₦airaland Forum

Nihilstjnr:
damn we are ripping these clowns open at will.

How did we lose to them at their gaff?

We could easily be 5 up.

Willian gliding like a ghost

Nihilstjnr:
You may have noticed that Hazard has actually now been playing a lot wider.

He has noticed how free that angle is now.

Indeed. And I figure that now that we are 2-0 up, we can switch to a more offensive 3-4-3.

Nihilstjnr:
what does midfield have to do with the fact that palace are playing a 6'4 winger at right back

you can see that everytime we've followed that wing to attack, we've scored.

I still don't get where your coming from honestly

Every time we've gone down that route we have looked dangerous. True. But it's not Hazard doing the attack. That's the point.
The point being that there is also a defensive side to the game which a centrally placed Hazard is helping to create.

So it's a midfield consideration.

Nihilstjnr:
nateevs I hope you can see now how free that left wing is.

Both goals have come from there

I don't disagree.

Nihilstjnr:
Willian literally just ran with the ball from wide left to score the goal.

Asking Hazard to run in from wide positions has nothing to do with midfield.

It does. It is the difference between playing a 3-4-3 and a 3-5-2.
Extra man in midfield.

Goaal!

Willian.

Nihilstjnr:
This is why I have had problems wit Conte tactically since last season.

Palace are playing a rookie winger, out of position, at right back. He's also like 6'4.

That's the wing we should be targeting. Hazard should stay wide left and run at the kid till he begs for aboniki for his aching waist.

Instead Hazard is still playing central, and all our attacks are coming down the left flank.

It all comes down to the midfield problem.
Event though what you say is an option, there also a potential defensive consequence to playing that way.

Conte doesn't want to lose the midfield to Palace because they have sacrificed their wing play for numbers in midfield.
Man for man, most midifields will run over a Kante-Fab midfield.

This is why Conte is playing this way. Play Hazard Centrally, give them something to worry about in the middle and prevent them from pushing up against Fabregas who is a weak link.

Leyqute:
It was a fantastic, sublime goal. Great team work too !

Dwight Gayle ran 80m to be in a position to make that final pass for the goal.
Serious effort

Kennedy 2 Nil

Nice gal Kennedy

Brilliant spatial awareness. He does all of that without looking up.

diggz:
And how long was this long time precisely? Where you at anytime cautioned to wait till season ends?

Why do I feel like this is an old post being posted again?

Hmmmm......

Oh yes we were cautioned. And just like we were then, we are doing the cautioning now.
Meanwhile, I too hope this doesn't become a Torres situation. I cannot imagine having to deal with abuses from you, Airmark and Nihilist.

airmark:
That's a lie and you know it. As if madrid didnt have those and he was still benched. If we had morata in place of costa last season, we wouldn't have won anything.

We must now spend hundreds of millions on more players to cover his weaknesses. Will those new signings of yours hold down the goal keeper, so he could score? Will they stop him from slipping up and down? Must we change our team because of a fido dido striker, who we are not sure wont still prefer to carry his wife as usual, and not doing same to the team?

Zidane had all those you suggested and still preferred benzema in tough matches. I highlighted these issues and all went to deaf ears.

Chelsea will be once again so stupid, spending hundreds of millions on those signings leaving morata.

Alhaji, as much as you want to claim glory in this moment for highlighting negatives about Morata, you repeatedly highlighted alternative positives about Bellotti. Where is Bellotti now? But what does that make you?

Some thought we should have bought Lacazette. Imagine what that would have been? In fact, I bet some fellas on here are reaching for their old posts on Aubameyang and attempting to delete after seeing reality.

What's my point ? So far, I do not believe buying Morata was a mistake. Not as much as you like to make us think. I agree that Morata has not covered himself in glory. Especially with the Arsenal game, he was poor and really has given you ammunition to be very vocal (because for a long time you were forced to be silent), the plain truth is that none of the alternatives recommended on here would have fared any better going by what the the last 8 months have shown us - Bellotti, Lacazatte, Auba. So I will try to thread with caution. (Watch the Lukaku fan club show up at this moment).

