HazardousChoice

Belgium are just an incredibly overrated team. Martinez is a poor manager but they don't have a striker good enough to challenge for trophies. Anyone could bang in goals against Panama and San Marino with prime Hazard and KDB creating for them But when Batshuyai and Origi are your 2 best strikers against decent opposition you're in trouble Not really a surprise this generation has flopped in major tournaments once they get to the big boys in the knockout stages.

We don't. We have sh*t finishers. Not one player in our team is particularly creative. Which is why we struggle to create clear chances.

Can we somehow give him half of Jota's talent too?

The difference is Dembele is a creative player, he isn't a goal scorer, we have a massive problem with actually creating chances and have done for years and he's as good as they come in that regard. Pulisic gets the criticism because he's such an awful footballer in every other way, he can't create space with his dribbling or beat a man and he's such a poor passer and creates absolutely nothing for his team mates people have created this myth that he's some kind of decent goal scorer or decent finisher despite him averaging 4 goals a season and being a poor finisher every year in his 7 year career. Dembele likely won't score 15 a season but will be the creative spark this team needs to create chance after chance like Liverpool and City do, now we just need another winger (Raphina, Neymar, Mane, Sterling etc) who is a proven goal scorer and we'll look a completely different team with the ball next season. Exciting times. Far better numbers than Pulisic could dream of having to be fair. Though in Puli's defence he did miss a lot of games after Dembele benched him at Dortmund. (And I make it 37 league goals and 54 in total in that time)

But he's far more talented than Pulisic could ever dream of being. Don't see how anyone could not want Dembele when we're stuck with Mr 4 goal a season only signed because of his nationality playing for us. Dembele proved himself far better than Puli when he benched him at Dortmund and he'd be just as big an upgrade here. On a free it really is a no brainer but we still need another winger and to ship out Pulisic and one of Ziyech/Werner

Sorry, we aren't all old men with absolutely no lives or anything to do other than post on the Chelsea forum. Kante is definitely a lot more niche than Makélélé (it's not Makalele) and any other static defensive midfielder you can put at the base of a 3, it's a lot easier to fit someone like Casemiro, Fabinho or Rodri into a functioning midfield than Kante who needs another static player next to him to get the best out of him but at that point you're losing far too much creativity and attacking intent from deep in the games you need to break teams down. It's not really a surprise we've struggled so much creatively in midfield for most of Kante's time here. It's a ridiculous level of recency bias to suggest Kante was ever on the level of Makélélé. I don't recall people questioning Maka's role years after he signed because he had so many consistently poor performances in a variety of positions like Kante has had for years.

I think most people would say he was in a certain role. But I suppose the question is "Is a niche player that excels in a particular role world class if every other style of play exposes his basic flaws? Personally I find it hard to put Kante at that level given how all top teams tend to dominate possession in 90% of their games and his poor passing really hurts his team in those games. It's not even like you can play him as a lone DM in a midfield 3 alongside 2 more attacking players. The only role Kante has ever performed in is in a midfield 2 in a counter attacking team alongside a more static defensive minded partner like Matic or Drinkwater and that's not how any top team will set up in 90% of their games. So world class? Overall not for me.

Lukaku has never been talented enough to play for Bayern. He wouldn't make their bench. I don't think they'd take him on a free. Bayern will walk the Bundesliga whoever they have up front so the question becomes who can you sign to help you win the champions league. And if you did a 2000 man shortlist of best players in the world who could help a club win the champions league Lukaku at his best wouldn't be near it. It's a level too high for him. There's no market for Lukaku at the highest level or the richest clubs, the talent just isn't there. Best hope is Newcastle wanting a minor upgrade on Chris Wood and not being able to attract a top striker.

