11 hours ago, Scott Harris said:

Serie A fell off more than any other league in Europe. Juventus can still pull off a result here and there because their reputation makes teams often give them a bit too much respect (like we did in our away game in the Champions League) but the league overall is absolute garbage these days. There are some absolute trash players that can go there and look competent at times (Bakayoko) and they have players like Giroud, Ibrahimovic, Dzeko and Pedro who can play every week and still regularly score goals.

I have been saying for a while now that I would be worried about signing any player from that league now, and that includes Chiesa before his injury. It's very hard to tell just how good a player is in Serie A these days.

Given issues ‘star’ players from the bundesliga are having here, wouldn’t you say that league has also been exposed for not being all that too?

3 hours ago, Sindre said:

Not excactly good but bloody Rudiger was seemingly the only one who could find him with a half decent pass tonight.

And you know you are in the sh*t for creativity when a bloody defender picks the best pass of the evening. Lukaku needs to have a proper look at himself and perhaps it's him who's ruined the dressing room already. But Mount, Odoi and Ziyech can all have a good look at themselves too.

I can’t defend lukaku’s behaviour and performances over last few weeks. He’s actually shown very little since that apology. So much for making amends. However as you rightly raise, the lack of passes he gets is a joke. There were a few occasions in the second half tonight where balls were fired up to him, he held it up and laid it off to a teammate..how fcuking difficult is it to do this on a more regular basis? The second half display v villa three weeks ago showed he can still be an asset. But not if we pass the ball sideways and at 1 mph.

54 minutes ago, The Brit said:

Given issues ‘star’ players from the bundesliga are having here, wouldn’t you say that league has also been exposed for not being all that too?

Swings and roundabouts. There's examples like Salah, Hazard and Coutinho that have absolutely took the piss out of this league but have struggled elsewhere (well not really struggled in Salah's case but he wasn't half the player in Italy). 'PL proven' player's have jumped between different teams in this league and never been able to replicate their form from their previous clubs, Mata, Torres and Alexis to cherry pick a few examples.

The single biggest factor is system. While all player's of substance should be able to perform to a point, playing in a system that suits your skillset makes a major difference. 

How is it thar a supposed "Chelsea fan" treats the club and fans with such unbelievable disrespect with both his words and performances and yet a man largely considered a Gunners legend came in with such class and team work that he became a Chelsea legend?

Miss you Olly. Top bloke, like Thiago we should have had you here sooner.

 Sadly the highlight reel shows him being in only one chance from inside the box after Rudiger played him. Not sure where it went wrong, he is the kind of player that you would expect to solve these kind of games.

5 hours ago, The Brit said:

Given issues ‘star’ players from the bundesliga are having here, wouldn’t you say that league has also been exposed for not being all that too?

Sancho in particular is having even more of a mare at United than Werner and Havertz are with us !

At United in the PL :

2021/22 - 941 minutes, 1 goal, 0 assists

At Dortmund in the Bundesliga :

2018/19 - 2464 minutes, 12 goals, 14 assists

2019/20 - 2292 minutes, 17 goals, 16 assists

2020/21 - 2069 minutes, 8 goals, 11 assists 

Maybe next week Lukaku start on a bench. We will see what front 3 Tuchel will plays. Who will get the blame next time. Maybe Lukaku fart too loud from the bench makes Werner miss his shot and people still gonna use that against him. I would like to see Kai with Ziyech and Odoi up front then we can rate Lukaku better.

All are forwards aren’t happy look at the face when Ziyech scores.

5 minutes ago, Hall said:

All are forwards aren’t happy look at the face when Ziyech scores.

He's usually like that, remember his reaction when he scored a goal against us...

8 minutes ago, Gol15 said:

He's usually like that, remember his reaction when he scored a goal against us...

It was like he wanted to kill someone. That is not a happy face.

 

Fed up to the back teeth of saying this, lukaku is wrong for this club. In over 55 years of following Chelsea this is our worst buy by a long way. £100m ffs. He is at best f**king useless. Since he been hear he’s f**ked up, there’s something seriously wrong with the set up, it’s obvious TT doesn’t want him and he’s ignored by other players. What does he do? He can’t dribble, he’s outpaced, slow to turn and where is his new found manoeuvrebility? Major f**k up by the club.

So someone please tell me what the f**k he does that benefits Chelsea.

14 minutes ago, Kev56 said:

Fed up to the back teeth of saying this, lukaku is wrong for this club. In over 55 years of following Chelsea this is our worst buy by a long way. £100m ffs. He is at best f**king useless. Since he been hear he’s f**ked up, there’s something seriously wrong with the set up, it’s obvious TT doesn’t want him and he’s ignored by other players. What does he do? He can’t dribble, he’s outpaced, slow to turn and where is his new found manoeuvrebility? Major f**k up by the club.

So someone please tell me what the f**k he does that benefits Chelsea.

Putting aside any playing considerations, you can't hand out a £325K a week contract to one player and expect the rest to be happy at earning half to two thirds less, especially when that player is incapable of performing unless all the rest tee him up.

Edited January 19, 20224 yr by Sexyfootball

Our 2nd tallest player failed to pick up a Brighton player for the corner, he preferred to stand on his own doing a version of zonal marking, even Keown said "Webster was Lukaku's man to mark".

 

 

 

22 minutes ago, coco said:

Our 2nd tallest player failed to pick up a Brighton player for the corner, he preferred to stand on his own doing a version of zonal marking, even Keown said "Webster was Lukaku's man to mark".

