January Window 17/18

[Sun zhi]

Ah... These windows... Make you start dreaming about the possibilities, and then you watch the players you want head elsewhere or stay put.

Someone flood Abramovic's email inbox with videos of both Sanchez and Mahrez.

 

Edited January 2, 2018 by Sun zhi

[Zeta]

12 hours ago, Scott Harris said:

We would have a better chance at getting Mahrez ourselves than going in for Sanchez. Sanchez will go to the team that will offer him the most money, we won't offer him more than City.

[Michael]

We have 0 chance of signing Sanchez.  I'd love it if we did, but there's no chance Arsenal are selling their best player to us, and there's no way Sanchez would even come to us.  Mahrez would be a much easier signing, and even that'll be a difficult one if we even move for him.

[Ukraine Bolt]

Would love us to sign A. Telles. I was excited when we were rumoured to get him a few years back. I imagine he'll be another Hulk that we just get linked to every window though. 

[Zeta]

If we're looking for another LB, we should be looking for a fast/dynamic one, to complement Alonso's skillset.

Sandro is the obvious one, there is also:

 

 

Edited January 2, 2018 by Zeta

[enigma]

23 hours ago, Zeta said:

I can't see Sanchez going anywhere except Man City or PSG. 

or bayern. if sanchez goes for free he has his pick of any club. he didn't want to play for liverpool because it was up north, so not sure going to city is going to satisfy his wants. i suppose if city throw load of wages at him, but psg can afford those wages too, and bayern need replacements for ribery/robben soon enough. honestly, he could go anywhere. hell, even real madrid could come in for him if he's on a free. arsenal would be shooting themselves in the foot if they sold him this month for 30 million. 

[enigma]

so the reports today we are looking at another striker, we are still pursuing lemar and want barkley. if we don't sign a lwb i don't see us fairing too well this season, it's an area which needs badly strengthening. and this boakye guy we are pursuing as a striker, is he any good? 

Edited January 2, 2018 by enigma

[opinionsarelike]

43 minutes ago, enigma said:

and this boakye guy we are pursuing as a striker, is he any good?

doubt anyone knows enough about him, unless you're a red star belgrade fan as well, but conte bought him when he coached juventus.

[wallosh]

so the reports today we are looking at another striker, we are still pursuing lemar and want barkley. if we don't sign a lwb i don't see us fairing too well this season, it's an area which needs badly strengthening. and this boakye guy we are pursuing as a striker, is he any good? 

I won't take Boakye over Mitchy

[Sun zhi]

Re. A striker. I don't care if he goes for Peter B****y Crouch. 

I just don't want to see that awful false nine garbage.

As long as it's a striker he chooses to bring in and trusts to play, I'm fine with it.

[Argo]

1 minute ago, Sun zhi said:

Re. A striker. I don't care if he goes for Peter B****y Crouch. 

I just don't want to see that awful false nine garbage.

As long as it's a striker he chooses to bring in and trusts to play, I'm fine with it.

Im not a fan of false 9 in general, but with Hazard, Pedro and Willian it's worked very well, small sample size but it's certainly turned out a lot better than 'garbage'.

[jack_super_class]

42 minutes ago, Sun zhi said:

Re. A striker. I don't care if he goes for Peter B****y Crouch. 

I just don't want to see that awful false nine garbage.

As long as it's a striker he chooses to bring in and trusts to play, I'm fine with it.

But why? are results are pretty good when using it. They all seem to link up nicely together.

[RickUK]

Conte seemed to suggest in his presser that he has given the board an opinion of who he wants.  I think we will get someone, just who? Hunch says Ross Barkley

 

[Alakshendra]

Hi All , please forgive my comment if anyone find it rude.

Another transfer window and i can see many bids and rumors going from united Dybala , griezmann , Kroos and than there were rumors when they thought of Sandro as well.

i feel why we are not trying harder , our team plays better , city is way ahead of us because we didnt upgraded and let our players go and even now i dont see any concrete news of our signings ,made me real worried now

[yorkleyblue]

1 hour ago, Sun zhi said:

............................................................................

I just don't want to see that awful false nine garbage.

........................................................

The garbage set-up that has been used 5 times and we won 4 and drew 1 of those, scoring loads and conceding very little.  Is THAT what you don't want to see?

[Valerie]

38 minutes ago, Alakshendra said:

Hi All , please forgive my comment if anyone find it rude.

Another transfer window and i can see many bids and rumors going from united Dybala , griezmann , Kroos and than there were rumors when they thought of Sandro as well.

i feel why we are not trying harder , our team plays better , city is way ahead of us because we didnt upgraded and let our players go and even now i dont see any concrete news of our signings ,made me real worried now

Oh here we go again...

