2 hours ago, dansubrosa said:

I’m disappointed Conte hasn’t given him the “Pirlo” role. I think he’d be so good, I wish Conte thought of that last summer.

I really don't think that role would work in the Premier League. It's different over here compared to Italy, teams in England won't just sit back and let you dictate play from the half way line.

His successor is walking around in Germany by the name of Mamoud Dahoud. I've seen him play for Dortmund a couple of times and I'm surprised I don't hear more teams interested in him. 

1 hour ago, Scott Harris said:

I really don't think that role would work in the Premier League. It's different over here compared to Italy, teams in England won't just sit back and let you dictate play from the half way line.

That's literally what City do via Silva and Fernandinho in the majority of their matches. 

It's tough but I think he's a player we should let go of, his legs are done, I don't think he has enough in him to play a critical role for us anymore. 

20 hours ago, Remodez said:

That's literally what City do via Silva and Fernandinho in the majority of their matches. 

Silva doesn't constantly sit deep and dictate play from the middle of the pitch, most of his good work is done further up the field, Fernandinho plays a different game too, he plays deep like Pirlo did but he doesn't play the same style, his approach is more defensive and you won't see him playing passes that Pirlo would play.

21 hours ago, Willian93 said:

It's tough but I think he's a player we should let go of, his legs are done, I don't think he has enough in him to play a critical role for us anymore. 

We should keep him and play him against smaller teams. That's close to 35 games (league + 2 cups) a season he can play at a decent level.

Sure he shouldn't be starting against the rest of Top 5 but can still play a part if we are chasing games late on.

Need to get rid.

Look what happened against Leicester- he came on and then our midfield was completely overrun. He can't shoot, dribble or dictate the game, as someone above already mentioned. Bakyayoko, for all his faults, is at least a physical presence and will cover more ground, if little else (nothing else, squat. He is awful).

Sigh. Fab and Matic were a great midfield pairing in Conte's first year....

 

I'm fine with him staying quite honestly, I can understand people wanting him to get rid, but I think Conte is playing him in the wrong places. Fabregas is excellent when we are on the front foot and need to break teams down, he's still our most creative player. He needs to play further up the pitch, when he plays further down the pitch he's a defensive liability, Conte needs to stop playing him in midfield. 

5 hours ago, Slojo said:

I'm fine with him staying quite honestly, I can understand people wanting him to get rid, but I think Conte is playing him in the wrong places. Fabregas is excellent when we are on the front foot and need to break teams down, he's still our most creative player. He needs to play further up the pitch, when he plays further down the pitch he's a defensive liability, Conte needs to stop playing him in midfield. 

The thing is, if he isn't playing will be stirring up things in the dressing room...........

Totally agree with most on here. We need to let him go. 

I feel the only reason we actually won the league last year was because cesc was on the bench for the majority of the season. He brings a LOT more negatives to the team as whole than he brings positives. Honestly dont think the supposed creativity he brings to the team can be offset by the defensive nuance of a 12 year old boy, running and physicality of a 60 year old man.

We need a modric/verrati-ish player next to Kante. That can give the likes of Hazard and willian the freedom to do what they do best. 

2 hours ago, didierforever said:

We need a modric/verrati-ish player next to Kante. That can give the likes of Hazard and willian the freedom to do what they do best. 

I think that dog has bolted, it is now a three man midfield and back four we should be looking towards.

In that case we need another energetic midfielder and a creative one.

Herrara out of favour at Utd strikes me as the type of MF that might complement Kante.

Possibly Van Ginkel, Mata or even Eriksen could be the creative MF, IMO.

 

Edited March 22, 20188 yr by strider6004

57 minutes ago, Strider6003 said:

I think that dog has bolted, it is now a three man midfield and back four we should be looking towards.

In that case we need another energetic midfielder and a creative one.

Herrara out of favour at Utd strikes me as the type of MF that might complement Kante.

Possibly Van Ginkel, Mata or even Eriksen could be the creative MF, IMO.

 

No chance we'll sign Eriksen. Herrera is a good man marker but overall defensively he's nothing special, though I think he'd be an improvement over Cesc/Bakayoko. Would rather we gave Mason Mount a chance than van Ginkel/Mata tbh, love Mata but if his performances for United this season are anything to go by he isn't anywhere near the player he was for us. van Ginkel I'm still not convinced about, he's too similar to Barkley for me, grace of an elephant etc

Edited March 22, 20188 yr by the special one

1 hour ago, Strider6003 said:

I think that dog has bolted, it is now a three man midfield and back four we should be looking towards.

In that case we need another energetic midfielder and a creative one.

Herrara out of favour at Utd strikes me as the type of MF that might complement Kante.

Possibly Van Ginkel, Mata or even Eriksen could be the creative MF, IMO.

A lot of it will defend on the new manager and what formation he uses. I personally feel a 3 man mid gives a team more stability. It gives the attackers the freedom to do what they are best at. But we will need some really good CMs for that, currently we just have 1. DD is a decent all round mid. MvG and mata are a step sideways rather than forward. Baka and barkley currently look like a step backwards. We would need to get atleast 2 world class CMs to play a successful 4-3-3. 

