Do you think he could do it? 

I haven't watched much of him at Derby but I've heard good things. 

Definitely. I've watched quite a bit of youth football over the years. Now to compare him to someone like Ruben - I was never overly impressed with Ruben, he was always a one trick pony using his size advantage to drive the ball forward and occasionally score a goal. You never really saw a great desire to stamp his authority, to put in a shift etc. You got that with Mount, along with the good technical ability. Ruben under Sarri is a different beast though to even the one that played under Mourinho MK.2. But I would still back Mount to surpass him in the current setup over the next 3 years.

I really have to wonder if we will sell Barkley if the transfer ban is suspended.  I hope we do.  Mount should take his spot, and Reece James can play CM, though RB is obviously the preferred position for him.

On 04/05/2019 at 01:02, venom2011 said:

On 03/05/2019 at 17:59, Slojo said:

Do you think he could do it? 

I haven't watched much of him at Derby but I've heard good things. 

Definitely. I've watched quite a bit of youth football over the years. Now to compare him to someone like Ruben - I was never overly impressed with Ruben, he was always a one trick pony using his size advantage to drive the ball forward and occasionally score a goal. You never really saw a great desire to stamp his authority, to put in a shift etc. You got that with Mount, along with the good technical ability. Ruben under Sarri is a different beast though to even the one that played under Mourinho MK.2. But I would still back Mount to surpass him in the current setup over the next 3 years.

Interesting views on RLC. Saw Gary Lineker talking him about this year. He watched Ruben from a young age as his boy was involved in youth football at his level. Lineker said RLC had absolutely everything and he had no doubts, even at that age, that he would play at the very highest level.I

Would love to see him used as a no: 10. I think he could be the best in the world in that position.

34 minutes ago, just said:

Interesting views on RLC. Saw Gary Lineker talking him about this year. He watched Ruben from a young age as his boy was involved in youth football at his level. Lineker said RLC had absolutely everything and he had no doubts, even at that age, that he would play at the very highest level.I

Would love to see him used as a no: 10. I think he could be the best in the world in that position.

I think that would restrict him to be honest, unless we revert to counter attack he won't have many chances to utilize his bursts of pace through the middle.

Logically if he is receiving the ball higher up the pitch, his strength and quick feet will take him into the danger area faster. And he will have less players to beat. 

All hypothetical though. I can't see Sarri even giving it a try.

I thought he did alright when he came on last night, he looked like he had something to prove which he does. Now with Loftus Cheek infront of him he realises he cant just keeping giving it safe.

Yes played well when he came. Showed so much more than Kovacic did all night and big balls to take the first penalty.

Glenn Hoddle on B T Sport was saying he would love too see Barkley and RLC together in the middle with Kante behind them. 

Edited May 10, 20197 yr by just

RLC and Barkley are enough for that midfield spot, we don't need Kovacic permanently.

53 minutes ago, just said:

Yes played well when he came. Showed so much more than Kovacic did all night and big balls to take the first penalty.

Glenn Hoddle on B T Sport was saying he would love too see Barkley and RLC together in the middle with Kante behind them. 

he has been saying this for months - Hoddle is thinking about England first & seeing how these two can help propel England in the future - Hoddle has been banging on how Chelsea don't promote the Youth enough & he has a valid point

1 hour ago, just said:

Yes played well when he came. Showed so much more than Kovacic did all night and big balls to take the first penalty.

Glenn Hoddle on B T Sport was saying he would love too see Barkley and RLC together in the middle with Kante behind them. 

I watched the game with a couple of mates last night and all 3 us were rubbing our hands together thinking Barkley was coming on for Kovacic and we were going to go it, only to be see RLC's number come up. 

Apparently he had a knock, but I think we wouldve been dangerous on the break with those 2 in the mood they were in last night, just a shame we couldn't get them on the pitch together.

Barkley has had a couple of good cameos recently, maybe he is raising his game, now he has seen himself drop behind RLC in the pecking order.

Played well and was another good substitution. For some reason our midfield caved in at the start of the second half.

Genuinely can't think of one outstanding thing he did last night. Or is him not doing anything wrong now considered him playing well?

43 minutes ago, RIP Mourinho said:

Genuinely can't think of one outstanding thing he did last night. Or is him not doing anything wrong now considered him playing well?

IMHO he was great going forward & looking to score from long range - also he was the first Chelsea player to convert a penalty

1 hour ago, RIP Mourinho said:

Genuinely can't think of one outstanding thing he did last night. Or is him not doing anything wrong now considered him playing well?

