Chelsea Team Talk/Gossip/Rumours Thread 2014/15

GavRedKing

Although the sooner Spain go out the better for us with Cesc and Azp coming back.

Techless

GavRedKing wrote: »

Although the sooner Spain go out the better for us with Cesc and Azp coming back.

True and get the Costa deal put to bed........

the_monkey

Spain have it won - I have one of my famously accurate premonitions.

GavRedKing

Techless wrote: »

True and get the Costa deal put to bed........

And keep Lukaku too, hopefully.

the_monkey wrote: »

Spain have it won - I have one of my famously accurate premonitions.

I need to know more, for betting purposes.

grumpymunster

the_monkey wrote: »

Spain have it won - I have one of my famously accurate premonitions.

GavRedKing wrote: »

I need to know more, for betting purposes.

Indeed you cannot keep information like that to yourself when Paddypower has loads of money he wants to give us.

SlipperyPeople

what do ye think of lukakus performance yesterday lads? He didn't seem that up for it but I think he might have suffered from the style of play in the first half. The young fella that came on seemed far more livelier and up for it and did twice as much as lukaku when he was on.

GavRedKing

Lukaku wasnt good enough, his replacement was better.

Will they change it for the next game?

I dont know, I'd expect Chadli to be benched for Fellaini or Mertens.

Algeria was meant to be the easy game in the group too.

grumpymunster

hungoverbunny wrote: »

what do ye think of lukakus performance yesterday lads? He didn't seem that up for it but I think he might have suffered from the style of play in the first half. The young fella that came on seemed far more livelier and up for it and did twice as much as lukaku when he was on.

Didn't see a whole lot of it but Belgium were supposed to be a little lethargic in the first half overall. He was also going into the match carrying a knock but if Benkeke was around would he start the next game?

Still would keep him though.

As for selling him to Spurs I would rather let him leave on a free to Barca.

GavRedKing

Never to Spurs anyway, they were cack upfront last year too and giving them Lukaku, unless its for 100million shouldnt happen.

LightningBlue

GavRedKing wrote: »

Lukaku wasnt good enough, his replacement was better.

Will they change it for the next game?

I dont know, I'd expect Chadli to be benched for Fellaini or Mertens.

Algeria was meant to be the easy game in the group too.

I'd cut Lukaku some slack for yesterday, he was injured in training for Belgium last week. His work rate was poor though which is pretty unforgiveable.

Algeria are a very tricky team to play against. They have some good technical players and were strong defensively (except for the keeper).
They tired badly in the last twenty minutes which let Belgium in.
They'll give Russia and South Korea huge problems.

If were going to sell Lukaku, the best thing we could do is see if Juventus are really interested in him.
That way he's less likely to come back and bite us in the arse and getting someone like Llorente or Vidal in place of him would improve the squad.

Otherwise he should stay put and earn his start. He's only likely got Costa and one of Torres/Ba ahead of him this season.

GavRedKing

At the moment, Lukaku is our number 1 CF ahead of Torres and Ba.

If we sign Costa he'll be number 1 ahead of Lukaku.

hullaballoo

The fixtures around the CL games are a joke: play City the weekend after the 1st CL group stage fixture. AFC After the 2nd game. Utd after the 3rd game & LFC after the 4th game.

It's going to make squad rotation and remaining injury-free hugely important for the first half of the season.

If we make it as far as the UCL QFs and SFs, we have Utd (A) and Liverpool (H) sandwiched between them, respectively.

Even if Utd have a shaky start to the season under the new manager, I'd imagine they'll be back to decent form by the far end of next season under Van Gaal. At least the Liverpool game is at home but it's still going to be hugely tough if we have two SF legs to play either side.

The PL fixtures are after the article and the full season's potential fixtures are below that again:
http://www.chelseafc.com/news-article/article/3913732/title/blues-travel-to-burnley-to-kick-off-campaign

GavRedKing

Horrible fixtures alright but without knowing our UCL group I'm not to worried at the moment.

