His dribbling and distribution isn't great but it struck me against West Ham just how little time centre halves give him on the ball. They know what he's like and try their best to wind him up so the second he gets the ball, they go through him. It happened countless times with Winston Reid so although it is very frustrating, he's scoring very important goals and I think the fact defenders are marking him so tightly and taking every opportunity to leave one in on him shows what a quality player we have

41 minutes ago, BenCFC19 said:

His dribbling and distribution isn't great but it struck me against West Ham just how little time centre halves give him on the ball. They know what he's like and try their best to wind him up so the second he gets the ball, they go through him. It happened countless times with Winston Reid so although it is very frustrating, he's scoring very important goals and I think the fact defenders are marking him so tightly and taking every opportunity to leave one in on him shows what a quality player we have

This is why he needs to release the ball quicker. He invites a lot of the physical stuff on himself, he would look a better player if he laid the ball off quickly, like he did in the secone half against city. 

At the of the day though, he is scoring goals, and it's actually nice to see him fairly injury and suspension free so far this season (touch wood). 

I'm sure he will be to his unplayable self when the finish line is getting closer. It's a long hard slug of a season, and all players have dips in form. 

Hope he stays for next season and beyond. He is a good personality to have on the pitch. With Ivan and possibly terry leaving, we need warriors. 

6 hours ago, big blue said:

Hope he stays for next season and beyond. He is a good personality to have on the pitch. With Ivan and possibly terry leaving, we need warriors. 

That is why we have our man Nate, The CFC Young Enforcer

He last 2 games were poor until he scored, and that's why people pay big money for strikers. I could live with that if he has a 6/10 game for 70 minutes, then score a goal.

He last 2 games were poor until he scored, and that's why people pay big money for strikers. I could live with that if he has a 6/10 game for 70 minutes, then score a goal.

Most are considered dodo until they put the ball into the back of the net - then we give them praise

He last 2 games were poor until he scored, and that's why people pay big money for strikers. I could live with that if he has a 6/10 game for 70 minutes, then score a goal.

Made even better by the fact that he still gives you energy even if he hits a rough patch. The team never carries him.

His dribbling and distribution isn't great but it struck me against West Ham just how little time centre halves give him on the ball. They know what he's like and try their best to wind him up so the second he gets the ball, they go through him. It happened countless times with Winston Reid so although it is very frustrating, he's scoring very important goals and I think the fact defenders are marking him so tightly and taking every opportunity to leave one in on him shows what a quality player we have

Agreed. And he doesn't really lose the ball all that much. It's just very noticeable when we're struggling for possession. His hold up play has improved quite a bit though. He's much more at ease with receiving the ball under pressure compared to when he arrived.

2 hours ago, venom2011 said:

 

Agreed. And he doesn't really lose the ball all that much. It's just very noticeable when we're struggling for possession. His hold up play has improved quite a bit though. He's much more at ease with receiving the ball under pressure compared to when he arrived.

 

I would be less critical if that were true. But in games of late, and West Ham was a good example, he DID lose the ball a heck of a lot - hence our opponents had a lot more of the ball than they should have.

As others have said, all the time he keeps scoring, it's not so much a problem but it is still a concern.

 

I would be less critical if that were true. But in games of late, and West Ham was a good example, he DID lose the ball a heck of a lot - hence our opponents had a lot more of the ball than they should have.
As others have said, all the time he keeps scoring, it's not so much a problem but it is still a concern.
 

He's been short of confidence in this small blip and trying a bit too hard. It's quite evident. He's been feeding off scraps really. But in the grander scheme of things I've seen a fair amount of improvement from him.

 

On 3/8/2017 at 14:01, TrueBlueBIH said:

 I am not that interested what happens in the summer as even if he does go we will have enough time to get a suitable replacement. 

Because we've got such a wonderful record of signing cracking strikers recently haven't we?  They are just all over the place, merely for the asking.

Pretty average/poor again yesterday i thought. Were good in some spells but overall he's lost his form completely for me.

7 minutes ago, Sindre said:

Pretty average/poor again yesterday i thought. Were good in some spells but overall he's lost his form completely for me.

The one sour note last night was Costa. Back to his worst - moaning and more interested in petty squabbles and looking at the officials than rolling his sleeves up and giving the Utd defenders something to worry about. Really poor. Seems he knows he is pretty much guaranteed starter every game and I think he needs competition and the threat of being dropped to give him a kick up the arse. Would have subbed him on the hour mark last night.