We don't know what's happening behind the scenes at Chelsea or at any other club, so why waste a perfectly good worry!

[TomCFC85]

Guys, I know we all wanted to go for Messi this window but I think Griezmann is way more realistic, maybe get Sandro as well but I'm not too fussed. 

[dkw]

51 minutes ago, Alakshendra said:

Hi All , please forgive my comment if anyone find it rude.

Another transfer window and i can see many bids and rumors going from united Dybala , griezmann , Kroos and than there were rumors when they thought of Sandro as well.

i feel why we are not trying harder , our team plays better , city is way ahead of us because we didnt upgraded and let our players go and even now i dont see any concrete news of our signings ,made me real worried now

True, if we havent signed at least 19 world class players by January 4th then i`ll scream and scream and scream until I`m sick.....

Edited January 2, 2018 by dkw

[Sun zhi]

4 hours ago, Argo said:

Im not a fan of false 9 in general, but with Hazard, Pedro and Willian it's worked very well, small sample size but it's certainly turned out a lot better than 'garbage'.

I know some don't mind seeing it, but for me the team looks a lot better with a proper striker on. This false 9 business reduces Hazard's play to flicks here and there, and the overall play lacks genuine threat. 

I'd rather not see the team:

A) Pass it around till it goes to the wing and then there's no one around in the box when in a good position, so you start again or try to

B) pass it into Hazard and Willian to try their little flicks and in the few times it works, they'll scuff a half chance towards goal. 

The players basically have no idea what they're trying to do... That's the way it comes across for me. There was a moment in one of the games where you saw Alonso in the box from open play with his back to goal trying to fashion shooting chance because there's no striker in there. What's all that about? Obviously it's unlikely to work.

Wouldn't you much rather it was Morata, Batshuayi or another striker in that area doing that?

 

Yorkley Blue has said 5 games, I don't know about the 5th. The 4 that come to mind are:

Everton (A) 0-0

Scoreline speaks for itself, imo

 

Southampton (H) 1-0

Alonso freekick rescued the team. Aside from that they were doing poorly in creating clear chances against a poor Southampton team at home.

 

Huddersfield (A) 3-1

It looks like a good display from the scoreline, Huddersfield were awful and shot themselves in the foot three times, with a keeper mistake, an individual error from a defender and some more terrible defending from a cross that allowed Willian of all people to score a header.

Taking away those moments the team looked poor in terms of making chances even against a poorly performing lower level team.

As soon as a striker came on nearer the end, the team looked more dangerous, something even match commentator mentioned (whoever he was), but it was easy to notice.

 

Qarabag (A) 4-0

Qarabag.

With 10 men from 19 minutes.

 

 

Sure, it's likely to be safer defensively in the sense that you have more players behind the ball more often. 

I just think, watching the games, it's like you're starting with a handicap in terms of your goal threat.

Do you think that playing a striker and Hazard in his position in a 3-4-3 would have resulted in worse performances than when playing with a false 9?

Personally, I don't, even though of course we have no way of knowing.

 

I get it that some do think it works.

For me, I only see it holding the team back in scoring goals, providing genuine threat to defences, and in creating clear cut chances that will fall to the players who can score them.

Edited January 2, 2018 by Sun zhi

[big blue]

37 minutes ago, Sun zhi said:

I know some don't mind seeing it, but for me the team looks a lot better with a proper striker on. This false 9 business reduces Hazard's play to flicks here and there, and the overall play lacks genuine threat. 

I'd rather not see the team:

A) Pass it around till it goes to the wing and then there's no one around in the box when in a good position, so you start again or try to

B) pass it into Hazard and Willian to try their little flicks and in the few times it works, they'll scuff a half chance towards goal. 

The players basically have no idea what they're trying to do... That's the way it comes across for me. There was a moment in one of the games where you saw Alonso in the box from open play with his back to goal trying to fashion shooting chance because there's no striker in there. What's all that about? Obviously it's unlikely to work.

Wouldn't you much rather it was Morata, Batshuayi or another striker in that area doing that?

 

Yorkley Blue has said 5 games, I don't know about the 5th. The 4 that come to mind are:

Everton (A) 0-0

Scoreline speaks for itself, imo

 

Southampton (H) 1-0

Alonso freekick rescued the team. Aside from that they were doing poorly in creating clear chances against a poor Southampton team at home.

 

Huddersfield (A) 3-1

It looks like a good display from the scoreline, Huddersfield were awful and shot themselves in the foot three times, with a keeper mistake, an individual error from a defender and some more terrible defending from a cross that allowed Willian of all people to score a header.

Taking away those moments the team looked poor in terms of making chances even against a poorly performing lower level team.

