Our 13 win streak started with Hull, Leicester, Jose, Spuds. We are playing reverse in that order, well kind of. Hope the results are not reversed. This will be serious test for Conte & Co. My 11 will be. -------------------- Thibo Ivan Luiz Zouma Azpi Kenedy Matic Kante Willian Hazard Costa -------------------------- This is the only way we can fix our Achilles heel in the Defense. Ivan good with headers & defending. Sub in Moses & Pedro frequently. Or Start them not so frequently. Don't want Alonso. Baba looks upgrade over Alonso. Cannot Defend or Cannot Cross or Cannot finish FFS. Kenedy will fly on the wings. Rotate Moses to the left side. He has a decent left foot as well.
We certainly have options Stan. Given Moses and Alonso both played in pretty much all our 13 straight wins, I would not dismiss them so quickly. I can't remember if Zouma can play left? Can't fault your thinking, but maybe too many changes too quickly?
Can't see Zouma playing unless he has a stormer against Peterborough but either way he will need match fitness. Kennedy is on loan so can't play.
Fixing a defence that's kept 10 clean sheets in its last 14 games with Ivanovic, brilliant. Alonso is far better than what you give him credit for. Not only has he been part of that outstanding defensive record, he's got 3 assists and a goal aswell. So you want to play a guy who wasn't even getting a game at Watford instead?! I'd just play the same XI and prove it was just a one off. 2-0 us.
May not be very popular opinion - but I would like to drop Eden and will go with Pedro & Willian. Eden needs sitting to get his act together.
100% agree. Would like to see Ake and Zouma given some chances over the coming weeks as well to stake their claim. Maybe in the Hull game?
Zouma isn't Cahill Having said that, I posted above that we should drop Eden for a game or two. So it could be Willian or Pedro & Kenedy or Ake covering Zouma
Zouma did well against Peterborough but showed understandably a lack of match fitness. He's not ready for the Leicester game but maybe the Hull game will be a better option. Don't agree with the comments about Edin as he has been top player along with Costa this season.
Dead right Ginger. Until Spurs, every player was in good form, but a few did not excel at 3Points lane. That doesn't mean they need to be dropped, have hit bad form, are hopeless, not good enough or any of the other stuff being said. It means they had a bad game. All players do, even Messi and Ronaldo. When Hazard has a run of poor games, by all means give him a week off.Same for any of them. They did the "13" it's up to the "newbies" to displace them, which they might well do. Ake, Zouma, RLC, etc all have a case, which is great for us. With a bit of luck and continued good management from Conte , we just might have 2 great players for every position by seasons end without spending a penny. So when one runs into some poor form, the other steps in . That's how great Clubs have always been.
Absolutely CP there's too many here that jump on players for a bad game. When you consider what they've achieved equalling the straight win record it's clear it was becoming a weight around their neck. We are among the elite for that effort and losing away at Spuds wasn't all that in the grand scheme of things. A good performance at Leicester is required to set us up for some testing future fixtures. I very happy with the team and management especially for bringing on loan players back to bolster the squad. Things are on the up CP.
They certainly are. Apart from the results ,two things are pleasing me more than any other. 1. Conte has made our squad a Team again. Players fight for the shirt and each other, spirits are up and the atmosphere is hugely improved. 2. The Club is definitely including some kids in their plans at last. Slowly slowly catches monkey. Not all at once, but gradually the spending is slowing and promoting kids is growing. Look forward to Ake getting a chance especially. Christiansen is penciled in for next season apparently, so our defence looks good for years to come.
I am convinced at this stage that you are trolling us. Are you HIAG, making a Chelsea fan log in 6 years ago, playing the long troll game? Azpi in midfield? Kenedy? Where did you just pluck him from? a kid who has played about 10 minutes of football all season (for someone else), and we are just going to through him into the starting XI away to the PREMIER LEAGUE CHAMPIONS!! Baba looks upgrade over Alonso?! I hope you don't mean Baba Rahman? (Who is also on loan anyway). Baba Rahman is far and away the worst player on our books, and that includes the ladies team. He is terrible with a capital TERRIBLE. For all the **** you used to give Mikel, Rahman isn't even fit to clean his boots.
Alonso looks to be Stan's new project now Mikel has left. I actually think Alonso looks a very good player and has settled in a lot quicker than the last few left backs we've bought. I think he'll be even better next year with a year's p.l experience under his best and a year playing the wing back role. Happy to have Ake back as potential cover in that position but I see no reason to mix up the starting 11-12 players that have served us so well 13 out of 14 games.