Of course the UCL is going to be hugely competitive but we should have enough to see us get through the group stage and stay competitive, remember that all the teams, apart from Utd will also bein the UCL and have similar problems as us.

hullaballoo

GavRedKing wrote: »

Horrible fixtures alright but without knowing our UCL group I'm not to worried at the moment.

Of course the UCL is going to be hugely competitive but we should have enough to see us get through the group stage and stay competitive, remember that all the teams, apart from Utd will also bein the UCL and have similar problems as us.

Lol, looking at that again, if we drew LFC for the Champions' League semis, depending on the draw, we could play each other 3 times in 7 days.

hullaballoo

GavRedKing

That would be interesting alright. :pac:

the_monkey

GavRedKing wrote: »

And keep Lukaku too, hopefully.



I need to know more, for betting purposes.

Nadal to win Wimbledon - still at 9/2 ... it's money in the bank ..

kev1.3s

hullaballoo wrote: »

Yep he's a pretty cool customer alright.

kev1.3s

Costa could be free to sign sooner than expected.

duckman!!

kev1.3s wrote: »

Costa could be free to sign sooner than expected.

I keep thinking Costa will be another Torres!!

kev1.3s

I have a similar fear but he's looking better tonight than he did against holland.

duckman!!

kev1.3s wrote: »

I have a similar fear but he's looking better tonight than he did against holland.

We'll it would be hard to be any worse then the last night!!!

obezyana

duckman!! wrote: »

I keep thinking Costa will be another Torres!!

Iv said this a million times to anyone who will listen......Costa is a very bad deal for CFC, another Torres.

tombliboo83

Hope we're not making a massive mistake with Costa, I'm really nervous watching him. Would much prefer higuain or cavani, we can't afford another dud cf but I'll have to trust jose.

kev1.3s

Man span are śhitè

tombliboo83

kev1.3s wrote: »

Man span are śhitè

Too many passengers in that side, dare I say nando should be playing and right now id have mata koke and fab in that team

McDave

duckman!! wrote: »

I keep thinking Costa will be another Torres!!

Jose has to have a clear understanding of why Costa is a success at Athletico, i.e. who serves him and how. And how he can translate into the premiership playing against lesser teams that are better and more stubborn than their Liga equivalents.

I've got doubts myself, and I'm wondering is the delay in finalising the transfer a sign that Chelsea have doubts too. To me Costa lacks finesse. Maybe being a pitbull takes you a certain distance, but Costa has to have the brains and flexibility to integrate into a fluid attacking team. My fear is that Costa is too one-dimensional.

kev1.3s

tombliboo83 wrote: »

Too many passengers in that side, dare I say nando should be playing and right now id have mata koke and fab in that team

Del bosque hasn't the balls to change it.

McDave

tombliboo83 wrote: »

Too many passengers in that side, dare I say nando should be playing and right now id have mata koke and fab in that team

The proverbial tournament too far. Tiki taka is dead. Spain can't make the transition with the baggage of the old players. That's what Chelsea spent Jose's first season doing. Slowly dismantling the tiki taka template being used to attract Guardiola. Even Barca are about to break up the template. End of an era.

cadaliac

McDave wrote: »

Jose has to have a clear understanding of why Costa is a success at Athletico, i.e. who serves him and how. And how he can translate into the premiership playing against lesser teams that are better and more stubborn than their Liga equivalents.

I've got doubts myself, and I'm wondering is the delay in finalising the transfer a sign that Chelsea have doubts too. To me Costa lacks finesse. Maybe being a pitbull takes you a certain distance, but Costa has to have the brains and flexibility to integrate into a fluid attacking team. My fear is that Costa is too one-dimensional.

The last thing we need is another one dimensional striker!

duckman!!

kev1.3s wrote: »

Del bosque hasn't the balls to change it.

