Yes we have no strikers (according to Antonio). But take Kante out of our midfield and we literally have no midfield either, and i mean NO midfield.

I don't rhink i can remember us having a midfield as bad as this in the last 25 years.

Dont sing that magic hat song no more, it's pathetic, he;s awful now, absolute crap.

Danny the Donkey Drinkwater, give me a break.

Bakayoko, omg it just get's worse.

Three words describe our midfield, sh*t crap turds.

 

15 minutes ago, coco said:

Yes we have no strikers (according to Antonio). But take Kante out of our midfield and we literally have no midfield either, and i mean NO midfield.

I don't rhink i can remember us having a midfield as bad as this in the last 25 years.

Dont sing that magic hat song no more, it's pathetic, he;s awful now, absolute crap.

Danny the Donkey Drinkwater, give me a break.

Bakayoko, omg it just get's worse.

Three words describe our midfield, sh*t crap turds.

 

Drinkwater is a decent bloke, but City is in a different level. Also, partnering with Cesc who cant defend physically not has the pace is a recipe for midfield disaster. We just made Drinkwater who is an average player's job even more difficult. IF it were upto me, I would have brought in David Luiz, who is capable of defending physically, has the pace and he can atleast offer something going forward. I dont think our midfield is as bad as you make it out to be - a  manager who wants his team to do good should easily be able to do better.

Problem is now we have 3-4 average midfielders earning sh*t loads and probably be hard to sell to get money back.

RB, CM  and a 10 need to be priority in the summer. If we lose hazard then he needs to be replaced also. 

 

 

34 minutes ago, coco said:

Yes we have no strikers (according to Antonio). But take Kante out of our midfield and we literally have no midfield either, and i mean NO midfield.

I don't rhink i can remember us having a midfield as bad as this in the last 25 years.

Dont sing that magic hat song no more, it's pathetic, he;s awful now, absolute crap.

Danny the Donkey Drinkwater, give me a break.

Bakayoko, omg it just get's worse.

Three words describe our midfield, sh*t crap turds.

 

None of our midfielders are good enough to play in a 2 bar kante. If we play 3, then we lose too much going forward. 

I'd sell fabregas, drinkwater, and bakayoko, and bring in players with good passing, good athletically, and good technically, so they can play under pressure. 

 

Totally agree with the central midfield problem and that performance  was embarrassing to say the least,were the champions of england for fcuk sake and we sit back and play long ball football with a 5ft8 player upfront? Hazard needs to play on the wing end of story he needs to be running at players not with his back to them!!!him and willian should be terrifying defences from the wings?

come on chels KTBFFH

I think DD is worthy of squad rotation in a Chelsea squad that is firing properly....right now it isn’t.

Agree with the rest, Cesc looks past his best and Baka is garbage. 

Our midfield has been hurt most from our reluctance to fork out for premium talent.

What happened to the lot that was laughing at ManUtd for buying Matic? We got Drinkwater and Bakayoko. We are garbage.

6 minutes ago, ZAYN-CFC said:

What happened to the lot that was laughing at ManUtd for buying Matic? We got Drinkwater and Bakayoko. We are garbage.

He plays a different role at United, if he was asked to do there what we wanted from him he’d be exposed again. Selling Matic is irrelevant.

Edited March 4, 20188 yr by Blue Exile

We failed to upgrade our midfield, actually like the whole team. Today without Kante we just were poor, Drinkwater is a good option but as a backup only. Fabregas has to be sold, and Bakayoko failed until now. 

We must bring at least two world class players to our midfield. ( I already know that using Loftus-Cheek or any academy player won't happen ).

We have to upgrade our midfield in the summer.

Send Baka out on loan and get someone with a bit of experience who can bomb forward. Vidal is leaving Bayern so he may be the best option but I see him going United or China.

Vidal is a bit old now. Best midfielder in my opinion is milinkovic savic of Lazio. Tall and powerful but very skillfull and scores goals from midfield like Lampard. He is young only 23 but would cost 90 million at least... 