As soon as a striker came on nearer the end, the team looked more dangerous, something even match commentator mentioned (whoever he was), but it was easy to notice.

 

Qarabag (A) 4-0

Qarabag.

With 10 men from 19 minutes.

 

 

Sure, it's likely to be safer defensively in the sense that you have more players behind the ball more often. 

I just think, watching the games, it's like you're starting with a handicap in terms of your goal threat.

Do you think that playing a striker and Hazard in his position in a 3-4-3 would have resulted in worse performances than when playing with a false 9?

Personally, I don't, even though of course we have no way of knowing.

 

I get it that some do think it works.

For me, I only see it holding the team back in scoring goals, providing genuine threat to defences, and in creating clear cut chances that will fall to the players who can score them.

also last season at home to Bournemouth we won 3 nil, and we also beat leicester away 3 nil.

I appreciate it's not everyone's cup of tea, but results have been good. I'd much rather hazard play up top than Batshuayi, especially if we brought in another winger as Willian and pedro have been unconvincing this season.

 

[Ernie_blue]

5 hours ago, Sun zhi said:

I know some don't mind seeing it, but for me the team looks a lot better with a proper striker on. This false 9 business reduces Hazard's play to flicks here and there, and the overall play lacks genuine threat. 

I'd rather not see the team:

A) Pass it around till it goes to the wing and then there's no one around in the box when in a good position, so you start again or try to

B) pass it into Hazard and Willian to try their little flicks and in the few times it works, they'll scuff a half chance towards goal. 

The players basically have no idea what they're trying to do... That's the way it comes across for me. There was a moment in one of the games where you saw Alonso in the box from open play with his back to goal trying to fashion shooting chance because there's no striker in there. What's all that about? Obviously it's unlikely to work.

Wouldn't you much rather it was Morata, Batshuayi or another striker in that area doing that?

 

Yorkley Blue has said 5 games, I don't know about the 5th. The 4 that come to mind are:

Everton (A) 0-0

Scoreline speaks for itself, imo

 

Southampton (H) 1-0

Alonso freekick rescued the team. Aside from that they were doing poorly in creating clear chances against a poor Southampton team at home.

 

Huddersfield (A) 3-1

It looks like a good display from the scoreline, Huddersfield were awful and shot themselves in the foot three times, with a keeper mistake, an individual error from a defender and some more terrible defending from a cross that allowed Willian of all people to score a header.

Taking away those moments the team looked poor in terms of making chances even against a poorly performing lower level team.

As soon as a striker came on nearer the end, the team looked more dangerous, something even match commentator mentioned (whoever he was), but it was easy to notice.

 

Qarabag (A) 4-0

Qarabag.

With 10 men from 19 minutes.

 

 

Sure, it's likely to be safer defensively in the sense that you have more players behind the ball more often. 

I just think, watching the games, it's like you're starting with a handicap in terms of your goal threat.

Do you think that playing a striker and Hazard in his position in a 3-4-3 would have resulted in worse performances than when playing with a false 9?

Personally, I don't, even though of course we have no way of knowing.

 

I get it that some do think it works.

For me, I only see it holding the team back in scoring goals, providing genuine threat to defences, and in creating clear cut chances that will fall to the players who can score them.

You got to remember some people only look at the final scores and not the performances or opposition involved, i guess the final score is all that matters but it can paper over the cracks. Abit like Utd having a cracking start to the season but then everyone realised they picked there own fixtures.  Whenever i watch the false number 9 i only find it very frustrating and its something which will only work against the weaker teams, sometimes then it struggles.

Very good post but then you cant say a single bad word about Chelsea fc without the lynch mob being after you 

[Deino]

John Cross says Sanchez has a 25m transfer fee.

[didierforever]

On 12/30/2017 at 06:36, Spiller86 said:

We do. I think we have Moses, Cahill, Christensen, Drinkwater currently as homegrown. So 4 out of 8. Meaning a max squad size of 21. Add Ruben and Tammy to that next season. 

Cesc too

[didierforever]

2 hours ago, Deino said:

John Cross says Sanchez has a 25m transfer fee.

Problem with Sanchez is the wage he is demanding. If you give sanchez 400mil pw, then you have to give hazard the same and the others will start demanding on the same level. 

I can see why we "might" not be going in for sanchez.

[PedroMendez]

18 hours ago, enigma said:

so the reports today we are looking at another striker, we are still pursuing lemar and want barkley. if we don't sign a lwb i don't see us fairing too well this season, it's an area which needs badly strengthening. and this boakye guy we are pursuing as a striker, is he any good? 

Don't worry about LWB we have Baba coming back to fitness all our problems will be solved