So with Kovacic out, what's our back up if one of Jorginho or Kante needs replacing in the pivot tonight ? Mount ? James ?

Poor Billy. TT really must not rate him at all to not even take him as part of the squad ... 

1 hour ago, charierre said:

I think he will play in the SF against City

Probably. A nice simple game to ease him back in gently.

When Emerson gets played in front of you, you kind of know there’s little chance (at least this season). A shame, really, I feel like we are missing here a big opportunity to build up a proper Chelsea spine with another gem from the Academy. Hopefully he’s been saved for Brighton.

Edited April 17, 20215 yr by RMH

So now that we have finally seen him start and play a full PL game we can clearly see that he has what it takes. The question for me is still the same though, is he more fit to play where Kovacic (or in this game Mount) plays and if that's the case we should really buy a new DM to play deeper with Jorginho.

Billy's journey to the top is going to be tough. He needs to offer more than Kova/Kante to break into the starting 11. As much as I hate to admit it, we only have 1 true DM that sits deep and that is Jorginho.

Billy is more in the mould of Keane just a tad shorter

Edited May 1, 20215 yr by Deino

Just now, Gol15 said:

So now that we have finally seen him start and play a full PL game we can clearly see that he has what it takes. The question for me is still the same though, is he more fit to play where Kovacic (or in this game Mount) plays and if that's the case we should really buy a new DM to play deeper with Jorginho.

He improved in the second half, but for me he was to easily bullied off the ball to be playing infront of our defence. I really don't like Jorginho playing there either to be honest, with a proper DM we have the option to remove a central defender and have two spots for all our advanced midfielders (Havertz, Kante, Kovacic, Mount, Gilmour).

1 minute ago, comtrend said:

He improved in the second half, but for me he was to easily bullied off the ball to be playing infront of our defence. I really don't like Jorginho playing there either to be honest, with a proper DM we have the option to remove a central defender and have two spots for all our advanced midfielders (Havertz, Kante, Kovacic, Mount, Gilmour).

I wouldn’t read to much into this performance he is hardly played .. not worried about getting him bullied .. he will be a different player with 3-4 games under his belt..

Can't really hold this one against him as he was lacking match practice and was pretty much on his own in the centre.

Hopefully we can get top 4 done asap so he can have a couple more league games at the end to build on.

Keeping him here in January has possibly put him back a little in his development especially after his injury, he needs game time. He looks like he could do with a loan, maybe 6 months in the Championship to toughen him up.

He grew into the game and was better in the 2nd half, glad he wasn't hooked off and left to stew in his poor first half only.

Good game for him to come into and he did okay but looked rusty which is understandable. 

Great little player, but his main issue will always be his size and not to get bullied off the ball too easily. It happened a few times today and it's something he will need to work on. That said, Havertz and Ziyech also got brushed aside a few times today, but where they are further up the pitch it's not as costly.

 

Bit of a conundrum because he needs gametime to improve but on the other hand he's not as good as the three players in front of him in the pecking order.

So a loan would seem like the sensible decision. He's started against Krasnodar, Morecambe, Luton, Barnsley, Sheffield United and Fulham this season but he's not been close to hitting the heights of Liverpool & Everton last season in any of them. So that's a bit of a let down but he's young with time on his side so that's good.

Edited May 1, 20215 yr by Sindre

17 minutes ago, charierre said:

Keeping him here in January has possibly put him back a little in his development especially after his injury, he needs game time. He looks like he could do with a loan, maybe 6 months in the Championship to toughen him up.

If we loan him we simply must sign a new DM there is no way around it.

Just now, Gol15 said:

If we loan him we simply must sign a new DM there is no way around it.

I actually think we have to do that anyway. I'm not convinced he will ever be comfortable in the Jorginho role.

1 minute ago, Sindre said:

Bit of a conundrum because he needs gametime to improve but on the other hand he's not as good as the three players in front of him in the pecking order.

So a loan would seem like the sensible decision. He's started against Krasnodar, Morecambe, Luton, Barnsley, Sheffield United and Fulham this season but he's not been close to hitting the heights of Liverpool & Everton last season in any of them. So that's a bit of a let down but he's young with time on his side so that's good.

If we can find an appropriate manager (in terms of playing style) that wants him then by all means send him there.

If on the other hand his main suitors are teams managed by the likes of Bruce or Hodgson and the ilk I'd rather he stayed here and we went down the Pep/Foden route of drip feeding him in over time.

I'd love see him go up against say Veratti, and see who comes out on top...

I see a lot of comments from his performance yesterday.. I think people are also forgetting the system we played.. unlike having two at the base we actually put mount much higher making the job even more difficult for Gilly.. 

We've won every league game Gilmore has started this season. 😎

15 hours ago, Argo said:

If we can find an appropriate manager (in terms of playing style) that wants him then by all means send him there.

If on the other hand his main suitors are teams managed by the likes of Bruce or Hodgson and the ilk I'd rather he stayed here and we went down the Pep/Foden route of drip feeding him in over time.

No I agree.

But it's not just Bruce and Hodgson that prefers stronger and more athletic kind of players in midfield though. Not sure I can think of an EPL team Gilmour fit in right now as he's just too small and slow but perhaps some team in Germany could be a good fit for him to develop.

 

15 hours ago, Ballack & Blu said:

I'd love see him go up against say Veratti, and see who comes out on top...

Gilmour? C’mon man, Verrati is one of the best midfielders in the world.

3 minutes ago, dansubrosa said:

Gilmour? C’mon man, Verrati is one of the best midfielders in the world.

Was he when he was 19yo ?

I don’t think he did as bad as some people make him. He had a couple of sloppy moments in the first half, but he was followed everywhere by Decordova, he did not have any other Chelsea player around him other than the CBs and was sold with some passes by them having a man on him. The second half he improved and I thought he played well. Considering that he has not seen any game time since Barnsley, if I remember correctly, he was not bad. He needs more playing time and this kid of games are ideal for him.

PS - in any case, he did not as bad as Jorginho against WBA, and that is my take-home-message...

2 hours ago, coco said:

Was he when he was 19yo ?

He could well be as good as Verrati one day, certainly has the potential but matching up to Verrati today, no chance.

Young Billy came through a tough test, coming in to a 2 man midfield having not played for a fairly long time. Evidently a bit rusty, but got through unscathed and showed we can win games and control games with him playing in this system.

He is still distinctly 4th, possibly 5th choice for 1 of the CM slots, but TT needs to keep giving him minutes - although, as with Tammy, realistically, he is unlikely to see many mins until next season (unless we wrap up 4th spot relatively soon).

On 17/04/2021 at 22:43, RMH said:

When Emerson gets played in front of you, you kind of know there’s little chance (at least this season). A shame, really, I feel like we are missing here a big opportunity to build up a proper Chelsea spine with another gem from the Academy. Hopefully he’s been saved for Brighton.

Funny how quickly things change in football.

Started and finished two vital PL-games in a row now, with wins in both of them.

Some folks gave the manager plenty of grief for not playing him enough early enough. Time to give him credit now then for trusting Billy Gilmour in this crucial part of the season.

Good game today.