4 hours ago, Nibs said:

The one sour note last night was Costa. Back to his worst - moaning and more interested in petty squabbles and looking at the officials than rolling his sleeves up and giving the Utd defenders something to worry about. Really poor. Seems he knows he is pretty much guaranteed starter every game and I think he needs competition and the threat of being dropped to give him a kick up the arse. Would have subbed him on the hour mark last night.

Was in the MHL last night and we could how wound up Costa was...imo I would have subbed him and brought Pedro on......Costa was more interested in kicking and fighting with Rojo. He was a sending off waiting to happen. Even The ref looked pissed off with his moaning 

Goals have deffiantly papered over his general performances since January.

I am also one who thinks if he scores he has done his job but games like last night put all the pressure on Hazard to produce something. Willian in general had hardly any creativity and if Costa decides he wants a fight it just leaves the magic man or the brilliant Kante to smash one in.

Really poor last night, and as I've mentioned previously has been out of it since January. Conte needs to have a word and get his head right for the big games we have coming up. At the moment he is getting goals, but adding little to nothing else to the team, if he stops scoring goals we're effectively playing with ten men. Therefore more pressure on Hazard/Pedro to come up with the goals and that's not where we want to be.

Longer term the club need to sit down with him and really identify whether he can commit to another 2/3 full seasons with us without incident, otherwise we should cash in from this interest and invest our money elsewhere on a Belotti, Aubameyang, Sanchez esque player.

8 hours ago, Sindre said:

Pretty average/poor again yesterday i thought. Were good in some spells but overall he's lost his form completely for me.

In the first few months of the season he was my player of the season. He was doing everything right and everything needed from a striker playing up there on his own. But his form since the new year has been really poor.

He's not bullying defenders like he was, he's slower than he was, his first, second and third touch is poor, his awareness of his teammates and what is going on around him is poor, his reactions are slow, his passing is poor, he's going down too easily and he's constantly moaning. His form has definitely been really poor of late. It's like the beginning of last season, the only difference is that he is still scoring goals. When he doesn't score, like last night, then he's holding the team back.

When it comes to finding space and being clinical, he's right up there with the very best, but outside of that he's very average of late. Scoring goals is great, and i wouldn't swap it for anything, but we need more than just goals. We can't progress as a team if our build up play is breaking down when the ball ends up with our centre forward.

I agree with most, he was poor again just like the last 2 games, only difference was he didn't even score a goal. He's not making those runs anymore, and when he runs with the ball, 9/10 he lose it. I think he should be dropped or rotated this weekend, I have the feeling playing him against the big but not so mobile Stoke defenders will play into their hands.

After watching last nights game i think costa was pretty toothless, i know he can still bang one in out of no where, but i could not help thinking what if somebody else was up front instead? and he was starting to let rojo get to him which was a tad worrying. I'm wondering if conte is too scared to drop him in case he then totally loses him? What ever the case, we really need him to get back on it !!

He doesn't really need to score as long as we win. However he is not at his best atm. Still a beast.

On 3/10/2017 at 19:57, Beerqueen said:

Because we've got such a wonderful record of signing cracking strikers recently haven't we?  They are just all over the place, merely for the asking.

So you would keep an unhappy player? If he indeed is unhappy. The stories in January were obvious that something is wrong, i didn't buy the "it is all media talk" one bit.

12 minutes ago, TrueBlueBIH said:

The stories in January were obvious that something is wrong, i didn't buy the "it is all media talk" one bit.

What about when Diego himself came out and said the media were making false reports? 

And gestured during the speculation that there's too much talk 

 

He's mentioned several times now he is happy here and the stories were rubbish.

I'm not sure what more he can do to calm the rumors tbh. We will see in the summer but I think Conte will get Costa to sign a new deal. We have CL football could bag a few trophies and will no doubt add quality to the side next season.

No reason to move at all.

2 hours ago, Chelsbear said:

He's mentioned several times now he is happy here and the stories were rubbish.

I'm not sure what more he can do to calm the rumors tbh. We will see in the summer but I think Conte will get Costa to sign a new deal. We have CL football could bag a few trophies and will no doubt add quality to the side next season.

No reason to move at all.

I haven't actually seen anything that really says those stories was rubbish, something clearly happened. Yeah there was a lot of talk but that doesn't mean it wasnt true to some degree. Saying Costa has said certain things doesn't actually hold much weight in football. His not exactly going to come out and say the opposite?

Most people seem not surprised if Costa leaves this summer.

Doesn't he usually tail off in the 2nd half of a season? I'm sure when I looked through all his scoring games a while ago, most of them were in the first half of seasons.