On 14/02/2020 at 17:50, rtwelch said:

Quote from the Guardian:

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2020/feb/14/hakim-ziyech-chelsea-ajax-mesmerising-talent-who-is-not-afraid-to-speak-his-mind

“Ziyech will never forget the support Doufikar offered and still invites him to Amsterdam for games. Doufikar, asked what has turned Ziyech from a good Eredivisie player into a world beater, says: “He has learned not to always put on his smoking jacket, but sometimes his overalls.”

Certainly Ziyech has added hard work to his eye-catching talent. He is no longer just a flair player. He makes more runs, he contributes heavily to the defensive work and always urges teammates to keep going, even at 4-0 up.”

Good hopefully he keeps us going when we go 1 -0 up

2 hours ago, Spiller86 said:

I do worry about our trend of buying waifs. I would like us to sign some more robust characters to avoid us becoming Arsenal 2.0 

Hazard did alright. 

22 hours ago, PloKoon13 said:

Something about football that I don't think I will ever cease to enjoy is the deranged fury evoked from English people whenever someone takes a short corner.

Modern sport analyses copious metrics and football is no different. Short corners ensure the attacking team retains possession where as crossing the ball into the attacking area means there is a chance the attacking team can lose possession. That said, the Racing Post did not some analysis which showed the goal from corner ratio was higher when balls were crossed directly as opposed to short corners. Personally I think it is best to mix it up a bit. Long corners still have their place.

Very curious to see how he will do. Hopefully people aren't expecting a conventional winger, he's more of a playmaker on the wing.

He gets upset and angry when teams get physical against him. He doesn't like to be manhandled. Hopefully that's just an Ajax thing and it can be coached out of him.

Really excited about Ziyech. I feel he can become a Chelsea legend. We need a player who is creating goals and always has a goal in his mind.

He should be a good addition and with some of our youngsters gaining experience next season is already looking exciting. The great thing is no one saw this coming and well played to Frank. I bet he has one or two more surprises for next season.

6 hours ago, Munkworth said:

Hazard did alright. 

Yes but Ivan took Hazard to squats training and showed him his secret to growing a giant arse.

Ziyech is tall and thin. Wizard no doubt and we need that sort of player. I just don't want us to have too many of that type. We need some physicality too.

12 hours ago, coco said:

The league is overrated ? or the players ? or the clubs ?

And who does this 'overrating' ? And how is it overrated ?

TV figures, and average attendance figures suggests it is the most popular league in the World.

Talent wise in my opinion, last season was a great season for English clubs, but about 8 years before that English clubs were doing terrible in Europe. 

On 16/02/2020 at 02:47, Slojo said:

I think he has a point here though, I've always felt the Premier League has been massively overrated for years. 

over hyped yes overrated I am not so sure, I think it often overstated as the "best" league however there is a strong case for it being the most "competitive" league. (of the top divisions) 

16 minutes ago, Bonzodog29 said:

over hyped yes overrated I am not so sure, I think it often overstated as the "best" league however there is a strong case for it being the most "competitive" league. (of the top divisions) 

Perhaps... For the most part it's definitely one of the best leagues to watch, it's very competitive with lots of thrilling rivalries although title races aren't so competitive these days. However, talent wise it's not as good as a lot of people make out. We'll wait and see how everyone does in Europe first, but I fully believe Liverpool are just the best of bad bunch, no other team but them can string more than 2 wins in a row together. 

13 minutes ago, Slojo said:

Perhaps... For the most part it's definitely one of the best leagues to watch, it's very competitive with lots of thrilling rivalries although title races aren't so competitive these days. However, talent wise it's not as good as a lot of people make out. We'll wait and see how everyone does in Europe first, but I fully believe Liverpool are just the best of bad bunch, no other team but them can string more than 2 wins in a row together. 

Although it pains me to say it, Liverpool are current European champions and runners up the previous year. So when you say "best of a bad bunch", presumably this bad bunch includes the whole of Europe.

38 minutes ago, bluedave said:

Although it pains me to say it, Liverpool are current European champions and runners up the previous year. So when you say "best of a bad bunch", presumably this bad bunch includes the whole of Europe.

That was last season, like I said, we'll wait and see. 

10 hours ago, Slojo said:

Talent wise in my opinion, last season was a great season for English clubs, but about 8 years before that English clubs were doing terrible in Europe. 

