Not good enough to play in a title challenging team. If that’s who we are or want to be then he needs to go. I don’t see him wanting to be permanently benched so he has to go.

Not good enough again yet he is unstoppable. Why?

We need an upgrade (Mancini at Roma would be my choice) but for me Zouma is a keeper - play him at RCB or bench him it's that simple.

Mancini/Zouma - Umtiti or Hubner/Tomori

I’d definitely put Rudiger and Tomori ahead of Zouma.

If we sign a top class CB, then we have no room for Zouma & Christensen tbh. Time to put the sentiments aside and sell them.

1 hour ago, dansubrosa said:

I’d definitely put Rudiger and Tomori ahead of Zouma.

If we sign a top class CB, then we have no room for Zouma & Christensen tbh. Time to put the sentiments aside and sell them.

World class CB #1, Rudiger #2, Tomori #3, Zouma#4, Christensen sell.

1 hour ago, coco said:

World class CB #1, Rudiger #2, Tomori #3, Zouma#4, Christensen sell.

I think this is the smart way to go.  I was a proponent of a Rüdiger-Zouma partnership but I’ve started to lose faith in Zouma.  And Tomori has promise but I’d rather he be rotated in for cup games and to give the occasional rest.

15 hours ago, just said:

I understand. We don't want to make the same mistake twice nibs, but I do feel Zouma has something more to offer. A balanced view? His positives have out-weighed the negatives. Can't write him off yet I think.

The more pressing problem for me is the lack of a genuine physical presence in our midfield, and the resulting failure to turnover the ball and dominate that area. Get that sorted and I believe you will see our back line protected much better. We are too lightweight in midfield.

You might be right @justthat Zouma's positives outweigh his negatives but CB is such a crucial position and when a CB has as many mistakes in his game as Zouma does, IMO it would just be too risky to keep playing him and hope somehow he improves.

I saw plenty of Everton games last season and just like Luiz, he would have the occasional faultless display but he still switched off far too often and those lapses / mistakes often result in goals. We need a top quality CB to partner Rudiger with Tomori being first cover and that would leave Zouma 4th choice or we let him go. 

2 hours ago, coco said:

World class CB #1, Rudiger #2, Tomori #3, Zouma#4, Christensen sell.

I am not sure Zouma would be happy with being the #4 option. He isn't good enough for the top 4 club but he had a couple of solid loan spells so there is a number of midtable/lower half clubs that could definitely use him and he knows that. Tomori is still young and learning, while Zouma at 25 would want to play regularly.

Edited December 8, 20196 yr by abramovich

53 minutes ago, abramovich said:

I am not sure Zouma would be happy with being the #4 option. He isn't good enough for the top 4 club but he had a couple of solid loan spells so there is a number of midtable/lower half clubs that could definitely use him and he knows that. Tomori is still young and learning, while Zouma at 25 would want to play regularly.

In that case i would loan/sell Zouma and put Ampadu in at #4 until the end of the season, and then decide in the summer what to do.

2 hours ago, Nibs said:

You might be right @justthat Zouma's positives outweigh his negatives but CB is such a crucial position and when a CB has as many mistakes in his game as Zouma does, IMO it would just be too risky to keep playing him and hope somehow he improves.

I saw plenty of Everton games last season and just like Luiz, he would have the occasional faultless display but he still switched off far too often and those lapses / mistakes often result in goals. We need a top quality CB to partner Rudiger with Tomori being first cover and that would leave Zouma 4th choice or we let him go. 

When he was younger he always had this problem, concentration, he would fall asleep on crucial moments. But when he was younger he had this rapid pace and strength to recover from mistakes and his tackling was lethal, that's why he was starting in Ligue 1 at 17 years old, when we signed him he had a lot going for him but we hoped experience would sharpen him up. With that injury he's lost some physical aspects to his game, he's not as fast as he used to be, and the aspects we were hoping he would improve on when he was a young lad have not been improved on. Simply put, I don't think he's Chelsea material. At least with the Kovacic situation, that Just kept bringing up, we already had good midfielders, so if he didn't perform he would be on the bench no problem. We are expecting Zouma to be relied upon at the back, and I don't think he's cut out for it, he has made so many mistakes this season as he has had good games, that for me is the definition of erratic. If he was 21 I would cut him some slack, but he's 25 now and has a lot of experience in the Premier League. 

