Supposedly pulled out during the warm-up. We are now down to a total of zero fit centre mids. 

Kova back after a long spell out and then immediately gets hit with covid and now this.

I think it's safe to assume we're cursed.

we are going to f**king slide down the table from here

12 hours ago, Amputechture said:

Kova back after a long spell out and then immediately gets hit with covid and now this.

I think it's safe to assume we're cursed.

What did you do @Amputechture  ?

 

Only one training session for Kova until he tested positive, so on top of his recovery time it will take weeks before he can come on for a few substitute minutes. Great. 

He is covering for many injured players, but the last few weeks have shown why he wasn't good enough to hold down a spot outside Chelsea.  Far too slow and casual on the ball, and takes too many touches before releasing.  Would like to see a big improvement in his general play.

A couple of good physical challenges that he won but on the ball he is so sloppy. Wasted so many opportunities and always out of position when we're being attacked. 

Barkley must be really terrible during training or I can't see why he deserved those 90 minutes today

I agree in possession held the ball too long and did not pass soon enough.

On the flip side every time he turned as though to shoot outside the box he drew the foul.

Stood up nicely to some rough challenges.

Don't think he will figure much when  we get the others back from injury. 

5 minutes ago, strider6004 said:

I agree in possession held the ball too long and did not pass soon enough.

On the flip side every time he turned as though to shoot outside the box he drew the foul.

Stood up nicely to some rough challenges.

Don't think he will figure much when  we get the others back from injury. 

The fouls he won came from him not releasing the ball quick enough though. One on the edge of the area he could have put somebody in, but he preferred to beat his man to win the free kick.

He seems to think he needs to beat everybody with a bit of clever foot work. It's easy on the eye, but most of the time it is needless and just kills our attacking flow. When he beats his man, I expect him to run into space and release the ball, not move forward and wait for the defender to recover so he can do the same thing all over again. 

His foot work and strength is excellent, but he isn't using it to great effect right now. 

3 hours ago, Scott Harris said:

The fouls he won came from him not releasing the ball quick enough though. One on the edge of the area he could have put somebody in, but he preferred to beat his man to win the free kick.

He seems to think he needs to beat everybody with a bit of clever foot work. It's easy on the eye, but most of the time it is needless and just kills our attacking flow. When he beats his man, I expect him to run into space and release the ball, not move forward and wait for the defender to recover so he can do the same thing all over again. 

His foot work and strength is excellent, but he isn't using it to great effect right now. 

Indeed. He needs to use the ball better.

4 hours ago, Scott Harris said:

The fouls he won came from him not releasing the ball quick enough though. One on the edge of the area he could have put somebody in, but he preferred to beat his man to win the free kick.

He seems to think he needs to beat everybody with a bit of clever foot work. It's easy on the eye, but most of the time it is needless and just kills our attacking flow. When he beats his man, I expect him to run into space and release the ball, not move forward and wait for the defender to recover so he can do the same thing all over again. 

His foot work and strength is excellent, but he isn't using it to great effect right now. 

Hes not a confident passer or shooter that's why. Hides in non threatening areas also I've noticed.

 

Signs of some consistency?

To be honest I don’t understand why we don’t pull mason back into CM to cover for now and use pulisic or ziyech or CHO in the forward role with havertz and Werner 

16 minutes ago, SFL82 said:

To be honest I don’t understand why we don’t pull mason back into CM to cover for now and use pulisic or ziyech or CHO in the forward role with havertz and Werner 

Because Mount hasn't got the discipline to play in a two man midfield. It becomes a defacto 3-3-4 when he does play there. 

Hate to say it, as I was I initially excited at seeing RLC in the middle pair, but all I am seeing is Tom Huddlestone........

I think he loses some of his explosivenesses playing every game. He hasn’t got the stamina. 

I was going through our midfield options earlier and forgot all about RLC.

To be fair, with the amount of time he spends on the sidelines, it's easy to forget about him. 

Expect this to be his final season at CFC. Conor Gallagher back next season would be a massive upgrade on RLC and Barkley.

 

On 31/12/2021 at 17:59, Nibs said:

I was going through our midfield options earlier and forgot all about RLC.

To be fair, with the amount of time he spends on the sidelines, it's easy to forget about him. 

Expect this to be his final season at CFC. Conor Gallagher back next season would be a massive upgrade on RLC and Barkley.

 

Which is a shame, because when Loftus-Cheek is at his best, he's really good. The problem is that he doesn't sustain it. If it's not injuries stopping him, it's himself. During that period without Kante and Kovacic, it was a perfect opportunity for him to show what he's all about, but he just didn't turn up in any game. 

Rubes being linked with a loan to Juventus as a replacement for Arthur. Serie A could be a really good league for him to go to if Juventus use him appropriately. Really want to see him succeed, whether that is with Chelsea (preferably) or abroad with another club.

Edited January 13, 20224 yr by chiefBlueCFC
i can;t spell or anything

I think it’s time we moved him on, come next season when we get Gallagher back he’ll be even further back in the pecking order 

Yup, he’s no Alexei Smertin.

I’ve completely forgotten about Ruben. Is he injured?

Yeah. He's always injured.

With guidelines ruben can be a very good 6,but the road to get there will be interesting because his first instinct is to dribble which need to be curbed a lot as single 6.

Really frustrating, even now you can see he has a lot of potential but he never got going. Should it be his last season at Chelsea?

I think he could be a good bench option. He’s still as inconsistent as a youngster, but whenever we’ve forgotten all about him, the coach brings him on and he performs. He then goes to sh*t next game, we don’t see him for a while and he then reappears as a great sub option. It’s really baffling.