4 hours ago, mwblue10 said:

Without playing the video, if you told someone who didn't know what happened, that Wolves scored from this, i think they would find it laughable.  5 of our players surrounding 2 at midfield and they completely picked us apart.

Had the same thought myself as I replayed it several times trying to work out how we fell for it.

5 hours ago, Strider6003 said:

Here is a 1 minute clip.

From their perspective, very clever forward play with holding the ball and a couple of 1-2s.

For me Luiz should have run back quicker yet also you would expect Emmerson and Kante to cut out the pass.

 

Awful defending.

Luiz jumps in when he knows a player is about to run past him on the other side, then just stands watching.

Emerson sticks a foot in then stands there watching them for a second or 2.

By the time they start their half-hearted jog back to "help" it's too late. Look at the pace Luiz and Emerson are running back, compared to Azpilicueta. It's shocking.

Pretty classic Luiz really. (Worth noting that the midfield were once again sliced through like butter - there's a lot of talk about how Hazard must feel frustrated under Sarri... imagine how poor Kanté feels!)

So he charges out to try and win what is at best a 40/60 challenge, inevitably doesn't win the ball, then leaves an enormous gap in the defence which Wolves score through with their only shot on goal. Vintage Sarriball.

I sincerely hope this leads to an extended run in the side for Christensen.

 

On 11/03/2019 at 23:01, PloKoon13 said:

I sincerely hope this leads to an extended run in the side for Christensen.

Don't hold your breath, regardless of form or mistakes being made Sarri has a core of 8 players that he's likely to pick. 

Christensen's lack of game time this season has been surprising but Sarri clearly want Luiz in there regardless of his defensive limitations and vulnerability in a back four because he think's the occasional 50 yard diagonal ball is more important than actual defending.  

Wonder if he's going to stay past this summer. His contract runs out in a couple of months and he's refused to sign the one-year extension we have offered. 
So either we abandon our contract-policy or he's very likely gone. With our ban i think we have to try to keep him but it could very well be that he's agreed to a deal with another club by now.

18 minutes ago, Sindre said:

Wonder if he's going to stay past this summer. His contract runs out in a couple of months and he's refused to sign the one-year extension we have offered. 
So either we abandon our contract-policy or he's very likely gone. With our ban i think we have to try to keep him but it could very well be that he's agreed to a deal with another club by now.

Really depends on Sarri I think. If we decide to end the Sarri experiment at the end of this season, I don't see the point of keeping Luiz

If Sarri stays, I think Luiz is too important to how Sarri wants to play, and I could see us breaking our policy to extend him.

Personally, he's too prone to defensive mistakes for me, especially in a high line. I'd be fine letting him walk. Can be a warrior at times, but his brain farts mean that he's always going to cost us points

Edited March 13, 20197 yr by dustbin719

On 11/03/2019 at 16:14, Zeta said:

By the time they start their half-hearted jog back to "help" it's too late. Look at the pace Luiz and Emerson are running back, compared to Azpilicueta. It's shocking.

I still think Dave was too late. The second Luiz puts in a challenge, Azpilicueta should have begun his sprint. By the time he did. It was too late.

I agree on the whole though.. awful defending.

If the transfer ban kicks in this summer, his deal will undoubtedly be extended with Gazza out the door, and his chum Willy and also Pedro will get offered extensions, and as there is a ban their agents will look to severely test Chelsea's 1 year extension resolve for over 30s, what the club gonna say "no jog on" ?  all in all could get stuck with his keystone kop defending for another 2 seasons. Makes the Russian bird's 10 mill Euro sale of Fab in January even more comical now the club likely wont be able to bring in a back up regista. 

Luiz and Christensen our strongest partnership imo. Rudiger should be dropped before David.

Luiz and Christensen our strongest partnership imo. Rudiger should be dropped before David.

I don't think so, Rudiger and Azpi will be a much better pairing in CB. Luiz and Christensen are too prone to defensive errors

14 minutes ago, wallosh said:

2 hours ago, RIP Mourinho said:

Luiz and Christensen our strongest partnership imo. Rudiger should be dropped before David.

I don't think so, Rudiger and Azpi will be a much better pairing in CB. Luiz and Christensen are too prone to defensive errors

Rudiger is just as error prone as Luiz, at least Luiz brings his elite passing to the game. As for Azpi, i wouldn't want to see his height in a CB duo. 

I think rudiger is a bit over rated. He isnt the commanding centre back leader that we could do with. 

