Chelsea F.C. III: The Age of Antonio

[Jimbo]

Certainly is

The reversal in the respective fortunes of Chelsea and Leicester are looking less and less of a coincidence

 

[Jack_Napier]

Kante won the header against Kirchhoff (who has a foot on him in height) to begin the move for the Fabregas goal. He is some player.

Best CM in the prem and for a third of the price of Pogba. Absolute bargain at £32m. Love watching him play as he is literally everywhere, has both quantity and quality about him.

It's still early days but gee you guys look strong. Amazing what happens when the players all start playing for the manager again. Shows MoU really did lose the dressing room.

 

[Jimbo]

Best CM in the prem and for a third of the price of Pogba. Absolute bargain at £32m. Love watching him play as he is literally everywhere, has both quantity and quality about him.

He reminds me a bit of 2012-vintage Ramires the way he gets around. Great to watch

 

[Haffa]

Brilliant game management from Conte taking off Willian and bringing on Fabregas Gave us control of the midfield again.

That win 500 in the PL too. Only United and Arsenal have acheived that.

 

[Haffa]

Best CM in the prem and for a third of the price of Pogba. Absolute bargain at £32m. Love watching him play as he is literally everywhere, has both quantity and quality about him.

It's still early days but gee you guys look strong. Amazing what happens when the players all start playing for the manager again. Shows MoU really did lose the dressing room.

He's just a machine, covers so much ground and is always there to break up play. He was a steal at that price. He's hard to dislike because he's always got a smile on his face.

The exciting thing is his teams just become almost unbeatable once they get going. Juventus wobbled then corrected themselves and weren't able to beaten for almost a year. Not saying we will go that long, but I'll take this run over where we were last season.

 

[saint.nick]

I always knew that 'Chelsea are a year behind' was just a lame excuse.

 

[Haffa]

Lame or not you're viewing it with hindsight. They looked 3 years behind after the Arsenal game.

Still a thin squad which needs reinforcing.

 

[saint.nick]

Lame or not you're viewing it with hindsight. They looked 3 years behind after the Arsenal game.

Still a thin squad which needs reinforcing.

It was never about 'being a year behind', I always thought it was about him not using his players correctly. He bought those players for a 3-4-3 system yet waited for so long to actually use it.

 

[Haffa]

If he had a full preseason it would have been different. He was obliged to play that formation and players until he could assess things. The shock is that it worked so effectively immediately after the switch.

We are still thin and still require some reinforcements in places but I'm excited to see what he can do next season.

 

[Haffa]

Thoughts on David Luiz now?

 

[Haffa]

18th December 2015:

- Leicester: 1st
- Chelsea: 14th

18th December 2016:

- Chelsea: 1st
- Leicester: 14th

The answer: N'Golo Kante

 

[saint.nick]

Thoughts on David Luiz now?

I think the protection that he gets from the midfield helps him an awful lot. I still don't rate Luiz nor Cahill.

 

[Haffa]

I think the protection that he gets from the midfield helps him an awful lot. I still don't rate Luiz nor Cahill.

You clearly haven't watched him since his return. He's been immense not just defensively, his distribution is on song. Whether he's helped by midfield or not is up for debate, but they've conceded 2 goals in 11 and one of those they had to score for the opposition. He is the perfect player of the centre of the back 3. The leadership he's provided can't be understated. He's the next captain of our club.

Both walk into your back line.

 

[saint.nick]

You clearly haven't watched him since his return. He's been immense not just defensively, his distribution is on song. Whether he's helped by midfield or not is up for debate, but they've conceded 2 goals in 11 and one of those they had to score for the opposition. He is the perfect player of the centre of the back 3. The leadership he's provided can't be understated. He's the next captain of our club.

Both walk into your back line.

The fact that your defence with Luiz wasn't even good until Conte had to change the system tells me that he's pretty average. 3-4-3 formations are strong against central attacks, while at the moment Alonso and Moses are doing a good job of tracking back to defend the flanks. Adding to that, Kante and Matic in front of him shield the back 3 and cover gaps left by the wing-backs if need be. So of course he is helped by the midfield.

He wouldn't exactly walk into our team. He may provide some good ball-playing, but defensively he's not better than anyone we have. Cahill is just an overhyped English player.

 

[Haffa]

Pretty average. LOL.

11 games 2 goals conceded with him at the heart of the defence. Yep he's bang average. If it was all down to the system then we could have just used any player.

 

[Jack_Napier]

He's just a machine, covers so much ground and is always there to break up play. He was a steal at that price. He's hard to dislike because he's always got a smile on his face.

The exciting thing is his teams just become almost unbeatable once they get going. Juventus wobbled then corrected themselves and weren't able to beaten for almost a year. Not saying we will go that long, but I'll take this run over where we were last season.

I think both our squads are lucky in that they are lacking in areas but thankfully we only have to concerntrate on the League this season.

No Europe helps both sides immensely in getting things right now and then adding depth/quality where needed should either finish top 4.

If we can find someone to partner Matip and an actual LB then I think we will be fine as well.

I don't think anyone can bag Luiz since he returned. There hasn't been a single performance that showed he'd go back to the Brazil/Germany WC match.

I wouldn't want Cahill in our side as k think he benefits from having. A calmer leader next to him in Luiz. He does his job enough to be a good part of a solid defensive unit.

What Klopp wouldn't give for a Kante style CM, which just goes to show that your Technical Director and scouts have done very well in strengthening an obvious weak area of the squad.

 

[saint.nick]

Pretty average. LOL.

11 games 2 goals conceded with him at the heart of the defence. Yep he's bang average. If it was all down to the system then we could have just used any player.

He has all the right attributes but I want to see more than just 11 games to feel convinced that he's eradicated that proneness to defensive lapses from his game.

 

[Haffa]

He has all the right attributes but I want to see more than just 11 games to feel convinced that he's eradicated that proneness to defensive lapses from his game.

11 games isn't a Big enough Body of work? Haha Every defender has lapses from time to time. He's a leader and long may it continue.

 

[saint.nick]

11 games isn't a Big enough Body of work? Haha Every defender has lapses from time to time. He's a leader and long may it continue.

Right, so 11 good games is a big enough body of work, yet years of concentrational lapses is not a big enough body of work?

A back 3 suits him perfectly because he has two centre backs beside him, or even Matic/Kante to hide his errors, while playing with two centre backs beside him and Matic/Kante in front of him reduces the difficulty of decision-making.

 

[Haffa]

Years of lapses? Or a few bad ones here and there? He's far more consistent than you give him credit for.

It's obvious you haven't watched him play since he returned. He's the one who is covering for others.