6 minutes ago, Sindre said:

He simply pointed out our squad was too thin and wanted quality players.

Even then, for everyone brought in, someone went out

Matic - Bakayoko
Costa - Morata
Ake - Zappacosta
Chalobah - Drinkwater

In a sense you could also say: 
Luiz - Christensen

Have a paper thin squad and then ship out Zouma, RLC, Abraham, etc.. on loan. It didn't make any sense.

We didn't get deeper, and we definitely didn't get better, we got younger. Conte didn't sign up for a rebuilding project. He handled it poorly, but there seemed to be a rather large disconnect between what the club wanted to do and what Conte wanted to do (win Champions League).

 

8 minutes ago, Sindre said:

It’s not Conte’s fault the club decided it was a good idea to spend 27 million on Zappacosta, 35 on Drinkwater and so on.
He simply pointed out our squad was too thin and wanted quality players.
Unfortunately the club wasted a crazy amount of money on complete duds.

Liverpool bought the best LB in the league for 8 million the same summer we spent four times that on Zappacosta who sucks.

I think it was his fault but it’s in the past now. Problem for me is we seem not to have learnt anything, we still don’t have a Director of football in place. We will keep making mistakes in the market until we have a strategy in place.

2 hours ago, EmeraldBlue said:

 

Alonso isn't the quickest but does he lack pace? 

 

Yes. The amount of bang average wingers that have cruised past him because he's so slow is painful. Add that to the fact that he then doesn't even bust a gut to getting back into position makes it worse. He's fine getting forward, working back is his issue.

I think the chances of us buying another left back in January are zero. Alonso just signed a new contract, only bought Emerson a year ago and we have another two left backs out on loan in Baba Rahman doing nothing and Jay Da Silva. More important positions to be strengthened.

He is a great attacking LB. This system does leave him exposed a bit defensively (although his height is clearly useful in a team that skews toward smallish). What I don't get is trying to make Kante into the attacking focal point on the right hand side, when he could be covering this guy's arse on the left and a more attacking player could be doing that job on the right. 

It's like having two problems, and both could be solved by the same thing. Or not. 

I don't know.

Every player has strengths and weaknesses. You try to maximise strengths and cover for weaknesses. That's the job more than anything else really. I hate the thought of a manager trying to bend players to a system rather than working out a system that best suits your best players. But that's just me. 

8 hours ago, EmeraldBlue said:

 

Alonso isn't the quickest but does he lack pace? I don't think so. Look back at that super Kante goal against City. Alonso passes to Luiz which gets the move going and then Alonso is at the edge of the box passing to Hazard how many seconds later?

Emerson is not in the same class at the moment and has cost us easy goals in the EL. I'm not saying he doesn't have potential, which he does, but he is not as good as Alonso at the moment.

 

When we play against packed defences, Alonso just doesn't have the pace and mobility to link up with the left winger well enough. We can't play quick one-two's with him because he doesn't have the pace to get onto the pass, and if he does get onto the pass, he doesn't have pace or mobility to take the ball past the full back. The left winger is forced to come inside or try and take on 2 or 3 defenders by themselves because passing to Alonso just results in the ball being played back 5 yards, which slows our attack down and makes defending easy for the opposition.

You look at Azpilicueta and Alonso and you can see the differences. Azpilicueta isn't an amazing attacking full back, but when he is going forward on the right, he can quickly play one-two's and often finds space to link up with the right winger and midfielders. Things happen quicker for us on the right wing because we have just enough pace and mobility there to keep things ticking. If Azpilicueta get's forward, he often get's the opportunity to get a cross into the box, Alonso very rarely get's a chance to do that. It's already too congested before Alonso has the ball under control. I see Alonso pick up the ball by the throw in line 10-15 yards into the oppositions half every game, but because he doesn't have the pace and mobility to do much himself, he will cut inside and play it backwards, or he will try and play it forward and support, but his pace doesn't allow him to help support the player before the opposition has filled in the spot Alonso is trying to take up.

Against more open defences, it's not so much of an issue because Alonso is given space to attack into, but the teams that go defensive will deal with Alonso quite comfortably, especially when his confidence is running low. 

There is also the issue of Alonso getting beaten for pace by pretty much any player than wants to take him on. You don't need to be good or quick to get past Alonso. Just push the ball past him and run, that is all it takes.

There is nothing wrong with Alonso's ability on the ball, he's just being held back by lack of pace and mobility. If he had these things, he would be the best full back in the game.

