Chelsea Banter Archive August 09 2015

09 Aug 2015 23:01:47
When are Chelsea going to announce the signing of Pogba? Haha. On a serious note have we any interest in Carvelo (excuse spelling) of sporting Lisbon? Cheers ed

{Ed018's Note - I think any interest from Chelsea is gone for now}

10 Aug 2015 07:35:46
Thanks Ed, guess I'm just being hopeful that either we bring in a new CM and get Cesc playing further forward or we get a new CAM to speed the play up and offer us something else going forward.
Manchester United, Chelsea and Arsenal are queuing up to sign Real Madrid midfielder Lucas Silva. (Daily Star)
Any idea if there is any truth in this? Being the Daily star I highly doubt it!

09 Aug 2015 16:12:45
I deliberately didn't comment yesterday as a deep breath was needed considering it was the first game of the season and the ref ( arguably ) shouldn't of sent Courtois off. With 10 men we showed great spirit in trying to still win the game and importantly, didn't lose! ( see Arsenal today!! ). Nice to see Jose throw on two strikers even when down to 10 men. On top of that Begovic played well and will be an excellent keeper for us. I thought Matic looked good as well. That's the plus points. I'm not going to comment negatively on individual players so early in the season as it's difficult to find rhythm and sharpness early on particularly after a pre-season involving endless travel. My concern though was why was RLC not on the bench? He offers more than Mikel and as Zouma came on for Cesc anyway why did Jose have Mikel anyway? I guess time will tell but for me RLC must be on the bench instead of Mikel now and alongside Zouma unless we do actually buy someone else. Apologies for long post.

09 Aug 2015 16:59:40
I agree about the rlc point all the talk about him and he puts mikel ahead of him in the squad . matic is always faultless infairness to him and I love zouma he's a monster

09 Aug 2015 17:22:28
It's the 1st game of the season, don't worry too much. RLC will get his chances in due time.
And on Zouma coming on instead of Mikel. As far as I could tell, Zouma wasn't even playing as a holder in midfield. He seemed to go pretty far upfield and I think he was brought in to be able to win some headers so the team could play a direct style. At least that's how I perceived it, so might be wrong.

09 Aug 2015 18:14:47
You are right about it Jackson.

09 Aug 2015 20:21:34
I again did not post yesterday as giving time to think. Thought wasn't bad performance in circumstances, there were a lot of good performances.
My main concern yesterday was ivanovic and whether blood guts and spirit are enough this season. He got torn to shreds by montero, and he is not even a regular starter. He always seemed too narrow, the times there players got the ball unmarked on the angle of our box was frightening. Think the time has come for Dave to go right back and someone else left back.
Defence was a concern

09 Aug 2015 15:28:50
Van ginkel starting for Stoke today interesting to see what he offers I for one have seen zero of him so anyone interested to see him tune in to the Liverpool Stoke game let's see if mvg can take his loan by the scruff and say to Jose hey I can do a job for u next season with matic 😀😀👍

09 Aug 2015 15:51:05
Van Ginkel and Pasalic look like very good young box to box midfielders. I'm hoping one of them can take Ramires squad place next season.

09 Aug 2015 15:53:13
Looking forward to seeing him in the BPL.

09 Aug 2015 17:25:49
I like Pasalic the most to be honest. Hopefully MVG can show he's got what it takes to play for us in the future.

09 Aug 2015 14:50:08
I take it Arsenal have blown any chance they had of winning the league?

09 Aug 2015 15:57:56
This season will be toughest one in last 15 years at least.
Personally, I think that Chelsea has the best squad and that will defend the title.

09 Aug 2015 17:28:30
Oh you, Melbourne :-P
Seriously now, great to have you back!

10 Aug 2015 10:14:15
I think The Arsenal have blown their chance of winning the league, by not investing some of their £280m in a decent centre-back!

09 Aug 2015 09:11:16
On review of yesterday's performance Fabregas was the weak link for me - he didn't do anything appalling, he just didn't do anything at all; he was insignificant!

When we went down to ten men we didn't need to shut up shop and play for the draw, but we did need to get a grip on the midfield; a midfield we were gifting to Shelvey. Whatever your feelings on Mikel or Ramires there was certainally a job for them to do there, a job that RLC would have been Better for in my opinion. Bringing Zouma into the game in midfield is a decision I can't get my head around, is Jose sending a message to the powers that be about his squad?

09 Aug 2015 10:02:17
IMO if he is using Zouma rather than Mikel it should be time for Mikel to move on.

09 Aug 2015 11:31:24
I think if every game is analysed we will all be bald, grey or suffering ulcers by season end. Although winning the league in a canter last year I am sure many realised it was not the complete performance it could have been and through pre-season you look for tweaks or so for the next eight months and that is where the frustration is, we do not appear to have made any significant steps forward. Your comment re: Fabregas is correct. He dominates when we do but when we have to dig in he goes missing and from last Christmas he looked as if he was running on empty. I feel he should be substituted more often. Yesterday, players like Shelvey should not be dominating Chelsea's midfield and that area has been highlighted by most. I disagree with the Loftus- Cheek comment because he looks very good running forward with the ball, good feet but tracking back and Mourinho was correct, he ball watches; more experience before he gets thrown in. So no improvement there and a buy needed but not just for the sake of it as was suggested. I think Azi will be over on the right at the first opportunity with Ivanovic losing out as much of the defensive issues I thought stemmed from Brana having a shocker. Nice to see Oscar showing a bit of what he is capable of.

