RMCM

Can you point out to me where I stated that Chelsea played with a back three? We played a back 4. We won the Champions league with Luiz playing in our back 4, only the most successful night in the history of our club. People were laughing all the way to the bank because the market when we sold Luiz was significantly less inflated, 50 million then would be similar to 70 million at the moment, any centre back going for that price would have fans laughing to the bank, even if it was a prime Cannavaro / Maldini. You're chasing at shadows here, Luiz was not at fault in our losses, I seem to recall his partner at centre back and our right back making chronic errors to give away goals. We kept one clean sheet with Cahill playing in the back 4 since the beginning of the season and that was against Burnley. It's an irrelevant statistic. Centre backs can play into their mid 30s without much issue. Why is his age relevant? 30m is not a significant amount of money in the current market. We paid 20 million for Carvalho 12 years ago, what would that be in the current market? A lot more than 30 million. If Luiz wasn't performing well he could be dropped, but he's performing like a champ, so he plays.

Why can't he be dropped? And he's played in a back 4 for the other 10 years of his pro career. . . . You really aren't making sense with this

No, it really isn't, I don't want to sound sarky but that is just plain wrong, and i don't see how you could interpret what I said as that. Chelsea play a back three because it allows us to get the most out of all the players at our disposal, and is a system that Conte is known to prefer. Luiz fits it beautifully, no doubt, but saying we play a back 3 because we dropped money on him is silly.

I don't think we're playing a back three because we spent money on Luiz, we are playing a back three because it's a system that's getting the best out of our entire squad

If Luiz had made the derps that Cahill made earlier this season then there would be a pitchfork wielding mob led by the Mail out for his head, but because it wasn't Luiz it's forgotten about in a week.

I think he makes no more errors than most other progressive centre backs, it's just for some reason the media love scapegoating him, I've seen plenty of errors from the likes of Ramos, Hummels, Pique, Kompany, all of these players who are lauded for being the best in the world. They all make defensive errors from time to time, it's just for some reason people love hanging over Luiz for them

Zouma or Ivanovic surely?

The positives far outweigh the negatives though. We're now a global brand with a huge following worldwide, have the second highest value sponsorship deal in England starting next year, we've been a heavyweight of english football for over 10 years (last season being an exception) and have also been known as a European Powerhouse, not for the last few seasons but prior. I agree somewhat on the cronyism, but Marina has brokered some outstanding deals for us in a time when 'decent' players go for eye watering prices. Emenalo, while I don't agree with everything he's done and I do feel has too much power, has transformed our youth system into probably one of the strongest academies in europe as well as scouting out some great prospects for our senior team. Abramovich also froze our ticket prices if I recall correctly in a time when tickets for games for the likes of arsenal go for ridiculous prices. I honestly think the few negatives hold no bearing on the positives Roman has brought to the club, no owner is going to run a club perfectly, but I think we're doing rather well.

Was at the Ireland v Georgia game last thursday, absolutely sh*te match against a team we should have been beating by two or three goals, and to top it all off, they weren't selling booze in the stadium, which compounded everyone's misery. However with Wales drawing against them, our scrappy 1-0 win was definitely a plus, and has us sitting pretty in the group. The Maldova game was pretty rubbish as well, but on the whole we probably deserved the two goal margin, even though again, couldn't string three or four passes together in the opposition half. Anyway, onwards and upwards, looking forward to the next two matches which are big ones against Austria and Wales. One win our of those two and we'll be looking pretty good.

My reaction to the last three pages of this thread can only be summed up by this.

I think Dave has been fine, naturally a 2 man defence carrying two sacks of potatoes instead of a right centre half and right back won't look great.

I think it's the one who plays for us. Not certain though

I'm going to be positive here and say that I think Luiz has been very good in his first few games for us this season, as has Dave, but they've really been let down by the other two chimps playing on the right hand side of them. Cahill needs to be dropped, Brana needs to be our 5th choice CB and 147th choice right back. With those two out of the team I think we could accommodate Fabregas, he's too good to be rotting on the bench when we're crying out for creativity, but we really aren't playing to his strengths by having a back 4 that watches snails do wheelies past them, it means he has to drop deeper and defend more, whereas if we had some pace at the back, we can play higher up the pitch meaning Cesc needn't cover as much ground. To be honest, with JT on his last legs, I'd like to see our backline line up like this in future, just so we can cope with life after Terry; Dave - Zouma - Luiz - Alonso. Zouma is a physical specimen, assuming he comes back the same player, and hopefully Conte can help to drill out the youthful rashness in his game and mould him into a tactical defender to complement his physical assets, Luiz is quality on the ball, guilty of the odd lapse, but I think he gets unfairly scapegoated by people, If Luiz had f**ked up like Cahill has the last couple of games, he'd be absolutely slaughtered by the media, but much less has been said about Gary. We just need to evolve, we're stuck playing an older style of football that brought us success in the past but seem to be resisting the change to a more 'modern' style of play in favour of backs to the wall, last ditch defending and counter attack, which really doesn't suit the squad we have

