Named as man of the match.  Played in midfield in front of Ashley Williams . Future Wales captain , I have no doubts. Old head on young shoulders .

My worry, like with a lot of our talented youngsters, is whether we will give him a proper chance. The kid is clearly good enough but shouldn't be forgotten that we tried to sign a defender in the summer and will surely try again...and there is certainly not much room in midfield either...regardless, he will make it big somewhere...just hope its in blue.

Edited September 6, 20187 yr by The Brit

3 hours ago, RMH said:

I'm watching Wales v Ireland and Ampadu has already shown quality. He is asking continuously for the ball and his range of passes is great. I think he will starting ahead of Luiz in a not too long distance, hopefully this season.

Phenomenal performance. Wales were excellent, and yet he really stood out. Strength on the ball and top quality passing - ridiculous for a 17 year old.

We really need to use him more, I hope when the games start coming thick and fast he gets plenty of football. Sod keeping RLC happy, we’ve got a real gem of a player on our hands. 

14 minutes ago, Munkworth said:

We really need to use him more, I hope when the games start coming thick and fast he gets plenty of football. Sod keeping RLC happy, we’ve got a real gem of a player on our hands. 

Weird comment seeing as they're fighting for different positions in the squad.

He was used in midfield last night so he is not just a CB Chelsea have used Luiz in a similar role in the past.

2 minutes ago, CFC North Wales said:

He was used in midfield last night so he is not just a CB Chelsea have used Luiz in a similar role in the past.

Chelsea has played Amapadu as MF as well, I believe a couple of times with Conte.

1 hour ago, RIP Mourinho said:

Weird comment seeing as they're fighting for different positions in the squad.

For me Ampadu seems comfortable playing from CB all the way up through midfield. I remember reading from one of his old coaching staff that whatever position you asked him to play he wasn’t phased at all. I think he’d probably bang in the goals too if we swapped him in for Morata 

But sorry if I insulted your lord and saviour RLC, I know you’ve got a massive man crush on him 

Ampadu would be fighting for a spot with Kante / Jorginho / D.Luiz, not attacking mid. 

Having said that, should we not just keep all our players happy and not one or the other.

21 minutes ago, RIP Mourinho said:

Ampadu would be fighting for a spot with Kante / Jorginho / D.Luiz, not attacking mid. 

Having said that, should we not just keep all our players happy and not one or the other.

Does that include Morata? 

8 minutes ago, RMH said:

Does that include Morata? 

I said keep our players happy, Morata is more of a cheerleader/competition winner.

Great performance from the youngster, he's heading in the right direction, but hold onto your hats, he has a very long way to go yet, to get past Kante and Jorginho is going to be a very very tough nut to crack, WC winner and managers pet, Ethan will have to make do with scraps for now.

6 minutes ago, coco said:

Great performance from the youngster, he's heading in the right direction, but hold onto your hats, he has a very long way to go yet, to get past Kante and Jorginho is going to be a very very tough nut to crack, WC winner and managers pet, Ethan will have to make do with scraps for now.

While he could play instead of Jorginho, I see him more of an upgraded David Luiz in the near future. He is a good CB with a lot of quality with the ball on his feet, long and short range passes, vision of the game, he can drive the ball through the midfield, so it would not surprise me if we continue to see him play at CB for us. He is the kind of CB that Sarri wants.

30 minutes ago, RMH said:

While he could play instead of Jorginho, I see him more of an upgraded David Luiz in the near future. He is a good CB with a lot of quality with the ball on his feet, long and short range passes, vision of the game, he can drive the ball through the midfield, so it would not surprise me if we continue to see him play at CB for us. He is the kind of CB that Sarri wants.

We'll have to wait and see, on the ball he's comfortable, without the ball it's a different game, that's when he needs to prove his worth, the blocks, tackles, marking, ushering, so much to master without the ball. David Luiz never mastered it still to this day, would of been great to have JT here mentoring him on his defending.

1 hour ago, RMH said:

While he could play instead of Jorginho, I see him more of an upgraded David Luiz in the near future. He is a good CB with a lot of quality with the ball on his feet, long and short range passes, vision of the game, he can drive the ball through the midfield, so it would not surprise me if we continue to see him play at CB for us. He is the kind of CB that Sarri wants.

Agreed, in my eyes he's a CB. Rudiger-Christensen-Ampadu+1 in the future when Cahill and Luiz taper off. 

Whats interesting is him playing in the midfield. the kid has some serious versatility. It will be very very interesting to see what kind of playing time he gets this season, and possibly if he gets time in midfield or as a CB. Between Amps and CHO, they are the main reason I am looking forward to Caraboa Cup and Europa Group stage.

It does concern me about Sarri not rotating his players. I can't remember off the top of my head who it was that said this week that Sarri does not like to rotate and to not be surprised if he doesn't really rotate for cups.

While I don't expect him to play a brand new 11 for some of the cups (Especially with it being away to Liverpool) and Europa League, hopefully we do see some rotation with Ampadu, CHO, RLC and Christensen at least getting in the side. 

9 hours ago, RMH said:

Chelsea has played Amapadu as MF as well, I believe a couple of times with Conte.

I want to say Conte played him in midfield against Carrotbag, could be wrong on the team, but I know he played him in midfield at least one time.

9 hours ago, coco said:

We'll have to wait and see, on the ball he's comfortable, without the ball it's a different game, that's when he needs to prove his worth, the blocks, tackles, marking, ushering, so much to master without the ball. David Luiz never mastered it still to this day, would of been great to have JT here mentoring him on his defending.

I was thinking this as I was reading your post. Surely he can learn a thing or two off the likes of Cahill/Dave but no one would be better than JT. 

9 minutes ago, Munkworth said:

I was thinking this as I was reading your post. Surely he can learn a thing or two off the likes of Cahill/Dave but no one would be better than JT. 

One player doesn't make a defence, but one player can control a defence. JT was brilliant at controlling a defence, i don't think Cahill or Dave have got that magic quality. Ethan has shown signs of it, but JT would implement it into his dna, surely he will end up back here pretty soon ?

Strange that he played in midfield. If Chelsea see him as a defender then surely this doesn’t help him at all? I get the versatility part but encouraging him to be a midfielder when the past 2 managers have played him as a defender is a bit of a head f***k. I’d love to see him start but 1. We have Christensen waiting in the wing and 2. Defensive positioning and tactical quality is the most important thing. You can be good on the ball but if you don’t have that defensive nous it’s pointless even trying. (Just pointing this out as a lot of people are saying he’s quality on the ball but he let’s not forget he needs to be a good defender first and foremost)

If our managers were given a reasonable amount of time to build something, then I am sure the managers would be prepared to give more playing time to our most talented young players. You can't expect managers to give youth a chance knowing they have to win very quickly or they are out the door. Now that we've taken a bit of a punt on an older manager who's never won anything, it might be the sign that the club is going to change and give this manager the time that he needs to build something. 

Ampadu will get games, but to expect him to become a starter is a bit far fetched. He done well against a very poor Ireland side, but the PL is a different ball game against the experienced players. I would rather not rush him. Let him play in the smaller cup games etc, but don't rush him because he'll end up making mistakes and then be criticised for it. 

There seems a rush to get young players playing at the top level early. Truth is though they don't develop properly until  their early twenties and many who start at a very early age end up with injury problems as their career progresses.

Ethan signs a new 5 year deal.

https://www.chelseafc.com/en/news/2018/9/19/ethan-extends

Great News. Now we just need to start giving him some game time - starting on Thursday.