This could have been written about our Bakywakeyoko.

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2016/nov/22/ali-dia-story-20-years-on-southampton-souness

12 hours ago, sonic90 said:

A few poor touches, it's a real issue. I've said this before but it's a bit of a myth that Lukaku has a poor touch, maybe he does have a higher ratio than other players but Baka's poor first touch percentage is very high.
It doesn't even matter if he's not under pressure, I just don't see him as someone who can play for a top team.

Right now he is hiding in plain sight, a bit of 'fake pressing' without actually challenging for the ball and when he gets the ball he plays a quick short pass to a nearby player to get rid of it. I guess his movement and presence shifts the defenders attention in the final third?

But I prefer this than when he had a lot of time on the ball in the first half of the season, the more he does the more mistakes he makes. 

1

Definitely not, Lukaku does have a poor first touch, first touch % is misleading, it only counts when you give the ball away, you can easily make a bad touch and not give the ball away. 

2 hours ago, didierforever said:

His last 2 performances have been decent. Nothing extravagant both ways (good/bad). Definitely a step in the right direction. 

I'm worried, did you even watch him? 

If that's a step in the right direction we should go sign Steve Sidwell. 

33 minutes ago, Slojo said:

I'm worried, did you even watch him? 

If that's a step in the right direction we should go sign Steve Sidwell. 

Against burnley it was a good performance. Did the basics right. Broke some plays, circulated the ball. yes, he had some poor touches but does not negate how comfortable we were in the mid and I feel a lot of it was due to have a good phsycial presence.

Against Burnley he was a passenger for over 60mins, then it was regarded as a decent performancd as he got abit better later in the game. Yesterday he did f**k all, stands on the left, doesn't press, plays 2yrd passes, doesn't tackle and losses the ball. If Conte wants to put numbers in the midfield then surely it's better to ask Willian to play alongside Fab and Kante with the option of going back to the original formation. 

1 minute ago, Ernie_blue said:

Against Burnley he was a passenger for over 60mins, then it was regarded as a decent performancd as he got abit better later in the game. Yesterday he did f**k all, stands on the left, doesn't press, plays 2yrd passes, doesn't tackle and losses the ball. If Conte wants to put numbers in the midfield then surely it's better to ask Willian to play alongside Fab and Kante with the option of going back to the original formation. 

It's got to a point where we praise him for not making a mistake, that's a very bad road to go down. 

It's an absolute crime how Drinkwater can't get a game because of him, this type of stuff would break even Zlatan's Ibrahimovic's confidence if you were being picked behind Bakayoko. 

Last 2 games he wasn't quite as horrendous as before, but look at what he actually contributed - recycling the ball, nothing else. Someone passes short to him, he passes short to someone else. No driving runs through the middle, very few forward passes, basically no tackles, no headers won. We could put a brick wall in the middle of the pitch to bounce the ball off and it would have more positional sense.

Edited April 23, 20188 yr by Zeta

He’s sh*t and I hope we sell him this summer. He’s had all season to get his act together and he’s still crap.

He must have been a one season wonder for Monaco.

3 hours ago, dansubrosa said:

He’s sh*t and I hope we sell him this summer. He’s had all season to get his act together and he’s still crap.

He must have been a one season wonder for Monaco.

Unfortunately, we aren't selling him.
I still feel Baka will come good next season. If by next season he's still sh*t, cut him off by January earliest.

I would be more on board with him getting game time, if he was out there pressing and making an effort.  With his physical capabilities, he should be defensively much better, and bully players off the ball.  Could live with some bad touches if he was giving effort, but he just looks scared to do anything.

5 hours ago, Zeta said:

Last 2 games he wasn't quite as horrendous as before, but look at what he actually contributed - recycling the ball, nothing else. Someone passes short to him, he passes short to someone else. No driving runs through the middle, very few forward passes, basically no tackles, no headers won. We could put a brick wall in the middle of the pitch to bounce the ball off and it would have more positional sense.

I was no fan of Mikel, but he would be better than Bakayoko.

5 hours ago, Scott Harris said:

I was no fan of Mikel, but he would be better than Bakayoko.

