16 minutes ago, RIP Mourinho said:

Doesn't necessarily need to be hitting 10+ goals a season when he contributes in other ways. The link between defence - attack. He's been doing this at every level:

We'll have to agree to disagree - for someone who seems to be building a reputation as an attacking midfielder (RM/LM/AM) I still don't think he contributes anywhere near enough goals/assists. That link between defence - attack as you say may (and does) benefit a team like Palace, not for a team with top 4 aspirations imho.

Edited May 6, 20188 yr by the special one

1 minute ago, the special one said:

We'll have to agree to disagree - for someone who seems to be building a reputation as an attacking midfielder I still don't think he contributes anywhere near enough - that link between defence - attack as you say may (and does) benefit a team like Palace, not for a team with top 4 aspirations imho.

Ruben would speak of himself as more in the Ballack mould than an attacking midfielder. He's done interviews where he talks about modelling his game on Ballack so I'm not sure describing him as an 'attacking midfielder' is accurate.  

 

26 minutes ago, DidierDidier said:

Ruben would speak of himself as more in the Ballack mould than an attacking midfielder. He's done interviews where he talks about modelling his game on Ballack so I'm not sure describing him as an 'attacking midfielder' is accurate.  

 

Ballack was an 'attacking midfielder'? Either way if RLC scores a few like this I'll be happy to change my opinion about him, he's nowhere near Ballack's level imho.

 

Edited May 6, 20188 yr by the special one

7 minutes ago, the special one said:

We'll have to agree to disagree - for someone who seems to be building a reputation as an attacking midfielder (RM/LM/AM) I still don't think he contributes anywhere near enough goals/assists. That link between defence - attack as you say may (and does) benefit a team like Palace, not for a team with top 4 aspirations imho.

Would you not also class Iniesta as an attacking mid? His goal contribution numbers are laughable but everyone would agree he's a fantastic player. I'd say a link from defence to attack is exactly what this team is missing, hence why we play hoof ball a lot of the time. 

17 minutes ago, RIP Mourinho said:

Would you not also class Iniesta as an attacking mid? His goal contribution numbers are laughable but everyone would agree he's a fantastic player. I'd say a link from defence to attack is exactly what this team is missing, hence why we play hoof ball a lot of the time. 

For me the difference between Iniesta (and Ballack) is that when he/they did score they were quality goals/finishes, when RLC scores he just seems to be in the right place to tap it in which for me anyone in that position can do.

While I agree we need a link from defence - attack I think we need to be bringing in players like Weigl/Isco imho (unlikely I know)

I've always said RLC is Premier League quality don't get me wrong, I just don't think he's a good fit for us unless we play 4-4-2/4-4-1-1 next season, and if we do for me it's unlikely we'll make top 4 - I just don't think RLC would contribute enough to win games.

Edited May 6, 20188 yr by the special one

Well, you don't know until you try

This is a bad argumento, yes, his goals scoring output can improve, but he should have AT LEAST 6-7 more assists than he has,because Benteke has missed at least 6 absolutely shocking chances that Ruben has put on a plate for him. He scores that,and suddenly Ruben's numbers look great. Which is exactly why statistics without context mean absolutely nothing. Ruben creates chances , he Just happens to have an absolute donkey in front of him to finish those chances off

This has been a good loan for him. He's 22 now and I'm afraid Chelsea, rather typically, have stifled his development these last few years. He's hardly played any meaningful minutes for us and yet we kept him for two years to virtually do nothing. He was captain of a phenomenally good youth side and he was always the stand-out player whenever I saw them. This has effectively been his first season of playing proper football and he's stood out for Palace and shown his potential, in a very tough league. We need to bring him back and we need to start playing him, instead of Fabregas or Bakayoko. He'll turn into one of the best players in the Premiership in no time. The quality is there. This is a very, very impressive debut season.

Edited May 6, 20188 yr by Davey Baby

touches vs Stoke City

Nearly scored, got an assist, drove the ball from midfield multiple times and made some fantastic piercing passes. Pretty good game for him. You can also see the improvement in work rate and defensive contribution.

 

Assume Conte will leave and we will play a midfield of 3 again, RLC should get a chance to impress the new manager next season. We got Cesc near the end of a great career, Bakayoko not convincing, Drinkwater/Barkley rotting on the bench, we could use a couple alternatives.

