It drives me crazy hearing this crap from Chelsea fans, as well as from oppos. He's an incredibly talented AM with sublime ball control, outstanding short passing and an absolutely world class free kick. But no, because he runs a lot he's a 'workhorse'. Unbelievable. Maybe you should go back and watch the Shakhtar game against us in the CL where he scored against us twice, and basically drove their entire team the whole match. 

I've often wondered about why Willian at Shakhtar was so good and incisive, but hasn't showed any of that here.

 

My thinking is that at Shakhtar, Lucescu had all the team's attacking plays carefully choreographed. Willian didn't need to be creative or have vision, he knew where his team-mates were going to be so would look up and play the quick passes - and as you said he's very good at passing the ball. Mourinho, on the other hand, has been reported to not work very much on attacking patterns and instead just instruct players to get the ball to Hazard. In this situation, Willian gets the ball and actually needs to look up and think about his options and make decisions; this isn't something he's very good at. 

 

My impression of Conte has been that he'll be similar to Lucescu in that each of our players will know which runs to make and when during attacks and this will free Willian of the need to make decisions, and allow him to utilise his technical talents in attack. We'll see.

Demba Ba

"Saved football"

The chosen Juan!!!!!!

The chosen Juan!!!!!!

 

Juan too many more like. 

Juan too many more like.

Good Juan.

 

Here is a list of players that have left in the last 3 years, a lot of them actually  joined in the last 3 years and left in that time too.

 

Didier Drogba ( 1 season and then he left the club )

Ashley Cole ( Coming towards the end of his career, still not replaced )

David Luiz ( The right choice to sell him )

Frank Lampard ( Should have kept him on for 1 more season at least )

Fernando Torres ( Had to go, been finished for years )

André Schürrle ( 1 and a half season's at the club and then he was sold )

Mohamed Salah ( 1 season and then he left the club)

Marco van Ginkel ( 1 season and then he left the club )

Demba Ba ( Saved football and then moved on )

Samuel Eto'o ( 1 season and then he left the club )

Mark Schwarzer (  1 season and then he left the club)

Petr ?ech ( Sold to Arseholes )

Filipe Luís ( 1 season and then he left the club )

Ramires ( Rightly sold, he's not good enough anymore )

Juan Cuadrado ( Half a season at the club, loaned out and now back at the club )

Nathan Aké ( Showed promise, but i didn't think he was ever going to make it here as a LB, i prefered him as a DM )

Baba Rahman ( 1 season and then he left the club )

Radamel Falcao ( 1 season and then he left the club )

Alexandre Pato ( Half a season and then he left the club )

 

That is far too many short term players coming and going and not enough quality for the long term. We need to do better, we need to bring in players that we plan to keep for more than a season and find decent replacements for out going greats.

 

Are we even scouting players ? We need to be finding the Azpilicueta's and Zouma's, not wasting time on finished players like Eto'o, Falcao and Pato.

 

Do you really think that list is any more comprehensive than any of the big clubs?

You just have a microscope on our club.  Take Barcelona for in the same three year period for example.  

 

Marc Barta

Alen Halilovic

Adriano

Dani Alves

Sandro Ramirez

Alex Song

Martin Montoya

Pedro

Adam Traore

Gerrard Delfaou

Denis Suarez

Cristian Tello

Ibrahim Affellay

Xavi

Alex Song

Alexis Sanchez

Cesc Fabregas

Bojan Krkic

dos Santos

Keirrison

Oier Olazabel

Isaac Cuena

Victor Valdes

(not included Carlos Puyol and Jose Pinto who retired)

They have the same mix of great players moving on, great players coming to the end of their career, young players who were never given a go and I'm sure there are some risky signings in there too.

I think a lot of people are way too harsh on the club.  If we kept Lampard for an extra season it would have blocked the chance of a younger player getting more games.  I'm not saying they don't make mistakes, but every club does and I think considering our success in the last year 10 years, we are doing very well.

I can guarantee you that we haven't sacked the scouts that found Azpi and Zouma.

 

Can we change thread title to "The Return Of The Chosen Juan"

Will make PFA team of the season. Heard it here first.

 

Denis Suarez

Edit: bought back

Edited August 4, 20169 yr by Van Butsen

Can we change thread title to "The Return Of The Chosen Juan"

Will make PFA team of the season. Heard it here first.

and last...

Shame he didn't get minutes against Werder but I guess Conte has decided to keep him fresh for West Ham...

 

for anyone who miss watching cuadrado lying on the ground helplessly

 

 

hell yeah he's back

Edited August 10, 20169 yr by havelschayes

Seeing that photo above shows how much our style and choice of player has changed over the past few years.

Our most successful periods were when we had big physical players like drogba, ballack, essien, Lampard, alex, carvalho, prime terry and ivanovic.

I’m not saying any of them in that photo are bad players but it remains to be seen if they are to be successful.

Shame he didn't get minutes against Werder but I guess Conte has decided to keep him fresh for West Ham...

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-rd38mYczY

I didn't know Wet Spam were interested in signing him? Hopefully they buy him before Monday night.

I didn't know Wet Spam were interested in signing him? Hopefully they buy him before Monday night.

Why would you want to turn them into title contenders?

Rumours coming out of Italy suggesting that Juventus want him back on loan. 

Rumours coming out of Italy suggesting that Juventus want him back on loan.

After the pre-season hype, I expected him on the bench at least last Monday. But not so... But it's still early in the season, I'm curious if he is in the squad for Saturday.

If not, sell him, not another useless loan.

Seems it's happening (going back to Juventus). Front pages of some Italian papers.

Why can't we just sell these useless players instead of loaning them out year after year.

Why can't we just sell these useless players instead of loaning them out year after year.

Probably because we can't get the right money or what the club sees as the right money. Sometimes you just have to cut your losses.

He's decent on FIFA.

Hope he stays personally, I'd like to see what he can do under Conte

Rather just keep him in the squad than loan him out. Was really surprised he wasn't on the bench on Monday considering Conte is supposed to rate him so much.

Rather just keep him in the squad than loan him out. Was really surprised he wasn't on the bench on Monday considering Conte is supposed to rate him so much.

That's what surprises me, is that Conte went through the whole ordeal of proclaiming how much he rates him and how great he is...

 

 

yet left off our bench on our first game.  

I'd rather keep him than loan him, but if they want to buy him then by all means...

He will be on a decent wage so if the loan means we can bring someone else in then I'd much rather that.

No point him staying here and warming the bench for a season