+1
He's to loyal to certain players to bring in others.

kev1.3s

duckman!! wrote: »

+1
He's to loyal to certain players to bring in others.

I think it's also a little of fear that he can't create the same magic with a whole raft of new blood.

SureYWouldntYa

Costa hasn't looked good in these 2 games for Spain. He's been awful. I didn't see much of him for AM, but he's looking like a donkey signing atm

mike65

Costa is a ****e Spain player but an excellent "big man" up front. He'll be fine for Chelsea.

GavRedKing

Theres also the distinct possibility that Costa isnt fully fit and if thats the case why didnt he ring Negredo or Llorente?

I'd be happy with Costa I'd prefer Costa AND Lukaku.

The latter wont happen however.

hullaballoo

All this Costa is useless stuff is pure nonsense. Firstly, he doesn't suit Spain's style of play. Secondly, there's no way he's fully fit after trying to play through injury for Atletico in their two finals. He brilliant for AM right up until he got injured.

The good news from CFC's point of view is getting our Spanish guys back into the club and settled down for the start of next season. I suppose in a way I'm glad Torres was so rubbish for Spain as well because it confirms to me that he must be sold. He was always pretty good for Spain even when he was misfiring for us. He's finished now (or, even more finished, whatever you're having.)

I hope it doesn't affect Dave's form too much. I personally thought he was quite good in that game but there's nothing he could have done to prevent those goals tonight, they were all the CB's and keeper.

Cesc didn't feature enough for it to have any impact on him and he's Catalan...

GavRedKing

Ya, having the Spanish guys back is good, more time to prepare and more rest in the "off season"

I dont care how any Chelsea player does on international duty, its nice to see them do well but if they can do it for first, thats all I want really.

hullaballoo

I should also add for those who like stats that Costa's chance conversion rate isn't the best. He's more of a man for making lots of chances for himself rather than relying on the perfect through-ball etc. He will convert on or two of these chances all right but not all.

I think he only got two chances tonight laid up for him and he's not the type of dead-cert player to convert those. Even his positioning tonight says he doesn't know where he needs to be in a tiki taka setup. He wants to run through defenders and use his strength. That is not a feature of Spanish play.

It is something that we can set up for quite easily, imo.

GavRedKing

hullaballoo wrote: »

I should also add for those who like stats that Costa's chance conversion rate isn't the best. He's more of a man for making lots of chances for himself rather than relying on the perfect through-ball etc. He will convert on or two of these chances all right but not all.

I think he only got two chances tonight laid up for him and he's not the type of dead-cert player to convert those. Even his positioning tonight says he doesn't know where he needs to be in a tiki taka setup. He wants to run through defenders and use his strength. That is not a feature of Spanish play.

It is something that we can set up for quite easily, imo.

We dont play tiki taka but we play a possession game where our support 3 like to pass it around and make space, Costa movement will have to be miles better for us as he'll be asked to be more dynamic in the build up, the brawn option is there too with him though.

If we kept Lukaku we'd have the in behind option with his pace and power which is why I dread the day that we do sell him.

hullaballoo

GavRedKing wrote: »

If we kept Lukaku we'd have the in behind option with his pace and power which is why I dread the day that we do sell him.

I've said it before but keeping Lukaku is a must if we sign Costa. Costa won't be the right man for every match. I don't know if there's another available striker who could give us what Costa's game is missing.

Mandzukic? Don't know if we could justify that expenditure with FFP.

GavRedKing

I reckon Lukaku could be kept, does he want to though?

Thats the issue, if he wats out, its game over.

I'd rather know sooner than later though.

