Chelsea Transfer Rumours and Signings

PHB

Nutjob price.
He is going to be great, but isn't anywhere near there yet. I he is not better than Tiago or even Gudjohnson atm.

eirebhoy

I don't think he's anywhere near £26m but Chelsea will be a much better team with him in it. Lampard has been poor this season (including pre-season friendlies). He hasn't scored or set up goal in the 5 or 6 games he's played and is an average MC. With Essien in the team Lampard can push up to AMC and get a load of goals and assists while having a better MC in the team.

Jivin Turkey

eirebhoy wrote:

Lampard has been poor this season (including pre-season friendlies). He hasn't scored or set up goal in the 5 or 6 games he's played

:eek:

He's played one proper competitive game for Gods sake! Have you been watching every minute of Chelsea's friendlies or are you just going by end of game stats? He wasn't a shining light for Chelsea on Sunday, but I wouldn't say he hada particularly bad game.

eirebhoy wrote:

and is an average MC.

He is far from an average MC. He played most of the second half of the season with Gudjohnsen as the third central midfielder and was incredible. You seriously have some issues with this guy Eirebhoy, you don't give him a fraction of the credit he deserves.

PHB

I think he is a terrible central midfielder in anything but a 4-3-3 system, but in a 4-3-3 he is ****ing outstanding, and absolutely unreal player last season for getting forward and getting the goals.
---
Essien isn't better than Tiago.
Tiago is a quality player and people forget that.
Essien is Makelele's eventual replacement, and will be trained as such.

Jivin Turkey

PHB wrote:

I think he is a terrible central midfielder in anything but a 4-3-3 system, but in a 4-3-3 he is ****ing outstanding, and absolutely unreal player last season for getting forward and getting the goals.

Yes a terrible central midfielder. It was only one full season ago that he was playing as one of two central midfielders as part of a 4-4-2, and guess what he still scored 15 goals and started almost every game. :rolleyes:

PHB wrote:

Essien isn't better than Tiago.

Im sure you would have held the same opinion had he gone to United. They may have paid over the odds for him, and there may be a lot of hype around him, but he is a bloody good player.

PHB

Yes he did, but he played pretty much as a forward, and the team suffered because of it. Hence why he isn't good in a 4-4-2.

---

Tiago is a better midfielder atm than Scholes and Fletcher are, quality quality player who is vastly underrated. I'd love to have him in the team.

Van Bommel schooled him rightly in the quarter final of the CL, and it showed that he still has a lot to learn before he is up there.
I've only seen him in the CL though, so perhaps he had a bad game or something.

Jivin Turkey

PHB wrote:

Yes he did, but he played pretty much as a forward, and the team suffered because of it. Hence why he isn't good in a 4-4-2.

If by "the team suffered" you mean achieved their best league finish in 50 odd years (2nd) and reached the semi finals of the CL (again best ever European achievment), yes they suffered. :rolleyes:

And no he didnt play as a forward, he played as a central midfield player with one other beside him. They always played with two forwards under Ranieri.

PHB wrote:

Van Bommel schooled him rightly in the quarter final of the CL, and it showed that he still has a lot to learn before he is up there.
I've only seen him in the CL though, so perhaps he had a bad game or something.

Van Bommel is a classy player, Ive seen the best midfielders in the world outplayed by players of equal footing in the game, doesnt mean they are bad players.

Tiago is a decent player but hes hardly a world beater. Essien obviously has something about him, or else the likes of United and Chelsea would not have been prepared to pay big money for him.

Spider_Baby!

I agree about Tiago, i think he is far better than Fletch but im not sure about Scholes. He really should be a first team player, someone who is way under-used.

eirebhoy

Jivin Turkey wrote:

:eek:

He's played one proper competitive game for Gods sake! Have you been watching every minute of Chelsea's friendlies or are you just going by end of game stats? He wasn't a shining light for Chelsea on Sunday, but I wouldn't say he had a particularly bad game.

I seen the first Milan match, the Benfica match, the Arsenal mach and the Wigan match. I also read a Chelsea forum regularly to see how Duff is getting on. I know I don't rate Lampard as highly as most others but I'm just saying it as it is. This is the goals and assists stats for pre-season:

Pre-Season Goals and Assists after 5 games:
Player G A
Robben 2 4
Duff 2 1
C.Cole 1 2
Jarosik 2 0
Gudjohnsen 0 2
Crespo 1 0
Drogba 1 0
J.Cole 0 1
Makalele 0 1
SWP 0 1
Tiago 0 1

Lampard has not set up one goal or scored 1 goal since last season. This is because he's playing in central midfield. All I am saying is if Essien is bought Lampard can go into his normal position which will not just improve 1 but 2 positions.

This is the view of a Chelsea fan on this site which is basically what I'm saying:

Bazzablue
Chelsea First Team

United Kingdom
1627 Posts

Posted - 01 August 2005 : 12:33:08 Show Profile Email Poster Reply with Quote
I agree about Frank's underperformance.

My theory is that when either Cole or Guddy are in central midfield, they tend to take over Frank's traditional role behind the front 3; Frank tends to play deeper as a result and is far less effective.

It was noticeable last night against Milan that he was anonymous in the first half. When Guddy went off, he played further forward and made more of a contribution.

My conclusion is that Tiago should take the third midfield spot. Although his ability may be questionable, he doesn't cramp Frank's style.

And if I could have a euro for every time Lampard has been anonymous in a match...

I don't have "issues" with Lampard because I don't like the colour of his hair. Its his bloody accent in that ad for the Sun.

Spider_Baby!

Jeez, jarosik has even scored 2!!