 

 

 

Sorry but that's a bit of a stretch to pin their goal on Lukaku ... we had 5 other players in the area where the ball went and none of them had picked up Webster. 

Absolutely terrible goal to concede - as you can see in the still pic below we had 9 players in there to deal with the 5 they had in the box.

Edited January 19, 20224 yr by Sexyfootball

Yeah, clearly it's popular to blame Lukaku for just about anything these days.

If you want to blame anyone for the goal then blame Mount. We were covering in zone and he was in charge of the excact spot Webster scored from. But inexplicably moved away from there too the middle of nowhere opening up the free header for Webster.

Watch from 1.03 here and it's clear as day.

 

10 minutes ago, Sexyfootball said:

Sorry but that's a bit of a stretch to pin their goal on Lukaku ... we had 5 other players in the area where the ball went and none of them had picked up Webster. 

Absolutely terrible goal to concede - as you can see in the still pic below we had 9 players in there to deal with the 5 they had in the box.

 

Can you please explain to me what the 2nd tallest player in our team is doing there ? Whats his thinking on his positioning ? 

Yeah Pinning The Goal On Lukaku Is Just Silly, I Said Yesterday I Thought There Was No Brighton Player In The 6 Yard Box I Was Wrong It Was 1

Playing Zonal And Only Sticking To The 6 Yard Box Doesn't Work, As A Bit Of Movement And The Ball In Is Just Outside The 6 Yard Box And It's Beaten

The Service To Lukaku Bar The Rudiger Chip Has Been sh*t, As I've Said Lukaku Is An Absolute Dick, But Basically Not Trying To Single Him Out By Not Trying To Pass To Him Or Finding Runs He Makes Is Just Putting The Whole Team Behind

Yes Call Him Out N All In The Changing Room And Behind The Scenes, But When You Step Onto The Pitch As A Team And Wear The Chelsea Shirt, Play Together, Not Just Individuals And Signaling One Person Out

4 minutes ago, Sindre said:

Yeah, clearly it's popular to blame Lukaku for just about anything these days.

It's popular for a reason.

It's been a very stop start season for him, but when the chips are down he clearly isn't a player that can be relied on, and that's what we need.

Our team needs more desire & hunger, something Brighton had in spades. You can have all the talent in the world, but without the hunger to do well it means diddly squat.

I think we'll ship him back to Serie A at the end of the season, its just not working out at all. We would be better off playing Mount, Werner and Havertz as our front three, potentially Ziyech if he decides to stop being a moody git.

 

Edited January 19, 20224 yr by Malcolm9

1 hour ago, Sindre said:

Yeah, clearly it's popular to blame Lukaku for just about anything these days.

If you want to blame anyone for the goal then blame Mount. We were covering in zone and he was in charge of the excact spot Webster scored from. But inexplicably moved away from there too the middle of nowhere opening up the free header for Webster.

Watch from 1.03 here and it's clear as day.

 

Mount can't do anything in the air anyway and there is no way he stops Webster that is significantly taller than him, it was a poor defensive setup all around.

Sometimes I feel that Morata has offered us more.

Slightly off topic (though it’s pretty central to my distaste), there’s just something so wrong with these sums. £100mln.

One hundred fxcking million pounds. For one player .let it sink in.

Then the salary. £325,000 per week!? Per week! £17 mln a year. For kicking a ball around with no conviction. But it’s not just obscene relative to his terrible performance. It would be gross even if he were banging in 30 goals. It’s gross relative to the state of the world. Wealth inequality is absolutely off the charts, and the policy response to the pandemic has made it worse. But now I really am going off topic so will stop.

 

Lukaku has been bad but still there have been  plenty of other big money signings just as terrible:

Torres, Morata, Kepa, Werner and yes I'm including Havertz. Yes he went round the keeper that was the winning goal in the biggest ever game but take that one moment out, his career at Chelsea has been an absolute flop. 70m with plenty of game time let's not ignore that. Still time to turn it around however but that's my opinion on it right now.

6 hours ago, axman2526 said:

How is it thar a supposed "Chelsea fan" treats the club and fans with such unbelievable disrespect with both his words and performances and yet a man largely considered a Gunners legend came in with such class and team work that he became a Chelsea legend?

Miss you Olly. Top bloke, like Thiago we should have had you here sooner.

What about Samuel Eto'o, a three times UCL winner who never hid his distain for us before joining came in and worked his socks off.

Here's a supposed Chelsea fan who's proven nothing in the game (bar one title with Conte holding his hand) and he walses around like he's doing us a favour by being here.

I've just seen the highlights again and he was bitching to Azpi about something during the goal and had nothing to complain about with Ziyech's pass it was literally straight to his feet.

The front of this guy is unbelievable, he's ruined such a great atmosphere at this club. 

11 minutes ago, KonaKai Blue said:

Lukaku has been bad but still there have been  plenty of other big money signings just as terrible:

Torres, Morata, Kepa, Werner and yes I'm including Havertz. Yes he went round the keeper that was the winning goal in the biggest ever game but take that one moment out, his career at Chelsea has been an absolute flop. 70m with plenty of game time let's not ignore that. Still time to turn it around however but that's my opinion on it right now.

If you factored just on the pitch then you maybe right, but add all the sheer negatives he brings on top of being sh*t then he's a lot worse than the lot of them, Torres is the only one that comes even remotely close once everything is factored in.

Can I also just add Havertz looked like a complete kid in his short cameo yesterday? Lukaku at least gave the Brighton defenders a fight, Havertz may have had a short cameo but that was an obvious boys v men situation when he was on.

So it's not like we have a lot of options to Lukaku right now.