Rayne Wooney

SureYWouldntYa wrote: »

Costa hasn't looked good in these 2 games for Spain. He's been awful. I didn't see much of him for AM, but he's looking like a donkey signing atm

Costa had a fantastic season for AM and was the best striker available to Chelsea really, judging him on the last two games is pointless, Spain were brutal overall, the era is over and most of all he doesn't even fit into the tiki taka they try and play

His problem at Chelsea will be finishing more of the chances created for him, there's no point having Hazard, Oscar and Fabregas these fantastic creative players and your striker wanting to do it all himself every time. Chelsea have really pulled away with those signings IMO and are out on their own with City now in terms of the quality of the squad.

Of course there's a risk with every transfer but lightning striking twice on Chelsea and Costa getting Fernando'd would be harsh albeit great entertainment for the rest of us :pac:

duploelabs

I'm glad Spain are out as it means our players (current and future) can get a rest, serious concerns for burn out. Now if Brazil can go too then I'd be happy(ish)

peteeeed

by the looks of it costa is either stilll injured or not match fit, should not have played at all, that spainish team looked like they did not want to play together

GavRedKing

Oscar should be ok, if hes not then Cesc will take his place for the early games, Schurrle or Salah can replace Willian and in CM we'll be ok, we've enough cover for Ramires.

If we can get Belgian players home early that would be a bonus.

GavRedKing

peteeeed wrote: »

by the looks of it costa is either stilll injured or not match fit, should not have played at all, that spainish team looked like they did not want to play together

Ya, I dont think hes fully fit yet, he played the last few Atleticos games carrying the injury and Del Bosque didnt have the balls to drop him for one of the other CFs or even bring a different option.

I thought Pedro would do well, he was terrible too. Busquets and Alonso managed to play the worse I've seen them in any jersey.

If Javi Martinez is your backup CB you've got serious issues.

The Spanish setup has some great younger players, De Gea, Azp, Alba, Koke, Costa, Pedro, Mata, they can all still lead Spain onto glory but for much of the squad its the last time they'll play for Spain in an international tournament.

El Horseboxo

GavRedKing wrote: »

I reckon Lukaku could be kept, does he want to though?

Thats the issue, if he wats out, its game over.

I'd rather know sooner than later though.

Didn't he say something only 2 weeks ago about being at the biggest club in England and that he still hopes to play there but would like clarity on his future. I think Jose or someone just needs to sit down with him and lay out the season long plans. He's young and seems a bit naive and anxious. But he needs to be calmed down by someone with a level head and show him that he's going to get plenty of chances. Even with Costa in the squad.

GavRedKing

El Horseboxo wrote: »

Didn't he say something only 2 weeks ago about being at the biggest club in England and that he still hopes to play there but would like clarity on his future. I think Jose or someone just needs to sit down with him and lay out the season long plans. He's young and seems a bit naive and anxious. But he needs to be calmed down by someone with a level head and show him that he's going to get plenty of chances. Even with Costa in the squad.

I've said it already but as things stand hes our number 1 CF, Costa hasnt been confirmed but it looks like only a matter of time, Lukaku will be our number 2 and get plenty of games, plenty.

38 league games, at least 2 cup games and 6 UCL games.

A conservative estimate means we'll probably get at least 50 games next year and he'll play in probably close to 30 of those, some he'll start, some he wont, if hes playing betetr than Costa and more importantly, out scoring him, he'll be played.

I'd probably just be shot of Torres and Ba, Schurrle is an adequate 3rd CF in a formation that only plays 1 at a time, if as expected we go to a 4-3-3 it means only 2 wingers will play and thats Willian and Hazard so Salah and Schurrle will be back up there at the start.

GavRedKing

If Lukaku wants out, who do we want as our 2nd choice CF?

GavRedKing

One of the main points about the chelsea stadium plan, it may not lead to nothing but at least its a start.

I'd love if that weren't the case, but it's just hard to see how the costs and planning hurdles would have improved greatly. Control of the local council has passed into the hands of the Labour party, who are perceived as being somewhat more football-oriented that the former Conservative council. While this could be a boon to our hopes of expanding, there's no guarantee it will be.