Did more in his 5 minutes on the field than Oscar did in 87 minutes.

Surely due for a return to the starting line up? Or are we going to continue to let Oscar run around for most of the game until we decide it's time we actually create some chances and bring him on.

this is definitely not the game to argue for fabregas' case. all he did was lob useless chips into the 18 yard box. not saying he could've done anything else, but he didn't make any whatsoever difference today. at least oscar fought an uphill battle vs a big centre back in the 2nd half, even creating an opportunity for costa.

and his defensive woes continues and will continue. liverpools 12k + guys ran faster than a fully fresh fabregas. guys, it's a problem. you can't field a midfield player in the premiership who can't run. it won't work.

conte got pretty much everything wrong today i felt, however fabregas was not one of them. klopps boys would have tore us an absolute new one had our spaniard started.

2 minutes ago, opinionsarelike said:

this is definitely not the game to argue for fabregas' case. all he did was lob useless chips into the 18 yard box. not saying he could've done anything else, but he didn't make any whatsoever difference today. at least oscar fought an uphill battle vs a big centre back in the 2nd half, even creating an opportunity for costa.

and his defensive woes continues and will continue. liverpools 12k + guys ran faster than a fully fresh fabregas. guys, it's a problem. you can't field a midfield player in the premiership who can't run. it won't work.

conte got pretty much everything wrong today i felt, however fabregas was not one of them. klopps boys would have tore us an absolute new one had our spaniard started.

Played probably the best pass of the game with the outside of his foot I believe through to Hazard on the right wing, who then couldn't get a cross in, and made a few other neat incisive passes too. You wonder if we'd had that passing ability the entire game if we would have spent most of it chasing the ball around and losing it every time we got past half-way, first 20 minutes of the second-half aside.

You could see his influence tonight. Every Chelsea player was looking for him as soon as they got the ball. The ultimate 'quarterback' role. Shows the trust they have in his passing ability, and when players have trust in that, they are more likely to make runs off the ball with purpose, knowing that fabregas will pick them out.

If he is not starting against Leicester/united idk what will get him a start...

The worse our results gets the stronger the case for starting Cesc becomes.

Without him in the team, all we have is hazard creating something & Costa scoring, the rest of our attackers outputs are sub standard IMO.

If Conte is really that worried about Cesc defensively then Mikel needs to be playing.

Mikel

Kante - Fabregas

 

6 minutes ago, pacquiao said:

Mikel needs to be playing.

That much has been obvious to us for years

51 minutes ago, opinionsarelike said:

this is definitely not the game to argue for fabregas' case. all he did was lob useless chips into the 18 yard box. not saying he could've done anything else, but he didn't make any whatsoever difference today. at least oscar fought an uphill battle vs a big centre back in the 2nd half, even creating an opportunity for costa.

and his defensive woes continues and will continue. liverpools 12k + guys ran faster than a fully fresh fabregas. guys, it's a problem. you can't field a midfield player in the premiership who can't run. it won't work.

conte got pretty much everything wrong today i felt, however fabregas was not one of them. klopps boys would have tore us an absolute new one had our spaniard started.

Fabregas can easily fit in the Chelsea team with Matic and Kante. Chelsea have no creativity apart from Hazard and Costa players better with Fabregas. 

Could that first half really of got any worse? Liverpool has already tore Chelsea an absolute new one.

51 minutes ago, opinionsarelike said:

this is definitely not the game to argue for fabregas' case. all he did was lob useless chips into the 18 yard box. not saying he could've done anything else, but he didn't make any whatsoever difference today. at least oscar fought an uphill battle vs a big centre back in the 2nd half, even creating an opportunity for costa.

and his defensive woes continues and will continue. liverpools 12k + guys ran faster than a fully fresh fabregas. guys, it's a problem. you can't field a midfield player in the premiership who can't run. it won't work.

conte got pretty much everything wrong today i felt, however fabregas was not one of them. klopps boys would have tore us an absolute new one had our spaniard started.

He had 5 minutes to try and do something to earn us a point and potentially play himself into the starting 11. 

He has only played a combined total of 30 mins this season, There is no way he is at his sharpest, so its going to be difficult for him to pull up trees when he finally gets a chance. 