09 Aug 2015 13:29:31
I agree - Fabregas is the weak link - why Jose plays him as a holding midfielder God alone knows - to be honest, Fabregas has not had a good game since before Christmas - I was fuming when Jose took off Oscar and not Fabregas when Courtois was sent off. And what's happened to Brana over the summer - he has not only lost all positional sense and what little pace he had but also all of his hair!

09 Aug 2015 14:12:04
I agree with all your posts! Fabregas problem is he needs to time to create! Yesterday give credit to Swansea for playing their hearts out and misleading us in so many ways! One cool thing about Brazilian TV is they re show the games at least twice a day so I got to rewatch the Chelsea game again last night and one area I am more concerned with then Fabergas is MR CAHILL again! Last season I commented various times and was shot down by a few of you that he is a great defender and gets the job done, well I beg to differ in a big way! I feel should Rahman come in, Stones and we have Zouma I would be starting Zouma and Stones with Rahman and Dave for our third round champions league if we are winning and don't need a must win or FA cup or or CAPITAL ONE CUP!
I know we need to keep our back four in tact to start the season but for me Zouma is way better then Cahill and so is Stones should he come in! Even Terry is going to need a rest!

On the Cortouis situation he made an amazing save on the first Goal and the three defenders all fell, also give credit to the Swansea player who made a nice recovery on the ball and then scored! What was worst was the RED card we got because it is our defenses fault, we let SwAnsea get behind us various times, two for offside which they could have scored and the Penalty Cahill and BI couldn't catch up to the player!

We have a lot to look forward to if Oscar plays like yesterday and yes Fabergas needs to be better but again our defense showed major weakness!

One thing I will say Man United looked awful and will need lots of help and now that Neymar has the MUMPS looks like PEDRO isn't going anywhere!

09 Aug 2015 14:16:17
People wake up. Other teams are playing football too. Swansea looks much stronger than last season. Montero had the best game of his career up to now. It's even more amazing how Terry and Cahill were completely trashed by Gomiss.
Our team is not in form. Season will be long and other big clubs will lose points as well.
Patience,please patience.

09 Aug 2015 14:48:15
I agree with most of the above comments except I would put most of the blame on Jose who made no tactical adjustment that I could see and Brana was just being himself(always struggled against pace). When a player like Montero is having that type of match and every meaningful attack is going thru his side you have to mark him more closely without the ball to try to discourage passes to him. Even when they were camped in our half we kept allowing him acres of space to receive passes on work, that's a tactical issue.(remember last season against united when we marked Felaini out of the match because united were playing a lot thru him.) It could get worse for Brana next match against either Sterling or Navas and all our opponents will continue to pick on him until something changes.

09 Aug 2015 14:53:30
I agree antibot. You may have some strange views, but it seems you can at least be objective. Keep it coming

09 Aug 2015 15:59:44
Slightly confused as I'm pretty sure everyone was complaing that we play two holding players, as it stifles us creatively. And yet when we play a more attacking player, such as Fabregas, you complain that he isn't good enough defensively and want Mikel/Rami to play?

09 Aug 2015 22:20:56
Fisher that isn't the conplaint with him, from me, yesterday at all. He was just insignificant - offered nothing anywhere.

10 Aug 2015 00:23:13
Did you guys realised that it was willian's fault that we conceded 2nd goal? What on earth he was doing so deep in defence?

10 Aug 2015 10:18:25
Ummm, not sure you can blame Willian - he was tracking back with a Swansea player - ideally he would have passed that player on to Ivan but Ivan was playing as though he had dropped a tab of acid pre-match!

10 Aug 2015 10:21:17
Fuser, I don't think anyone is suggesting we replace Fabregas with Mikel - the point is that Fabregas is not a holding player. Oscar has played the 2nd holding role successfully for Brazil - I don't know why he and Fab don't switch.

10 Aug 2015 19:23:32
If not willian gomis would be offside so how on earth you can not blame him?

09 Aug 2015 02:44:08
With a new left back hopefully signed I really think we need an Essien type midfield as maybe a short term solution who can drive forward and defend Until RLC is more polished. I would have liked to have seen Vidal but he's at Bayern now? Any suggestions?

09 Aug 2015 06:02:14
Pogba?

09 Aug 2015 07:40:08
I mean realistically who maybe we could try before the end of the window. Gomes has signed for Valencia, Koke's staying at Atletico. I can't think of anyone who may be possible maybe Gundogan?

09 Aug 2015 14:00:19
Gundogan also extended his contract, for a short period.