On 24/12/2019 at 18:51, robdog said:

He's the bloke you'd want watching your back if a fight broke out.

Reminded me of David Luiz today. And that's bad.

Don't think he's the answer to our defensive woes.

13 minutes ago, Sindre said:

Reminded me of David Luiz today. And that's bad.

Don't think he's the answer to our defensive woes.

Have to agree.

He's one of these players who became "better" whilst he was out injured.

"We need Rudiger back", "we're really missing Rudiger"........etc. He IS probably our best CB but the reality is he is a good but not great CB and we could do with signing one world class one. 

Poor and absent minded today, aimless diagonals and no threat at set pieces. Zouma was unlucky to be subbed.

Frank still has no idea what his best centre back partnership is because all 4 of our CB can play well one week and the next week look terrible.

Our CBs are so poor with the ball.

32 minutes ago, Davey Baby said:

Our CBs are so poor with the ball.

It is a strange concept where we play a system with ball playing centre backs, we work the ball to create opportunities for our full backs to get forward and stick crosses in. 

The problem is our centre backs cant pass, and our full backs cant cross! 

 

19 minutes ago, big blue said:

The problem is our centre backs cant pass, and our full backs cant cross! 

 

Dave has a great cross on him but only when he was aiming it at Morata. 

Hated seeing him have a pop at Kepa. Instead of letting the ball run through to Kepa, he chests it down and lumps it out of play, needlessly putting us under pressure. He turns and blames the goalkeeper. What a joke. JT never did that in 20 years at Chelsea. All he did was encourage his teammates, and he was far superior than Rudiger can ever hope to be.

 

If Rudiger is our best defender we've got problems in my opinion. Back in the day when we had world class CBS, this guy would never have got a game.

JT had a keeper that let him know to leave it or not. I'm not sure Toni does.

 

BTW using John Terry as a benchmark will leave you forever disappointed in our defenders.  

20 minutes ago, Davey Baby said:

Hated seeing him have a pop at Kepa. Instead of letting the ball run through to Kepa, he chests it down and lumps it out of play, needlessly putting us under pressure. He turns and blames the goalkeeper. What a joke. JT never did that in 20 years at Chelsea. All he did was encourage his teammates, and he was far superior than Rudiger can ever hope to be.

 

If Rudiger is our best defender we've got problems in my opinion. Back in the day when we had world class CBS, this guy would never have got a game.

Depends. If Kepa was screaming at him and he choose not to leave it then yeah, bad on him.

I believe Kepa was not communicating well enough and had a pop at Rudiger first and rudiger fired back.

After the league cup final last year I cannot trust Kepa to do the right things under pressure.

On Rudiger in general he is a leader, but not good enough to start. A good squad player. Nothing more.

Since we’re questioning him, when did the consensus form that Rudiger is a top CB anyway? Was it just coz he was absent and the others are so poor? I don’t remember him getting much praise last season. I mean - he’s not great with the ball or in the tackle, is he? May have issues with his temperament too. Am genuinely curious to hear the defence now.

7 minutes ago, axman2526 said:

I believe Kepa was not communicating well enough and had a pop at Rudiger first and rudiger fired back.

 

Yeah, Kepa probably said something to him, like, "You should have let it run through to me, what are you doing?", quite rightly too.

 

Rudiger's reaction is pathetic IMO, and not what you want when you're trying to see the game out.

8 minutes ago, Davey Baby said:

 

Yeah, Kepa probably said something to him, like, "You should have let it run through to me, what are you doing?", quite rightly too.

 

Rudiger's reaction is pathetic IMO, and not what you want when you're trying to see the game out.

Guess we will not know what was said. 

What has disappointed me most in Rudigers return is his passing from defence. This past two matches has seen his hit several long diagonal balls which land short of their target and easily dealt with by the defender.

44 minutes ago, Dean said:

Since we’re questioning him, when did the consensus form that Rudiger is a top CB anyway? Was it just coz he was absent and the others are so poor? I don’t remember him getting much praise last season. I mean - he’s not great with the ball or in the tackle, is he? May have issues with his temperament too. Am genuinely curious to hear the defence now.

Come on, he got a lot of praise last season and was blatantly our best ddffnder. I dont understand your desperation to claim every one of our players as overrated and rubbish, it's very weird. 

44 minutes ago, Davey Baby said:

 

Yeah, Kepa probably said something to him, like, "You should have let it run through to me, what are you doing?", quite rightly too.

 

Rudiger's reaction is pathetic IMO, and not what you want when you're trying to see the game out.

How could Rudiger know Lacazette or Aubameyang isn’t sneaking in behind him? He needed to hear from Kepa and he didn’t get anything, so decided to play it safe. Then he got criticism from Kepa, to be honest I would have reacted the same in the heat of moment.
 

That’s how I saw it anyway, and Kepa really doesn’t strike me as the kind of goalkeeper to be shouting orders at defenders.

1 minute ago, dansubrosa said:

That’s how I saw it anyway, and Kepa really doesn’t strike me as the kind of goalkeeper to be shouting orders at defenders.

As someone who generally sits behind the goals I’d like to say that I’ve never heard Kepa once in the year and a half he’s been our keeper. It can get pretty quiet at The Bridge too. 

6 minutes ago, Munkworth said:

As someone who generally sits behind the goals I’d like to say that I’ve never heard Kepa once in the year and a half he’s been our keeper. It can get pretty quiet at The Bridge too. 

That does not surprise me. Almost at levels of Drinkwater, Baka and Emerson for useless waste of money signings.

3 minutes ago, axman2526 said:

That does not surprise me. Almost at levels of Drinkwater, Baka and Emerson for useless waste of money signings.

That penalty save where he basically sat on the ball was worth £72mil easily 

1 minute ago, Munkworth said:

That penalty save where he basically sat on the ball was worth £72mil easily 

Lol well was something alright.

25 minutes ago, dkw said:

Come on, he got a lot of praise last season and was blatantly our best ddffnder. I dont understand your desperation to claim every one of our players as overrated and rubbish, it's very weird. 

Um, what? Seriously what are you talking about? Are you sure you’ve got the right person?

Think Rudiger just needs a run of games to get fully up to speed, he has come back into a very unstable backline where never mind the personnel our management seems undecided about whether we should play a back 4 or 5.

In reference to the Kepa incident I think it was clear Kepa didn't communicate to Rudiger who rightly puts it out of play however once its been cleared the response seemed very exaggerated however its understandable as it felt like a very emotionally draining game for the players. 

2 hours ago, axman2526 said:

That does not surprise me. Almost at levels of Drinkwater, Baka and Emerson for useless waste of money signings.

It wasn't too long ago we were saying Emerson looks a good signing. Some thing's amiss with him at the moment. Since his return actually. I think he'll improve though.

2 hours ago, GhostOfDembaBa said:

It wasn't too long ago we were saying Emerson looks a good signing. Some thing's amiss with him at the moment. Since his return actually. I think he'll improve though.

I do too.....when he returns to Italy.