Yeah, I’m not sold on him. Makes too many mistakes that get punished at this level. Needs to focus more it seems. 

He has strength, and that's about it.

Technical ability is not their, simple passing and controlling of the ball seems beyond him.

Positioning is what a lot of big holding midfielders rely on, and he has none of that either.

Still not won over by bakayoko. He's young though so I guess he will improve, but other than the United game, I don't think he has really took control of a game in the way I was hoping he would. 

In that 3, would he be better as the one sitting in front of the defence? 

34 minutes ago, big blue said:

Still not won over by bakayoko. He's young though so I guess he will improve, but other than the United game, I don't think he has really took control of a game in the way I was hoping he would. 

In that 3, would he be better as the one sitting in front of the defence? 

That'd be Kante. Bakayoko functions better when he can press higher up and drive up the field into pockets of space.

His awareness and decision making is lacking for that part of midfield

His song needs an update, he always gives the ball away. 

He’s like a man down at the moment. I’m not sure if he’s carrying an injury or lacking confidence but he’s been atrocious. 

I did say earlier that he was inconsistent and has lapses of concentration.

I expect those issues to resolve themselves somewhat as he matures. 

It’s his ‘football brain’ that concerns me. It’s such a cliche in terms of analysis however it’s appropriate in this context. He just doesn’t seem intelligent on the field; numerous silly fouls in dangerous positions or attempting to control the ball surrounded by opposition players when a first time pass or clearance is required. He could easily have cleared that ball last night and prevented the goal. 

I know we all love the excuse that he's young, but isn't he about 23-24? It's not like we have a 17 year old kid on our hands.

I haven't been impressed once by him, not at Monaco and not at Chelsea. He did show a lot of heart in his first game for us against Spurs when he wasn't fully fit, but that's about all the good I can say about him. We needed a topclass starting mid and we failed to get one, and it's costing us a lot of points.

(I did see he got a lot of praise for that United game, sadly I had to miss that one).

If we are going to continue with the 3-5-2, which i think we should we def need 1 more better option. Cesc and Kante are another level, drinkwater is decent and a good rotation option, but Baka is pretty poor most of the time. He was clearly brought in to fill that role of taking the ball in the middle and driving forward, i think we were all hoping he would be a better version of Ramires, right now he is not close to that level. For me Loftus Cheek is exactly that player we need, a midfield trio of himself, Kante and Cesc would work so much better. Pull him back from loan in Jan!!

12 minutes ago, Jackbuchanan said:

If we are going to continue with the 3-5-2, which i think we should we def need 1 more better option. Cesc and Kante are another level, drinkwater is decent and a good rotation option, but Baka is pretty poor most of the time. He was clearly brought in to fill that role of taking the ball in the middle and driving forward, i think we were all hoping he would be a better version of Ramires, right now he is not close to that level. For me Loftus Cheek is exactly that player we need, a midfield trio of himself, Kante and Cesc would work so much better. Pull him back from loan in Jan!!

Loftus cheek will be abysmal if he comes back in January. He is as bad a defender as bakayoko and can't stay fit for more than a few games. Not sure why we think a player who has done alright in a relegation team can walk into the champions first team.

Give bakayoko time to adjust and he will come good. He's shown all the attributes necessary to me, just hasn't adjusted to the pace of this league. Lots of our best ever players had similar issues.

I think that 3rd midfielder needs to be a goal scorer. We've seen bakayoko and last night drinkwater get in some great positions, but neither player has that goal threat. 

19 hours ago, Slojo said:

Matic didn't need replacing, he was a completely average player and a passenger who never returned to his old form. He's only spoken about in high regard because he's heavily protected and praised by fools like Phil Neville. I don't think I've seen a more basic player praised for the most simple things. Fabregas is not a CM, the only choice was to play Matic. 

Three guarantee's in life. Death, taxes and Matic and Loftus Cheek being made out to be Iniesta and Xavi everytime Bakayoko has a bad game.

Damn some of you Guys are mean to him....no? The dude is what 23-24? First season in such a League......no pre-season and injured etc. YEah her was not good yesterday but damn hold those horses. He will get good soon enough and im sure Conte will see to that..........he will become an awesome player for us im sure of it.

2 hours ago, Argo said:

Three guarantee's in life. Death, taxes and Matic and Loftus Cheek being made out to be Iniesta and Xavi everytime Bakayoko has a bad game.

So eloquently put, Phil Neville posts #ThankYouForMatic after every United game they win, and he's supposed to be an impartial pundit. 

3 minutes ago, Slojo said:

So eloquently put, Phil Neville posts #ThankYouForMatic after every United game they win, and he's supposed to be an impartial pundit. 

I can get my head around the likes of Garth Crooks being so bad because he has never had a coaching job, but Phil Neville has had two high profile assistant jobs at big clubs. His "reasoning" for why Unsworth should get the Everton job was truly extraordinary.

People are harsh to Bakayoko.  He did not have a great game but in the UTD game he bossed the midfield.  He actually has better technical skill than I thought he did and he can drive forward too, we have seen it.  He needs to show improvement but so far he is about what I expected.  He was bought on potential more than current skill, so I can certainly see him improving!

1 hour ago, Argo said:

I can get my head around the likes of Garth Crooks being so bad because he has never had a coaching job, but Phil Neville has had two high profile assistant jobs at big clubs. His "reasoning" for why Unsworth should get the Everton job was truly extraordinary.

