7 minutes ago, Osgoodwasgood said:

You cant beat a Clogger Just, they will never die in my book, for every fancy player you need someone who will roll their sleeves up and die for the cause, imo Rice fits that Bill.

Wenger's post Incredible Arsenal is a great blueprint for trying to field a team of fancy with no grit....even City's best period came with some of that grit (Yaya & Fernandinho for example) among all their fancy players.....and our best days we had a number of players with both the grit, and the skills to be fancy.

 

Grit is essential.  Grit gets you over the finish line when fancy wasn't enough, and is how you end the fancy of other teams from killing you.

 

Edit: Add Aguero to the grit list ahhaha....flash backs of two footed lunges on Luiz abound.

Edited September 30, 20205 yr by Barry Bridges

8 minutes ago, Barry Bridges said:

If Rice came here and became World Class I wouldnt be about 10% as surprised as I am with how Henderson has been at LFC....and still am even though it already happened.  It did happen right?  He was a key player to winning a CL and PL, right?

Barry, Liverpool would'nt be what they are without Henderson, Asshole that he is, Mane, Salah and Firmino would'nt get half the ammunition without him. Rice is the same sort of player, no thrills, just blood and sweat, but maybe its the vital ingredient that we are currently missing.

What we are missing is a settled team and a settled system. 

From Mourinho 1 to Mourinho 2 we played 4:3:3

Under conte we went to 5 2 3 or three at the back

Under sarri we played sarri ball

Under Lampard we have played every system there is and put different players in every position for each of those systems. I am not criticising Lampard per se. He just hasn't settled on anything or maybe believes its better to be flexible.

The result is that in attack we don't have a clear plan for getting the ball from the back to the front. The plan A approach which for lots of teams means working the ball around one side and the middle until the defence gets drawn over and then doing a big  switch to the other side, or with 3 at the back just using the overlapping wing backs. So for Chelsea right now no Plan A in attack and in defence because we chop and change the defence there is no responsibility. Putting the blame on one guy being out of position for a goal doesn't matter because that person probably won't be playing in that position next game. And we don't get the defensive cohesiveness that sense of individual and collective responsibility. Hopefully we get there soon and if Rice is what makes it happen terrific.

 

On 30/09/2020 at 00:01, Imran_CFC said:

I just cannot fathom why we are after Declan Rice when for a similar fee we could potentially land Ndidi who is by far the superior player, it must surely be something to do with Rice being more obtainable.

Ndidi has got the stats above playing far fewer minutes too in comparison to Rice, 2674 Minutes (Ndidi) to 3420 Minutes (Rice).

Just realized that Ndidi is only 23. Wow, he's been around for quite a while too

Edited October 1, 20205 yr by Deino

Ndidi is a superb player. 
 

If we sign Rice, I can only assume we are going to 4231 which Bayern use. 
 

The formation is fantastic defensively and attacking and it can only work with a good pressing team. Kante and Rice would likely be in the 2 which worries me as I rate Kovacic highly but I don’t think Lampard would use him unless he plans of Kova and Rice. 
 

The front 4 picks itself when fit, Pulisic, Havertz, Ziyech then Werner up top. That’s mouthwatering. 

This seems highly unlikely. Rice is their assistant captain. How would they replace him when there is 4 days left of the window..If we paid them the full 80m they would probably just sell him and worry about replacing but we should never buy him at that price. I would say 10% chance...All about outgoings now I think.

2 hours ago, MayosNoun! said:

Ndidi is a superb player. 
 

If we sign Rice, I can only assume we are going to 4231 which Bayern use. 
 

The formation is fantastic defensively and attacking and it can only work with a good pressing team. Kante and Rice would likely be in the 2 which worries me as I rate Kovacic highly but I don’t think Lampard would use him unless he plans of Kova and Rice. 
 

The front 4 picks itself when fit, Pulisic, Havertz, Ziyech then Werner up top. That’s mouthwatering. 

I really hope we play the two 8's we did at the second half at WBA. The pivot is yesterday's formation.

2 hours ago, evissy said:

This seems highly unlikely. Rice is their assistant captain. How would they replace him when there is 4 days left of the window..If we paid them the full 80m they would probably just sell him and worry about replacing but we should never buy him at that price. I would say 10% chance...All about outgoings now I think.

