₦airaland Forum

raumdeuter:
The award Boateng won, German footballer of the year, Its for all players in the Bundesliga and German players abroad. Voted by Journalists

Yeah its the same award DeBruyne won last season. Strong German bias you say? But Ribery RObben Grafite and KDB have won in the past decade

It is more legit than the one Aubameyang won since we can trace winners of the award back to almost 50yrs while for the Aubameyang award I dont even know the person who won it in 2009

It aint more legitimate anything. Only like 4 or 5 non Germans have won the award in its history.

It is most importantly not a Bundesliga award as it is open to German players in foreign leagues, therefore it is simply an avenue for Germans to reward their own.

Players award is the main thing. Fellow pros voted Auba, Lewa, Mikhtaryan etc, we did not see Boatengs name involved in the running.

Funny how you guys start hailing one or two minor awards to hype up Boateng after dismissing individual awards.

In that case, alert me when Boateng wins 3 European defender of the year awards like Terry.

raumdeuter:
That's the Bundesliga player of the year award sir

Which Bundesliga player of the year?

That's the football writers award - both for players in Bundesliga and German players abroad. It has a strong German bias.

Current Player of the Year is Aubameyang.

God bless the day we signed Kante.

Of all signings made by English clubs in the summer, he is the best signing.

Bournemouth fans pretty pleased with Nathan Ake's debut.

bigkesh:
Marcos Alonso of Florentina could very well be our next signing


Anything on him


Conte is looking only at Serie A

Decent signing. . . . also played for Bolton.

airmark:
A strong midfield can cover a weak defence for how long ? Against which teams?

If your midfield is weak and defence is weak, you better fix the midfield first if you have sense.

Chelsea defence was at least functional. The John Stones they claimed was the saviour had to sit behind Cahill in England team because England don't trust him.

If Cahill, Terry, Zouma and Felipe Luis are weak, what is the definition of strong? These are all 7/10 defenders at worst, the type that bench John Stones for England. Ivanovic I have had a problem with as right-back for years.

Nihilist:
Jaanmat goes to Watford. Chai...

He's a decent player. He could play for Chelsea

airmark:
With those defenders' forms last season except zouma later on, no team will win any league last season. I remember dayo mocking terry here against ayew inside the box. Kante would not always stop crosses from the flanks getting into opposing attackers inside our box . You can check that watford goal you will understand it. kante cant be everywhere. Mind you , it's too early to compare stats now. Last year I gave preference to defensive solidification having it in mind that matic would return to peak last season. My arguement started way back from last season's preseason and it still stands a year later, i also asked for midfield additions that time but it should be secondary. Kante addition as pointed by nihilist has improved our offensive play, though against watford he struggled most times with behrami. Fact is we would nt have suffered last season if matic came smoking with hazard and quality defenders.

Even if Matic was on form, don't forget that Zouma covered midfield with him for half the season. Who would take Zoumas place?

A strong midfield can cover a weak defence (it has been seen countless times)

A strong defence however can never compensate for a weak midfield.

If the midfield is weak, it forces defenders into one-on-one duels and no defender will win 100% of his one-on-ones. He will be lucky to win 70% of his one-on-one situations. I don't care if he is Jaap Stam.

If Chelsea had signed John Stones last season, how many goals would we have conceded? I would argue the same or more.

hensben:
Bro cfc main problem is LB so that Azpi can play his primary position. Azpi is very good in pull out but playing LB is hindering his attacking prowess.

True. LB and CB are now the most pressing issues now that midfield has been alleviated somewhat.

Nihilist:
He's dropping into centre back during transition as seen here, so it's not really his pace that is giving the attackers confidence to move up.
Like I said this is a tactical improvement rather than an individual one.
[img]http://media./media/l2SqiEs3LIJvxQfgk/giphy.gif[/img]

Looking at the GIF above, It could be argued that a solid centreback with ball playing skills e.g say Vertoghen or Eric Dier could flit between CB and Midfield.

