2 hours ago, Bob stark said:

You don't want your 6 to carry the ball. If he lose the ball, you basically give opp free chances. 

There is a time and a place for it, and learning when to and when not to would be very important going forward.

End of the day I don't expect him to be as good as Jorgi as he had played that role basically his whole career, RLC is trying it on now.

Fact is we need options for when Jorgi cannot play or is rested. Saul does not appear a good fit for it, neither is Kova, who is a much better number 2 to Kante. 

I pretty much called Tuchel not rating Zouma very early and I´ll tell you right now RLC will earn more and more minutes during the season. If one of Kovacic/Kante/Jorginho goes down for a significant amount of time, he´ll get a lot of games.

8 hours ago, Bob stark said:

You don't want your 6 to carry the ball. If he lose the ball, you basically give opp free chances. 

Kovacic does the exact same thing for us.  He just has to make sure he has cover when he drives with the ball and he has to protect the ball like a new born baby

37 minutes ago, ElTerrible said:

I pretty much called Tuchel not rating Zouma very early and I´ll tell you right now RLC will earn more and more minutes during the season. If one of Kovacic/Kante/Jorginho goes down for a significant amount of time, he´ll get a lot of games.

You might be right. This was an encouraging week for him. The two minutes, as little game time as it was, showed that he has worked himself into Tuchels plans and yesterday he played the full 90 as a CM, whereas Saul played in a different role in the first half, and then got taken off for Barkley. RLC might just be slightly ahead of Saul in the battle for the fourth CM spot right now.

Quite a stark contrast to the interviews right before and right after the end of the transfer window where he said he needed a fourth option/said he was happy to finally have a fourth option for that CM spot.

Edited September 23, 20214 yr by True Blue23

3 hours ago, The Don Antonio said:

Kovacic does the exact same thing for us.  He just has to make sure he has cover when he drives with the ball and he has to protect the ball like a new born baby

In double pivot when you receive the ball on the side and higher that is fine because you have protection behind you but when you play single pivot, dribbling is not really something that you want to do often.When kova played as single 6 he always struggle because his first instincts is to beat defender. 

Yesterday we played villa b team, both team didn't take the game seriously, it really does not matter how our midfield play. It is purely to get bench player minutes. 

10 hours ago, axman2526 said:

There is a time and a place for it, and learning when to and when not to would be very important going forward.

End of the day I don't expect him to be as good as Jorgi as he had played that role basically his whole career, RLC is trying it on now.

Fact is we need options for when Jorgi cannot play or is rested. Saul does not appear a good fit for it, neither is Kova, who is a much better number 2 to Kante. 

In double pivot, dribbling is fine but not as single pivot. The question with Ruben  is more about intensity, it is similar to Pogba. If you play as true midfielder, you need to run and run and run. 

I have criticized both Jorgi and kova but both run a lot. Kova is an excellent ball defender, Jorginho is slower than ref but he run, run and run

 

 

 

Edited September 24, 20214 yr by Bob stark

1 hour ago, Bob stark said:

In double pivot, dribbling is fine but not as single pivot. The question with Ruben  is more about intensity, it is similar to Pogba. If you play as true midfielder, you need to run and run and run. 

I have criticized both Jorgi and kova but both run a lot. Kova is an excellent ball defender, Jorginho is slower than ref but he run, run and run

 

 

 

That is fair. We would have to see RLC in a double pivot with someone other than Saul.

Looked very sharp today. He really need to get more game time to understand the team more, get more involved. City struggled to contain him.

Looked really positive. Hoping he can kick on. 

Looks like he’s got his head down and getting on with his work. 
deserves a start against Juventus Wednesday 

About one of the only positives from today. 

Did really well when he came on. Would like to see him get some minutes in the first team against a team that we're going to have the majority of possession. 

And everyone was crying for us to get a DM in the transfer window, i was happy for us to keep Loftus Cheek at fourth choice and see what he can do. 

Two games in a row he seemed to do well. In fact I would have liked to see him starting against Juve. He is not as easy to disposess as Jorgi or Kova.

I'd start him this week next to Kovacic, we wont be getting 70% of ball possession but we'd be playing a bit faster and be more forward thinking.

Completely forgot that young(ish) Ruben is really good at football.

We've been doing him a disservice sending him to teams like Fulham and Palace, I think he is only ever developing when he is playing for Chelsea

Did some good things, did some sloppy things. 

But he drives the team forwards. Very few pointless sideways or backwards passes. There is definitely a role for him in this team. 

On a quiet renaissance. Onward and upwards! 

Another good performance. He's still 4th choice behind kante, joghi and kovacic but definitely ahead of Saul. I also like that he offers us something different than the other three. 

5 minutes ago, Frankie8Lampard said:

Another good performance. He's still 4th choice behind kante, joghi and kovacic but definitely ahead of Saul. I also like that he offers us something different than the other three. 

He is not a natural midfielder, ruben is more of an attacker but if he can  understand the position better, he can easily compete with jorgi and kova. 

Think it was another good game for someone that hasn't played a lot of football in last year plus.  These are positive signs.  I like he adds some physicality, and I'm sure his confidence is returning.

His physicality is wonderful and adds to the team well. Some wonderful touches. He just needs that final bit of quality in the final 3rd. 
 

Doing well though, great to see him back

The way he was driving forward from midfield was brilliant to watch at times. I thought he was excellent in the first half. Not everything was perfect, there was the odd stray pass here and there, but it was always going to happen with the type of game he played and how much of the ball he was seeing. 

Loving the RLC return to form, thought he'd be a bit-part player this year...long may it continue 👌

Man of the match for me.