₦airaland Forum

diggz:
Are you referring to bakayoko or kante? When was fab ever in form this season? And yes...if fab or bakayoko is playing better than kante today I will definitely pick them ahead of kante to start any match.

Bros...the present is all I have to work with....and I am very sure most coaches will do the same except for players who have proven themselves beyond any reasonable doubts.....hazard is definitely not in that circle for me.....at least not yet.

no wahala. your business and opinion. i believe you among those who will ask for a player like kdb to be sold if they are not in form for like 4 months, and come back to say, "thunder fire who sold kdb" after he regains his form in his new club.

diggz:
Please....leave Messi out of this.... Him and ronaldo cannot be benched for any reason except when they are injured. Hazard as you already have witnessed can be benched,have been benched in the past and will still be benched again if or when the coach decides he is out of form. kindly note that.....I am not trying to drag hazard here...I am only stating what is actually obvious.


And No!! I am not joking....I will bench hazard for this present willian if I have to...

do you know that there was a time this season when fab was in form. Even making more tackles and interceptions than kante. Would have started fab ahead of kante if you had to?

I don't have strength for this argument. But, the thing is that you look too much on the present.

diggz:
Not running much for wetin na? Why not? Who will now be doing the slaving for fab escort services? Inshort....All this na grammar bros....SB is not camp nou....everyone who comes out that day to play against barca will be expected to run x10....let's even forget not running much cuz he will need to....and we wont survive it if we have to defend with that passenger in the team.....and defend we are most likely going to do 99% of the time.

Let fabregas keep is passes.....we no want abeg! And no he can't play behind kante cuz he is a confirmed passenger...abi una wan kill kante?? We don't want a player who out of laziness will allow balls to roll pass him in front of our box and not do anything to help the situation.

I pray he gets injured against city so he won't even make the bench against barca....so conte won't have another brainfart to start the lazy arss again.

easy bro.

diggz:
Based on current form....I won't even start hazard ahead of willian....ko Jo!

you must be joking right?
One funny thing about form is that it can disappear in 30mins and you are left with the real thing, class.

No manager will start neymar ahead of Messi just because neymar is in form than Messi.

Nihilist:
I dont even know if Fab has to be spraying passes anyhow because Conte already encourages Rudiger and Azpi to aggresively dribble into oppostion half and spray cross field balls.

Rudiger is very very good at that, and we all know how good Azpi is at finding his striker frm deep.

I'm also backing the fabregas pick, but I'm expecting him to be the one to coordinate our play and dictate the tempo. No need for hollywood balls from him unless it's on. All he has to do is recycle the ball when play breaks down, and offer a passing outlet for give and goes with the likes of Alonso and Moses.

remember that azpi will be occupied by Suarez. Don't forget that Barcelona will be pressing us to avoid us playing out from the back. For me, there is no need to try to do anything in midfield other than getting back the ball if barca has it there. I will prefer costa to alonso and both moses and Costa should have little to do in attack. There focus should be to tuck in to the midfield a bit to help recover the ball, and running to the flank when we have it to open up space for a a quick launch to the running attackers. We will threaten Barcelona back a lot with those quick launch instead of trying to pass it short or running with it from midfield. If hazard is to get one of those balls, he will have just one or two players to beat and shoot.

diggz:
I am still struggling with the so called fab passes you guys keep using to justify why he should be in the team.....the passes sef I no kukuma dey see again....most of moratas goals came from azpi and not fab.

If conte should be phooolish to start fab in a 2man midfield in camp nou then we should just say bye bye to our chances of going through....

if you check well, you will see that i used the word 'real'. All we need is for one of hazard or willian to be running behind the defenders once fab has the ball, while morata keeps their cbs occupied. With fabs job being to locate hazard or Willian immediately the ball touches his foot. With the real fabrepass doing the passing, there is no way we don't have a chance. We will just be using the flank and stretching them. Fab will be the one to play deeper than kante. He does not need to run much. He should be the one to collect the ball from Chris and play diagonally to the running Willian and eden, instead of us trying to play out from the back and conceding unnecessary goals.

Ibime:
He should play the same team as the 1st leg minus Fabregas. Giroud is too slow for the pressing needed, and Morata keeps falling under annointing. He can bring in Morata around 60 mins.

with that selection, our best result is 0 - 0, then we come back home.
For me, I will start morata. Barcelona defenders are not aggressive like the EPL ones, so there will be no falling from morata. You can see it from the time he played against atletico. Morata hazard and Willian should start up front. As difficult as it is to accept, our chances of scoring with morata on the pitch will increase if the real pass genius (fab) is in the line up. It will be great to see hazard, morata and willian running onto those fab passes.

