11 minutes ago, SydneyChelsea said:

Koulibaly was the club's first target for Conte, Rudiger was our compromise. I'm glad Rudiger worked out in the end, it was actually a decent second choice all things considered.

True

It's a disgusting end to what was a superb home debut

He still wants a bit too much time on the ball at times, but apart from that a very good performance capped of by a great goal. 

16 hours ago, True Blue23 said:

He still wants a bit too much time on the ball at times, but apart from that a very good performance capped of by a great goal. 

Yeah I’d agree with that as well. A little slow on the ball but I think he’ll adjust just fine. 
 

Also, for their second goal, he was on goal line marking no-one. He should have been helping defend against Kane etc. 

21 minutes ago, JM7 said:

Yeah I’d agree with that as well. A little slow on the ball but I think he’ll adjust just fine. 
 

 

Silva was awful at that when he joined too

Surprised how good how good his distribution is, wasn't expecting that when we signed him.

3 hours ago, JM7 said:

Also, for their second goal, he was on goal line marking no-one. He should have been helping defend against Kane etc. 

It was incredibly crowded, he wouldn't have been near the ball if he'd jumped for it. Getting back on the line is second best place to be. 

He cannot just let Silva defend against 3 others jumping though. We should be leaving people like Sterling on the line. Other than that he was great yesterday.

I think really Mendy should have tried to punch it out, Spurs overloaded us yet if Mendy gets his first to it we are ok he just watched.

13 minutes ago, strider6004 said:

I think really Mendy should have tried to punch it out, Spurs overloaded us yet if Mendy gets his first to it we are ok he just watched.

Worse than that, he started to go out to the cross, stopped halfway, and was caught in the middle.  It would have been a simple punch out if Cech was in goal., 

....or Kepa

On 16/08/2022 at 01:14, Phillip said:

Worse than that, he started to go out to the cross, stopped halfway, and was caught in the middle.  It would have been a simple punch out if Cech was in goal., 

Post-injury Cech was actually pretty awful at exactly that scenario. He lost a big chunk of his confidence in commanding the area which would have been more exposed had we not aerial monsters like Terry, Alex, Cahill and Ivanovic.

Courtois was really the only other keeper who actually commanded an area. 

 

6 minutes ago, SydneyChelsea said:

Courtois was really the only other keeper who actually commanded an area. 

 

What about Ed de Pornstar?

Bet @Valerie liked a bit of Ed with her ice cream.

Edited August 17, 20223 yr by just

7 minutes ago, just said:

What about Ed de Pornstar?

Bet @Valerie liked a bit of Ed with her ice cream.

Oh god @just, what are you doing to my eyes so early in the morning 😖 De Goey is vying with Maniche for our ugliest player ever. At least Ed contributed more to the team 🙂

4 minutes ago, Valerie said:

Oh god @just, what are you doing to my eyes so early in the morning 😖 De Goey is vying with Maniche for our ugliest player ever. At least Ed contributed more to the team 🙂

You're not fooling me Val. Wasn't he voted the sexiest Man in Holland?

Bet if he was the emergency plumber that was sent out to unblock your sink you wouldn't be disappointed 😉

Edited August 17, 20223 yr by just

2 hours ago, Valerie said:

Oh god @just, what are you doing to my eyes so early in the morning 😖 De Goey is vying with Maniche for our ugliest player ever

Just wait until we sign this Gordon kid.

2 hours ago, just said:

You're not fooling me Val. Wasn't he voted the sexiest Man in Holland?

Bet if he was the emergency plumber that was sent out to unblock your sink you wouldn't be disappointed 😉

Are you projecting @just ?

Rude awakening to the PL for him today. Looked slow and lazy, passing was dreadful, and 2 stupid yellow cards. 

If this is what he is going to be like when teams put a bit of pressure on, then we are in big trouble. The signs of him struggling with English football were there against Everton when he kept picking up cramp before being forced off. Today was much more worrying though. This was his first real taste of what it means to play in the Premier League and he handled it terribly. The most worrying part for me was his first yellow card, look how slow he was, he got completely done by the Leeds player. It happened to him against Everton too, but nothing came of it.

It's too early to say yet, but today and against Everton, he very much looked like a player on the decline, not a player still at his peak and capable of playing 40+ games a season anymore.

Really worrying. Looks good when deep and having players run on to him, and decent enough in the air....

...but an absolute car crash when higher up the pitch and  he has to play on the turn or when getting players run in behind him.

Given how we play, this is a huge problem.

2 hours ago, nonotnowjim said:

Really worrying. Looks good when deep and having players run on to him, and decent enough in the air....

...but an absolute car crash when higher up the pitch and  he has to play on the turn or when getting players run in behind him.

Given how we play, this is a huge problem.

Maybe Todd and Co spoke too early in their braging about Koulibaly, Sterling and Cucurella vindication their signings.

Van Dijk would get exposed with that midfield. People have to realise it's our midfield that are causing our centre-backs issues and that includes Koulibaly.

Koulibaly had a bad day but he is still adjusting to the new league. I think initially he will look more comfortable in European matches, but I do think he has the quality to adapt to the pace of the league. Good players like him and Thiago usually find a way.

30 minutes ago, forbzy said:

Koulibaly had a bad day but he is still adjusting to the new league. I think initially he will look more comfortable in European matches, but I do think he has the quality to adapt to the pace of the league. Good players like him and Thiago usually find a way.

More annoyed at him for the stupid way he was sent off. We can remember how abysmal Silva was at West Brom in his first season. He can adapt he is a classy player. Getting banned does not help with that.

20 minutes ago, axman2526 said:

More annoyed at him for the stupid way he was sent off. We can remember how abysmal Silva was at West Brom in his first season. He can adapt he is a classy player. Getting banned does not help with that.

Agreed. That was totally unnecessary, although Tuchel could have also managed that better. Many on chat were worried about Koulibaly lasting the game after the early booking. Would have been sensible to sub him for Chalobah for the last 20 minutes or so. At that point the game was beyond us and Chalobah might have benefited from the runout too.

I remember many wrote of Thiago after that display against WBA. Hopefully Koulibaly can turn things around the same way.

1 hour ago, JMaher94 said:

Van Dijk would get exposed with that midfield. People have to realise it's our midfield that are causing our centre-backs issues and that includes Koulibaly.

I don't know. It seems like if he is in a 1v1 situation, a quick turn is all it will take to beat him. He may be able to read it, but his legs won't let him turn quick enough to stop the attack, I saw the same against Everton. That is an age thing, not a problem with our midfield or needing time to adapt to a new league. No way would Leeds have got past Rudiger that easily. He would have read it and had the agility and pace to cut the attack out.