Playing in a midfield two? No, Cesc isn't the answer, but playing at the top of a midfield three, I think we could see great things from him there. Kante Can cover enough ground for two players, Matic has looked back somewhere near his original level for us, but the problem is, when they win the ball, they aren't creators, and neither is Oscar, we need an outlet that isn't Hazard, it's too easy for teams to try and mark him out of the game. Cesc wasn't great in the first half the other night, Leicester pressed very hard, but not every team will play like that, and we have to get used to it when it does happen, but as the game wore on he started to pull the strings from the centre circle, which coincided with Chalobah coming on and Cesc being pushed further up the pitch

Moses for me, his power and direct running are something that this team lacks, and I really had my doubts about his ability to make it here this season, but based on that performance, I think he warrants a place in the first team ahead of Willian on current form. It's nice to see a proper winger on the pitch for us, going up against Arsenal I'd start with a front 4 of Hazard, Fabregas, Moses and Costa.

I think that is because his main weakness is his decision making when coming off his line, sometimes he makes it out and wins the ball, but if he doesn't then it'll usually result in a penalty and/ or red card. That's the area of his game he needs to work on, his stopping is class and he's good under the high ball.

That's 175k per month, not per week, unless I've missed some big change to the gregorian calendar while I was off on a 4 day bender (entirely possible)

Man, those long strikes. Nearly forgot how good they were.

Call me a heretic, traitor, ungrateful (choice of any expletive), but I would drop terry from there and have it look like this Zouma --------- Ivanovic -------- Luiz Luiz is a left sided centre back isn't he? I think I remember that's where he played for us, but I'm a little hazy on that, and I was drinking until 4am and am currently sitting sh*tfaced at my desk in work, so ignore me if I'm talking sh*te

I'm actually surprisingly happy about this signing, when I heard the rumour first I sort of facepalmed, but the more I think about it the more I think it could actually prove to be an inspired signing. Luiz adds a dimension to our central defence that we have been lacking since he left (no not a fluffy mop of hair). He's a football player first and foremost, a defender second, but he adds that extra element of danger from a deep position since his technique is amazing and he can pick out long passes or dribble out from defence. Now, before, we would lament when he'd go on his mazy runs from the back, fearing that he would lose the ball and be caught out of position. But that was before we had a real ball-winner in midfield to cover for him, something that Kante provides now, and with Zouma and his abundance of pace coming back soon, Luiz may be allowed more freedom to do what he does best, which is play with the ball. There is also now the second option of playing with a back 3, since with Luiz and Zouma in there, we have the pace and power to actually pull it off. Plus, in a back 3, as we have seen with Conte's previous teams, there needs to be a ball-playing defender. Bonucci provided that, and now we have a player with similar (I might even say superior) ball skills to provide that outlet from defence. Conte is no mug, he's got serious managerial acumen, so he's obviously seen something in Luiz that he likes and feels the pros of his game outweigh the cons. Or else i'm stupid, Luiz is a donkey, and the board just panic bought a central defender and left Conte holding his dick in his hand. But I like to think that the other explanation is more likely

Azpilicueta is a left back. Also a right back. Aina is a left back. Also a right back. Yes i would have preferred to see Ake in the squad, but he's not as highly rated as Christensen is, he's almost a guarantee to come back into our squad at this point. Why do you keep bringing up his age? 29 is not old for a centre back. 30 million is standard money in this market, you wouldn't get any other seasoned vice captain of a national team for that money in this market. The club couldn't land our top targets for whatever reason. Luiz is a good alternative, we know what he is, we know what he isn't, and I'm sure Conte knows everything we know, multiplied by 50.

a 22 year old Christensen, a 22 year old Zouma. You can't win games with an entire team of toddlers. Luiz is a decent baller, his defending is erratic, but you'd swear by this thread that he gives away a goal per game. He has the odd lapse every couple of games, sometimes he gets punished for it. Sounds like every other defender in world football. People make errors. I, for one, will be happy enough to see him back, he'll be the only ball-playing CB on our book, which is what Conte likes. Also people whinging about his age are the same ones that were creaming their drawers over Bonucci, who is, shock, also 29. Not saying Luiz is as good, because he isn't, but he's not as bad as he's being made out to be, and he's also a good leader for the team, which is something we lack.

This could be interesting, could signal a move to a back 3, since both him and Zouma have the pace to play as the outside central defenders. Wouldn't say no to having him back if we can't get anyone else. The plot thickens

We need defensive cover, it would bite us far more if Dave got injured and we had no left back in the squad. Don't know enough about the lad to judge him, but I knew nothing about Dave before he joined and he's now probably the best one on one defender in the league.

I take it you don't watch game of thrones . .