I was going to say if he learns to actually tackle he could reach Mikel levels.

I don't think he's keeping an injured Drinkwater out of the squad. As I've said before I'm glad I never worked for some of you guys.

How good does Mikel sound right now. That’s how bad our midfield are at the moment.

The thing that pisses me off about this transfer is the fact we sold Chalobah for 5 million and signed this guy for 40 million

 

I know Chalobah wanted to leave and only had 1 year left on his contract but I can't help but feel if we would have guaranteed him decent game time he would have stayed, Bakayoko's played 39 times this season, if Chalobah would have played that amount I'm almost certain he would have signed a new contract with us and we would have had a better player, saved ourselves 35 million and had an academy graduate breaking into the first team

I completely forgot Chalobah existed. See he has only made 5 appearances for Watford

A bad knee injury has wrecked his season. He was in the full England squad before that. I wish we'd managed to keep him. Far, far better than Baka.

1 hour ago, Stim said:

I completely forgot Chalobah existed. See he has only made 5 appearances for Watford

snapped his knee at the start of the season. Would have played 40+ games easily had he stayed fit. 

In retrospect, Conte's disrespectful comments about Chalobah lacking patience and Bakayoko having experience meaning he was better have come back to haunt him. Cowardice being rewarded with mediocrity. 

i really want him to do well, but think he may be sold in summer. i just don't see any kind of urgency from him at all in that midfield, he seems to just stroll around watching the game pass him by, with the occasional tackle or decent run & pass forward. most of the time he picks up the ball then turns around and passes it back; very little forward thinking. i am sure there's a good player in there somewhere, but at the moment ruben loftus-cheek is looking superior in a inferior team. 

Edited April 28, 20188 yr by enigma

perked up in the final 15 mins today, but generally looked lost all game. Odd tactics to have him keep drifting wide...almost as if he is keeping out of any position where he can cause damage!

 

As I asked on the match thread, can anybody think of another regular Chelsea player over the last 20 years that has offered as little as this man? I initially thought Jokanovic, but on reflection I genuinely think that he gave more to the team than Baka.

answers on a post card....

Someone mentioned in the match thread that Cesc had to track back because this guy just disappears, I thought that might have been the case as first 10-20 minutes Cesc was very far forward like a 10 but all of a sudden he's back in deep as a 2 with Kante. Maybe it's tactics from Conte after going 1-0 up but if Cesc carried on as he was we would've probably conceded.

I think he has been better with the ball simply because he releases it almost instantaneously, but off the ball it's crazy how he jogs along watching the ball 100% of the time and never looks around, he's never marking any player so it would be so easy to run behind him.

There's no urgency from him when attacks are developing and most of his tackles would come from behind just outside the box, it's almost as if he thinks the danger starts developing as the player enters the box.
There's no football brain in there, just tumbleweed..

Good post, sonic90.  It truly is baffling watching him move around the pitch as if this is the first time he has ever played a match.  Just has no clue what to do, and probably has never read a book on football  tactics.

 

Played a very simple game and did okay. There were still moments in the second half where he made poor decisions or showed limited urgency which led to dangerous balls into the box.

I'm really unsure of what to do with him. Again shows the perils of buying a player on the back of one good season.  It's not just him though, Lemar was abused in the carpark yesterday after Monaco's draw with Amiens. 

I understand the club is nervous about cutting him loose given Salah and De Bruyne, but there are so many basic things he does poorly which you just can't carry in his position. If we were to switch to 4-3-3 under Enrique or Sarri he is neither good enough going forward to play as an 8 or defensively aware enough to play as a 6. His touch under pressure is also very poor which makes it hard to play out from the back. 

Watching him I wonder whether he could use his physique and a simple passing game to mature into a Mikel style player (a guy who also struggled with similar things when he started here). That however seems a long way off. We need in my view at least two new CMs in the summer and I'm not sure that we can carry him to let him grow into a Mikel. 

Would be best to get rid before his value drops even further. 

Unlike Salah or De Bruyne, he has really been given a proper go. Just not got the quality at all.