3 minutes ago, dkw said:

If pre season is anything to go by Zouma absolutely will not be our best CB. 

Mostly pre season results aren't a true reflection of form and is more about getting fit and avoiding injury, but obviously some take it more seriously than others regarding performances 

well people should be happy that Kurt is starting up front with Christensen vs BMG today - we should see how that works out

1 minute ago, robdog said:

well people should be happy that Kurt is starting up front with Christensen vs BMG today - we should see how that works out

Zouma is playing striker? 

Everything that worries me about him is on display today.

No positional sense whatsoever.

He is very much the blood and thunder type of CB. We either need to buy a better CB or hire a better coach.

I loved him when he was younger but he has not improve in the technical and mental aspects of being a CB at the highest level. Even the way he passes the ball looks clumsy and I admit Rudiger has the same problem but at least Rudiger's passing is mostly on point 

It's interesting that he's started every pre-season game lately and everything suggest he will be in the team for Old Trafford.

Because to me he looked very shaky and all over the place for our entire pre-season, including todays game. Now hopefully he just needs to time to get up to speed (it took some time before he started performing for Everton) but we can't really afford to have a CB playing at his pre-season level when it gets serious at Old Trafford in a week if you ask me.

 

He's no ball playing CB that's for sure - though he could be useful off the bench if we need to defend a lead or if we're playing backs against the wall.

I think he will start VS Utd alongside Luiz. I was hoping Zouma would do well enough to then have a Rudiger Zouma partnership. Christensen i think is pretty average.

I just don’t feel confident with Zouma in the defence. Not convinced by his positional sense and I think all the others offer a lot more when in possession of the ball too.

He was playing really well alongside John Terry at one one stage, would even go as far as to say he was the most reliable center half in one season. 

Definitely looking out of sorts every game he's played preseason.  

Even though, I don't particularly rate Luiz, I'd go for a Luiz- Christensen pairing on Sunday. 

Apart from two months at the end of last season he's never been a regular in anything other than a messy defense so I'm not sure where the idea that he would improve our defense came from in the first place.

At this point i'd rather take the £40m from Everton and keep Tomori about. Not necessarily better than Zouma but certainly no worse.

 

1 hour ago, RIP Mourinho said:

At this point i'd rather take the £40m from Everton and keep Tomori about. Not necessarily better than Zouma but certainly no worse.

The fact Tomori is still here and not gone out on loan yet makes me wonder if we're up a bid from Everton to take Zouma on a permanent deal? 

We will regret not taking the £40m. In no universe is he worth that much, he's a £20m player at best. 

It feels to me like he's in the team purely to make up the numbers, not cause he's actually good enough. 

Wouldn't make sense to play him that much in pre-season if the plan was to sell him though.

Just now, Sindre said:

Wouldn't make sense to play him that much in pre-season if the plan was to sell him though.

Could be playing poker with Everton to raise the price ? Hope so any way ... nice bloke and all that, but not an elite defender ...

11 minutes ago, Remodez said:

We will regret not taking the £40m. In no universe is he worth that much, he's a £20m player at best. 

It feels to me like he's in the team purely to make up the numbers, not cause he's actually good enough. 

Common knock it off, Luiz isn’t much better. Difference is the Zouma is not yet at his peak, while Luiz is on a fast decline.

1 minute ago, Sexyfootball said:

Could be playing poker with Everton to raise the price ? Hope so any way ... nice bloke and all that, but not an elite defender ...

Could be but i would have thought Lampards focus is on forming a CB-partnership that works instead of using pre-season to raise the price for a player.

4 minutes ago, Sindre said:

Could be but i would have thought Lampards focus is on forming a CB-partnership that works instead of using pre-season to raise the price for a player.

We've been shipping goals in every game with Kurt in there ... I sincerely hope he's not in our first choice partnership !

Another year, another centre back many don’t really have faith in. Seems we will actually need to buy a world class partner for Rudi next summer. 

14 minutes ago, ducavis said:

Common knock it off, Luiz isn’t much better. Difference is the Zouma is not yet at his peak, while Luiz is on a fast decline.

Difference is Luiz brings world class passing and leadership to the team, and solid defending for 90% of the season. At least Luiz can close a man down and not stand 10 foot off him and let him shoot.

 

17 minutes ago, Sindre said:

Wouldn't make sense to play him that much in pre-season if the plan was to sell him though.

You never know with pre-season. Could be that one of Christensen or Luiz has been carrying a slight knock so Lampard has been managing their game time to ensure they're fit for the start of the season. 

Bit like with Kenedy getting so many minutes in pre-season, I don't for a second think he's going to be playing any significant minutes when the season starts proper. 

20 minutes ago, ducavis said:

Common knock it off, Luiz isn’t much better. Difference is the Zouma is not yet at his peak, while Luiz is on a fast decline.

An average Luiz performance is still better than what Zouma can provide and I really don't see Zouma getting any better, prior to his injury I would have agreed with you. 

Edited August 5, 20196 yr by Remodez

Which defenders were on the pitch when we were conceding 11 goals in pre-season ?

Zouma - 9 goals conceded when he was playing

Emerson and Zappacosta - 6 each

Dave 5

Luiz, Christensen, Tomori and Alonso : 4  each

?

 

Zouma is a big body and a solid defender but he has zero qualities on the ball. Even his basic pass looks awkward. Luiz is 10 times more valuable to us as we need ball playing skills to build from the back.

I'd prefer we sold him to Everton and give Tomori a fair chance. Tomori have looked very shaky in Pre-season but he must be good being Derby's player of the season.

If we stick with Kurt lets loan out Tomori. Kurt is a decent backup for us for sure.