at this moment i feel like some people are just complaining just to complain. some of the criticism made towards individual players as well as the collective doesn't make much sense to me.

 

yes, we are in need of at least one centre back, and i'm sure the club is looking after it. but given how hector and djib... turned out last year, maybe it's not such a bad idea that the club is taking their time trying to find the right one? and our full back situation isn't the best, and i'm 100% sure the club and conte are looking into it.

 

yet, with all these problems, we still kept a clean sheet a few weeks ago against liverpool, a team that utterly destroyed barcelona yesterday. sure, they weren't at their best, but we lacked a lot of players as well. i think that conte is too good of a coach to not have a plan. against the dippers it was clear to see that he went with a conservative approach. this game i felt that conte wanted to see how our attack could gel together. the first 15-20 minutes i thought we were excellent with our pressing and our link up play.

 

conte got to try his (i think) preferred midfield of oscar - kante - matic, but he also saw how a more offensive minded midfield could do (fab in for matic). i though we were more open in the second half than in the first, particularly on our left side, and i'm sure conte has read something of it as well. anyways, i would believe the man who played with edgar davids and zidane in their primes and managed a vidal-pirlo-pogba midfield to find the right solution.

 

we aren't the finished product, but we aren't that far off i think. i don't think it's all doom and gloom.

 

Stop it w/ the common sense mate

okay, well we struggled vs a team that just about avoided relegation last season in germany.

we would made to look quite amateur again in defence. 

kante did okay, but wasn't that great defensively.

we had players misplacing passes

matic looks like he doesn't know if he's on a football pitch or somewhere else with how slow and reluctant he is to react at times.

i am concerned what we have in attack won't be enough to compete (at the least) for the title. 

 

these are negative i know, but these things need to be sorted (barring kante issues because he's having to deal with unreliable players behind him and next to him) before the season kicks off if possible. we may scrape by west ham at home with what we have, but maintaining good form for the rest of the season will be tough if we continue performing how we have defensively in pre-season.

Edited August 7, 20169 yr by enigma

I actually thought we were good going forward for the most part.. A few periods of sloppy passing but nothing that can't be addressed for me it's the defence that's concerning and hopefully we are looking to rectify that.

We've had the whole of last season and this summer to sort out the defence but our approach has been lazy. If I was an opposition coach, either have your front man drop deep and the wingers run behind the full backs or have the forward run behind our CBs. I know there is still over 3wks to go but the prices will keep going up, makes the decision to loan out Rahman & Ake very bizarre.

There are other CBs in Europe besides Mustafi & Koulibaly; Tah, Sule, Romangoli, Gimenez, Mammana, Jovanovic just off my head.

Window closes month end.

I know, but we've been very slow in getting a defender, if that is the plan, time will tell.

at this moment i feel like some people are just complaining just to complain. some of the criticism made towards individual players as well as the collective doesn't make much sense to me.

yes, we are in need of at least one centre back, and i'm sure the club is looking after it. but given how hector and djib... turned out last year, maybe it's not such a bad idea that the club is taking their time trying to find the right one? and our full back situation isn't the best, and i'm 100% sure the club and conte are looking into it.

yet, with all these problems, we still kept a clean sheet a few weeks ago against liverpool, a team that utterly destroyed barcelona yesterday. sure, they weren't at their best, but we lacked a lot of players as well. i think that conte is too good of a coach to not have a plan. against the dippers it was clear to see that he went with a conservative approach. this game i felt that conte wanted to see how our attack could gel together. the first 15-20 minutes i thought we were excellent with our pressing and our link up play.

conte got to try his (i think) preferred midfield of oscar - kante - matic, but he also saw how a more offensive minded midfield could do (fab in for matic). i though we were more open in the second half than in the first, particularly on our left side, and i'm sure conte has read something of it as well. anyways, i would believe the man who played with edgar davids and zidane in their primes and managed a vidal-pirlo-pogba midfield to find the right solution.

we aren't the finished product, but we aren't that far off i think. i don't think it's all doom and gloom.

Are you new? If so, please understand that there is no place for sensible balanced posts on a match thread.

Many thanks.

Edited August 7, 20169 yr by bjd

Yeah, that's what we were saying a year ago.

Can we start really looking past last year?. I mean the likes of hazard, Costa and others were brought in at some point. Last season was a setback and everyone involved knows it. Bats,Kante haven't been bad so far...

I think the main positive today was that physically and mentally we looked prepared for the season, which wasnt the case last year.

I do find it worrying we havent managed to sign a defender yet though, its the sort of position where it would have been most important to be heavily involved in preseason. I appreciate conte may have wanted to have a look at what we have 1st, but it has been blantantly obvious for a year now that defence is in desperate need of some quality additions.