One bang average performance and suddenly everybody thinks we have our midfield sorted with this guy our only option behind RLC.  Give me a break.  We could sell Barkley for at least 30m and if we don't want to reinvest it in an attacking midfielder, Mount could give us at least the same level Barkley does, if not more.

3 hours ago, RIP Mourinho said:

Genuinely can't think of one outstanding thing he did last night. Or is him not doing anything wrong now considered him playing well?

Wrong thread. I think you meant to post that in Jorginho is a Blue.

3 hours ago, RIP Mourinho said:

Genuinely can't think of one outstanding thing he did last night. Or is him not doing anything wrong now considered him playing well?

Not necessarily outstanding but he injected some attacking impetus back into the team. 

RLC was fading fast in the second half and Barkely’s introduction helped bring our performance level back up having been on the back foot for the majority of the second half. 

I think he helped us wrestle back some control of the game when Frankfurt were putting us under a lot of pressure. 

Yeah I thought he at least tried a few things and created some half chances. It was positive performance. 

I guess we’re still waiting for it to really click with Barkley. We’ve seen flashes but not enough of it. It’s been a decent first season from him though, he’s shown enough for us to build on 

5 hours ago, RIP Mourinho said:

Genuinely can't think of one outstanding thing he did last night. Or is him not doing anything wrong now considered him playing well?

 When Barkley's performance is par people say he played great but when Jorginho's performance is par people say he played sh!t. A common trend I've noticed all season.

7 hours ago, Frankie8Lampard said:

 When Barkley's performance is par people say he played great but when Jorginho's performance is par people say he played sh!t. A common trend I've noticed all season.

And vice versa. 

When Jorginho's performance is par you have some people saying he had a "fantastic game" and was easily MOTM. Just look at the thread from the Frankfurt game on Thursday if you don't believe me. And that's a common trend I've noticed all season.

11 hours ago, just said:

Wrong thread. I think you meant to post that in Jorginho is a Blue.

Jorginho was brilliant, made interceptions, tackles, cut through the midfield with passes and that turn inside our own box to set up a counter attack was genius. 

Still waiting for someone to give me an example of one thing Barkley did that made them go 'wow'. 

Just now, RIP Mourinho said:

Jorginho was brilliant, made interceptions, tackles, cut through the midfield with passes and that turn inside our own box to set up a counter attack was genius. 

Still waiting for someone to give me an example of one thing Barkley did that made them go 'wow'. 

The only thing I liked about Barkley was that in the first few months of the season hew as one of our only players that would actually like to pass the ball forward and take risks, look for that killer ball and shot. But lately he has been so passive, I think he has been poor this year tbh. 

2 minutes ago, Slojo said:

The only thing I liked about Barkley was that in the first few months of the season hew as one of our only players that would actually like to pass the ball forward and take risks, look for that killer ball and shot. But lately he has been so passive, I think he has been poor this year tbh. 

Agreed, in the first two months or so i thought he was our answer to the Hamsik role Sarri loved at Napoli but he seems to have gone backwards this season in terms of development. RLC easily ahead of him and i'd rather take a risk with Mount ahead of him too.

2 minutes ago, RIP Mourinho said:

Agreed, in the first two months or so i thought he was our answer to the Hamsik role Sarri loved at Napoli but he seems to have gone backwards this season in terms of development. RLC easily ahead of him and i'd rather take a risk with Mount ahead of him too.

Even in his best form he isn't consistent enough, I don't think he'll ever turn out to be that player we need in central midfield to pull the strings and be that spare man in midfield to make things happen. But he was only 15 million, we took the gamble, it isn't a big loss, if we were to sell him I think we would make a profit. 

RLC looks the better talent anyway, if we can keep him fit for the full season we have no complaints in that area. 

At least he is a player we can easily sell if we need too.

3 hours ago, RIP Mourinho said:

Jorginho was brilliant, made interceptions, tackles, cut through the midfield with passes and that turn inside our own box to set up a counter attack was genius. 

Still waiting for someone to give me an example of one thing Barkley did that made them go 'wow'. 

Well there was that hospital ball played in to him when he was under pressure just inside our half, (think it was Jorginho who passed that). Barkley held possession against two opponents, (he can do that with his body strength), spun away, carried the ball away from another and finished with a sweet long pass to Pedro on the right. It was a lovely piece of play. Wouldn't say it was "brilliant" didn't make me go "wow", but then I also didn't see the brilliant, wowey play of Jorginho that you say happened and he was on the pitch an awfully lot longer than Barkley.

Personally, I don't think any of our players were "brilliant" on Thursday, Barkley included. But he certainly played well when he came on. As did Zappacosta.