The English window runs until mid October so there's time

I don't see this happening in the current window at this point. We still have a lot of peripheral squad members to shift off the wage bill and that seems to be top priority right now.

On 29/09/2020 at 17:01, Imran_CFC said:

I just cannot fathom why we are after Declan Rice when for a similar fee we could potentially land Ndidi who is by far the superior player, it must surely be something to do with Rice being more obtainable.

Ndidi has got the stats above playing far fewer minutes too in comparison to Rice, 2674 Minutes (Ndidi) to 3420 Minutes (Rice).

Probably because Ndidi is always injured. He's out again now for 2-3 months. Remember he missed a fair amount of time last season and that was a contributing factor to derailing Leicester's season.

46 minutes ago, bisright1 said:

The English window runs until mid October so there's time

The window shuts on Monday 5th

14 minutes ago, rtwelch said:

The window shuts on Monday 5th

I'll be clearer then. 

The transfer window between English clubs shuts on the 16th October.

 

EDIT: Just googled this and the extended transfer window runs until 16th October for EFL clubs and for PL clubs dealing with the EFL. Clear as mud. 

Still, we can sign Rice on Monday and West Ham can approach a football league club for his replacement 🤣

Edited October 1, 20205 yr by bisright1

3 minutes ago, bisright1 said:

I'll be clearer then. 

The transfer window between English clubs shuts on the 16th October. 

Premier League clubs will only be able to trade with EFL clubs, either loans or permanent registrations during the additional period.

22 minutes ago, rtwelch said:

Probably because Ndidi is always injured. He's out again now for 2-3 months. Remember he missed a fair amount of time last season and that was a contributing factor to derailing Leicester's season.

Thats not really true if you look at his apps over the last few years:

PL Apps

2019/20: 32 (29 Starts, 2674 Minutes Played)

2018/19: 38 (37 Starts, 3298 Minutes Played)

2017/18: 33 (33 Starts, 2899 Minutes Played)

Just because he was injured for a part of last season and early this season does not mean he is injury prone, it says to me he may have been rushed back and aggravated his injury.

 

30 minutes ago, DarkMata said:

Premier League clubs will only be able to trade with EFL clubs, either loans or permanent registrations during the additional period.

Yeah I only just realised that after I posted. What a weird rule. 

28 minutes ago, Imran_CFC said:

Thats not really true if you look at his apps over the last few years:

PL Apps

2019/20: 32 (29 Starts, 2674 Minutes Played)

2018/19: 38 (37 Starts, 3298 Minutes Played)

2017/18: 33 (33 Starts, 2899 Minutes Played)

Just because he was injured for a part of last season and early this season does not mean he is injury prone, it says to me he may have been rushed back and aggravated his injury.

 

If he gets injured regularly enough he should fit in perfectly here 😉

8 minutes ago, bisright1 said:

Yeah I only just realised that after I posted. What a weird rule. 

To be honest I didn't know anything about the extension period, I only looked it up after it was mentioned on here.  Strange rule, I'm guessing it might help the EFL clubs in some way.

I doubt this one happens. I can see plenty of outgoing loans though. Not sure we can actually sell anyone in this market though.

It’s going to happen, at 9.48pm on Monday night.

West Ham will claim their fax machine has broke.

23 hours ago, Osgoodwasgood said:

You cant beat a Clogger Just, they will never die in my book, for every fancy player you need someone who will roll their sleeves up and die for the cause, imo Rice fits that Bill.

The thing is Ossie, the really great ones are much than "cloggers". Viera, Keane, Toure, Robson, Essien. All had that physicality, presence and power we are so obviously lacking in our midfield now, but all of them could also play.

Edited October 1, 20205 yr by just

On 01/10/2020 at 20:10, dansubrosa said:

It’s going to happen, at 9.48pm on Monday night.

West Ham will claim their fax machine has broke.

We’ve got the carrier pigeons on stand by!

Bid now - make sure the player knows we have placed a bid. If declined, move on and get someone else. He will come when his contract runs out. 

On 01/10/2020 at 23:00, just said:

The thing is Ossie, the really great ones are much than "cloggers". Viera, Keane, Toure, Robson, Essien. All had that physicality, presence and power we are so obviously lacking in our midfield now, but all of them could also play.

You can Add John Bumstead to that impressive collection 🙂

He’s been absolutely garbage today

1 hour ago, rtwelch said:

He’s been absolutely garbage today

Poor mans Ampadu.