He put down Chelsea having a bad season during 15/16 was due to Matic not playing enough games... Yeah, the Matic who wasn't injured and got benched by John Obi Mikel. 

27 minutes ago, TheChelsRVA said:

People are harsh to Bakayoko.  He did not have a great game but in the UTD game he bossed the midfield.  He actually has better technical skill than I thought he did and he can drive forward too, we have seen it.  He needs to show improvement but so far he is about what I expected.  He was bought on potential more than current skill, so I can certainly see him improving!

2

Many people said this but it was Kante who had control of it in my eyes. I thought Bakayoko was extremely wasteful that game, don't get me wrong he had a few times where he just skipped through United's midfield like it wasn't even there, but what he did with the ball afterwards was another story.

I don't think I'm being too harsh on this one either but I genuinely don't think Bakayoko was that impressive against United, watch his highlights again if you can, and if you watch the full match you'll see the pressuring coming from everyone, especially Kante. Mikhi was invisible. 

On 11/25/2017 at 19:59, Slojo said:

Matic didn't need replacing, he was a completely average player and a passenger who never returned to his old form. He's only spoken about in high regard because he's heavily protected and praised by fools like Phil Neville. I don't think I've seen a more basic player praised for the most simple things. Fabregas is not a CM, the only choice was to play Matic. 

I actually think Phil Neville is the worst football pundit at the moment. There are many bad ones out there, but i have never seen one say so many stupid things in recent times as Phil Neville has. I know the BBC have set the bar low but they really could get anybody better than Phil Neville.

Football is a fickle business. 

Whilst I agree his performance against Liverpool was poor, it's not as if he didn't put in an impressive display against United just a few weeks ago (finishing aside). 

He has also impressed me against Spurs & Madrid away. His performances for Monaco at Champions League level last season are the reason we bought him, so I think the potential is clearly there, but he needs to step on his game week in/week out if he wants to cement a place in the starting 11. 

When he is on his game, his physical presence reminds me of a Essien/Toure type of midfield enforcer, and I love that type of player. I think we have never really had that type of player since Essien, so I do get excited at the thought of having someone who can command a midfield like that again. 

The medias obsession with comparing him to Matic is tedious. They are both players who are going to have their good days and their bad days, neither of them are currently world beaters. The one game which was the perfect platfrorm to compare them, was when they played each other, and in that game Bakayoko came out on top. Comfortably. Funnily enough I don't recall the media doing too many comparisons after that game. 

Quite amusing that some of those writing him off are the same people that are angry we didnt give KDB or Lukaku (and others) time at the club....

Ok, he needs time to adapt, he came here injured and we forced him. I understand that. That's why I am not critising him for the stupid mistakes, poor passing, poor finishing and bad defending. But I don't understand why he is so bad physically. He was supposed to be our rock in the middle, wasn't he? And all he's been doing is to shy sofly. Not guardiang the ball, not fighting, neither headers. That worries me. He might not be able to improve his game offensively ever but if he is lacking strength and tenacity - then we have a problem. 

24 minutes ago, dkw said:

Quite amusing that some of those writing him off are the same people that are angry we didnt give KDB or Lukaku (and others) time at the club....

The delights of hypocrisy, eh?

1 hour ago, mclovin83 said:

Football is a fickle business. 

Whilst I agree his performance against Liverpool was poor, it's not as if he didn't put in an impressive display against United just a few weeks ago (finishing aside). 

He has also impressed me against Spurs & Madrid away. His performances for Monaco at Champions League level last season are the reason we bought him, so I think the potential is clearly there, but he needs to step on his game week in/week out if he wants to cement a place in the starting 11. 

When he is on his game, his physical presence reminds me of a Essien/Toure type of midfield enforcer, and I love that type of player. I think we have never really had that type of player since Essien, so I do get excited at the thought of having someone who can command a midfield like that again. 

The medias obsession with comparing him to Matic is tedious. They are both players who are going to have their good days and their bad days, neither of them are currently world beaters. The one game which was the perfect platfrorm to compare them, was when they played each other, and in that game Bakayoko came out on top. Comfortably. Funnily enough I don't recall the media doing too many comparisons after that game. 

 

21 minutes ago, dkw said:

Quite amusing that some of those writing him off are the same people that are angry we didnt give KDB or Lukaku (and others) time at the club....

 

I do agree with an extent, I'm guilty of writing players off, I'm an emotional guy and sometimes it's hard to not be fickle. I've been complaining at people who written KDB & Salah off when I myself have written off players in the past because I didn't like the look of them. Bakayoko for me is the same, I didn't want the signing to begin with, I would say look at my older posts but my posts aren't on this forum I've just recently joined. 

For me Bakayoko has shown exactly what I thought he would, he doesn't look good enough with the pace and pressuring of the Premier League, he needs to take more touches than everyone else, he has poor technique, doesn't know what to do in difficult situations. His football IQ is very bad in my eyes and I saw that at Monaco, out of all the talent at Monaco last season, Lemar, Fabinho, M'Bappe, Marcos Silva, Mendy, I feel we signed the worst one out of the bunch. 

I really hope he proves me wrong, and he might over time but I can't see it, everything is off with his technique and control, he reminds me a lot of Ramires and Ramires's playing style wasn't suited for a top level team. I think we should have gone after someone else in the market. 

Although I wish these Matic comparisons would stop, Matic is irrelevant, he needed to go anyway. RLC, however, is doing what we want Bakayoko to do, although he is shining in a very bad team, could he do that at Chelsea? Who knows, we should give him a chance next season.