20 years, with me being a season ticket holder at the Bridge for 7 of those years. I can't recall a single player as limited technically as Kante or someone so ineffective for much of the season due to being incredibly limited in the types of games he can influence and only being useful in one style of play (which isn't a typical system for a top league winning side) being heralded like N'golo has. We've seen Kante's glaring flaws hobble us in possession for years now and at the time he often gets the criticism he deserves but the second he has his 1st good performance in 10 games it just vanishes and people go back to parroting the idea that he's still this world class player and that no other defensive midfielder can replicate what he does.

The majority, but there's little point posting on a forum circle jerking the players you do rate highly. Wouldn't be much discussion if there's 20,000 posts all stating how brilliant Reece James is. As for Kante, when is the last time he had a season where he wasn't poor for the majority of the season, Under Conte? He had massive question marks all through Sarri's time with people saying he looked poor in the 3 and didn't have the technical ability for the system but people blamed Sarri, looked poor under Lampard but people blamed Frank and has been poor for the majority of Tuchels time as coach. Kante benefits tremendously from his off the field image even if it's incredibly creepy how so many weirdos baby a 31 year old man but he's not beyond scrutiny and he's not a player I've ever rated particularly highly given how many games he's ineffective in. A tier below the likes of what Essien and Makelele were for me and I'd personally take Kovacic over prime Ngolo in any side that is going to keep over 40% possession.

I'd rather see Hakimi up front for us than see 1 more ball cannon off fat Roms shins.

I consider Kante the most overrated player in football history so I'd be all over selling him to United for 40m. anything plus is a bonus. Great player in niche games and certain set ups and was our best player when we won the CL last season. But he just ignores scrutiny or criticism for the 8/10 games he plays were he's ineffective or unable to influence the game due to his lack of technical skills or utility against deep lying defences and tight games. A much better player for a counter attacking team rather than a team that dominates possession like we tend to. I guess the trick is to be likeable and smile a lot.

He's far more talented than Pulisic could dream of being. He literally had Pulisic benched at Dortmund before we signed him. I could understand not being his biggest fan but saying he's not an improvement over what we have when we have a championship standard American that was only signed due his passport is flat out untrue.

Ah a Neymar thread. Are we back in 2010?

Kepa has had more than enough chances than he's ever shown the talent to deserve. We gave Mendy a chance to play through his bad form but if we didn't I'd have gave Barkley a chance in goal before giving Kepa another minute. Hell if Newcastle are offering 50m they can have both Kepa and Ross.

Pulisic + 30m for Raphina. Raphina would be fantastic for us and we could Saddle Leeds with Pulisic to help send them down. 2 of Dembele/Sterling/.......(Muppet time) Neymar in for Ziyech and Werner Lukaku replaced by any striker that isn't sweating after 40 seconds and moves more than once every 10 minutes. Kounde In, Gvadidol in. Kepa replaced by a decent number 2 that doesn't have me watching between my hands and isn't on 170K a week. Replace either Jorginho or Kante (Only 1) With a physical dynamic midfielder with some creative ability from deep. Clear the deadwood.

I don't understand where the weird take Pulisic has regressed as a finisher has come from, there's like this myth that was just invented that he was a good finisher despite him averaging 4 league goals a season across his 7 year career and underperforming his XG in all but 1 season. Pulisic has always been an absolutely terrible finisher, one of the worst in the history of the club given he's one of the only attacking signings we've made who's never been able to finish anywhere even before joining us he couldn't hit a barn door. His XG but look underneath at the goals he's scored Almost half of his goals are open goal tap ins from 5 yards with XG'S of 0.9 ish When Pulisic actually has to beat a goal keeper or is outside the 6 yard box his finishing record is absolutely horrendous which is why he failed in the Bundesliga and failed in the premier league.

4 goal a season Championship standard dross like Pulisic regularly gets game time here. We're not in a position to turn our nose up at Raheem who I think is an excellent player anyway. I'd love Sterling, I don't understand how anyone could be against it given he's a lot better than all of our wingers by a long long long way.

Incredibly insulting and unfair to Jorginho (And Werner) For me Pulisic is more like a much less talented less useful Saloman Kalou with a great PR and marketing team.

