18 minutes ago, dkw said:

Seems a bit of recency bias going on in with Chelsea fans, which I understand, but he is not a top class defender in any way, shape or form. He fits into the Spanish side as they are rarely attacked down the flanks.

Not this present Spanish side though; Nico Williams & Yamal play like wingers. Cucurella has actually been good going forward and created more chances than Dumfries for example who plays as a wingback for Holland, & is ultra attacking. He has created 2 big chances and made 5 key passes in 3 games, compared with Dumfries with 1 big chance created and 4 key passes in 3 games

6 minutes ago, ducavis said:

Not this present Spanish side though; Nico Williams & Yamal play like wingers. Cucurella has actually been good going forward and created more chances than Dumfries for example who plays as a wingback for Holland, & is ultra attacking. He has created 2 big chances and made 5 key passes in 3 games, compared with Dumfries with 1 big chance created and 4 key passes in 3 games

I was saying Spain are rarely attacked down the flanks, not that Spain dont attack down the flanks.

First game where he had to actually defend and he was dreadful, out of position so often.

Just seen the clip where Sane wrecked him. Seen that far too often with him. He’s so feeble it makes him an immense liability. 

Far post crossess. We have seen team did that to us again and again. 

Spain won, but Cucurella was a liability this game. No challenge on Kolo Muani for the goal. Got away with a clear yellow for obstructing Dembele early on, and was ineffective in attack as he didn't have the speed to get into good positions when underlapping Nico Williams. His defending style oscillates between admirable tenacity and nightmare rashness.

He sort of runs into the attacker and tries to stay as close as possible to put his body in the way, rather than making an actual tackle; this is artful defending if you're built like Maldini or Chiellini but for Cucurella he gets so close and handsy with attackers that he's always a mad moment or a sh*t ref away from a card or needless foul.

The good thing is that virtually all these problems are addressed when he plays as an inverted fullback. He isn't needed to stretch defences and he is rarely the last line of defence. That role/position emphasises the good parts of his game and mitigates the bad. 

The bad thing, of course, is that he is a pretty average player if we decide to do anything else.

 

 

 

4 hours ago, SydneyChelsea said:

Spain won, but Cucurella was a liability this game. No challenge on Kolo Muani for the goal. Got away with a clear yellow for obstructing Dembele early on, and was ineffective in attack as he didn't have the speed to get into good positions when underlapping Nico Williams. His defending style oscillates between admirable tenacity and nightmare rashness.

He sort of runs into the attacker and tries to stay as close as possible to put his body in the way, rather than making an actual tackle; this is artful defending if you're built like Maldini or Chiellini but for Cucurella he gets so close and handsy with attackers that he's always a mad moment or a sh*t ref away from a card or needless foul.

The good thing is that virtually all these problems are addressed when he plays as an inverted fullback. He isn't needed to stretch defences and he is rarely the last line of defence. That role/position emphasises the good parts of his game and mitigates the bad. 

The bad thing, of course, is that he is a pretty average player if we decide to do anything else.

 

 

 

If you want to blame a defender for the goal it would surely be the centre back (Laporte) that was marking Muani and completely lost him.

France were dire, much like watching england in this tournament, where the job is to stop other teams from playing, Spain play attacking inventive football and are in the final on merit. 

If we get past teh dutch, they'll murder England like they did Germany, France. 

Thought Cucrella looked shakey last night but hes had a good tournament tbf. think we'll see quite a bit of him this year under Maresca.

 

It wasn’t his best game of the tournament. Dembele is a top attacker. Spain doesn’t actually have a lot of great players, only Rodri and potentially Yamal world class. Their coach has never coached a in a top league. It’s an interesting case study. 
 

the team is like Yamal just does simple things very well. Makes the game look easy. 

Edited July 10, 20242 yr by ozboy

5 minutes ago, ozboy said:

It wasn’t his best game of the tournament. Dembele is a top attacker. Spain doesn’t actually have a lot of great players, only Rodri and potentially Yamal world class. Their coach has never coached a in a top league. It’s an interesting case study. 
 

the team is like Yamal just does simple things very well. Makes the game look easy. 

Dembele is excellent going forward. His problem, and it's nothing new, is his end product. He has scored 26 goals in 185 games for Dortmund, Barca and PSG. Last night he looked France's only threatening ball carrier but nothing came of it. Subbed for Griezmann and France lost their penetration. Hey ho.

de la Fuente took Spain's U19s and U21s to Euros titles. He knows what he's doing.

28 minutes ago, dermott said:

Dembele is excellent going forward. His problem, and it's nothing new, is his end product. He has scored 26 goals in 185 games for Dortmund, Barca and PSG. Last night he looked France's only threatening ball carrier but nothing came of it. Subbed for Griezmann and France lost their penetration. Hey ho.

de la Fuente took Spain's U19s and U21s to Euros titles. He knows what he's doing.