This would make the argument that we need(ed) a new midfielder obsolete, no?

This is not the first time we are having a DM drop into the back 3.

Anyway you too like unnecessary argument. Just bow to Lord Kante!

Nihilist:
Only within a proper context. It can also indicate an opponent's woeful attack.



At first glance, you would appear to be right, but when we consider what I will call 'effective possession' then my point becomes even more apparent.

Last season vs West Ham at the Bridge, we had 150 passes in their defensive third. This season we had 185. Quite clearly we pinned them down in their half.

And hence my point.

When you consider the increase in possession, increase in number of passes and the improved rate of pass completion, it becomes a bit more obvious that defensive actions were not responsible for our victory vs West ham.

So it's not yet possible to tell if Kante has improved us defensively.. At least not using Statistics.

The presence of a fast solid midfielder like Kante also allows you to move up the pitch with confidence rather than fearing counterattacks, so either way you cut it, President Kante is involved.

.

Nihilist:
Which is why I said that Kante's influence cannot be measured statistically like you tried to do earlier...

Shots on goal and on target is a statistic you can use to measure defensive solidity. My argument is that this is due to Kante's influence.

Nihilist:
There's I reason I brought that up.

Ibime is arguing that Kante has improved us defensively and has based this argument on the stats that show that the Shots on Target numbers are dropping. This is not true. It's a bit too early in the season, to draw conclusions, but what has happened is that we've actually improved offensively.


The reason why the number of shots we conceded has reduced is because we are holding the ball more. Last season we averaged 54.4% possesion. This season so far, we are on 59.4%. Last season we averaged 82% pass completion, this season so far, we lead the league with 86.6%.

Obviously it's early days, and we've played rubbish guys, but the fact of the matter is your opponents cannot shoot at your goal if they don't have the ball. So no, Kante has not necessarily improved us defensively. Where I think that he has improved us is how he fits in as a tactical option, sitting in between our centrebacks and allowing our fullbacks to contribute to our offence by bombing higher up the pitch....

Of course, the follow on from this is that, if our improvement so far has merely been tactical, then the whole 'we need a new midfield' argument is actually less important than 'we need a new defence'

A possible argument. . . . until you consider like for like comparison vs West Ham for example

Last season vs West Ham at Stamford Bridge we had 59% possession, yet conceded 13 shots on goal with 6 on target.

This season vs West Ham at Stamford Bridge we had 62% possession, and only conceded 7 shots on goal with 3 on target.

Possession is more or less the same, shots on goal and on target have halved. Their only goal was from a corner, and they didn't look threatening.


Just watch this space. The more matches we play, we would see more evidence, if ninjas did not know that already. We are yet to concede truly from open play this season which is very encouraging, although worrying that we keep falling asleep at set-plays.

Nihilist:
Well considering that Oscar leads the team for number of successful tackles, and Gari Cahill leads the team for number of successful interceptions it is impossible to prove statistically, that Kante has improved the team.

To put it frankly, Kante's numbers are still inferior to members of the team from last year.

Of course, Kante has improved the team, no doubt, but that is a tactical argument, not a statistical one.

Pressing, closing space, tracking runs, shepherding players into cul-de-sacs etc is the measure of defensive midfield play, not making 1.7 or 2.4 tackles per game.