10 minutes ago, JMaher94 said:

We have to upgrade our midfield in the summer.

Send Baka out on loan and get someone with a bit of experience who can bomb forward. Vidal is leaving Bayern so he may be the best option but I see him going United or China.

He'll be 24 when the season starts mate, just sell him now and cut our losses. 

Drinkwater is a good squad player as is Cesc, I think people are becoming very knee-jerk just over this one result, it's been like this all season why was nobody saying anything then? Our midfield is rubbish, we need another key player next to Kante.

I can't express how many times I've said this but I'll say it again, WE WERE SUPPOSED TO UPGRADE ON MATIC BUT NOT ONLY DID WE NOT UPGRADE ON HIM WE DIDN'T EVEN REPLACE HIM. 

 

It's not just about midfield. Liverpool have an even more underwhelming midfield and they don't seem to have many problems. At least we have Kante and Fabregas. It's about defence, attack, fullbacks, wingers. Everyone looks bad when the team can't keep possession of the ball, can't deal with a press, can't pass out from the back and is chasing shadows all game. Conte has the same problems as Mourinho against possession based pressing teams. Even when we won the league last season we struggled mightily against guess who regardless of the individual results of the games. Liverpool, City and Spurs. Its not a coincidence. 

Edited March 5, 20188 yr by The Liquidator

It's a strange one we don't seem to have an identity or a style of football as such, one minute we're playing out from the back the next we're hoofing it forward to 5'7 forwards.

If we want to play attacking football the right players have to be signed, look what klopps done with the scum they, might not be amazing players but he's got them all into his idea of football.

We've got half a team designed to counter attack half designed for possession need to decide what direction we are going in and fast.

9 hours ago, The Liquidator said:

It's not just about midfield. Liverpool have an even more underwhelming midfield and they don't seem to have many problems. At least we have Kante and Fabregas. It's about defence, attack, fullbacks, wingers. Everyone looks bad when the team can't keep possession of the ball, can't deal with a press, can't pass out from the back and is chasing shadows all game. Conte has the same problems as Mourinho against possession based pressing teams. Even when we won the league last season we struggled mightily against guess who regardless of the individual results of the games. Liverpool, City and Spurs. Its not a coincidence. 

I don't agree Liverpool have an underwhelming midfield. Can is very good, Henderson, Milner, and wijnaldum are all better in a 2 man midfield than any of our players bar kante. They all have good engines, and they press well. 

Liverpool are so dangerous going forward, that teams don't press them as much as they would with us, so their midfield gets a little more time on the ball.

Fabregas is done now. Bakayoko doesn't even look like a footballer, and drinkwater is 6/10 player at this level, which I don't think is good enough. 

I'm not sure how this forum was, but the previous one I was on

 

don't worry, - no troll; the moderator was just a bit over-promoted;

- wow. Absolute gushing and excitement over Bakayoko + Barkley, while hailing the signing of Drinkwater as a masterclass since he won a title playing next to Kante.

The short-sighted vision our board is becoming shared by the majority of our fanbase, and we can let it slide, but it's very annoying. (Maybe every club is the same?)
It's annoying to see before the season even begins how terrible our signings are; yet have the majority go 'yaaaaay!' like some toddlers, then fail to recognise that they have absolutely no right to be evaluating talent when the time comes, 20 games in, that a player still can't control a ball.
We deserve to all have fun and contribute our opinions, but this season and how it's going isn't a surprise to some. And those some are definitely marginalised when it comes to speaking-ill of new recruitments by people who've barely even watched players play, following a notion similar to 'well every player deserves a chance - every player can get better.'; regardless of forum.

Again, there's a new mentality among both board and majority of supporters and it's going to end up as simple poison. It's tail-between-legs; a complete lack of the grinta needed to be at the top like Madrid, Munich, Juve consistently are. How the hell do we go from winning the Champions League within the decade to this? It certainly wasn't Conte steering the ship post-2012 It's a drop in standards, trickling all the way from the top, the King, to his most loyal subjects around him.

