Youth team.

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Blueman

Blueman

Well-Known Member
Jun 2, 2011
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Nice to see the youth team beating Birmingham 3-0 away in the FA youth cup semi-final. Another talented group to be loaned out or sold off?
I know this has been discussed before but it's absolutely criminal. Every club in the country would love our youth system. What a waste.
 
Blueman said:
Nice to see the youth team beating Birmingham 3-0 away in the FA youth cup semi-final. Another talented group to be loaned out or sold off?
I know this has been discussed before but it's absolutely criminal. Every club in the country would love our youth system. What a waste.
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RA seems to be getting better at wasting his dosh. The players we have bought last year or so are not worth two bob for the lot.
Their weekly wages could build a new stadium !!!!
There is some weird thinking going on at the moment.
 
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Chelsea Pensioner said:
RA seems to be getting better at wasting his dosh. The players we have bought last year or so are not worth two bob for the lot.
Their weekly wages could build a new stadium !!!!
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Yeah I am not sure who convinced him of the new tactic of "Signing 3 **** players is better than signing 1 great one".
It is most certainly quality over quantity in football I am afraid.
We are where we are at because we signed a striker who is ill suited to the way we play, a midfielder who has been a huge dud, and 2 mediocre, permanently injured wasters.

Zappacosta aint been too bad, but slightly meh.
The only summer signing who has been good imo is Rudiger.
 
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Bodinki said:
Yeah I am not sure who convinced him of the new tactic of "Signing 3 **** players is better than signing 1 great one".
It is most certainly quality over quantity in football I am afraid.
We are where we are at because we signed a striker who is ill suited to the way we play, a midfielder who has been a huge dud, and 2 mediocre, permanently injured wasters.

Zappacosta aint been too bad, but slightly meh.
The only summer signing who has been good imo is Rudiger.
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Yep agree with all this.
 
What's frustrating is that you can make a case for most of the signings we've made but they've either been largely poor, injured or both since we signed them.

Rudiger as you say has been decent. Is it a dramatic upgrade over Cahill though? Maybe in the long term. Christensen has done well but has probably been worse than Luiz was in his position last year. All over the park we are worse for the transfers and Conte's falling out with players.

The whole thing is also made to look worse when you see how well players we've let go (De Bruyne, Salah, Lukaku) and players on loan (Bats, Kenedy) are doing.

The only real positive is what we've seen from Ampadu and to a slightly lesser extent Hudson Odoi. These 2 should be the future....but probably won't.
 
chelsea - over 100 years of history said:
What's frustrating is that you can make a case for most of the signings we've made but they've either been largely poor, injured or both since we signed them.

Rudiger as you say has been decent. Is it a dramatic upgrade over Cahill though? Maybe in the long term. Christensen has done well but has probably been worse than Luiz was in his position last year. All over the park we are worse for the transfers and Conte's falling out with players.

The whole thing is also made to look worse when you see how well players we've let go (De Bruyne, Salah, Lukaku) and players on loan (Bats, Kenedy) are doing.

The only real positive is what we've seen from Ampadu and to a slightly lesser extent Hudson Odoi. These 2 should be the future....but probably won't.
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You can make a case for needing players in those positions, yes, but the personnel?

There was no way Morata was ever going to replace Costa. Completely different player.

Players like Drogba and Costa have footballing brains, when you have one striker, flanked closely behind by two lightweight, pacy wingers (such as Hazard and Willian) you need someone who can A) Shake off players, B) Hold up the ball and C) Can bring the aforementioned wingers into the game. Morata is not that type of player, actually he is an instinctive poacher type, more akin to Van Nistelrooy (but inferior in almost every aspect).

Fact of the matter is this, and I said it from Day one, Lukaku would have been great for us, and Morata would have been great for United....we each signed the wrong player.
 
Bodinki said:
You can make a case for needing players in those positions, yes, but the personnel?

There was no way Morata was ever going to replace Costa. Completely different player.