airmark:
Wes morgan and huth (none of them was 35 like terry) did it with natural left and right full backs doing their jobs well. That one is by the way. In 2014/2015 season , kante was nt here but we won the league with players like matic and hazard putting in their bests. everyone saw this last season and you also confirmed that matic's game dropped in your arguement with nihilist. I was just expecting matic to get back to his form and that was why i gave preference to defence because of the tired legs in there. Hazard was nowhere to be found yet many of us was hoping he would get back to form but he never did. ivanovic was continuously raped at the wings yet you were clamouring for new midfielders. Baba rahman disappointed, djilobodji was shipped to germany. We tried to get it done at the back but failed to bring quality ones and we got sawed off from from top 4. Think about it if matic and hazard replicated their 2014/2015 forms last season with quality back 4, do you think we would have finished in 10th position? I did nt even say we did nt need new players in the middle, i said priority should be given to the defence. Now nothing has changed despite winning two games we all know what we saw in those matches when opponents attacked our goal. Do you think with this present set up, our defence can survive the onslaughts against say manchester utd's attack even with kante ? Guy we have nt seen a thorough opposition yet, i want to see how our defence will contend with liverpool and other top attacking teams. Ivanovic was used as CB yesterday (you always wanted him in there) and was caught out of position not once . Tell me top teams parading 36 year old central defender in europe, strongly challenging for trophies? I want chelsea to win trophies not just struggling to make top 4.

As per our argument, my priority last season was midfielder first, defender second.

You wanted new defenders and happy to carry on with the same midfield.

As at the time we had this debate, we had Felipe Luis, Azpi, Ivanovic, Terry, Cahill and Zouma, 6 defenders capable of winning any league with the right support in front of them. Midfield was the most pressing need last season and we were rape'd repeatedly in midfield conceding 13 shots per game which is not happening now.

Yes, we need new defenders as we only have four fit senior defenders. Luis has left, Zouma is injured and Terry is a year older, nobody would argue with that, but don't come here with stories. The fact is that we are a lot more solid than last year. Conversely, you can buy all the defenders in the world but without the midfield to support them, they would still concede bucketloads. You are forgetting we needed to deploy Zouma in midfield in 2015 from January just to see out the season.

airmark:
I remember making it known here last season that fixing the midfield would not put other things into places. Midfielders can't solve a huge defensive problem in the team. I hope conte will act fast.

You ain't saying nothing gee.

Your argument was that Chelsea don't need midfield reinforcement, rather signing John Stones would shut out opponents. Infact you were impressing on us the merits of Mikel and Ramires and touting John Stones as the panacea to our problems.

Just the signing of Kante alone has made us a lot tighter. We have conceded the 2nd least shots on target this season with 6.5 shots conceded per game vs 12.7 last season. Only a blind man would deny that signing Kante has tightened us up no end.

John Stones who made the most defensive errors last season would not have stopped the deluge of chances Chelsea was conceding last season. No defender could turn us into a watertight unit whilst the midfield is being run through willy nilly.

Infact, if you look at goals conceded this season, they all come from dead ball situations which is an anomaly for Chelsea.

We do need defenders, no doubt, but the tactical argument has already been proven. Defending starts from the midfield. In order of priorities, tightening the midfield was the first priority, and that has been done to some extent. We do hope for defensive signings but don't be surprised that likes of Terry and Zouma can even sustain title challenge just by having the likes of Kante protecting them. Wes Morgan and Robert Huth did so last season.

Raumdeuter, here's NGolo Kante telling us which position he plays at Leicester and Caen before that. Don't think you have full information from watching NBC Sports highlights. Euros is the first time we saw Kante as a pure DM.

raumdeuter:
You mean none of his 3 coaches have seen this ability and continue to play Kante as a DM and hardly as a box to box. Ranieri Deschamps Conte all played him as DM most of the time

Ranieri played him as box to box, don't get it twisted. He only dropped deeper toward season end because Leicester had a lead to protect, but he was still bursting forward in a box to box fashion.

He also played box to box at Caen.

Euros was the first time I saw him in a pure DM role. I was even more impressed at his versatility and interpretation of the position.

afrodoc2:
Kante's ball carrying ability is obvious to anyone watching and he applied it many times last season also.
He is best used in that position in my opinion and i believe as the season continues we will see more of that.

No mind Nihilist and Raumdeuter.

I was the first nigga here to start hailing NGolo Kante when Nihilist and Raumdeuter were still waiting for him to blow and for Didier Deschamps to advertise his position at the Euros before they know what position he plays.

