He's okay. Let's be real though, it's just because we've got such a terrible midfield that anyone who can put in a few tackles, make a few forward passes, looks amazing.

That being said, he'd be an okay squad player, if we move on the likes of RLC, Jorginho, Gallagher, etc... in the summer.

2 minutes ago, Sconnie Blue said:

Depends.

I need to see more than 3 good games, and more importantly where are Kante, RLC, and Gallagher going? 

Romero came from Atalanta, Kulusevski has 1 goal all season and as for Bentacur, he's much like Zakaria where we shouldn't be aspiring to that level of quality to be a nailed on starter. 

 

Going to need to see a lot more and particularly in the attacking end. 

We shouldn't be slapping a permanent contract when Ruben is a prime example of how things can go tits up. And before people use Ruben's injury as an excuse, our midfield was in a dire state at the time under Sarri and Ruben, much like Zakaria now, is only looking good because he was the only decent thing available. 

 

 

Chelsea fans have a knack of getting suckered in when players do the genuinely bare minimum that is required of them. Again, I will not forget Ruben Loftus-Cheek under Sarri. 

Juve signed Romero when he was 19yrs for €30m & kept on loaning him out. Loaned him to Atlanta for one season with an option to buy for €17m, which they activated & sold him to Spurs for €50m. 

C’mon Kulusevski has spent majority of the season injured. 1 goals & 5 assists in 8 starts is brilliant. One to watch as the low buy clause of £29m can only be triggered if he plays 50% of their games which currently he is behind on, or they qualify for the CL. Wouldn’t mind us signing him for around £40m if they can’t trigger the clause, he will be perfect on the RW.

Just now, Sconnie Blue said:

Off the back of 3 good games?

He is already on loan so he got here based on something already. Kovacic had a pretty average first season while on loan but the club permanently signed him as the only option due to the transfer ban and it proved to be a great decision. We need new midfielders anyway and for the money it would be required to sign Zakaria you won't find a better player.

Given we have the option to buy him, and that option is available until the end of his loan, it would be foolish of us to make a call about him now.

Given his, a s our own injury record, we could snap him up now and his next game he does a Broja. Then it looks stupid for activating the clause now.

At the same time to discount him based on the few games he has had is silly as well.

See how he does for the rest of the season. Kovas second half of his loan got us to buy him and that turned put to be really good for us.

11 minutes ago, axman2526 said:

Given we have the option to buy him, and that option is available until the end of his loan, it would be foolish of us to make a call about him now.

Given his, a s our own injury record, we could snap him up now and his next game he does a Broja. Then it looks stupid for activating the clause now.

At the same time to discount him based on the few games he has had is silly as well.

See how he does for the rest of the season. Kovas second half of his loan got us to buy him and that turned put to be really good for us.

Yeah his injury and fitness issues are another concern. 

Suffers the same niggling injuries as Kante, and based on his prior knee injury, it apparently takes him a while to get back to full fitness as we saw earlier in the season. 

 

2 hours ago, RIP Mourinho said:

The thought of upgrading Jorginho with Rice really has got Gol shaking lmao

Out of interest if/when we do sign Rice would you (and others so desperate for him) be willing to hold him to the standards you've been setting of him all this time?

4 hours ago, bisright1 said:

I think the argument would be that if we signed a Rice, then we don't need a Zakaria.

I think my point is we need a starting quality dm not a squad option. If we have extra cash then Zakaria should be considered. 

 

7 hours ago, dkw said:

I think we need both him and ANO, preferably Rice in my opinion. Our midfield is massively lacking, it needs a complete overhaul and rebuild. 

Agree with this. Kante has papered over the cracks for a long time. As soon as you see it for a sustained period without him, you see how poor it is. 

8 hours ago, Sconnie Blue said:

Depends.

I need to see more than 3 good games, and more importantly where are Kante, RLC, and Gallagher going? 

Romero came from Atalanta, Kulusevski has 1 goal all season and as for Bentacur, he's much like Zakaria where we shouldn't be aspiring to that level of quality to be a nailed on starter. 

 

Going to need to see a lot more and particularly in the attacking end. 

We shouldn't be slapping a permanent contract when Ruben is a prime example of how things can go tits up. And before people use Ruben's injury as an excuse, our midfield was in a dire state at the time under Sarri and Ruben, much like Zakaria now, is only looking good because he was the only decent thing available. 

