Remember that time Josh Mceachran and Micheal Mancienne were going to be the business!

An upgrade on Kante is some out there statement! Even at 50% of what Kante does is some aim for any player!

I dont think anyone can top kante. However, in his little cameo today he was very good. I have very high hopes for him in this team.

I'm confident that when it comes to end product, that Gallagher can top Kante. For the rest, we'll compensate to a certain degree and hopefully we don't get burned but a few extra goals will be nice!

2 hours ago, venom2011 said:

Doesn't seem to have any outstanding physical characteristics?!! 

Can I get a non Mike Dean VAR decision on this comment please?! 

He is neither particularly quick nor particularly strong. That's what I meant by that His biggest strengths seem to be that he has a lot of energy, is very direct and knows how to score goals and the latter two are not going to be at full display in our current system.

Liked what I saw. Think he will do well. 

Defensively no one is near to a fit Kante. Attacking wise, Gallagher has more end product than Kante. Heck, I’d go as far as to say that he’ll be a better midfielder than Kova, who’s fantastic carrying the ball forward but gets lost in the final third.

Going to be better than Kante & Kova, are you guys high?

He’s on par with Kova on last years stats, same number of goals+assists, and same chances created per 90 minutes. I’m not one for statistics in football, but I think he was a great player for Palace last season and he’ll do well at Chelsea and improve our attacking midfield output in comparison to what we’ve got. But maybe that’s just my pessimism about our actual midfield.

Gallagher is a goal scorer and assist maker. He is the closest thing I have so far seen in a chelsea shirt to lampard. In this system though he needs to also be strong at link play and pressing. He is better in front of goal than any of our current midfields and I'd argue better than Mount at scoring.

In response to the "doesn't have any physical characteristics" I'd answer than he has the coolness in front of goal that defines talent. Its not always the most physically gifted that do the business. 

Look at some of the goals early on in this sequence including the first one. He just makes good decisions and executes them.

 

Edited August 14, 20223 yr by ozboy

He was good when he came on and his quick thinking (to set up Mount) should have ended the game.

I liked his cameo, could have been a goal or assist and we'd call him the super sub now. Against smaller teams defend with 10, he should be starting ahead of Kante. You don't need Kante to run 10 miles up and down the field, you need a goal or 2.

He's almost certain to play now with Kante's injury and Kovacic still out. This is a massive moment for him, he has to take it.

I think he will do well in our midfield next to Jorginho. Could be a good synergy. And with both Kova and Kante out we might also see Chukwuemeka 

Lot of us have high hopes for Gallagher @Mod

I won't go so far as to say better than Kante or Kovacic, though we cam certainly hope far less injury prone. Now is his chance. Impress in training, nail the spot against Leeds and give TT a headache about it. Show an all around game, make himself an option defensively and offensively. 

Kid is special imo, and sooner or later all 3 of Kante, Jorgi and Kova are gone, so he has a chance to become the guy in midfield just as James made himself the guy on the right.

11 hours ago, Mod said:

Going to be better than Kante & Kova, are you guys high?

He could be. He has the ideal make up to play in Kantes current position and improve on it. 

Lots of energy, good end product. This could be the season he becomes a concrete first team player. 

Lukaku has the ideal make up as a striker!

Gallagher might well be a better "fit" for what we need from our central midfielders in this system than either Kante or Kovacic. 

Does he do what Kante does so excellently in breaking up play and winning back possession ? Is he a better dribbler than Kovacic ? No of course not. But he does those same things probably well enough that when you factor in the probable improvements to our attack then it becomes a better overall fit.

We're about to find out anyway ... looking forward to seeing if he can grasp this great opportunity.

55 minutes ago, bisright1 said:

He could be. He has the ideal make up to play in Kantes current position and improve on it. 

Lots of energy, good end product. This could be the season he becomes a concrete first team player. 

An improvement on Kante is a huge ask but I do think he is gonna be fine. I have said in other threads that I would love to see us try a midfield three of Kante, Kovacic and Gallagher and dispense with Jorginho for a few matches. See how we go without a deep sitting purely defensive DM. 

1 hour ago, Mod said:

Lukaku has the ideal make up as a striker!

Well he doesn't does he. We saw that. 

Gallagher has all the attributes we need to play as a b2b CM. Kante is great at the defensive part but too often he makes poor decisions in the final 3rd. 

Gallagher is good at the defensive part, he made a great tackle when Tottenham countered us yesterday, and he's good at the offensive part. 

Kovacic is okay at both, but like Kante makes poor decisions in the final 3rd. Gallagher in my eyes can make out attack more potent. 

Would like to see him play now that Kante is injured again.

4 hours ago, Mod said:

Lukaku has the ideal make up as a striker!

That certainly wasn't/isn't the case, not for a club with our ambitions anyhow.

If we are going to press like we did yesterday, Gallagher is one hell of weapon to bring on second half. Really good cameo.

5 hours ago, just said:

An improvement on Kante is a huge ask but I do think he is gonna be fine. I have said in other threads that I would love to see us try a midfield three of Kante, Kovacic and Gallagher and dispense with Jorginho for a few matches. See how we go without a deep sitting purely defensive DM. 

Would be nice to see of Kante and Kova are ever fit at the same time again.

The positives I take with Kante being inured for a few weeks is that it gives Gallagher a shot at more minutes/starts and also for me ensures we don't do loan or sell him last minute which was a slight possibility. Gallagher obviously wants to be part of world cup squad also and had Kante and Kovacic fully fit, his minutes would be generally subdued and you just wonder with amount of interest in him, whether we would be able to resist a huge bid which Newcastle are apparently contemplating. I don't see how we even let than happen now but even few week.

His comments in the past week before game also indicated we would consider selling depending on size of bid:

"In general, nobody is for sale," he said. "Nobody is for sale, and everybody is for sale. It depends on what the player wants, how bad the player wants it, what we think about who is ready to pay a certain amount of money and then maybe everybody is for sale."

We would be silly to sell him now and look forward to seeing him having a more prominent role now hopefully. 

23 hours ago, bisright1 said:

He could be. He has the ideal make up to play in Kantes current position and improve on it. 

Lots of energy, good end product. This could be the season he becomes a concrete first team player. 

Improve on it?  Damn, Kante is truly underrated

To "match" Kante, Gallagher need to learn to play as pivot first. He need to learn to receive the ball from cb deep in your own half. Distribute, progress and do dm job. Then he can do Gallagher stuff up high. Defensively, you need to help your team to press opp cm like what Kante did with bentacur or even cb and you also need to run back to cover your CB. 

Good luck Gallagher 👍👍👍