9 hours ago, Ernie_blue said:

It was a bad window in terms of leaving everything at the last minute. The quality is there in terms of defenders and centre midfielders but the squad still lacks another attacking player and a forward. The squad isn't good enough for a PL and Champions league challenge.

Chelsea had been chasing Drinkwater for weeks maybe months but they need a 2 hour extension to complete the deal. Why not complete the deal early, get him in the squad and it gives Leicester plenty of time to find a replacement. All the moaning I read regarding Batman does anyone believe he could cover Morata for a few months if he got injured? Llorente was only 12m.

I'm not sure what the underlying reasons for the delay in the Drinkwater deal were. Maybe Leicester gave he go ahead only at the end? We may never know. The end result was positive (hopefully), like it was for Luiz and Alonso. 

True, many of us feel that Bats may not be able to do the job. He does have potential though, and seems to score whenever required. I don't know whether it is worth risking losing him by bringing a has been 32 yo as back up. I guess the plan is to have one of our midfielders playing up front in the unlikely scenario that both are injured.

Why do you think we need another attacking midfielder? We have three excellent ones and one with great potential. Even Moses can do a decent job if called upon. If 3 5 2 is our second formation this season, only 1 plays at a time in any case. 

I agree that another forward and LWB will have been nice. We can't have everything though and these are small blips in an otherwise very strong squad. I can see us challenging on all fronts next year with no more than 1 addition if the squad and manager stick together.

5 hours ago, Slojo said:

Most people aren't comparing it to our other transfer windows, they're comparing it to circumstances & our rivals, who have made better and quicker business than we have. 

Have our rivals had such great windows though? City still have an ordinary central defense and central midfield, United have poor or ageing wing backs, Matic as a midfield mainstay and the likes of Lingaard and Fellaini as squad players. Spurs haven't strengthened at all and Arsenal and Liverpool, well...

10 hours ago, ashwin said:

Have our rivals had such great windows though? City still have an ordinary central defense and central midfield, United have poor or ageing wing backs, Matic as a midfield mainstay and the likes of Lingaard and Fellaini as squad players. Spurs haven't strengthened at all and Arsenal and Liverpool, well...

Like you Ashwin, I also think that City and United are weaker defensively, they have strengthened their attacking options yet still seems to have vulnerability in defence. Utd I also think lack good options in wide attacking play with inability to deliver good crosses which will limit their attacking play.

I still expect CFC to win the PL yet not the CL.

Edited September 12, 20178 yr by Strider6003

Quadruple !

(well someone has to say it ... :-) )

Top three league finish + CL quarter final. Anything beyond that is a bonus.

On 9/11/2017 at 03:42, DonAntonio said:

Will do the triple like Man U last season 

 

 

Carlo double > Jose 'treble'.

16 hours ago, ashwin said:

Have our rivals had such great windows though? City still have an ordinary central defense and central midfield, United have poor or ageing wing backs, Matic as a midfield mainstay and the likes of Lingaard and Fellaini as squad players. Spurs haven't strengthened at all and Arsenal and Liverpool, well...

I think Spurs have with Sanchez & Aurier. 

Manchester City replaced all their wing backs when it was necessary and they've signed a fantastic player in Bernardo Silva, but they already had fantastic depth as it is. United got the business deals done with Mikhi & Pogba last season and have started building their team. Their width is a big issue though I agree. 

I think Liverpool have strengthened though, Arsenal hasn't with the loss of Gabriel but you can't argue with the Lacazette signing. 

But Liverpool, Spurs & Arsenal are irrelevant for me, the top 2 are City and United we have to compete with, do you think on paper we have better squads than them? I would say on paper we have a better first 11 than United. 

6 hours ago, Strider6003 said:

Like you Ashwin, I also think that City and United are weaker defensively, they have strengthened their attacking options yet still seems to have vulnerability in defence. Utd I also think lack good options in wide attacking play with inability to deliver good crosses which will limit their attacking play.

I still expect CFC to win the PL yet not the CL.

What about our defence though? It had its problems last season we can't completely sugarcoat it, Cahill is just not good enough. He's not top tier, David Luiz & Azpi are top tiers however but I think our organisation at the back is very rusty even now, looks like the same problems last season, we get dominated by crosses. Maybe that can't be helped given the formation, I could be negative here but that's my strongest criticism, the back 3. 

