Had a decent game, still struggling to find the final product. So many awful crosses from the edge of the box. It’s almost like our training drills include trying to hit the defender rather than trying to get it to one of our boys. Once or twice I can understand but it happens far too often.

1 hour ago, Shweaves said:

I'm not sure about the rest of you, but thought Zappacosta had a great game when he came on. The clearance off the line was brilliant, like the Chelsea of old. 

Honestly I wasn't convinced with Dave going to CB, but it worked and Zappa fixed in some dangerous crosses. Nearly scored as well. Very pleasantly surprised!

Thank you for saying that.  If you look at the corner, just watch how Zappa quickly figures out the situation while the ball has not reach the Frankfurt player, whereby Zappa quickly backpeddles to the goal line well before the ball is headed towards goal.  Something only a real smart defender would do.

I preferred him coming on instead of Cahill, i was pleased about that. As bang average as Zappa is, he is better going forward than Azpi and is quite fast.

I've never minded him tbh, he's a good squad player, I've never really considered him to be deadwood. I think you need players like him in your side. 

12 minutes ago, Slojo said:

I've never minded him tbh, he's a good squad player, I've never really considered him to be deadwood. I think you need players like him in your side. 

The problem in buying him was he doesn't do anything than Ola Aina couldn't have done, just a waste of money.

11 minutes ago, Slojo said:

I've never minded him tbh, he's a good squad player, I've never really considered him to be deadwood. I think you need players like him in your side. 

Yep, if you have 22 superstars in your squad then the 11 not playing are going to be very unhappy. He's a competent backup and was very good last night. It was a smart move by Sarri to switch Dave to CB and bring on Zappacosta, which made us slightly more attacking, when the more obvious move would have just been to bring on Cahill.

He has earned my respect last night, at times he looked like the only player who gave a f*ck and played with urgency to make things happen.

I haven’t seen passion like that at Chelsea for a long time. He’s still not good enough though.

He has earned my respect last night, at times he looked like the only player who gave a f*ck and played with urgency to make things happen.
I haven’t seen passion like that at Chelsea for a long time. He’s still not good enough though.

Spot on. We were being massacred and then he has this Rudiger type shot to remind Frankfurt that they were in a game. He had another one later on and of course he cleared off the line. Thank you Zappa.

Agreed that he looked pretty good yesterday.  I especially appreciated all of the overlapping runs he made, pulled a defender or two almost every time.  Also liked the frustration he showed the one time when literally nobody made a run.  Granted, the cross was blocked but he had nowhere to go with it and did well i think to win the corner.

12 hours ago, jack_super_class said:

The problem in buying him was he doesn't do anything than Ola Aina couldn't have done, just a waste of money.

Yeah, I can agree with that, but he's still not a terrible player. People want rid of him because he's not good enough to start, I think squad players are essential, Alex Ferguson won 13 league titles with squad players. 

Edited May 11, 20197 yr by Slojo

5 hours ago, Slojo said:

Yeah, I can agree with that, but he's still not a terrible player. People want rid of him because he's not good enough to start, I think squad players are essential, Alex Ferguson won 13 league titles with squad players. 

The problem is we have a lot of good players that probably arent good enough to start, yet some of them do. So the ones do, need to drop to being squad players, and the ones that are are squad players now, need replacing with quality. 

I hate the idea of spending money on back up options, if it was for a real utility man, then i can understand it, but brining in players to play 5-10 games a season when we have a world class academy is ridiculous. Even if we had someone get a long term injury, I sure we could make do with an academy player, or maybe someone filling for a few months. 

I know you have mentioned Ferguson having these sort of players, but most were players that came from their youth setup, or were bought for peanuts. 

We have spent nearly £100m on Zappacosta, Drinkwater, Emerson, and Giroud. Would we have been any worse off using Aina, Da Silva, Castillo, Baker, and Abraham?

I honestly dont think so. We may have even unearthed a regular starter, not to mention the £100m we wouldve been better spending on 1 or 2 quality players, that actually improve the side 

So for me Zappacosta isnt the worse player, but he was never £25m better than the players we already had to play that role. 

18 hours ago, bluedave said:

Yep, if you have 22 superstars in your squad then the 11 not playing are going to be very unhappy. He's a competent backup and was very good last night. It was a smart move by Sarri to switch Dave to CB and bring on Zappacosta, which made us slightly more attacking, when the more obvious move would have just been to bring on Cahill.

Not sure we need to worry about that mate, we have two superstars. Probably one after the summer window. I agree however, that Zappacosta done well last night, he’s still nothing that an Aina/James couldn’t do though in my opinion. 

 

 

 

2

1 hour ago, EdinburghBlue said:

Not sure we need to worry about that mate, we have two superstars. Probably one after the summer window. I agree however, that Zappacosta done well last night, he’s still nothing that an Aina/James couldn’t do though in my opinion. 