Edited March 5, 20188 yr by fiel

DW has no resale value so we might as well keep him as a spare pair of legs on the bench or an option to load up the midfield if needed, also being homegrown is a plus.

I'd give Bakayoko a few more games next season as players can have a bit of a revival after a fresh start, but if it's the same sh*t then sell him in the same window.

Cesc is easily one of our best creative players, not useful in a 2 but depending on the situation and formation he is still a big asset.

We haven't seen much of Barkley and the verdict is still out there but because he was so cheap we might as well keep him, also homegrown advantage.

5 minutes ago, sonic90 said:

DW has no resale value so we might as well keep him as a spare pair of legs on the bench or an option to load up the midfield if needed, also being homegrown is a plus.

I'd give Bakayoko a few more games next season as players can have a bit of a revival after a fresh start, but if it's the same sh*t then sell him in the same window.

Cesc is easily one of our best creative players, not useful in a 2 but depending on the situation and formation he is still a big asset.

We haven't seen much of Barkley and the verdict is still out there but because he was so cheap we might as well keep him, also homegrown advantage.

I'm a big fabregas fan, but I he isn't the creative force he was last season. When in the last time he dominated a game, dictating and hitting world class passes? 

I think he is physically and mentally fatigued in games, that it now affects his contribution on the ball. He hits alot of loose passes now. 

If we played a 433, then I think he would be worth keeping around as an impact sub, but games just pass him by when he starts these days.

22 minutes ago, big blue said:

I'm a big fabregas fan, but I he isn't the creative force he was last season. When in the last time he dominated a game, dictating and hitting world class passes? 

I think he is physically and mentally fatigued in games, that it now affects his contribution on the ball. He hits alot of loose passes now. 

If we played a 433, then I think he would be worth keeping around as an impact sub, but games just pass him by when he starts these days.

But depending on the situation he can still be very useful, his best role is what he did last season, coming off the bench against a team that has no desire to go toe to toe with us and break them down, he was fresh every time he played because he played less as well. Whether he would be willing to stay and do that job is another issue.

I would keep Fab because I am fully expecting to go to a back 4 under a new manager, he can play in a 433 or 4231 and playing behind the striker, he will get enough games in a season. I would also get Van Ginkel back and give him a chance, sell either DW or Baka and put the money towards a top midfielder. Who would want to come to a team who might not be playing Champions league football I really don't know though, might have to take the chance on someone up and coming.

On ?04?/?03?/?2018 at 18:35, strangebutblue said:

Problem is now we have 3-4 average midfielders earning sh*t loads and probably be hard to sell to get money back.

RB, CM  and a 10 need to be priority in the summer. If we lose hazard then he needs to be replaced also. 

 

 

Highly doubt the top wages part. A key reason for being stuck with a lot of mediocre players is out reluctance to spend.

Think we can easily move the likes of Baka, Drinkwater and Barkley on for a small loss in transfer value. But unless the club was willing to offer top wages, the replacements would be of similar quality.

The main problem with our midfield is that we dont have, players who actually compliment eachother. Everything Matic does, Kanté does at a much higher level and the two are too much alike to okay together. They need a dynamic passer who can dictate play and carry the ball up field. While I agree that Bakaoyoko is dreadfull it doesnt help that Conte is using him in a role he has no idea how to do. He is too much like Matic. For some reason Conte has talked about having two ballwinners in midfield, that might work if you have a third midfielder, but in a pivot its very limiting. 

Funny thing is United is struggling with the exact same problem. Herrera was one of their best players last year, but he is useless next to Matic. They have tried mitigating the problem by playing Pogba out of position, but that clearly didnt work out and now they are in desperate need for another CM next to Matic

Edited March 6, 20188 yr by Xfaxtor