That Zouma interception yesterday was sex on a stick. 🤩

I don't mean to be a party pooper but we seem to be forgetting that Rudiger is also prone to mistakes. All of the centre backs atm are average-good at best with not much between them. 

I still prefer to see this combination most though until someone else is bought it. 

There's a lot of pace, physicality, aggression in that pairing. 

On a different note, Jorginho's presence in that defensive midfield is probably something the centre backs appreciate more than Kovacic's. 

On 11/12/2019 at 12:11, GhostOfDembaBa said:

I don't mean to be a party pooper but we seem to be forgetting that Rudiger is also prone to mistakes. All of the centre backs atm are average-good at best with not much between them. 

I still prefer to see this combination most though until someone else is bought it. 

There's a lot of pace, physicality, aggression in that pairing. 

On a different note, Jorginho's presence in that defensive midfield is probably something the centre backs appreciate more than Kovacic's. 

It's hardly the same though or anywhere near as frequent as Zouma's mistakes. Zouma makes the type of mistakes that make you wonder how he ever made it to the top level of football. It's like I said a few weeks back, it's like he is constantly playing on the edge, he never looks comfortable, everything looks like a struggle for him, and inevitably, mistakes come from it.

If it was down to me he'd be the CB we replace with a big name signing. 

Was a monster at the back today. Really bullied Kane. Very aggressive, sharp and assertive in his play today. Close runner up to Willian for MOTM in my opinion. 

Kane didn't get a sniff

Tbh I’m proud of Zouma for the turnaround he’s made since his injury, to think about it he was playing for Stoke just  two years ago! Good on him.

1 hour ago, Brutos said:

Kane didn't get a sniff

Uh, yes he did; I recall one great chance in the first half, Kane skies it over the bar. 

9 minutes ago, Phillip said:

Uh, yes he did; I recall one great chance in the first half, Kane skies it over the bar. 

That wasn't a sniff, at most it was a distant whiff 

I felt a bit sorry for him with that "foul" am I the only person who thinks that was ridiculously soft? A sympathy foul for Spurs that, and their player was offside, what is VAR playing at? If they scored that freekick how and why is it allowed if the player was offside on the run? Jesus tap dancing Christ. 

9 minutes ago, Slojo said:

I felt a bit sorry for him with that "foul" am I the only person who thinks that was ridiculously soft? A sympathy foul for Spurs that, and their player was offside, what is VAR playing at? If they scored that freekick how and why is it allowed if the player was offside on the run? Jesus tap dancing Christ. 

It wasnt a foul, and it was offside anyway. Var saved us from what an abysmal refereeing performance, but i dont think they could over rule the freekick and give offside, its not in their remit.

Its a strange one, because if the ref had thought the 'foul' was inside the box and gave a penalty, they wouldve then overturned it and gave the offside. 

 

 

1 minute ago, big blue said:

It wasnt a foul, and it was offside anyway. Var saved us from what an abysmal refereeing performance, but i dont think they could over rule the freekick and give offside, its not in their remit.

Its a strange one, because if the ref had thought the 'foul' was inside the box and gave a penalty, they wouldve then overturned it and gave the offside. 

 

 

A very strange one, I saw them saying if it was a penalty then they could overrule it, but why can't they overrule that?? If Spurs score that's more controversey. 

Spurs had every advantage in that game, almost every decision went their way, if it hadn't of been for VAR we wouldn't have gotten that penalty aswell. 

Just now, Slojo said:

A very strange one, I saw them saying if it was a penalty then they could overrule it, but why can't they overrule that?? If Spurs score that's more controversey. 

Spurs had every advantage in that game, almost every decision went their way, if it hadn't of been for VAR we wouldn't have gotten that penalty aswell. 

Var can only rule on goals, penalties, red cards, and mistaken identity. 

Its bullsh*t mate, there was a game a few weeks ago where a player was clearly offside, but the linesman are now reluctant to flag,  the ended going out for a corner. If the ball goes in from the resulting corner,  is that any diffferent to mount being called offside sgainst liverpool? 

I felt a bit sorry for him with that "foul" am I the only person who thinks that was ridiculously soft? A sympathy foul for Spurs that, and their player was offside, what is VAR playing at? If they scored that freekick how and why is it allowed if the player was offside on the run? Jesus tap dancing Christ. 

Its Dele Ali top 3 of the freestyle diver

Just keep him away from Christensen and he is just fine.