Last year I  suggested the England actually Irish coach that took England to the u21 was title as a potential Chelsea coach and was regarded, probably correctly, as an idiot. 

Cucurella isn't the long term answer but he is on an upward trajectory and will be playing under a manager who's system has a lot of use for him. 

Just hoping Veiga is the real deal. 

1 hour ago, ozboy said:

Last year I  suggested the England actually Irish coach that took England to the u21 was title as a potential Chelsea coach and was regarded, probably correctly, as an idiot. 

We regard everybody as idiots, with the possible exception of Hiddink 😃

Edited July 10, 20242 yr by Valerie

4 hours ago, Sexyfootball said:

If you want to blame a defender for the goal it would surely be the centre back (Laporte) that was marking Muani and completely lost him.

If the goal comes from Spains right, left or centre they will blame Cucu no matter what. Muani wasn’t Cucu man the two CBs are that fault for losing the striker.

Cucu had a solid game and has been good all tournament. 
He gets unfairly targeted.

Stock is high. Sell sell sell. 

3 minutes ago, Ukraine Bolt said:

Stock is high. Sell sell sell. 

That's how I think Clearlake see it!

Not a case of "Great tournament Marc, so proud you are Chelsea, let's have a storming season and here is a pay rise to keep you sweet" but more "This guy has had a fantastic tournament and at least adds 10-20mil on his sale price, stick him on the market now pronto"

It's all about the profit these days!

30 minutes ago, Mod said:

That's how I think Clearlake see it!

Not a case of "Great tournament Marc, so proud you are Chelsea, let's have a storming season and here is a pay rise to keep you sweet" but more "This guy has had a fantastic tournament and at least adds 10-20mil on his sale price, stick him on the market now pronto"

It's all about the profit these days!

A good tournament doesn't cover over what we've had to watch at club for the last two seasons imo. Glaring weaknesses to his game and if we sell now we can easily upgrade. 

1 hour ago, Ukraine Bolt said:

Stock is high. Sell sell sell. 

Yeah I think this every time I see a 'Cucurella redemption arc' headline. 

Hopefully there will be an owner out there somewhere dumb enough to make a judgement based on a international tournament!

On a completely separate note I hear we've put in a bid for Merih Demiral... 

2 hours ago, PloKoon13 said:

Yeah I think this every time I see a 'Cucurella redemption arc' headline. 

Hopefully there will be an owner out there somewhere dumb enough to make a judgement based on an international tournament! 

Are you balding early too Ploks?

16 hours ago, El regreso said:

If the goal comes from Spains right, left or centre they will blame Cucu no matter what. Muani wasn’t Cucu man the two CBs are that fault for losing the striker.

Cucu had a solid game and has been good all tournament. 
He gets unfairly targeted.

 

21 hours ago, Sexyfootball said:

If you want to blame a defender for the goal it would surely be the centre back (Laporte) that was marking Muani and completely lost him.

Nope, the still is misleading, watch the clip. Kante crashes the box cutting out Laporte and Cucurella doesn't track him nor contest Muani. The still even shows Cucurella ball-watching. We have seen this play at the back post over and over again, it is nothing new.

We've also had the fortune of seeing players like Ashley Cole and Cesar Azpilicueta handle that exact scenario with aplomb.

Edited July 11, 20242 yr by SydneyChelsea

13 hours ago, Mod said:

Are you balding early too Ploks?

No but I lost my toes in a freak lawnmower accident and it offends me that Cucurella is seemingly incapable of using his.

Funny how we are...Cucurella is in the European Championships final and he's been very good.

We are: He is sh*te in defending..and we are also BUT don't sell him for the love of god! 

2 hours ago, SydneyChelsea said:

Kante crashes the box cutting out Laporte

Isn't it absolutely obvious that its Laporte that gets killed by a Muani body feint for that goal? Watched it again now and it seems crystal clear to me.

https://dubz.co/v/a79e96

One can probably blame Cucurella for a lot but that goal was definitly not his fault. And he's had a good tournament for me, littlebit of a shaky start but handled Dembele expertly as the game progressed.

To me it looks like he's continue to build on his terrific end to last season and that can only be a very good thing for us. When James breaks down he's likely the only fullback we have thats capable of inverting into midfield and do well so it goes without saying he'll be important this season.

 

Edited July 11, 20242 yr by OriginalS

Watch him pocket Saka and win the Euros 🤣🤣

7 hours ago, SydneyChelsea said:

 

Nope, the still is misleading, watch the clip. Kante crashes the box cutting out Laporte and Cucurella doesn't track him nor contest Muani. The still even shows Cucurella ball-watching. We have seen this play at the back post over and over again, it is nothing new.

We've also had the fortune of seeing players like Ashley Cole and Cesar Azpilicueta handle that exact scenario with aplomb.

That's a rather desperate argument LOL. And very full of holes. Kante doesn't "cut out" Laporte in the slightest. Muani won his header by a great body swerve to lose Laporte, who even had hands on him about 1 second earlier ...