₦airaland Forum

We've been all over the place this second half. Still a lot of work rate but abysmal co-ordination in attack.

mithel: Anyone else having problems loading nairaland

Serious issues. Thought it was just me.

7 changes. Mata, Moses, Torres, Ramires, Terry, Cole, Schwarzer all in.
KDB, Oscar, Essien, Bertrand, Azpilicueta, Ba and Cech all out.

It's half time.

mithel: i doubt he would play 90 , ramires would come in

Sure. MvG has given JM a serious selection problem. I don't think anyone expecting him to come in and claim a place instantly. However, based on his performance so far, he just might have.

mithel: i dont think so, he has been the muscle in a side filled with the likes of MVG

You watch him when play comes into our half. He is not actually bursting a muscle to retrieve possession. It's not the first game I have noticed that.

It looking like Van Ginkel is going to be a very important member of the JM team.

It's nice to see the commitment to collective defending. Essien to me is the only one not doing a lot of running and closing down. He's lost that energy.

El Guapo: [color=#0066ff]I've never heard of an on-loan player captaining a side before, so this is kind of weird, but Thorgan Hazard is obviously taking the armband off Davy De Fauw at Zulte Waregem to become the club's new Captain.

This Is Just Serious [/color]

It shows the influence he's had at the club even though he's been there only a year.

mithel: schurrle is injured , you forgot hazard was off today

You are right mate. I guess that explains why I didn't remember to write about him. He was totally off his game.

A few observations.

Van Ginkel is a quiet but very effective player. Reads the game well.
Moses did well today.
Mata's presence and creativity is at least 2 notches above every one else in that role.
Perhaps only Debruyne can come close for now.
Ramires should never play on the right.
Based on performances so far, in my own opinion, Lukaku is already ahead of Torres and Ba.
Andre Schurrle is nowhere to be found.

As a team, there's more running and chasing. Everyone's involved. In attack, we are more direct with pace and creativity from Moses and Hazard.

Hopefully, there'll be more of a test against Milan on Sunday.

Torres on and Bertrand on. Hazard and Cole off.

Mikel and Azpilicueta on. MvG and Ivanovic off.

Campagnaro sees red. Nasty tackle on JT.
Ba and Luiz on. Lukaku and Cahill off.

3 changes. Schwarzer, Essien and Mata.
Out - Cech, Moses, Oscar


So Essien in DM, Mata AM and Ramires on the flank.

End of first half. Energy levels are obviously higher. One impressive positive is the willingness to work for one another. The pressing and defensive organisation must be commended.

Moses on form today. Ref has given a pen in error.
Hazard to take. 2-0

For those not watching, Oscar is playing in the hole, Hazard/Moses on the flanks, while Ramires and MvG are sitting.

Absolute brilliant counter by Moses to set up a special by Oscar.
1-0

Stiffer test for us today. Let's have a feel of what we are made of.

El Guapo: [color=#0066ff]Josh is far a better talent than Kakuta.

The Cruz of the debate is how good is Kakuta and what does he bring to the Chopping table when such opportunity calls? -- Reason I had to cite stats how bad his Loan moves has panned Out.

Despite doing well at Dijon, he was still far from being called a 'Perfect Prospect'.

FBS and co has got a Logic streaming, that Chelsea did the damage, which I think from a Perspective Yes we did, then does that also explain why his Loan moves haven't been Classy?

Many fellas tend to Overrate some Chaps just at seeing some flick moves then later blames the club for an abrupt decline in his career.

Phillipe Coutinho faced limited playing chances at Inter, he was Loaned out to Espanyol and In 16 games he had 5 goals and 5 assists to his name -- Now he's commanding a first team shirt at Liverpool.

I know how good we've been at keeping lads out of the main action but it doesn't necessarily mean all the lads were actually good.[/color]

You think Josh is a far better talent than Kakuta because you've seen him play. Not because of any physical or empirical data or analysis you think you have collated. You saw Josh play.


And Josh wasn't even remotely as influential in the youth team as Kakuta was. I can say that, I watched them play a gazillion times and I ran Youth Football reports on here regularly.


Transferring that talent to the big stage is a big step up and can be influenced by several factors. Josh for instance is breaking through in the era of rebuilding - this new focus of giving youth players play time. The whole club accepts it; especially the senior players. AVB was determined to use basically fringe players for Carling Cup. That's where Josh got many games to prove himself. When Kakuta was stepping up, we had a team with full blown professionals in their late 20s - all in the prime of their career. We were fielding 11 strong players even in the Carling cup.