The first time I saw him for Leicester, he played left wing. He impressed me so much from that left wing, I had to go study his youtube tapes. After that he was playing AM. It was later that Ranieri deployed him as a box to box, then dropping him deeper from February when Leicester started to protect their points lead.

See my posts from when I started watching him play left wing and AM. He was even still a substitute then. They are only seeing one limited picture but you have already seen the full picture.

raumdeuter:
Its in that ultra defensive roles that all his coaches have played him 3 coaches in total. Ranieiri Deschamps and Conte. You think Kante would do well in a role he has never played before?

Kantes first appearance for Leicester was on the left wing as substitute. His follow up substitute appearances were as an AM. He also played one full game behind the striker. He can play box to box easily, infact that's what he was advertised as when Leicester signed him.

afrodoc2:
Nobody should be shocked here if Mikes gets back to the starting line up on his return from Rio

We bind and cast such demons in Jesus name!!!


Anyway, all I can see here is sentiments in support of their position.

Kante can do all things. He is box to box.

All these arguments are in Conte's hand not Raumdeuter or Nihilist or Ibime. Make we dey look.

afrodoc2:
There are 2 basic truths in that Chelsea midfield.
1) Kante is best utilized as a runner, covering every blade of grass and checkmating the opposition higher up the field

2) Fabregas has to play to give the creativity necessary to avoid low scoring wars of attrition.

SO THE QUESTION IS WHO IS BEST PLACED TO PLAY THE MARKER ROLE? sitting just in front of the defense and shielding the back 4?

Thank you. Anybody can twist this theory to their benefit.

Some would say Kante should sit and Oscar should harry.

You have just told us that Matic should sit and Kante should harry.

All I know is that visionless attacking midfielders should stop making excuses and looking for others to blame.

I have seen Kante play DM and I have seen him press high up and all over the pitch.

Those telling us Oscar is the only runner in that team should check out N'Golo Kante's average heatmap below

Nihilist:
I deliberately didn't count Moses due to the fact that he only has 24 minutes of footy under his belt.

The origin of this discussion was why Fab was on the bench whilst one of Oscar and Matic was on the pitch.

The answer is that based on stats, performance and any other metric you can think of, Matic should be chilling on the bench which I hear is very comfortable.

The Ibime answer of course, is Oscar is shit.

Nah, the origin of this discussion is that Oscar is useless.

As far as Matic is concerned he is doing his job. The defence is fairly stable and we are not conceding shots willynilly.

If say Kevin De Bruyne or Ozil was in Oscar's position, we would not be talking of creativity.

The argument Oscar fans want to use is that Fabregas can't run so if we bring him back in the team, we would need to drop Matic to let Oscar run for him.

I say, Matic is doing his job. and it is not his fault that Fabregas can't run, or that Oscar is visionless.

Like Nateevs said, it would be interesting what happens to the defensive stability we are currently enjoying if Fabregas is brought back into the team in place of say Matic. Don't assume that Fabregas introduction will go smoothly and our defence won't open like Ashawo again.

As far as Matic is concerned, he is doing his job. Let others do theirs. QED.

Nihilist:
You are the one that keeps bringing Oscar into it. I have told you to forget Oscar. We have 3 central midfielders, Matic is the worst. Remove Oscar from the equation, Matic is still inferior to Kante.

In fact, whoscored rank Matic as our third worst player overall

So I find it really surprising why you lot want to focus on Oscar, when we have a literally bigger problem staring us in the face.

And when we pull you up on it, your defence of Matic has literally amounted to "look at Oscar, he's shït!"

Anyway, let's move on to another discussion.

How about Emenalo?

Not only is your maths rubbish, you also can't count

I see Victor Moses, Courtois, and Pedro before Matic in that table so he is FOURTH, not third

Listen gee, it's not unnatural for people to have more HBP over Oscar than Matic.