He should be getting himself medication or at the very least a good psychiatrist. He's never had the potential to get close to Benzema/Lewa level. Lukaku isn't world class, has never been world class and has never had the potential to be world class. The talent and technical ability just isn't there and at this point I'm really not sure why some people (Primarily Lukaku himself and a few scouts) can't see it given it's been obvious since he was 18.

Didn't watch the game, I was too busy enjoying Gerrard directly cost Liverpool a 3rd trophy when it looked like they couldn't lose it. He's a natural loser, it's in his DNA. But I have no idea why some people want Barkley out but to keep Pulisic, they're both 2 sides to the same coin except Barkley is much more talented and isn't pathetically weak. Both hold the ball too long, both are considered decent dribblers but spend most their time with their head down, Both have never shown anything to suggest they have the talent to play at the top level but got hyped up solely based on their nationalities. Both are considered bigger goal threats and more direct options than other players of similar positions yet neither have a decent record in front of goal. Barkley though has actually managed to show he can perform at some level over the course of a season, is home grown and due to commercial reasons we could get a ridiculous fee for Pulisic relative to his talent level. We're not going to get a decent fee for Ross and truthfully I'd be fine with Ross staying as a back up next year, I actually think he should have got more minutes this year than RLC did, not sure why we didn't see more of Ross even if he's obviously not going to be a starter for us. Either way massive overhaul needed this summer, absolutely massive. We have a lot of options but we need the ownership situation completed asap so we can start pursing some of them.

We have a lot of dead wood on some pretty hefty contracts. Not sure how Pulisic avoids this category given he's worse than every player on the list aside from Sarr and Arguably Kenedy. All the others have at least proved they can play at some level and all have had at least one good season under their belts in their careers even if they're not Chelsea standard. I could easily see Bats and Barkley performing for other clubs. Pulisic has literally never had a good season, not sure there's any market for him other than a commercial signing but that was true when he failed at Dortmund and we ended up signing him for none footballing reasons so maybe there's hope. Possibly Everton if Lampard fancies him again but I don't think he'd get a game there if Richarlison stays.

Hello, First post here, wanted to talk to my fellow Chelsea fans during the summer as I won't see the people I usually go to the bridge with and it's bit of a negative one I'm afraid. For me Pulisic should be the 1st player out the door this summer, he's as poor an attacking player as I've seen at the club since Roman bought it. He's been better for us than I think anyone who watched him at Dortmund would have expected (He'd already been benched by 2 younger more talented players when we signed him) but the fact remains if he had a different nationality he'd never have been considered a potential signing, He's massively out of his depth. He's played 7 seasons of top flight football and hasn't managed a single decent season in his career. He's a really poor finisher and has been for 7 years, pathetically weak, Isn't creative, can't cross, offers nothing outside the box, doesn't work hard, loses possession constantly, Isn't reliably fit, disappears completely most games, doesn't link up well with anyone at the club and no longer even seems to be able to go past people (Not that he's ever been a good dribbler) He's always been the head down and into blind alleys type. I genuinely don't know a single thing he does well. He has a direct style of play which I like but I'm not sure if that can be seen as a positive given how abysmal his numbers are over his 7 year career. It's tough to evaluate him because we didn't sign him based on his footballing ability and I don't know what impact he'd had commercially but if the new owners want to make it clear they see us as a sporting project Pulisic should be the first player out the door. He's got 2 years on his contract and we don't want another player running their contract down, He's not good enough, will never be good enough and because of his nationality and commercial value we could still get a decent fee for him. I don't see any reason why we shouldn't sell him and get a much needed upgrade in. Edit - There's some kind of myth I've heard and read where people think Pulisic is a good finisher or at least decent and I'm just not sure where it comes from given over his 7 year career he averages 4 league goals a season and has underperformed his XG in 6 of those seasons while missing multiple big big chances in important games. He's the only one of our forwards who has never scored double figures in a league season at any point in his career.