 

9 hours ago, RMCM said:

I see a lot of bashing of Emerson, but it's incredibly hard to judge him based on one or two appearances here and there with Christensen and Cahill alongside him, as opposed to our first choice defence. He looks like the real deal to me but just needs an extended run in the team. He cannot be any poorer of a defender than current-form Alonso is, and should offer more going forward with his pace. I'd like to see him get a run in the league, Alonso has been off the boil for some time now

He got a little bit of a run in the team towards the end of last season and he looked better and better with every game played. He hasn't played a single minute of Premier League football this season and we are pretty much half way through. Sarri seems to be okay with rotating Pedro / Willian and Kovacic / Loftus-Cheek / Barkley, but he won't even rotate our most out of form player right now. 

I can't see how Emerson is that bad that he doesn't deserve a single minute of Premier League football. He's much better than that.

Just repeating that Alonso hasn't pace or mobility doesnt make it so. I notice no-one has addressed my comment on Alonso's speed of movement for Kante's goal. He was fast enough yesyerday when he cracked that shot against the bar.


I agree with the comment that he's slow getting back.

6 minutes ago, EmeraldBlue said:

Just repeating that Alonso hasn't pace or mobility doesnt make it so. I notice no-one has addressed my comment on Alonso's speed of movement for Kante's goal. He was fast enough yesyerday when he cracked that shot against the bar.

Alonso had to run 60 meters in 11 seconds to get up there. It's hardly something to be impressed about.
Anyone can do that.
 

23 minutes ago, EmeraldBlue said:

Just repeating that Alonso hasn't pace or mobility doesnt make it so. I notice no-one has addressed my comment on Alonso's speed of movement for Kante's goal. He was fast enough yesyerday when he cracked that shot against the bar.


I agree with the comment that he's slow getting back.

I gave examples of where his lack of pace and mobility effects our overall play though. Taking a shot from 25 yards out doesn't change anything. I'm not saying he can't get forward, it's easy to do when you have opposition camped in their own half. But when you are on the wings and trying to break down that packed defence, you need the pace and movement to do it. The attack breaks down on the left unless Hazard or Willian can come inside and pull off a bit of magic. I also talked about it being easier for him against more open teams too. Getting forward isn't a problem for Alonso, it's when he is asked to play around the opposition, that is where he struggles. That is what I meant when I said he doesn't have pace and mobility, he doesn't have either of these things to link up with players or take on any opposition players himself.

Edited December 17, 20187 yr by Scott Harris

I think the bottom line is, it would be really hard for Emerson to be any worse defensively, or with his effort, than Alonso has been the past month or so, so now is as good a time as any to give him a shot with the starting 11.

11 hours ago, EmeraldBlue said:

Just repeating that Alonso hasn't pace or mobility doesnt make it so. I notice no-one has addressed my comment on Alonso's speed of movement for Kante's goal. He was fast enough yesyerday when he cracked that shot against the bar.


I agree with the comment that he's slow getting back.

Repeating that Alonso isn't slow either doesn't make it so. Give examples of when he has beaten a man with pace, genuinely can't think of a single time unless he's managed to catch someone sleping and run off the back of them. 

As someone above has said, that run for Kante's goal isn't impressive, 60m in 11 seconds. 

Repeating that Alonso isn't slow either doesn't make it so.

Where have I repeated that claim? This, along with some other anti Alonso sentiments in here, is simply inaccurate. If he's so bad why do we have one of the lowest goals against in the PL and why has he made it to the fringes of the Spanish squad since he joined?

But, but, but......... what do we have in our lives if we can't moan constantly about one (or more) of our players?

I think playing Kovacic in front of him helps him a lot, he tends to get further forward whilst he has that cover however when Barkley is played on that left hand side Alonso seems to be positionally hesitant and is often caught in no mans land.

You would think he has played badly all season if you had one glance in this thread, there's always a mob mentality against Alonso. 

I don't know if it's because of personal reasons or what, he certainly hasn't been great in the past few weeks but he has still had a solid season overall. 

1 hour ago, Slojo said:

You would think he has played badly all season if you had one glance in this thread, there's always a mob mentality against Alonso. 

I don't know if it's because of personal reasons or what, he certainly hasn't been great in the past few weeks but he has still had a solid season overall. 

That's unfair. I have always said Alonso is a very good footballer, but there are clear weaknesses to his game now that is effecting our overall game, from an attacking point and a defensive one, and it's been going on for a few months now. I'm not saying drop him permanently, but I don't think it would be a bad idea to rotate with Emerson now and again. We have two different types of LB's, it wouldn't be a bad idea to mix them up now and again. We can't just ignore the fact that Alonso is struggling to deal with any winger that wants to take him on.

