite player but sometimes when I watch him considering the talent he's got he really does let me down.

I know a lot will disagree with this but you see Chelsea and Arsenal fans debate about it all the time about who is the better player out of Sanchez and Hazard. And without being biased I think Alexis is a fair bit above Eden. With the champions league back next year we really can't rely on him being inconsistent. For me I'd still sell Willian and go for that left footed player who can score goals i.e. Dybala or Griezmann.

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01 Feb 2017 15:45:42
Yes you normally get Arsenal fans saying Sanchez is better, I haven't heard many real Chelsea fans saying that though.

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01 Feb 2017 15:51:56
I give a fair and unbiased opinion.

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