Luiz is just inconsistent. On his day hes great, and I think his vision and passing is the best in the world for a centre back. However he still makes the same mistakes he has made his whole career. 

I would love Christiansen to get a decent run in the side, he looks like he has got some form and confidence back. 

I think we lack the leadership and presence of a quality centre back. 

I think Rudiger or Christensen would excel with a more an assured, calming centre back playing alongside them (basically what JT did with whoever he played with). 

On 14/03/2019 at 12:23, big blue said:

 

Luiz is just inconsistent. On his day hes great, and I think his vision and passing is the best in the world for a centre back. However he still makes the same mistakes he has made his whole career. 

 

The thing with Dave is that his day is the big games, when he is being tested he normally excels its when we have little to do that he often makes his biggest mistakes 

A compilation of Luiz's mistakes this season. Just as highlights can make someone look better than they are, lowlights can make someone look worse. However, some of these are criminal. 

Alot of these mistakes are down to mental errors, and Sarri's tactics tend to put Luiz in these types of situations where he needs to make a split second decision. Unfortunately, the evidence shows that decision making is not his strong suit.

With most of the season gone, the fact that these mistakes keep happening in the same way says as much about Luiz as it does about Sarri's tactics and insistence on sticking with David.  Some of these are carbon copys of each other. 

https://streamable.com/m3r7b

 

 

Not really surprising watching that compilation, Luiz has always looked suspect in a back four because he gets drawn towards the ball a lot and leaves holes in the defence. 

Conte's back 3 worked so well for Luiz because it lessened most of his faults. If he went wondering he had two have players to cover for him. He didn't have to be as disciplined because generally he was he was sat behind everyone and was just asked to mop up. That he gets drawn to the ball worked in that back three because if someone got passed Dave or Cahill he could just steam in and clean up.

There's always an element of risk/reward playing Luiz. Do his positives outweigh his negatives? 

At the moment I don't think they do and would like to see us give Christensen a few games. He's a lot more conservative in his approach play, has a tendency to be too safe in possession at times but we're conceding way too many goals and I think we need to at least try to change something. 

 

Conte was spot on in playing him in a 3 CD defender, now we are seeing the Luiz we all remembered. He has the odd outstanding game in him, but consistency is his weakness, and it's costing us games when we aren't scoring at the other end. I reckon we should cut him loose at the end of the season, he isn't going to get better at this age.

I said in july that Luiz-Alonso making up our left-side defence would be football-suicide.

And that is exactly how things have turned out.

16 minutes ago, Sindre said:

I said in july that Luiz-Alonso making up our left-side defence would be football-suicide.

And that is exactly how things have turned out.

Another thing is that if Sarri really insists on playing with Luiz + Alonso + Hazard on our Left side, at least have the sense to move Kante to LCM and have him provide cover. If there's anyone who could do that job, it's Kante. Instead, he's out by our RW putting crosses in. 

Edited March 18, 20197 yr by dustbin719

We really should have broke the bank for VVD, look at how he has transformed Liverpool defence. 

We need to find a VVD this summer to bolster our defence. We really need to refreshen up everywhere. 

Appears i'm in the minority of people who think he is critical to our team, after Hazard, Kante, Dave and Kepa he's the next name on the team sheet for me.

6 hours ago, Jonty said:

Appears i'm in the minority of people who think he is critical to our team, after Hazard, Kante, Dave and Kepa he's the next name on the team sheet for me.

He is absolutely vital and the stats reflect it. Played the most through balls in the league by quite some distance. 

The only thing I'm concerned about is that he won't be here for much longer so we should really be building up Christensen's confidence with regular games next to Luiz so that he can eventually take over when Luiz leaves. 

I noticed in the Cardiff and West Ham game that they just marked Luiz and let Rudiger have the ball knowing he isn't as good on the ball. and isnt as dangerous. Not going to be easy to find a player as good as Luiz on the ball, Some of his passes this season over the top to Pedro have been great.

8 hours ago, jack_super_class said:

I noticed in the Cardiff and West Ham game that they just marked Luiz and let Rudiger have the ball knowing he isn't as good on the ball. and isnt as dangerous. Not going to be easy to find a player as good as Luiz on the ball, Some of his passes this season over the top to Pedro have been great.

 I think if Rudiger worked on it he’d be able to play those sort of passes too. He does try, a few have come off, but lately they all seem to be way over hit. 

Dont like to be too critical because we are in the final and he did make up for his mistake but my god his defending was terrible for Jovic goal.