(1.) Matic has performed to a high level before, Oscar has flopped for 4 years
(2.) The defence is stable, creativity is the problem

Which of these 2 facts can you not get through your coconut head?

Why in a society of sane people would we have more HBP over the DM than the AM?

I get it. . . . Fabregas cannot run, so we need Oscar to run for him? Fabregas is the new crutch on which Oscar justifies his useless existence for one more season?

raumdeuter:
But you have been playing small teams aka Watford and West ham not Barcelona, PSG or Bayern. Or if Watford isn't a small team then who is the small team in your league?

Barcelona decides not to because of their tactics they deploy a high line congest the opponents half of the field which makes them dominate possesion and dont have a need for a marker and a runner when the opposition is sitting in its box, but they need passers to unlock the defence

Playing Matic and Kante has proven in these 2 matches that the midfield lacks creativity. The type of pass that won the game on Saturday cannot be played without Fabregas in the lineup

Also the job of running and harrying the opponent especially in their half cannot be done by Matic or Kante or Fabregas. Currently Oscar is the best for that position

I am sure you remember how your favourite coach Mourinho made the statement that "Oscar is my 10" until you get a better runner and more productive runner than Oscar

You ain't saying nothing nigga.

The midfield lacking creativity is more Oscars business than Kante or Matic.

Why is the runner your priority? So that you can fit your theory around Oscar? There is no running Oscar can do that Kante can't.

We should blame lack of creativity on the DMs and absolve the AM by calling him a "runner"? Nice try nigga.

Like I said, we can play tactical hopscotch all day to fit around your theories.

It is nothing new. Every year we hear all manner of tactical reasons why a ninja who has been continuously rubbish for 4 years should be in the team.

You ain't saying nothing new we didn't hear in 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015.

Nihilist:
I'm talking about average positions. Oscar is in positions where he is surrounded by centerbacks and defensive midfielders. Matic is in positions where he's only being marked by the opposing 10 and/or a striker, now tell me who is likely to be dispossessed? Put Matic in Oscar's position and see if he doesn't lose the ball more.

From the start, I said lets not compare an natural AM to a natural DM, you started ranting that they are playing the same position so we must compare them.

Nihilist:
Actually Oscar and Matic are both playing in central midfield this season. The statisticsame show that Oscar has had more defensive contribution than Matic, more offensive contribution than Matic, more anything than Matic.

Now you are telling us they play different positions so we should not compare their dispossession stats.

My nigga face it, you are butthurt that Oscar is catching flack for his utter uselessness this season and you are trying to shift attention away to Matic who has no business with Oscar.

Matic midfield is stable right now. Nobody is running willynilly at Chelsea defence. We rather want to know why the Attacking midfielder is too blind to play any penetrating passes.

Don't tell us Oscar is losing the ball more because he is playing more attacking passes, yet the blind visionless mothaphucka cannot create a single opening for his team. Defensive midfield is fairly stable, Attacking midfield is clueless. IT IS THAT SIMPLE!

Like I said simply all along, leave Matic out of your Oscar business. It is not stewpid to retain hope in a nigga who has done it to the highest level before. What is stewpid is putting hope in a useless AM who has never done it. Our loyalty is not misplaced. QED!

raumdeuter:
Which is fine, If Kante is the runner then he is doing a poor job, He should be doing sprints upandan the field, Joining Costa to press and also be back in the midfield mix under 15 seconds

Which shows that Conte is not playing to Aime Jacquet's theory so stop trying to fit everything into the one theory.

Conte decided not to have the passer in that midfield mix.

Meanwhile Barca decide not to have the runner or marker, and prefer to have 3 passers.

At the end of the day, it comes down to the ability of the players over tactics, so no need making tactical justifications for anything. If you have been following since preseason, you will know that Kante and Matic are the preferred options for Conte whilst Oscar and Fabregas especially are expendable.

If Conte plays 4-4-2, Oscar will drop for Batsuayi and keep Matic and Kante as the two midfielders.