 

1 hour ago, Scott Harris said:

That's unfair. I have always said Alonso is a very good footballer, but there are clear weaknesses to his game now that is effecting our overall game, from an attacking point and a defensive one, and it's been going on for a few months now. I'm not saying drop him permanently, but I don't think it would be a bad idea to rotate with Emerson now and again. We have two different types of LB's, it wouldn't be a bad idea to mix them up now and again. We can't just ignore the fact that Alonso is struggling to deal with any winger that wants to take him on.

 

Emerson was pretty bad the last time he played though... 

And it hasn't really been a few months has it, the last few weeks yes but not few months, he's doing well so far this season. The reason I can't take a lot of Alonso criticism seriously is because people blame him for a lot of things that weren't even his fault, the Arsenal game for instance, not one mistake in that game was due to him yet so many people were inclined to think it was because the crosses where coming from that side. 

But the last few weeks definitely, that last game was horrendous from him, the City game he was also having a mare in the first half defensively. He's definitely not in good form but he's always an easy scapegoat. 

4 hours ago, EmeraldBlue said:

 

 

Where have I repeated that claim? This, along with some other anti Alonso sentiments in here, is simply inaccurate. If he's so bad why do we have one of the lowest goals against in the PL and why has he made it to the fringes of the Spanish squad since he joined?

 

You banged on about him not lacking pace on the page before too, hence repeating the claim. Ahh yes, clean sheets are down to one person. In that case, D.Luiz must be one of the best one v one defenders in the game. 

2 hours ago, Slojo said:

You would think he has played badly all season if you had one glance in this thread, there's always a mob mentality against Alonso. 

I don't know if it's because of personal reasons or what, he certainly hasn't been great in the past few weeks but he has still had a solid season overall. 

He's played badly for about 2 months now. I credited him a lot at the start of the season but since then teams have targeted him and he's our clear weakness now.

Its like at the weekend, with that long range effort that hit the post. If that had gone in people would have been on here banging on about how good Alonso is and ignoring the other 89 minutes when he was sh*te. Now he ain't getting the goals, he's getting noticed more.

13 hours ago, RIP Mourinho said:

ignoring the other 89 minutes when he was sh*te.

If you truly believe that, and aren't just using hyperbole, fairly ineptly it must be said,  as a debating tool, then you have very little or no understanding of football at any level.

Now, we know and accept that you do have a rudimentary grasp of some of the elements of football.  Therefore, you are just being argumentative and exaggerating to make a laboured point.  But well done, you, for having a plucky go.

Oh, and at the start of the season you were mostly moaning because Emerson wasn't getting a "fair" chance to stake his claim to the first team position.   When he has had a chance, he's hardly become a contender for the Ballon D'Or, has he?

17 hours ago, EmeraldBlue said:

Where have I repeated that claim? This, along with some other anti Alonso sentiments in here, is simply inaccurate. If he's so bad why do we have one of the lowest goals against in the PL and why has he made it to the fringes of the Spanish squad since he joined?

 

If you can’t admit Alonso is slow for a LB your head is so deep in the sand that you’ll find oil any minute.

Edited December 19, 20187 yr by Sindre

If you can’t admit Alonso is slow for a LB your head is so deep in the sand that you’ll find oil any minute.

Yeah right and I'll be the one laughing when you next tank up! Or maybe there's enough hot air from you and the other Alonso knockers to keep the moans mobile going.

On yer bike!

7 minutes ago, EmeraldBlue said:

Yeah right and I'll be the one laughing when you next tank up! Or maybe there's enough hot air from you and the other Alonso knockers to keep the moans mobile going.

On yer bike!

I won't be laughing though when he gets abused by another RW. He's simply not good enough.

I said it back in july already, i was called a moaner back then too but we would be better off if they club listened to guys like me over you.
Same with the striker situation. Dare to say its terrible? f**king moaner.
Now here we are aren't we.

"But but Alonso can run 60 meters in 11 second, that means he's quick" 

 

24 minutes ago, EmeraldBlue said:

Yeah right and I'll be the one laughing when you next tank up! Or maybe there's enough hot air from you and the other Alonso knockers to keep the moans mobile going.

On yer bike!

You're arguing with an idiot, mate.  He'll be quoting you the famous "60 metres in 11 seconds" thing in a minute, as if it actually meant anything at all, as if footballers are purely sprinters.  I would expect that this arse was complaining because Zola couldn't do the 100 metres in 9 seconds as well.

Never has a good word to say about anything Chelsea, and always jumps on the band-wagon of moaning once some others start scapegoating a particular player.

Best ignored,as there will  never be a a rational, football-based comment or idea to be gained.

15 minutes ago, yorkleyblue said:

Never has a good word to say about anything Chelsea

Simply a lie. But i didn't expect more from you so thats alright.