Chelsea had 14 shots to Man United’s 10, with exactly half of our attempts on target and half from inside the box.
The first two goalscorers, Willian and Romelu Lukaku, each had a game-high three efforts on target.
We had a 55.6 per cent share of possession with
Andreas Christensen and Cesar Azpilicueta spending more time than anyone else in blue on the ball.
When it came to touches, Willian had the most for us with 91. Alongside his fine goal, the Brazilian also completed eight dribbles, twice as many as the next players in that department, Eden Hazard and Paul Pogba.
19 - Willian has been directly involved in 19 goals in all competitions for Chelsea this season (12 goals and seven assists); his most in a single campaign for the Blues. Handful.
3:43 PM - Feb 25, 2018
476 264 people are talking about this OptaJoe @OptaJoe
We completed 476 of our 552 passes, equating to an 86 per cent completion rate. Christensen made the most successful passes (65) for us, followed by
Azpilicueta (61) and N’Golo Kante (52).
When it came to what Opta deem to be ‘key passes’, Hazard ’s four was the most anyone made on the pitch. Alvaro Morata and Marcos Alonso were next in Chelsea blue with two apiece.
In terms of tackling, Man United’s Chris Smalling made the most with six, followed by N’Golo Kante and Nemanja Matic (four each), and Victor Moses and Azpilicueta (three each).
Christensen was joined by Antonio Valencia and Victor Lindelof at the top of the list for clearances, those defenders all making six. Azpilicueta and
Danny Drinkwater ranked best for interceptions for us with two each.

nateevs:
Nothing is wrong with Chris jare. Chris is a fantastic young defender (only 21) who will go on to achieve great things.
He has prevented infinitely more goals and won more points this season, than he has lost.
We should desist from the business of persistent scapegoating. We need to accept that sometimes, players makes mistakes and move on.

We were being told earlier that there are only a few things Rudiger will allow and we watch how Lukaku was allowed to look like Messi, while Rudiger was watching awe of Lukaku's grace. Chris was rooted to his feet but Rudiger should have shut Lukaku down.

thank you. It is not difficult to know that every player makes mistakes one time or the other. Chris is still a young player and as i have said in the past, will be inconsistent in a period in his career as is every young player.

A draw would have been a true reflection of the match. The second goal was as a result of a foolish defensive mistake from first, the guys that allowed Lukaku to cross the ball (DD and alonso) and the guy that was marking lingard but later left him.

The ref was biased in terms of the fouls he refused to blow against United.

Conte should learn to stop removing players that can change the game in big match when the game is not over.
Alonso is too slow. Fabregas the same. Moses is brain dead. Morata should be sent to the gym.

Lukaku plays good today, everybody is making noise and raising their heads. If we dig out the comments of some people here when the same teams met earlier this season, you will see hypocrisy. All these hailing a player for one match and calling him the best is childish.

My verdict.
In all i have not really put my mind in the league this season, so I am not angry that we lost this match. It is the Barcelona game that we didn't win that pains me.
It is not this type matches that will determine if we will make top four or not, but the small matches that we have been losing.

This ref na Ojoro

Lol. They are back o. Unu-olola

Ishola87:
Please your suggestions needed .thanks

tecno wx3 pro. Thank me later.

http://www.goal.com/en-ng/news/why-does-pep-guardiola-lose-his-temper-so-often/194ywl0a50nt11rv1lo5j4ll9c


No be me o!

Na them

Nihilist:
See pic below.

As previously highlighted, Chris in Red is out of the game.

Suarez is goal side of Rudi(in blue) and one on one with our keeper

Messi in tax avoiding pink is attacking our box.


If Fab in yellow drifts away from that central position, and there's a turnover, there are suddenly 2 strikers in our box with nobody marking.

Thats exacty why Fab did not chase the ball...he had to stay to defend that central zone

But Azpi had other plans...

had fab chased that ball to clear it, azpi would have still been in position and rudiger would have come back to cover.

Nihilist:
fab has to stay put to blockk Messi's run into the box, as Rudiger is the one marking Suarez who is actually goal side of our man, and Christensen who is supposed to be central is the one pinging foolish passes from the byline.

Which means Fab can't drift positionally, as 2 of our 3 cbs are completely out of position. If Azpi doesn't dive in, Fab is in a good position to cover Chris.

When Azpi removes himself from the board, Fab is forced to run into his space to try and cover him, but it's too little too late.

I really can't blame Fab for anything here. Sure, he probably could have done better, but nothing he did actually put us in danger...

Chris and Azpi on the other hand though...

fab will not need to block messi's run if he just uses 1 more second to run to that ball and pass to moses or boot it out.
for me azpi has less of the blame cause he tried to do something. it was a 50-50. had he succeeded in clearing that ball, he would have been hailed. chris made a big mistake by playing that pass across goal. his accuracy on that pass was reduced due to kante that was in front of him. that ball wouldn't have looked dangerous if fab had not been lazy. kante would have taken that ball comfortably and it wouldn't have looked like a danger. fab was simply lazy there. he was just lazy and thought left the work to someone else without knowing that iniesta will be charging down on the ball.

