I would have taken a point at the start of the night.

Still, seems an awful waste.

We have some bright talent ready to be nurtured!

Roll on next season...

i cant not believe we drew last night! That was a winnable match. i am glad our hazard is back. i have enjoyed his performance last night. the entire team performed really well. Too bad pedro wouldnt killed off the match. 

I would have taken a point at the start of the night.

Still, seems an awful waste.

Couldnt agree more zola....

We have some bright talent ready to be nurtured!

Roll on next season...

I see a lot of promise in Traore and Kennedy. I see nothing in RLC and people here are going bat sh*t mental over Hiddink for not playing. I just dont get it. I would like to be proven wrong but as of now I see nothing in RLC that says bonafide starter. 

 

Agreed.

 

Yes, he needs opportunities - fwiw I think he'll start v Leicester (which is why I think he was used to run the clock down last night). I think some people get too wrapped up in the narrative that RLC is 'one of our own' personally.

 

Traore's first half performance last night was a good 7.5/10 for me.

Edited May 12, 201610 yr by the special one

been touched on already, but what most encouraged me was that I thought for a large part of the game matic looked good. not back to his best, but really worth his place in the side. I hope he stays and recovers, because he's potentially as good as anyone in the league at what he does. I think a top form matic is a conte player.

Thought we played really well, Hazard was unreal, Matic looked solid even Baba played well.. Could have won 2-3 nil really if not for some wasted chances and a mistake from Begovic.

Personally I thought Matic and Baba looked poor, both gave the ball away cheaply quite a few times and got caught out of position.

Hiddink assesses RLC in training every day, if he felt he was good enough I'm sure he would start him, even Jose was the same.

Jose assessed Oscar and Kdb in training too.

As he did for Luis and Iva.

As he did for Lukaku.

Saf assessed Pogba in training everyday too.

 

well, they are human. Mistakes are a part of life.

Meanwhile, Gus and Jose just oversaw a 9th/10th place finish for a squad that made £67,950,000 worth of investments in buying players but ended up trophyless and absolutely Humiliated. So I may have a bit of a problem accepting their opinion as the word of GOD.

I see a lot of promise in Traore and Kennedy. I see nothing in RLC and people here are going bat sh*t mental over Hiddink for not playing. I just dont get it. I would like to be proven wrong but as of now I see nothing in RLC that says bonafide starter.

Conversely it's a bit weird for you to write him off when you, like the rest of us, have barely seen him play..,don't think anyone thinks the youngsters are the second coming, but we just want to see them play to find out...a few minutes here and there isn't enough...in this fcuk up of a season where we had nothing left to lose, there was no harm in playing them a bit more, particularly instead of people responsible for the failure in the first place

Pedro ran around a lot and got back to help out but his shooting and finishing just isn't up to top standard. Traore nice feet but could be a bit stronger up front.

 

 

 

 Too bad pedro wouldnt killed off the match. 

 

I thought Pedro should have went off instead of Willian for Kenedy - maybe Guus was hoping that Pedro would finally score, but IMHO he did run out of steam towards the end of the match

f**king joke, what will rlc make of that? Complete waste of time, which sums up hiddinks entire time here this season.

seen it done many times, upset the momentum winds up the opposition. Seen teams bring on 2 subs in 3 minutes of injury time, it's really annoying if you're trying to chase the game.

been touched on already, but what most encouraged me was that I thought for a large part of the game matic looked good. not back to his best, but really worth his place in the side. I hope he stays and recovers, because he's potentially as good as anyone in the league at what he does. I think a top form matic is a conte player.

I thought Matic was very good first half but on the hour he seemed to wane both physically and mentally. Personally I'd have liked to see Guus bring on RLC for him around this point.

No Costa, ergo no pinching, mauling, moaning, stamping etc, etc. That was a huge bonus. And didn't we look more fluid with a centre forward who actually had some pace and movement?

Harsh, how often has Costa stamped on someone? Once, I'm yet to see him pinch someone, this isn't the issue with Costa, the issue with Costa is his link up play and his tenacity to run in to people, showing no skill, but he's a big lump who happens to be a natural finisher. Traore has potential, he's skillfull and quick, but can't finish like Costa, he missed a big chance that Costa would've buried, similar issue with Pedro who can't finish very well.

Edited May 13, 201610 yr by Floyd25

Conversely it's a bit weird for you to write him off when you, like the rest of us, have barely seen him play..,don't think anyone thinks the youngsters are the second coming, but we just want to see them play to find out...a few minutes here and there isn't enough...in this fcuk up of a season where we had nothing left to lose, there was no harm in playing them a bit more, particularly instead of people responsible for the failure in the first place

 

Fair point, But the little that i see is not amazing and when people are questioning Hiddink for not playing him, I am just wondering if he is not displaying enough there too. 

For me that's the whole reason to give him time in meaningless games like this.

You can't assess him as a starter....unless he starts.

 

Albeit out of necessity, Hiddink did start, Traore & Baba, Gave chance to Kennedy and Tammy. So he did give chance to youngsters in this game and had it not been for the Begovic blunder, the result would have justified his team selection. Plus he has a make shift defense with Mikel as CB. On paper vs Liverpool team on their current form, We would have been blitzed. Maybe that is why he was hesitant to start RLC. Also, Maybe he did not see enough in RLC to warrant a start when compared to some of the other youngsters.  Without the power of hindsight we dont know how the game would have been if RLC would have started, So under this circumstance, It is unfair to blame Hiddink.

Traore has potential, he's skillfull and quick, but can't finish like Costa, he missed a big chance that Costa would've buried, similar issue with Pedro who can't finish very well.

Costa missed some excellent chances against Sunderland. They all miss some. Traore not far away, needs to bully defense a bit more maybe. Yet to see what he can do in the air.

Costa missed some excellent chances against Sunderland. They all miss some. Traore not far away, needs to bully defense a bit more maybe. Yet to see what he can do in the air.

Too true, but specifically on that Traore chance when he curled it wide, I just thought that was a rushed, nervous effort, partly down to inexperience, I think Costa on his best day (not Sunderland) would've taken it.

To be fair, Traore seemed to misplace his right foot so he didn't have the necessary stability to curl the ball with the left. He seemed to slip.

I didn't see much difference between Costa and Traore this season, but that is because they are too disconnected from the other players. We seem to play very deep and the striker, whether we play Costa or Traore, have to drop deep to connect with the other attacking midfielders. And Costa is a finisher, not a skilful forward, so should play more inside the box. And I think Traore is also as skilful as Costa...

Against Liverpool we looked very confortable throughout the game. They had some chances but most of them were shots from outside the box. The difference was Hazard quality goal, who finally seems to be getting back to form (a bit too late for Chelsea, good for the Belgian squad), and then Begovic's mistake. Overall, I think the draw was fair but would have been nice to get the win.