 

He should be starting. 

look guys, i just said that this imo isn't a game to use as your advocate for fabregas to start games. he did nothing and i think we would have looked even worse with him.

against watford, that's a case for fabregas, a big one. this one i felt conte did the right thing, but wrong in putting him on. i would have put on batshuayi instead.

He looked massively off the pace as soon as he came on, he literally couldn't keep up with players who had been on the pitch for 80 minutes, not sure what others are seeing in him, he demands the ball and then dinks it up field, that seems to be all he offers.

Play Fabregas and Alonso in the league cup to work up there fitness for the Arsenal game. 

25 minutes ago, coco said:

He looked massively off the pace as soon as he came on, he literally couldn't keep up with players who had been on the pitch for 80 minutes, not sure what others are seeing in him, he demands the ball and then dinks it up field, that seems to be all he offers.

 

Maybe it's because he hasn't been getting any minutes to get match sharpness...as for what we see, his impact at Watford was incredible as he laid on a gorgeous match-winning assist.

14 minutes ago, bluelion111 said:

Maybe it's because he hasn't been getting any minutes to get match sharpness...as for what we see, his impact at Watford was incredible as he laid on a gorgeous match-winning assist.

He was also very dangerous when he came on against Swansea too. I don't think there is anybody in the league that can see a pass like Fabregas can, it feel's like such a waste having that sitting on the bench. I think it's time we set up a side that got the best out of our attacking players, because the way it is now is too defensive minded for me.

Start him against Arsenal i say. He's not the perfect attacking midfielder, but i think he would give us more than anyone else could in that position.

Cesc made my day at work. Thank you Cesc

Edited September 20, 20169 yr by Satah

Out of the side, says he'll give his all when picked, wins us the game, you have to respect that, he's a true pro, not talking bs in the press like Tibo, who seems to have a chip on his shoulder.

Cesc is a leader and he knows the potential of this group under Conte. I bet Conte will start him more. Probably not against Arsenal but soon enough. 

I'm new here, so I apologize if this has already been mentioned In this thread, but why not play Fabregas in the number 10 role instead of Oscar (especially after this performance)? This seems like a no-brainer to me now. Not only is he suited for the role but he's earned a start. And I say instead of Oscar because I feel Kante and Matic in the deeper midfield role are an excellent pairing, not to mention they have too much quality for either to be left on the bench. And don't tell me we need Oscar to track back and be a box to box when we have Matic and Kante in front of the back four! A terrible back four at the moment, sure, but still, in my opinion this is the best set up  if we're playing with a 4-2-3-1.

So:

                  Courtois

Dave - Terry - Luiz - Ivanovic

             Matic - Kante

Willian - FABREGAS - Hazard

                  Costa

 

Thoughts?

 

 

Edited September 21, 20169 yr by DinoP

Loved the goal celebration, that didn't look like a player who holds a grudge or want to leave. If JT is missing this weekend, Cesc should be the captain.

Any chance of playing him for a league game, Antonio?!

I don't think he helped his case much yesterday.

his quality with the ball isn't in doubt, and whilst he wasn't helped by playing in a two man midfield, I doubt conte was impressed with how ineffectual he was with the ball against 11 men- naturally he offered little without it as you would expect- but he also wasn't really able to establish control over the game. 

against 10 men it was a different story, and it speaks to his fitness that he was one of the players that really came to the fore later on, but I'm sure conte is well aware of what he is capable of. he was very clinical. perhaps he could be used as a second forward, especially with kante in the side, but I suspect his display will calcify the impression conte has of him- someone to break a game with his quality when the game is open rather than the type of player he can rely on to run them.

 

p.s. cesc is also in a bind in that he doesn't have the energy (or dribbling skills) to play advanced in a 4231 IMO. he is best facing the play rather than on the half turn. under jose playing there would mean we were deep and defensive so he'd have between 1-3 players ahead of him to pass to. under conte that might be different, which would help, but I don't see it being an ideal fit. I've said it before but I find it hard to see where he fits into the type we're trying to apply, other than directly in front of our defence (which would require a lot of restructuring around him).

Edited September 21, 20169 yr by g3.7