Players like Drogba and Costa have footballing brains, when you have one striker, flanked closely behind by two lightweight, pacy wingers (such as Hazard and Willian) you need someone who can A) Shake off players, B) Hold up the ball and C) Can bring the aforementioned wingers into the game. Morata is not that type of player, actually he is an instinctive poacher type, more akin to Van Nistelrooy (but inferior in almost every aspect).

Fact of the matter is this, and I said it from Day one, Lukaku would have been great for us, and Morata would have been great for United....we each signed the wrong player.
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Very difficult to find players like Costa and Drogba though. Not many of them around. I'm not even convinced Lukaku is that type of player as his control is poor and doesn't assist much. He can be unplayable when in the mood but goes missing a lot. Morato certainly looked the part for the first few weeks in the season playing up top on his own. If he'd have maintained that form, it would be an entirely different conversation. I think he just needs to adapt to the league and physicality a bit more. Players like Aguero, Firminho, Jesus, Son, Vardy can play that up top role without being battering rams because they can cope physically and their teams play to their strengths.
 
chelsea - over 100 years of history said:
Players like Aguero, Firminho, Jesus, Son, Vardy can play that up top role without being battering rams because they can cope physically and their teams play to their strengths.
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But imo Morata cannot cope physically and we do not play to his strengths, that is my point.
He is ill suited to the task we set for him. He had a good month or two at the start of the season, and it is his first season, so I am more than happy to let him have another season, see if he can get right physically and mentally, but right now we are trying to fit a square peg in a round hole.
 
Bodinki said:
But imo Morata cannot cope physically and we do not play to his strengths, that is my point.
He is ill suited to the task we set for him. He had a good month or two at the start of the season, and it is his first season, so I am more than happy to let him have another season, see if he can get right physically and mentally, but right now we are trying to fit a square peg in a round hole.
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Inevitably we will have a new manager in the summer and hopefully we'll be smart enough to appoint someone who can get the best out of the players we have rather than start a new rebuilding job. When you think of the pool of talent we have in the first team, on loan and in the youth set up, it's a great base for someone to build from if we have a slightly more long term plan....and appoint someone who perhaps doesn't mind living in England!
 
chelsea - over 100 years of history said:
Inevitably we will have a new manager in the summer and hopefully we'll be smart enough to appoint someone who can get the best out of the players we have rather than start a new rebuilding job. When you think of the pool of talent we have in the first team, on loan and in the youth set up, it's a great base for someone to build from if we have a slightly more long term plan....and appoint someone who perhaps doesn't mind living in England!
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You and Bodinki have nailed the problems. What we have done apart from lowering the quality of the players in most cases, we have built an unbalanced team in the sense that none of our key players properly combines with the other. Very, very little play comes from the back 3. Dave used to bomb forward but now has to stay back, Rudiger can nail long passes but rarely plays the ball out, and Christensen has plateaued for the moment under the weight of expectation and overuse. Midfield is all over the place like a madmans breakfast, Hazard and Willian are both dangerous but neither play to or with Morata. We are sooooooooo predictable, everything comes from wide left or right crosses and usually ends in a scrum of defenders overpowering our ballplayer.
Oh for a Kenedy, a Luiz, a Callum Odie to bring some vitality to the mix. Even Jose the Kid Hater is using his youth players better than us, and is reaping the reward. If he'd sell us Pogba, we might start to change things at the core ?
Team for the Hammers anyone?? I'd like to see Emerson and Callum get a start, and maybe Pedro, with Hazard benched for a change.
 
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Some good points raised here - it would make a change for us to use our youthful resources more productively rather than loan them out and watch them go native in the process. Apparently rumour has it that we will have a new director of football, that at least would be a step in the right direction providing of course he’s fully qualified unlike Emenalo when he arrived on the scene.
 
Saw a stat the other day that said the u18's haven't lost a home game for 3 years, 49 wins from 54.

Considering the turnover in players every season that's outstanding.
 
Another UEFA youth league final to look forward to. Beat Porto earlier on penalties in the semis. Will play Man City or Barca in the final.
 
Gareth1808 said:
Another UEFA youth league final to look forward to. Beat Porto earlier on penalties in the semis. Will play Man City or Barca in the final.
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Burnley, Stoke and West Brom look on in anticipation at their next crop of players,
 
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