16 minutes ago, Slojo said:

What about our defence though? It had its problems last season we can't completely sugarcoat it, Cahill is just not good enough. He's not top tier, David Luiz & Azpi are top tiers however but I think our organisation at the back is very rusty even now, looks like the same problems last season, we get dominated by crosses. Maybe that can't be helped given the formation, I could be negative here but that's my strongest criticism, the back 3. 

I honestly believe our defence (squad) is comfortably the best in England and perhaps one of the best in Europe. Azpi, Luiz and Rudiger form a fantastic back three. We must see if Conte prefers Cahill over Rudiger immediately after he comes back but I think it is just a matter of time before Cahill is displaced in the starting 11.

1 minute ago, ashwin said:

I honestly believe our defence (squad) is comfortably the best in England and perhaps one of the best in Europe. Azpi, Luiz and Rudiger form a fantastic back three. We must see if Conte prefers Cahill over Rudiger immediately after he comes back but I think it is just a matter of time before Cahill is displaced in the starting 11.

I'm a stubborn negative nancy so I really hope you're right and I'm wrong, but if we keep Cahill out of the side I will have a lot of hope. 

46 minutes ago, Slojo said:

What about our defence though? It had its problems last season we can't completely sugarcoat it, Cahill is just not good enough. He's not top tier, David Luiz & Azpi are top tiers however but I think our organisation at the back is very rusty even now, looks like the same problems last season, we get dominated by crosses. Maybe that can't be helped given the formation, I could be negative here but that's my strongest criticism, the back 3. 

I think defence is our strongest area. We lost JT who didn't play, Zouma who needs to play right now and Ake who had potential. But we gained Rudiger, Christensen is back in the fold and as good as if not better than Ake and we have cover with Zappacosta and Dave for the wing backs.

The only place that of concern is upfront if Morata gets injured/knackered and Batshuayi isn't up to it. Even then we can stick Hazard there again if we have too. 

37 minutes ago, Munkworth said:

I think defence is our strongest area. We lost JT who didn't play, Zouma who needs to play right now and Ake who had potential. But we gained Rudiger, Christensen is back in the fold and as good as if not better than Ake and we have cover with Zappacosta and Dave for the wing backs.

The only place that of concern is upfront if Morata gets injured/knackered and Batshuayi isn't up to it. Even then we can stick Hazard there again if we have too. 

I think two strikers is enough to go the full season, I wouldn't worry so much about that. 

Let's hope Christensen moulds well then and gets a good amount of game time, I'm down with that. Rudiger I'll have to see more of but I'm still not sold on him. 

5 hours ago, ashwin said:

I honestly believe our defence (squad) is comfortably the best in England and perhaps one of the best in Europe. Azpi, Luiz and Rudiger form a fantastic back three. We must see if Conte prefers Cahill over Rudiger immediately after he comes back but I think it is just a matter of time before Cahill is displaced in the starting 11.

I agree as defensive options Chelsea have the best in Europe. Ake would have made that even better with the option of being able to play 3 positions. LWB seems abit of a dodgy area with only Alonso. 

If Spurs new signings work out I think they are ahead of Chelsea. Davies and Rose at LB, Trippier, and Aurier at RB. They are real quality options at fullback. 

Spurs can play a quality back 3 or 2 with Dier, Vertonghen and Alderweireld. Luiz can't play in a back 4, he would get found out too many times, I wouldn't have confidence in Alonso either.

On 07/09/2017 at 14:47, TomCFC85 said:

Champions' League: I really want us to have a good run. I hope we face Real Madrid in the knock outs, haven't played against them in a while, will be interesting to see how our squad competes, minimum, I expect to reach Round of 16, most I expect is Semis. 

I can't remember us playing Madrid so I've checked, and we only played against them 3 times.

Won 2, draw 1, lost 0.

Just now, dansubrosa said:

I can't remember us playing Madrid so I've checked, and we only played against them 3 times.

Won 2, draw 1, lost 0.

That's pretty impressive, all things considered. 

Yeah it's awesome they never beat us! Take that Zidane.

I hope we never get to see anything like Obrevo again, still makes me angry.

Prem top3
Carabao top16
FA Cup top4
CL top8