On 07/05/2018 at 00:37, Davey Baby said:

This has been a good loan for him. He's 22 now and I'm afraid Chelsea, rather typically, have stifled his development these last few years. He's hardly played any meaningful minutes for us and yet we kept him for two years to virtually do nothing. He was captain of a phenomenally good youth side and he was always the stand-out player whenever I saw them. This has effectively been his first season of playing proper football and he's stood out for Palace and shown his potential, in a very tough league. We need to bring him back and we need to start playing him, instead of Fabregas or Bakayoko. He'll turn into one of the best players in the Premiership in no time. The quality is there. This is a very, very impressive debut season.

 

I agree with everything you said except for the last four sentences.

He's shown nowhere near enough quality to get a starting position here, just because Fabregas & Bakayoko have been bad doesn't mean we need to play RLC from here on out, he's not the answer to our problems. As good as he looks we can't go gambling again, we need to go out and get the necessary player, by necessary I mean a big signing to play next to Kante. I'm all for giving RLC a lot more minutes but I'm definitely not sold on the idea of him being a starter because he'll somehow turn into one of the best players in the Premiership in no time, that's a BIG ask Davey and nothing you should say lightly. 

Jack Wilshere at 18/19 looked invincible and truly looked like he was going to be the first English Xavi, now look at him. 

@Argo has a good point, RLC is nowhere near ready enough to start or lead the helm, so we should lay off pretending he looks good enough already because he definitely doesn't. He struggled in that Stoke game even though he caused them problems. He definitely has potential but I think we are getting ahead of ourselves here. 

Hope to see him in the England squad this summer. Certainly will be the stand out player for us at the tournament. 

I've seen a couple of journalists on Twitter who report on Chelsea claim that the club want him back in the squad for next season. 

It will still depend on who our manager is but generally there is a desire for RLC to be involved for us again. We'll see.  

On 08/05/2018 at 09:03, ForeverCarefree said:

I've seen a couple of journalists on Twitter who report on Chelsea claim that the club want him back in the squad for next season. 

It will still depend on who our manager is but generally there is a desire for RLC to be involved for us again. We'll see.  

I think it was against Villa that he scored a goal and Abramovic was up on his feet applauding, clearly looking delighted.

I think he may be seen as more than just a promising player... It might be a case of him symbolising the success of the academy.

Very short odds to make the England squad to be announced Wednesday.

My money is on him to make it.

Edited May 14, 20188 yr by Nickcook26

8 hours ago, Nickcook26 said:

Very short odds to make the England squad to be announced Wednesday.

My money is on him to make it.

Should do, offers something completely different in the middle of the park. I'm sure we'll end up playing Henderson, Dier and Milner instead though ffs.

Ruben hopefully has a good world cup, even as a bit part player, and then gets a chance with us next season.  He def has the talent.  Cant do much worse than bakayoko.  Cant see Baka improve much in 2nd season as he showed so little this year.  But knowing us we'll sell for less than average money, someone will take a gamble and Loftus-Cheek will be the next Lampard or Gerrard.  Not to say it hasn't happened before (Salah, DeBruyne, Lukaku, Robben, even Bertrand)

Hopefully we will play a midfield of 3 next season, could be his year to break in the team. We need a powerful runner in the midfield, think he could be the one.

In an ideal world I'd like to see RLC and Mount competing against each other for that CM/AM spot if we move to a 4-3-3/4-2-3-1 formation next year

 

Well he's made the WC squad so congratulations.

 

On 15/05/2018 at 10:51, Sparkz said:

In an ideal world I'd like to see RLC and Mount competing against each other for that CM/AM spot if we move to a 4-3-3/4-2-3-1 formation next year

 

Mount / Kante / RLC
CHO / Martial / Hazard

What a fantastic achievement this is. Hope he gets to play and impress. We really should be looking at getting him some games next season,

5 minutes ago, Remodez said:

What a fantastic achievement this is. Hope he gets to play and impress. We really should be looking at getting him some games next season,

Go on loan, widely regarded as one of the best performers in the team you've joined. Become a full international and are considered good enough to go to a World Cup. 

I mean, if we're not considering that good enough to have involvement in our first team we might as well just be done with the academy because we clearly would have no interest in bringing through our own players. 

Let's move Drinkwater and Pedro on and give this lad a proper chance next season.  

2 minutes ago, ForeverCarefree said:

Go on loan, widely regarded as one of the best performers in the team you've joined. Become a full international and are considered good enough to go to a World Cup. 

I mean, if we're not considering that good enough to have involvement in our first team we might as well just be done with the academy because we clearly would have no interest in bringing through our own players. 

Let's move Drinkwater and Pedro on and give this lad a proper chance next season.  

 Needs to win a trophy first before he is good enough for our first team.