Kakuta broke his leg and was out for a whole year. In fact, that was he year he was touted to get some playing time in the senior team. This injury remains one of the issues that affected him. There were legal issues surrounding his transfer and could not play for the senior team. In that time the awareness about the lad went through the roof and so did the expectations. Josh went through none of this.

No one called Kakuta the perfect talent but he sure was the biggest talent to come out of the academy at that time. How that translates to the big stage has got little to do with inherent talent. The mental attitude to deal with competition, low confidence, changing managers and contrasting ideas, constant deployment to wrong positions, unrealistic expectations are points more pertinent to the big stage transition.

How can you even prove than Josh is a far better talent than Kakuta?

El Guapo: [color=#0066ff]Alright! Kakuta's dismay performances Is down to been played out of position?

I wouldnt want to dig further on tis, Inasmuch as I know of youngsters who are been played out of position yet they're X-factors - Citing Ericksen at Ajax and KDB, damn Bale was once a Leftback

Wallace Is Joining Inter on a season long loan I heard.[/color]

You pick a handful of youngsters that perhaps had the mental capacity to deal with these issues and are using that as a yardstick for your judgement. Clearly leaving out hundreds, perhaps thousands of teenagers who struggle to get past that mental barrier. What you are doing is basically judging children by the same book.

Example is Josh McEachran who has never looked out of place everytime he played in a Chelsea shirt. Went to Swansea on loan, hardly played a game. Went to Middlesborough and his performance throughout the season was meh. Played for Chelsea again in one of the Pre-Season games a few days ago and seemed again, like the only player from deep position who knew what a pass meant. Finding passes others could not see. He is going on loan again and I am hearing to Real flipping Sociedad. Unfortunately for him, the likes of Chalobah, Ake, Van Ginkel, Oscar can all play his position. All under 22. He may never play for Chelsea. Are you going to say Josh is rubbish too?

I have to side with FBS on this. The main back-bone breaker with Kakuta was mis-management of his tactical positioning. If he was given the confidence to play in his favourite position, he could have been much better.

The silly loans didn't help either. A little internet search will reveal what Mark Hughes said with regards to playing Kakuta at Fulham. He basically said something along the lines of not needing to develop other players for other teams (giving Kakuta play-time) at the expense of his. So while it's easier to just conclude that Kakuta couldn't break through at Fulham, it must be stated there are underlying factors being ignored. Stuff like that robs teenagers of their confidence.

And no, Kakuta did not fail at Gijon. Google some stuff and you will see. I ran updates here regularly for a season while Kakuta was at Gijon.

While one has to accept that Jose will do what is best for the team, we need to be reasonable with our interpretations of his decisions. There's no way to explain that a player who scored 16 goals and copped 20 assists in one season is weakening the midfield.

If Jose has better tactical ideas, then good. I do not subscribe to any football ideas that attempt to draw parallels between "a passenger" and a player who was directly involved in 36 goals, provided avg 52 passes per game, completed more than 85% of them whilst providing 2.7 key passes per game.

Where do these ideas come from?

El Guapo: [color=#0066ff]Sure, the bison has been keeping Kalas and Cahill on their toes.

Andre in that list? He's not been convincing for me.[/color]

He hasn't convinced me as well as well. I put him there because of the potential he has.
I have watched Moses many times now to know what he won't bring.
This whole exercise is futile anyway as the return of Mata and Oscar changes the whole scope.


Special mention to Lukaku who has really impressed. It's safe to say he may just have worked himself into the team above Ba who has has about equal opportunities.

El Guapo: [color=#0066ff]From the look of things, here's what've got as the best team so far...

Cech, Ivanovic, Cahill, Terry, a.Cole - Essien, Ramires -- KDB, v.Ginkel, Hazard -- Lukaku.[/color]

Been watching Essien this game and I am not so sure. He lacks the pace to run back to goal and I see he's not been chasing back. Early days still but it might be an early indication.

I will pull MvG back to DM with MvG, take off Essien and insert Schurrle for width upfront.

Own goal 8-1

Lukaku 8-0

Feruz JMcE and Piazon on.
Hazard, MVG and Ramires off.

I believe we've switched back to 4-2-3-1

Nice counter. Led by Hazard. 7-0 Ramires.

Emmadani: jeez 6-o?When did they score 5 and u dint update?

Bertrand Traore made it 5.

Great play from Hazard
6-0 Lukaku header.