Unless we are playing a small team will Conte go with Kante, Fab, Oscar like you said.

Nihilist:
How would Matic be dispossessed when he plays safe passes? Matic has so far played the fewest forward passes and long balls of our current midfield trio, so logic dictates that he would be dispossessed less. Or do you honestly expect Oscar who moves into more advanced positions and heavily marked areas to have lower dispossessed stats than Matic who sits behind and passes backwards? Are you sure you know what statistics are?

Like I said, before arguing stats with someone, you have to be sure that they understand what they are talking about, and you clearly don't.

Being dispossessed is not about misplacing passes as you have erroneously stated above. You are dispossessed when someone plays a pass into you and you cannot hold off your opponent with strength or good touch or combination of both.

When the ball is within your body and someone barge you off the ball and take it off you, that is being dispossessed. If you try to dribble and someone shade you and take the ball off you, you have been dispossessed. Matic is one of the best at keeping the ball within his possession.

So repeat after me. . . . Oscar is easy to dispossess, Matic is hard to dispossess.

If on a scale of 1 to 10, if Mousa Dembele is 10 in terms of ability to hold onto the ball under physical pressure, Oscar would be 4, Matic would be 8 and Mikel would be 9.

Since you erroneously believe dispossession is misplacing passes, please do this GCSE question for me.

If Oscar makes 50 passes per game, at 83% success rate. How many times was he dispossessed according to Nihilist? The answer would be (100-83)/100*50 = 8.5 times per match, yet your intelligent brain cannot look at stats saying he is dispossessed only once a game and figure out that your definition is wrong?

Why would an intelligent person not develop headache when discussing statistics with you? You have given me enough headache for one day abeg. Adieu.

raumdeuter:
In my opinion

In a 3 man midfield

You need a Marker, A passer and a runner

The marker in Chelsea previously was Matic but now I think everyone would agree Kante is a better marker

The passer is still fabregas and I doubt anyone in the midfield does a better job

Now the runner which Oscar is or is supposed to be

So in these 3 categories where does Matic fit?

There is no formation that allows for the uselessness of Oscar.

Every season for 4 years, we start the season making tactical excuses for the inclusion of Oscar, and by Christmas he has played himself out of the team. Like someone said "enlightenment is the realisation that Oscar is not the answer to any football connundrum."

It was my great coach Aime Jacquet who publicised the theory that every midfield needs a passer, runner and marker.

We can play tactical guessing games all we want but players ability determine who plays. Since we are playing tactical hopscotch, I would also be right to say that Kante is the best runner in the midfield and Fabregas is the best passer. Fill in the gap for the 3rd position.

Nihilist:
You saw earlier that Matic has the lowest possesion ratings out of our 3 midfielders so this statement here is already null and void.

I don't like arguing data with someone who does not understand what he is looking at.

Go and check dispossessed stats per game - Matic dispossessed 0.5 times per game to Oscar 1.0 - and I don't look at such small stats. My eyes already tell me that Matic protects his ball better, but since you like to look at meaningless stats, go and look it up.

I only look at few stats when judging deep lying midfielders, and that is no of (1.) no of passes (2.) percentage successful passes and (3.) km covered per game. After that, my eyes judge for themselves.

I have to be stewpid to be looking at stats that tell me a player tackled 1.4 times per game or was dribbled past 2.2 times per game. Any sample size below 10 is meaningless. For example, let us explore the absurdness of what you have been posting.

For example, you told us Matic was wack in 2015 because he was the most dribbled past player with 2.2 dribbles per game.

As an aside, whilst posting up that pic showing him being dribbled 2.2 times per game, you forgot to highlight he made the most clearances of any midfielder with 3.3 clearances per game and his whoscored rating was also the highest. Again, that is a meaningless stat that doesn't concern me, just pointing out your misuse of useless statistics.

Now, lets explore your argument that Matic was the most dribbled midfielder in 2015.