The other truth is that since that Arsenal game, Morata has not had any meaningful impact on our season to cause any active derailment. Unless you are arguing that his absence caused this. But that will be completely contradictory to the point you are trying to make. The main cause of our derailment this season would have happened with or without Morata. The fact that you repeat it many times does not make it true. It seems true because there is no appetite for counter argument and perhaps at this moment, no justifiable resistance.



To the main point, No it is not a lie. You only think it is a lie because you don't like him. The funny thing is that you are unconsciously having the same discussions about Hazard.

Most Chelsea fans think that with better midfielders, Hazard will be better. And many of us argue this with passion. The likes of Dayo, A40, and other distinguished fellas from other teams tell us, amongst other things........ "the only difference between Hazard and Morata is that Hazard is not falling down like fido dido, he is also having horrible games, hiding in games, not turning up when he needs to, posting below-par numbers, fedding off other people's glory........look at the flipping numbers, if you had better midfielders, Hazard will still not post better performaces.....did he last year?" And just like you, they will go on to say, "so on top of the money you spent on Hazard, you still need millions more to make him shine?"


Does it make this line of argument true, the fact that it is repeated every match day? Take your pick.


So seriously you would actually trade in Morata for Benzema because Zidane did this and that? Unless you are completely crazy, no phucking way you respond with YES. But what does that make of Zidane and what does that make of Morata ?

airmark:
No i won't.

Are you still ok with morata?

Buy two world class midfielders, bring in a top class WB and one Winger on Hazard level's and there will not be a need to ask this question.

Greatihex:
I can't even wish Chelsea for a top player now.
My suggestion is simple. Sell hazard and kante, allow those who wish to leave to leave. Give conte what he is asking for, sack. Invest the money gotten from the sales of this players until the stadium project is finished.

Turn to our loan army and academy. Get a simione type coach to see us through that period, while we the fan reduce our expectations and become like the arsenal fans until at least after the stadium project. Maybe, by then, roman must have gain back his ground financially from the investment made with the players sell money.

I think you are just looking for anything except Conte. Why do you think Simeone wants to leave Atletico Madrid for mid-table ambition?
The problem was not having any money to spend, the problem was spending the available unwisely and making stupid decisions with loan players.

Buying Bakayoko and Drinkwater was just plain stupid. I am sure this topic has been over discussed.
Selling Matic was even worse. Loaning RLC may turn out to be a good decision for the future but considering the shambles we now have in midfield, it is looking to be a very bad decision. Those stupid decisions in a row, in one single season, has led to the over-working of Kante, which has in turn shot our season to bits.

The shocking revelation is that the net spend of all these decisions is only £35m. So it's not a money problem. It's a management one.



In another world, we sell Fabregas, spend £35m on a player like Tolisso. We keep Matic, Kante, RLC and Pasalic and spend £50m on Mahrez.
Only two players in but functional and different players. We would have spent only £10m more (assuming we get £30m for Fab) than what we spent on midfield this season but I bet you, we would have a completely different season, standing toe-toe with the best in the league.



It's not a money problem.

Heehe. Bag of beans.

Pedro pass after pass. Wrong decisions.
Na wa o

See Moses. Cannot even hit the target.

atheist5:
I would not be a fool like conte, you guys with your annoying attachment to this idiot, who the f*ck plays his best player put of position in a big match?after being given a striker target man just one month

You are not saying what you will do except not playing Hazard in his best position.


When you don't realise that Hazard cannot have a good game anyway against a very rapid Walker, with an inert midfield , then you will realise that you have not analysed properly.