 

 

Chelsea fans have a knack of getting suckered in when players do the genuinely bare minimum that is required of them. Again, I will not forget Ruben Loftus-Cheek under Sarri. 

Are you trying to say RLC wasn't good under Sarri and injuries didn't ruin his potential? Because that's exactly what happened.

Lots of Zakaria disrespect going on here. Yes he’s only had a few good games but that can’t really be said for the rest of our squad can it! They’re all consistently f**king awful!

Now let’s get him signed up before we all regret it. 

5 hours ago, Munkworth said:

Lots of Zakaria disrespect going on here. Yes he’s only had a few good games but that can’t really be said for the rest of our squad can it! They’re all consistently f**king awful!

Now let’s get him signed up before we all regret it. 

Exactly. You can talk about Rice, Bellingham et al until the cows come home, but no guarantees they are signed. A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. Zakaria is better than what we've got and if we improve on that then he'll be good depth.

6 hours ago, Spiller86 said:

Exactly. You can talk about Rice, Bellingham et al until the cows come home, but no guarantees they are signed. A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. Zakaria is better than what we've got and if we improve on that then he'll be good depth.

 

8 hours ago, Gol15 said:

 

Miles ahead of everyone else in a blue shirt!!

21 hours ago, RIP Mourinho said:

Are you trying to say RLC wasn't good under Sarri and injuries didn't ruin his potential? Because that's exactly what happened.

Define “good”,  because even at Ruben’s best he was always severely lacking in his decision making and had little to no influence in the final third. We were all so sick of Kovacic at the time we desperately wanted something new, hence why Ruben beating a few City players convinced many he was good enough. 
 

It’s becoming quite a Chelsea thing to do to think players are apparently good enough if they can dribble out of a press whilst completely ignoring whether or not they can influence an area we have severely struggled since Cesc Fabregas. In my ideal world, players who claim to be #8s have a creative element to their game. 
 

Point being. Zakaria represents a profile that only really improves is if he replaces the depth we already have. 

Edited January 7, 20233 yr by Sconnie Blue

3 hours ago, Sconnie Blue said:

Define “good”,  because even at Ruben’s best he was always severely lacking in his decision making and had little to no influence in the final third. We were all so sick of Kovacic at the time we desperately wanted something new, hence why Ruben beating a few City players convinced many he was good enough. 
 

It’s becoming quite a Chelsea thing to do to think players are apparently good enough if they can dribble out of a press whilst completely ignoring whether or not they can influence an area we have severely struggled since Cesc Fabregas. In my ideal world, players who claim to be #8s have a creative element to their game. 
 

Point being. Zakaria represents a profile that only really improves is if he replaces the depth we already have. 

RLC was fantastic from his debut up until his achilles rupture.

Zakaria very decent again today when he came on. HAS to start every game now and looks our best player after Silva.

Our best player again actually showing he wants to play!!! 

I genuinely can't understand how this guy has turned out to be as good as he is. Putting the rest of the team to shame. 

Should start every game now with Chukwuemeka.

At the moment he is one of the very, very few senior players we can say looks like he wants to be here, looks like he wants to play fro Chelsea.

Just goes to show that physical attributes are in a midfielder for clubs that's not playing a tiki taka style of football are absolute prerequisite. Of course it's not the only trait needed, but players like Jorginho are basically useless in the system we currently have. 

I find it incredible that one of the biggest clubs in the world has not addressed a problem that's been obvious for so very long. Since Matic' second to last season in the club we have had serious issues in the midfield area that has been papered over by an inhuman and over-utilised Kante. I'll go so far as to say that the bigges reason for our sh%t form can be explained by his absence. The psychological effect of a player that never delivers anything less than 100% effort is infectious for the other 10 players on the pitch. 

When fit, I would like to see a midfield of Kante, Zakaria and Chukwuemeka. 100% certain that would have put up a better show than that shower of sh*t yesterday.

 

On 09/01/2023 at 09:22, Nibs said:

When fit, I would like to see a midfield of Kante, Zakaria and Chukwuemeka. 100% certain that would have put up a better show than that shower of sh*t yesterday.

You’d get that midfield maybe 4 times a season with Kante and Zaharia’s injury record. 

Absolute disaster if he is out for any period of time. Was having another quality game tonight before the injury.