37 minutes ago, didierforever said:

We would need to get atleast 2 world class CMs to play a successful 4-3-3. 

                                                       Courtois (Pope)
Azpi (Rudiger/Zappacosta) - Albiol/Zouma (Christensen) - Rudiger/Christensen (Cahill) - Alonso (Azpi/Emerson)
                   Kante (Ndombele) - Jorginho (Drinkwater/Ampadu) - Ndombele (Mount)
                    Willian (Felipe Anderson) - Morata (Giroud) - Hazard (Hudson-Odoi)

Edited March 22, 20188 yr by the special one

15 minutes ago, the special one said:

                                                       Courtois (Pope)
Azpi (Rudiger/Zappacosta) - Albiol/Zouma (Christensen) - Rudiger/Christensen (Cahill) - Alonso (Azpi/Emerson)
                   Kante (Ndombele) - Jorginho (Drinkwater/Ampadu) - Ndombele (Mount)
                    Willian (Felipe Anderson) - Morata (Giroud) - Hazard (Hudson-Odoi)

Albiol as in Raul Albiol?? The old Madrid CB?

19 minutes ago, the special one said:

                                                       Courtois (Caballero)
Azpi (Zappacosta) - Christensen (Zouma) - Rudiger (Cahill) - Emerson (Shaw)
                   Kante (Bakayoko) - Jorginho (Drinkwater) - ? (Mount)
                    Willian (Felipe Anderson) - Morata (Giroud) - Hazard (Hudson-Odoi)

This would be my squad. I definitely would not buy albiol (dont see the point of it). I have watched napoli a few times and jorginho seems like a good player. But after the koulibaly incident, there will be bad blood between the clubs. No idea about Ndombele.

As hard as it may sound, if we are shifting to a back 4, I will let go off alonso. The number of times he gets beat is immense and he will find it hard in a back 4 as a traditional LB. Defending is not his best suit as well as overlapping (due to his pace). He might be redundant. I will take a punt of shaw (just like barkley).

I would also keep Baka in the squad. Lets hope its the first season blues rather than him actually being this poor.

Imagine how different we would be if we had a world class midfielder alongside Kante. 

5 hours ago, the special one said:

No chance we'll sign Eriksen. Herrera is a good man marker but overall defensively he's nothing special, though I think he'd be an improvement over Cesc/Bakayoko. Would rather we gave Mason Mount a chance than van Ginkel/Mata tbh, love Mata but if his performances for United this season are anything to go by he isn't anywhere near the player he was for us. van Ginkel I'm still not convinced about, he's too similar to Barkley for me, grace of an elephant etc

Agree Spurs wouldn't let Eriksen go, mentioned for example purpose. Don't think it matters if the attacking midfielder is an elephant after all SFL wasn't a ballerina which is why I thought Van Ginkel might fit the bill yet equally think Barkley or even RLC might work. A big question mark on the last two is staying fit for more than a few matches. Fitness applies to DD too.

4 hours ago, didierforever said:

This would be my squad. I definitely would not buy albiol (dont see the point of it). I have watched napoli a few times and jorginho seems like a good player. But after the koulibaly incident, there will be bad blood between the clubs. No idea about Ndombele.

As hard as it may sound, if we are shifting to a back 4, I will let go off alonso. The number of times he gets beat is immense and he will find it hard in a back 4 as a traditional LB. Defending is not his best suit as well as overlapping (due to his pace). He might be redundant. I will take a punt of shaw (just like barkley).

I would also keep Baka in the squad. Lets hope its the first season blues rather than him actually being this poor.

we should move alonso to striker 

3 hours ago, TheChelsRVA said:

we should move alonso to striker 

Possibly a second striker yet he could not lead the line, IMO.

An absolutely brilliant player who is miles ahead of anybody else in our squad when it comes to vision and creativity. Like with any player you have to find the role that emphasises their strengths and accommodates their weaknesses, which a few managers have seemed to struggle with with Fabregas. Unfortunately it seems that his best role is increasingly as a weapon to be deployed from the bench as necessary - even on a bad day he's capable of conjuring opportunities out of nothing.

22 hours ago, bluedave said:

An absolutely brilliant player who is miles ahead of anybody else in our squad when it comes to vision and creativity. Like with any player you have to find the role that emphasises their strengths and accommodates their weaknesses, which a few managers have seemed to struggle with with Fabregas. Unfortunately it seems that his best role is increasingly as a weapon to be deployed from the bench as necessary - even on a bad day he's capable of conjuring opportunities out of nothing.

A lot of people are saying we should sell him next season, i think the opposite though. Keep him as a squad rotation player, use him the same way we used him last season, it's the only way we will get the best out of him now.

On 3/22/2018 at 15:29, Strider6003 said:

Possibly a second striker yet he could not lead the line, IMO.

it was tongue in cheek...kind of.  I don't want Alonso to move to striker but at the same time his left foot is brilliant!

Magic Hat's 50th premier league goal for the important win!!!

The first season with us he was excellent.

The second season was poor, like the whole team.

The third season was decent, he wasn't a starter but we could feel him as a sub. He came and had games that he changed by an assist or control of the game.

This season - what does he bring to the team?