I think that the best place for Fabregas is in the bench, we can't start a big game with Fabregas in the 11... Last year we have won when he stay in the bench. 

On 10/19/2017 at 03:49, Cyborg7 said:

I think that the best place for Fabregas is in the bench, we can't start a big game with Fabregas in the 11... Last year we have won when he stay in the bench. 

1. Last year - we did not have so many injuries.

2. Last year - WE did not play in ChampLge and with no midweek games our squad was adequate.

You can tie Fab go the bench or sell him to China, but if we dont get 1 and 2 resolved then we are not winning anything.

 

When he retires, do you think he will associate more with Arsenal or Chelsea?

I personally think Chelsea.. he's blue now and he'll be just as determined as the fans for his form to turn around.

3 hours ago, Van Butsen said:

he's blue now and he'll be just as determined as the fans for his form to turn around.

I wish it was just form, he can't cope with these stronger, quicker players, he needs space to be comfortable stroking the ball around, and with teams pressing high, when he gets the ball, it's usually with an opponent in his face. He used to make space for himself, but he's just to slow now, when i say slow, i mean it's his reaction that's slow. I can't wait to have Drinkwater available, at least he will be some kind of barrier in midfield for the opposition to get past.

20 hours ago, brownindian said:

1. Last year - we did not have so many injuries.

2. Last year - WE did not play in ChampLge and with no midweek games our squad was adequate.

You can tie Fab go the bench or sell him to China, but if we dont get 1 and 2 resolved then we are not winning anything.

 

I never tell to sell him, just that we cannot play with Fabregas in the big game.

3 hours ago, Cyborg7 said:

I never tell to sell him, just that we cannot play with Fabregas in the big game.

All i am saying is, Fab's defense is part of the problem but we have bigger problems. Like if we were to make a top 5 list of things to address Fabs defense wont be #1.  Anyways today is a good day -  a much needed win against Watford !!!! WOOOHOOOO

He’s become a massive liability lately. The good thing about last season was he was able to come on late against tired legs to work his magic.

Similar to the 15/16 season, we’re getting badly exposed d because of him. 

10 hours ago, brownindian said:

All i am saying is, Fab's defense is part of the problem but we have bigger problems. Like if we were to make a top 5 list of things to address Fabs defense wont be #1.  Anyways today is a good day -  a much needed win against Watford !!!! WOOOHOOOO

I have to disagree with that bit about Fab. In my view our openess on the counter is directly linked to his lack of physicality. Same as in 2015. It's a big issue.

2 hours ago, Spiller86 said:

I have to disagree with that bit about Fab. In my view our openess on the counter is directly linked to his lack of physicality. Same as in 2015. It's a big issue.

+1

for someone whose USP is his passing, the sheer number of times he loses the bAll by poor passes or is simply dispossessed in situations from which he simply is nullified out of the game and the opposition is given a free run straight at the heart of our defence, is reason enough for him to never play as a Cm again

@didierforever We all know Fabregas isn't cut out for the 2 man midfield, we've known for that for years, Conte even knows that, hence why he barely started last season. But we are out of options, it's pointless complaining why Fabregas is starting when we've got arguably our two best central midfielders out, Kante definitely. Drinkwater is also a solid CM, I think he'll show that. 

The only time Conte has naively played Fabregas was in the Arsenal game, a game he should never have started in the two-man midfield. Other than that I think it's been the right call to play him given that we are out of options. That's hardly Conte's fault, don't forget Bako was returning to fitness. 

He can change the formation and/or play David as a dm. I just don't buy this we are out of options argument.

when lvg was out of striker options, he went and played rashford rather than playing a false 9 of mata/xyz player.

I actually thought he was one of our better players yesterday. It's interesting people lambast Fabregas defensive ability. What about Bakayoko? Is that not suppose to be his role in the centre of the park? He's been pants so far, I have no doubt he'll turn it around but he seems to get off a lot more despite it supposedly being his speciality. The fact Morata couldn't hold his own water yesterday didn't help either. 

 

Our problems run deeper than Cesc for me. There's plenty of teams that have had a luxury player in their side and it doesn't cause them to crumble against the worst teams in their leagues. 

 

The fact of the matter is without Cesc in the team only creative player we have is Hazard and that's what makes us so easy to play against.