Nihilist:
You're just loading what was said last night.

Fab saw he was under pressure on both sides and left the ball to roll towards the relative safety of Moses and Azpi.

If you are also saying that Fab should have passed to Azpi then what is the problem?

fab continuing to run towards that ball would have gotten it comfortably (before iniesta) and passed to moses or pull out. chris bleeped up, fab could not correct it, azpi took an expensive gamble.

Ibime:
Pedro did well tactically yesterday, forget story.

His constant pressing was very much needed. I doubt we could have kept good shape with Morata like we did.

And Giroud is too phucking slow to press at the speed that was required to keep shape. No one should mention Giroud here. He is not built for games where you need strikers to press the ball.

morata would have pressed as much as pedro pressed and it would have been higher up the pitch. Who knows, maybe it would have been pique making the mistake that chris made. pique was obviously nervous in that game. conte should have sensed it and sent in morata early in the second half.


i will not be happy if we don't go through o

Nihilist:
I wonder if you people watch ball in full understanding

You want fab to go and trap ball inside his box under pressure from 2 strikers...to pass the ball to Rudiger who is practically stood hand in hand with Suarez...

And then you say 'Looking at it Critically'

Na wa o

the truth is, chris is the main person to blame, he should have pull the ball out. fab on his own could have done more. had fab continued chasing that ball, there is no way he does not get to that ball and pull it out. azpi was slow and could have taken the praise had he been faster and pulled the ball away like he attempted. the truth is, fab should have done better. kante would certainly have cleared that ball.

PDPGuy:
My formation for the 2nd leg (if everyone is fit) is as follows:

--------------Azpi-------Christensen-----Rudiger--------------

-----Moses--------Drinkwater------Kante-------Alonso-------

--------------------Willian-------------Hazard------------

---------------------------Morata----------------------

Regardless of the score, if Drinkwater gets tired around the 60th-65th minute mark, Fabregas can be subbed in for him.

i will always prefer zapacosta in that alonso's position in this kind of match. i couldn't count a single player alonso was able to beat to go forward. he will always choose to pass back when charged down by an opposing player. if zappacosta had started and morata in his position, there is nothing that will stop hazard and zappacosta from eating sergi roberto raw that yesternight.
i would have also preferred cahill ahead of rudiger. did you notice that until morata came in, we never had a threat on the air. no player cable of nodding the ball into the post. but, cahill and morata would have offered us that. who knows if azpi and morata would have combined to give us that their type goal. conte Bleep up.


is it now at camp nou that will come out to play, let them eat us raw in that their big pitch and intimidating crowd? Remember we no longer have the strong characters we used to have before.

jamescross:
the whole idea was to play 5 defenders 5 midfielders to block every route Barca would use and it worked didn't it. they hardly treated Chelsea except few times. all their passes were outside the box or in their own half. Conte kept them out and hit them hard and fast.

even conserving their energy for Sunday's game against united.

it would have still been the same thing with morata on the pitch, because the would have been trying to stop hazard from running at there defence and Morata doing the same thing. It would have caused them to sacrifice one player in midfield to help stop hazard.

Chelseafan1:
God must punish Conte for his foolishness today. Useless piece of shiit

the bastard even waited till 82 minutes before making the changes. Foolish man.

Parking the at the large Camp nou without the heroes that did it for us in 2012, what are we going to get?

As long as I am concerned, conte is the reason that we did get the win.

For goodness sake, stop playing hazard as striker! You are making him useless there and wasting his creativity. He should be running at defenders, not running behind them.

If hazard had been running at the barca defenders like he did in the last minutes, nothing would have made him not to cause barca problems and maybe give umtiti a red.

Conte just made the exact same mistake pep made against the same team last season. Fool.

I pissed right now.

jamescross:
belgium will be bloody hard to beat at the WC. just picture their

midfield: Naingollan, Dembele, KDB

attack: Hazard, Lukaku (Batshuayi ), Mertens

that is if the coach will use the right selection and tactics.

https://twitter.com/andresiniesta8/status/965726494726213633?ref_src=twcamp%5Ecopy%7Ctwsrc%5Eandroid%7Ctwgr%5Ecopy%7Ctwcon%5E7090%7Ctwterm%5E3


Madumen

"In my book he will be one of my genius players that I have been lucky to meet," he said in March. "One was Maradona, the others Ronaldinho, [Jay-Jay] Okocha and [Ivan] de la Pena - he was a genius too - and Mousa Dembele. We always told him that if we had taken him at 18 or 19 years old, he would have become one of the best players in the world."


http://www.skysports.com/football/news/11675/11257798/mousa-dembele-a-unique-genius-and-irreplaceable-for-tottenham

Nihilist:
i dont think you get my point.

i get it.

You mean, it is now impossible for them to get a treble or quadruple.

I am saying that for me, even when it was possible for them to get everything, I never imagined they would.