I think we can only afford to have 1 of cahill, terry, and ivanovic in that back 4 if we want to get back to the top. Really hope we sort it out before the end of month, i just hope it doesnt stop us getting some early momentum.

Buying a defender with Zouma coming back is not a huge thing. Cahill, Terry can do a job in the prem. Problem is Matic' poor form. The d-line can't cover his and the midfields mistakes.

Buying a defender with Zouma coming back is not a huge thing. Cahill, Terry can do a job in the prem. Problem is Matic' poor form. The d-line can't cover his and the midfields mistakes.

Its unlikely zouma will be at the level he was until at least xmas, terry and cahill dont have long left at the top, i think a new centre back is paramount.

I also think we need a full back as well.

At the moment we ivanovic, terry, cahill, azpi, aina, and Hector. We are short in terms of quality and numbers.

Conte has said that we still need to strengthen so at least he recognises our weakness. Hopefully he will push the board

You have to blood the young guys at some stage. Aina showed enough preseason, but it's Terry who is slow and injury prone. He is unlikely to last the season fully fit, the body has too many miles on it. Even if he was fast. Not convinced Zouma is the answer either. Maybe he is.

Just finished watching the game and agree with the majority. Our attacking play is good, great in patches, but we look out of sync defensively. Mind boggles as to why we're continually linked with attackers in this transfer window.

The only reason I would guess we're struggling with centre backs is that whoever we bring in would have to be good enough to start from the offset. Bringing in an 'experienced backup' would be pointless, as we've effectively got that in 3 of our first choice back four. Bringing in a youngster to grow into the role would be the same, we've at least half a dozen on loan or in the youth team. Maybe it's just availability/pricetags, but given how nearly all of our title winning seasons have been built around a strong defence, this is the position I'd be most inclined to throw money (and a lot, if need be) at.

Could Mikel and Chalobah both play CB if need be? Chalobah in particular I know has played there before, but in Mikel's case he has strength and an ability to tackle plus is a calm distributor of the ball.

I think a few of mistakes that should be noted were miss placing of passing.

 

William was at times giving the ball away too easily

Can we just get rid of our Serbian's, please?

 

Matic has been beyond woeful for a year and a half now and watching Ivanovic block the path of other players at full back is just painful. He could probably to a job at CB, but no more RB i beg. 

The overall performance was OK but I'm unsure Conte will know his team just yet. I thought we played some good passing moves in front of goal and the key fact being that Hazard is looking very good. He's not quite fit yet but that can change before West Ham. I'm not sure he'll need to be fully fit against them anyway. I wasn't convinced by Fabregas when he came on and thought he and Matic gave the ball away a bit too much. Conte, Oscar & Costa looked solid but I'm a bit concerned how Werder had success coming through the middle. We do need a bit more quality at the back so hopefully the board will get some in, but if Zouma can come in soon we should be OK.(How far away is he?)  Dare I say Brana didn't look too bad. Courtois pulled off a great save to push one long range shot onto the bar. Pedro showed he does know how to finish and if he can put his nightmare introduction to the English football behind him he can also be a major influence.

 

I think Conte will rotate a bit to start with but if he can get Hazard, Oscar, Pedro and Costa all playing together we could have one of the best attacking forces in the league. 

Again to echo others it is worrying that we are still featuring the same back four. Kante saved us on a couple of occasions but when he moved forward at all we were vulnerable to being hit straight through the middle, same as last year. Premier League opposition would have punished us.

We're in need of at least a CB and/or a left back. We also desperately need Matic to become pre-Ashley Barnes Matic again soon.

If I'm Conte I'm going in to the bored and saying simply I need one of two things

Either get me a monster center back or bring my christianson back from loans asap.

I think we are pretty strong I'm all areas heading in to the season but if we don't get a defender who's Selby date doesn't read yesterday then we won't amount to much this season

Christensen is good for his age but he isn't going to solve all our defensive problems bringing him back. I'm not sure why everyone seems to think this. 

Could Mikel and Chalobah both play CB if need be? Chalobah in particular I know has played there before, but in Mikel's case he has strength and an ability to tackle plus is a calm distributor of the ball.

I think chalobah could be an interesting option at centre back although he hasnt played there for a few seasons now. I would prefer him to hector or miazga, but seen as though he hasnt featured at cb in preseason, i dont think he will be an option for conte.

I think chalobah could be an interesting option at centre back although he hasnt played there for a few seasons now. I would prefer him to hector or miazga, but seen as though he hasnt featured at cb in preseason, i dont think he will be an option for conte.

 

+1 Nate has looked very good this pre-season playing in a Central midfield role - keep him there please