Edited October 22, 20178 yr by EdinburghBlue

2 hours ago, EdinburghBlue said:

I actually thought he was one of our better players yesterday. It's interesting people lambast Fabregas defensive ability. What about Bakayoko? Is that not suppose to be his role in the centre of the park? He's been pants so far, I have no doubt he'll turn it around but he seems to get off a lot more despite it supposedly being his speciality. The fact Morata couldn't hold his own water yesterday didn't help either. 

 

Our problems run deeper than Cesc for me. There's plenty of teams that have had a luxury player in their side and it doesn't cause them to crumble against the worst teams in their leagues. 

 

The fact of the matter is without Cesc in the team only creative player we have is Hazard and that's what makes us so easy to play against.

Both Baka and luiz seemed scared of contact which is understandable given that they were carrying injuries. Infact won't be surprised if they are actually injured and played through it. Also Baka was quite good (probably the best of the worst against CP and city too, he was great against atm). Cesc on the other hand has been sh*t through out the season.

Infact, baka has looked great with kante. Cesc on the other hand makes his partner look 10 times worse than the player they actually are. Happened with Matic, and now happening with baka.not everyone is kante, they can't work for 2 people.

What creativity has cesc bought to the side against the likes of cp and Watford. People keep using it, like it absolves him of having no defensive nuance, can't press, can't hold the ball under pressing, gives away the ball cheaply and makes the team super susceptible defensively. 

He IS one of our main problems. I hope we get kante AND drinkwater fit as soon as possible so that cesc is bang on 4th choice Cm. an absolute liability to the team.

Edited October 22, 20178 yr by didierforever

15 hours ago, Spiller86 said:

I have to disagree with that bit about Fab. In my view our openess on the counter is directly linked to his lack of physicality. Same as in 2015. It's a big issue.

Haha - fair enough, we shall agree to disagree and leave it at that.

I don't think he's quite as much of a luxury player as someone like Ozil, but Cesc needs to either play deep in a Pirlo-like role, or behind the striker, he doesn't have the engine to play as a proper CM going box to box, and come about 70 minutes or so he gets knackered and very sloppy.

7 hours ago, didierforever said:

He can change the formation and/or play David as a dm. I just don't buy this we are out of options argument.

when lvg was out of striker options, he went and played rashford rather than playing a false 9 of mata/xyz player.

And what places did LVG finish in the league? LVG was the opposite of Mourinho, he rotated far too much and messed about which cost them a lot of results.

Dave in the middle? No way. 

Fabregas is getting a lot more starts and we're dropping a lot more points, and we were very lucky not to drop points yesterday. He's a great guy to have on the bench, but I'm afraid that's it.

3 hours ago, Slojo said:

And what places did LVG finish in the league? LVG was the opposite of Mourinho, he rotated far too much and messed about which cost them a lot of results.

Dave in the middle? No way. 

Not Dave, David as in David luiz.

united finishing 6th/4th was down to a lot of factors, Marcus rashford starting would be downright 1000th on the list.

20 hours ago, Davey Baby said:

Fabregas is getting a lot more starts and we're dropping a lot more points, and we were very lucky not to drop points yesterday. He's a great guy to have on the bench, but I'm afraid that's it.

We can't argue with that Davey, but what people aren't realising is that we are out of options. 

I can't blame Conte for injuries that purely weren't his fault. We've only had 1 midfielder who hasn't been plagued by an injury so early in the season, and that's Fabregas, which is quite ironic. 

Do you think really, when we will have all our middles than Fabregas will start the big games ?  

Once kante is back I’m hopeful that cesc is on the bench at least against the bigger sides

Someone deserves to be sacked if he’s offered the rumored new contract 

I think it's the right time for him to be benched like last season. He doesn't perform like he knows, a big disappointment from him this season.

I've defended him and defended him and no this is not an overreaction, his time in the pivot needs to come to an end NOW!

That was abysmal, his distribution wasn't that bad, it's never usually a problem, besides that one error which lead to the goal. But my god is he useless off the ball, just like I said, it's like Big Dave from the pub playing in midfield when Fabregas isn't on the ball, I'm sure he's got a Nigerian passport and he's really 36, those injuries have really taken its toll on him.  

He’s the Ivanovic of this season as someone else put it. A nightmare every time he goes up against a competent midfield.