And then you will see that Conte is making the best decision out of the numerous bad decisions that could be made.

atheist5:
doing is best in what, Chelsea gave this idiot a target man in giroud yet the f00l still plays his best player in a position where he is. useless, no urgency ,stupid formations,I hope city score 4 in this game, how can a top team even play like this?,Chelsea is a disgrace

Abeg siddon. What is a target man going to do with this immobile midfield?
Have you seen that Fab and Drinkwater cannot string passes together before they are swamped?

atheist5:
conte is the most overrated manager in the world

What would you have done differently?

chic2pimp:
I'd He'll be right.....Man Up You wussies. Been cycling in all this week. Funny watching people with Poor Bike Handling skills falling all over the place.

Balls of Steel. You no dey fear slipping into the path of crazy London drivers?

Nihilist:
ogbeni you could sat in a onesie sipping hot tea and watching TV, with auto-clicker clicking away...and still getting paid for it...

but you're a greedy cash grabbing contracting mofo

Hehehehe.

Nihilist:
its -5 where i am, and scheduled to drop down to -11 by nightfall.

FBS probably laughing and telling us püssies to man up still...

FBS definitely having a laugh!
But mehn, it's no joke.

In Edinburgh at the moment, you don't want to know.
All schools in the whole of Edinburgh are closed!

Expect a ton of orders from Columbia and Mexico.

Nihilist:
we didnt press Barca though. They were just tapping the ball around in their half. Thats one of the reasons we struggled offensively, cos when we won the ball in our half and wanted to counter, we had nobody to launch the ball up to and ask to help us hold it.

We were having to run at barca players a lot and more often than not ran into cul de sacs.

As the game went on, we tired out. It's not easy to sustain a pressing game against Barca for 90 minutes. We will have to implement a low-block defensive line, with intermittent, coordinated pressing bursts, attempting to steal the ball and launching counters at the speed of light.

This means all players participating in the defensive line and all being able to participate in the rapid CAs.


Although I agree with the suggestion in principle, one of the reasons I believe the hold up play may not work is that Barca are pretty rapid themselves and will retrieve play very quickly, before we are able to hold it up and move up field to support. But I may be wrong.

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....

Bye bye indeed. Fabregas that found it hard to press in a small Stamford Bridge. We need all the defensive solidity we can muster. Fab should not start

sod09:
he has nothing to lose
Williams should sit down

Willian sit down?

sod09:
giroud offers no attacking treat, he can hold up play. conte should try him with morata. he is very effective in such tactics like when he partnered greizmann at the euros

Giroud with Morata indicates a 3-5-2. I am not sure this will work. One of the reasons we did well against Barca was because of the pace and width. We stretched the play and pressed in numbers. Giroud's pace is slower than Alonso's. We need pace for the pressing game.

Nihilist:
oga hold your L gracefully jare

you were the one making excuses for chris today

he was implicated in the first goal and went down to easily, you said its because Rudiger is 3cm taller. meanwhile i saw Azpi push that same Lukaku off the ball by the touchline in the same game...and Azpi is still smaller.

second goal, you're blaming rudiger for allowing a cross that was going straight to Chris. All he had to do is keep his head.

Nobody has scapegoated Chris. Until last week, i think we were almost all unanimous in believing he's one of thr best players at the club.

However, when he fücked up like he did against Barca, and was duly criticised, people like you came out to cape for him and try to blame Fab.

when he messed up for first goal today again, you said he did nothing wrong because he banged his head. Even Jamie Carragher at half time mentioned that Chris should have stood up quicker than he did to defend that ball.

when he messed up for the second, now it's rudigers fault.

is Chris immune from criticism because he's a youth player?

Are we no longer allowed to point out obvious truths because Chris is 21?

I just saw more things. Please do not add faslehood to this matter.
On Wednesday, I stated clearly "Bad Pass by Chris but Fab was rooted" ......I am not sure what cape you see in there.
You went to the internet to post several pundit's version of the story blaming Chris. Ibime went to the Internet posting several fans' comments blaming Fab. Who is the arbiter ? Meanwhile my comment apportioned blame to both. So what are we saying?


And just like Wednesday, I stated today again. Chris was rooted but Rudiger should have shut Lukaku down. Again, where is the cape for Chris?

Easy on the temper mate.