Not really overrated though, i dont think anyone suggests we have the most talented players in the World in the EPL, sure the media red tops and Sky might get carried away, but thats just to sell papers/subscriptions. The rest of us are more realistic. We know the most talented players are on the continent, we just sold our gem to them, the top players leave our league and go to the continent.

I'll settle for having the best stadiums, the best atmosphere, full stadiums.....

Show me a league where a team loses 0-9 at home, then 8 weeks later play against the same club, with the same team, and wins 2-1 away in the return fixture.

 

 

very excited to see him for us! I think he will go down as a great player for Chelsea

11 hours ago, Slojo said:

Talent wise in my opinion, last season was a great season for English clubs, but about 8 years before that English clubs were doing terrible in Europe. 

I don't judge best by the teams at the top. I judge best by depth. If we line the teams up 1 thru 20 match play style, who has the most wins at the end of the match?

I think the EPL would be tough to beat in most years. This year Spain, Germany and Italy are much more interesting though. 

From a spectator point of view, it's not even close. My friend worked at BeInSports a few years ago, he said the Championship out-drew their Serie A, League 1, and La Liga coverage unless Real or Barca were playing. 

Ajax found a replacement in a 19 year old from Brazil already.

On 17/02/2020 at 11:40, coco said:

Not really overrated though, i dont think anyone suggests we have the most talented players in the World in the EPL, sure the media red tops and Sky might get carried away, but thats just to sell papers/subscriptions. The rest of us are more realistic. We know the most talented players are on the continent, we just sold our gem to them, the top players leave our league and go to the continent.

I'll settle for having the best stadiums, the best atmosphere, full stadiums.....

Show me a league where a team loses 0-9 at home, then 8 weeks later play against the same club, with the same team, and wins 2-1 away in the return fixture.

 

 

Do we even have that? Germany has a fantastic atmosphere and I believe they have more people attending their stadiums than we do. EPL probably generates the most revenue, and it is an entertaining league to follow, but it's all over the place talent wise. And Liverpool just lost 1-0 to Atletico so are they really the best team in the world? The team that's destroying everyone in the league right now. 

1 minute ago, Slojo said:

Do we even have that? Germany has a fantastic atmosphere and I believe they have more people attending their stadiums than we do. EPL probably generates the most revenue, and it is an entertaining league to follow, but it's all over the place talent wise. And Liverpool just lost 1-0 to Atletico so are they really the best team in the world? The team that's destroying everyone in the league right now. 

The Atletico match is interesting now, anyone can get a freak result though if they do it twice it is no longer a freak yet good tactics.

Pressure now on Klopp.

4 minutes ago, Strider6003 said:

The Atletico match is interesting now, anyone can get a freak result though if they do it twice it is no longer a freak yet good tactics.

Pressure now on Klopp.

Maybe but Liverpool have been sh*t in the Champions League this season. 

1 minute ago, Strider6003 said:

The Atletico match is interesting now, anyone can get a freak result though if they do it twice it is no longer a freak yet good tactics.

Pressure now on Klopp.

Almost no pressure for him, he beat Barcelona 4:0 at home last season. Atletico had a 2:0 at home vs Juventus and then lost away 3:0 to Ronaldo that is at this point the best European ever to play the game but I think a team is better than one man so it's very hard to believe that Liverpool won't score at home.

3 hours ago, Slojo said:

Do we even have that? Germany has a fantastic atmosphere and I believe they have more people attending their stadiums than we do. EPL probably generates the most revenue, and it is an entertaining league to follow, but it's all over the place talent wise. And Liverpool just lost 1-0 to Atletico so are they really the best team in the world? The team that's destroying everyone in the league right now. 

Just because Atletico played decent enough and got a 1-0 home win, doesnt mean anything really yet, it's only HT.

I think everything combined together, the clubs, stadiums, players, managers, fans, revenue, it's #1 league, just my opinion, im sure German and Spanish league fans will say the same for their leagues. But at the end of the day their isn't much between them.

Terms agreed on a 5 year contract today apparently. 

https://www.chelseafc.com/en/news/2020/02/23/chelsea-transfer-news--hakim-ziyech-agrees-personal-terms

Well other than the fact that they wouldn’t let him go in January, that was about as smooth and under the radar as a transfer could go. Well done to the club and let’s hope he can come in firing from the start.

10 minutes ago, mwblue10 said:

Well other than the fact that they wouldn’t let him go in January, that was about as smooth and under the radar as a transfer could go. Well done to the club and let’s hope he can come in firing from the start.

He’s now got to spend the rest of the season whispering in the ear of his keeper