A sensible person asks, what does it take for a central midfielder to be dribbled? First the midfield has to be open for a player to run at you and have space to run into. Fernandinho was dribbled 2.1 times per game, just behind Matic. Why? Because with Yaya Toura jogging back lackadaisically, there is enough space to run at him and dribble him. Fernandinho is one of the best DMs in the league, but he will be dribbled more due to Man City's midfield set-up.

Is it a significant stat that should concern an intelligent person? No.

Matic in 2016 had his worst season and was only dribbled past 1 time per game. In 2015 when he was the best DM in the prem, he was dribbled 2.2 times per game.

Does that look like what an intelligent person would be arguing?

My ninja, you are hurt that Oscar is flopping once again, and everyone can see it. Stop comparing him to Matic. Matic bought our loyalty with 18 months of outstanding work. We will give him a few months to rediscover his form. Oscar the 4 year flop deserves none of our patience. Thats it. Keep your 0.4 and 2.7 type of useless statistics to yourself. I'm having headache reading such meaningless drivel.

Skimpledawg:
for how many seasons will we keep "managing" Oscar? a number 10 that is not a creator? holy moly. how did we get here?
Matic has been performing at his position for a long while now and the same can't be said of Oscar - an early season wonder and then drifts off to wonderland like Bigkesh rightly posited. So, I'd say Matic should seat down and rediscover himself.

Exercise in futility is comparing a nigga who is just not up to any job to a ninja who has proved he is.

I would rather believe in a ninja who has killed the prem to recover his form after 1 year than to believe in a ninja like Oscar to achieve some magical form he has NEVER ACHIEVED in his life, after 4 years of disappointment. Maybe I'm just a logical person.

Nihilist is busy comparing metrics we know nothing about. Matic makes more passes and more successfully. Matic protects his ball better while Oscar gets brushed aside and dispossesed easily.

Ibime can never entertain comparison of a nonentity like Oscar to a player like Matic who has dominated midfield in EPL and Portugal, and even dominated Chelsea midfield to sege in 2013 Europa final.

Just like Ibime can never entertain any attempt to pull up stats to convince him that Baba Rahman is a viable left back. What is the point discussing useless stats about TOTAL NONENTITIES?

Nihilist:
Except I am and have been talking about Matic wrt regards to what he brings to the team. You're the one who wants to keep comparing to Oscar.

To reiterate, Oscar and Kante have made more defensive contributions to the team so far than Matic. Oscar and Kante have also made more offensive contributions to the team than Matic. Why should Fabregas not bench Matic?

Instead of answering this simple question, you are forming lethal bizzle.

kontinu.

You're the one trying to compare them by bringing tackling stats and all that.

For that to happen, you first have to believe that Oscar is a viable central midfielder.

No time for nonsense. I don't believe in anything about Oscar in any position except maybe left wing so I am not willing to even entertain debate.

It's like some niggas were comparing Ramires stats with Lampard in 2012 with me. Why the phuck would I want to compare Ramires with Lampard? I don't consider Ramires a viable central midfielder in the first place!!!!

Second of all, I have never compared players based on tackling stats. It is the most stewpid comparison metric unless you are comparing players who play the exact same game. What is the difference between making 2 tackles per game and making 3.5 tackles per game? Or making 1.7 tackles per game vs 2.4 tackles per game? You've got to be missing a whole chunk of education to think that is a decent sample size to compare.

It was Maldini who told me that a player should never have to tackle, and having to make a tackle means that a mistake has already been made earlier. What I look like comparing Taribo West's tackling stats to Maldini and claiming that means Taribo West is better?

If we want to talk about stats, we can talk about the fact that Matic is making 57 passes per game at 87% accuracy while Oscar is making 50 passes per game at 83% accuracy.

But why in the phuck would I want to argue back and forth over Oscar's stats when in the first place, I don't consider that mothaphucka to be anything like a midfielder? I ain't got time for futile nonsense!!!