That's a point regarding Aina and James. I'm not sure how good Aina actually is but he's played quite a lot for Torino so would assume he's at a similar level to Zappacosta now, or not far off. If we were to swap Aina for Zappacosta I wouldn't be too bothered. James is a bit more tricky, he's a huge talent but needs to play to continue his development. Most managers tend to rotate defenders less than other positions so his minutes will probably be very limited. I can't see Dave being dropped any time soon. It's always nice to have homegrown/academy players in the squad but I feel that it would be detrimental to James and he'd be better off on loan to another club where he will play more., and we will benefit from this in the long term.

1 hour ago, big blue said:

The problem is we have a lot of good players that probably arent good enough to start, yet some of them do. So the ones do, need to drop to being squad players, and the ones that are are squad players now, need replacing with quality. 

I hate the idea of spending money on back up options, if it was for a real utility man, then i can understand it, but brining in players to play 5-10 games a season when we have a world class academy is ridiculous. Even if we had someone get a long term injury, I sure we could make do with an academy player, or maybe someone filling for a few months. 

I know you have mentioned Ferguson having these sort of players, but most were players that came from their youth setup, or were bought for peanuts. 

We have spent nearly £100m on Zappacosta, Drinkwater, Emerson, and Giroud. Would we have been any worse off using Aina, Da Silva, Castillo, Baker, and Abraham?

I honestly dont think so. We may have even unearthed a regular starter, not to mention the £100m we wouldve been better spending on 1 or 2 quality players, that actually improve the side 

So for me Zappacosta isnt the worse player, but he was never £25m better than the players we already had to play that role. 

Don't think I'm arguing for the idea that he's a good buy, I'm not don't worry. I know far well the 4 players you mentioned right there haven't lived up to their price tag and probably won't ever, maybe Emerson might. 

But for what Zappacosta is now, we can make do. Aina can play on the left and right side, if we sell Zappacosta and keep Aina as a rotational right back, I'm good with that also. If we keep Aina out for another year I'm also good with that, Zappa has more experience under his belt and he's a useful squad player. At the end of the day, Azpi is always going to be the main starter there. 

Fresh rumours today that Zappacosta could return to Italy this summer, this time being linked with a move to Roma. 

I do think Zappacosta is extremely limited in what he offers the team and between Rudiger, Ampadu and James I think we have enough option in the squad to cover the right back position without having to keep him around. 

Even with a transfer ban in place I think he's exactly the sort of player we should be looking to move on, especially if the club are serious about creating a pathway into the first team for the academy players. 

5 minutes ago, ForeverCarefree said:

Fresh rumours today that Zappacosta could return to Italy this summer, this time being linked with a move to Roma. 

I do think Zappacosta is extremely limited in what he offers the team and between Rudiger, Ampadu and James I think we have enough option in the squad to cover the right back position without having to keep him around. 

Even with a transfer ban in place I think he's exactly the sort of player we should be looking to move on, especially if the club are serious about creating a pathway into the first team for the academy players. 

I do agree. I think Reece is a more than capable replacement for him, but the injury has made it somewhat difficult

43 minutes ago, ForeverCarefree said:

Fresh rumours today that Zappacosta could return to Italy this summer, this time being linked with a move to Roma. 

I do think Zappacosta is extremely limited in what he offers the team and between Rudiger, Ampadu and James I think we have enough option in the squad to cover the right back position without having to keep him around. 

Even with a transfer ban in place I think he's exactly the sort of player we should be looking to move on, especially if the club are serious about creating a pathway into the first team for the academy players. 

I tend to agree, he was a reasonable back up for VM when Conte had us at 3 CD but as a stand alone right back I would shuffle on. should still have decent value as he is still in his mid 20's

Legit don't remember anything positive about him.

23 minutes ago, Remodez said:

Legit don't remember anything positive about him.

 

Can’t actually remember him doing anything wrong defensively.

16 hours ago, cuppaT said:

Can’t actually remember him doing anything wrong defensively.

Unfortunately like many of our recent purchases he isnt a bad player just not a great one and in that sense overpriced. 

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2019/08/05/chelsea-allow-davide-zappacosta-leave-reece-james-preferred/amp/?__twitter_impression=true

Wouldn't mind this at all. However Zappacosta's been a pretty solid player for us.

He's actually been an 'okay' rightback overall. There have been plenty worse over the years at Chelsea. 

If it wasn't for James' injury, we'd have already sold or loaned Zappa.  Understandable that he would want to leave, I don't see him being a part of Frank's plans going forward, at all.

6 hours ago, evissy said:

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2019/08/05/chelsea-allow-davide-zappacosta-leave-reece-james-preferred/amp/?__twitter_impression=true

Wouldn't mind this at all. However Zappacosta's been a pretty solid player for us.

If he were to go, I imagine this means James is not far from full fitness?