Match Day Thread Chelsea v Spurs

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Dier Hard said:
Sell them both, buy a new one and have Lankshear as the understudy.

We can’t keep persisting with mediocrity, it’s been killing us the last few years, may even actually kill us on Sunday.
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The obvious problem there is bumping Lankshear up to our backup striker risks making the same mistake, as we'd be an injury or suspension away from pinning our hopes on somebody whose first team experience mainly consists of getting relegated from the Championship

Clearly we need a new starting striker (and no, not Dusan Vlahovic, we have enough injured players thank you very much...), but having somebody who can mentor the likes of Lankshear or Melia is also needed, and I would certainly trust Solanke for that over Richy
 
humanbeingincroydon said:
The obvious problem there is bumping Lankshear up to our backup striker risks making the same mistake, as we'd be an injury or suspension away from pinning our hopes on somebody whose first team experience mainly consists of getting relegated from the Championship

Clearly we need a new starting striker (and no, not Dusan Vlahovic, we have enough injured players thank you very much...), but having somebody who can mentor the likes of Lankshear or Melia is also needed, and I would certainly trust Solanke for that over Richy
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He’s got to play at some point. Sign two new strikers though if we must, a starter and a Llorente type.

Plus, if I’m a young player being told to learn from Solanke, I’d probably just retire.
 
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Dier Hard said:
He’s got to play at some point. Sign two new strikers though if we must, a starter and a Llorente type.

Plus, if I’m a young player being told to learn from Solanke, I’d probably just retire.
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Let's be honest, Lankshear's game does need rounding out: he's reasonable enough playing on the shoulder of the last defender (albeit in the Championship), but he definitely needs somebody to help him work on his positioning, holdup play and decision-making - and that does fall a lot closer to Solanke's wheelhouse, or to put it another way the main critiques of Lankshear's game (straying offside too much, doesn't necessarily get into the ideal position) are the exact same criticisms of Richy's game
 
humanbeingincroydon said:
Let's be honest, Lankshear's game does need rounding out: he's reasonable enough playing on the shoulder of the last defender (albeit in the Championship), but he definitely needs somebody to help him work on his positioning, holdup play and decision-making - and that does fall a lot closer to Solanke's wheelhouse, or to put it another way the main critiques of Lankshear's game (straying offside too much, doesn't necessarily get into the ideal position) are the exact same criticisms of Richy's game
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Solanke’s game needs rounding out too.

There’s little value in telling a top academy prospect to learn from a mediocre senior player. Be no different from telling Moore to learn from Kolo Muani or Olusesi to learn from Gallagher. I’d rather send Lankshear back out on learn again.
 
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3 strikers, 2 senior and 1 youngster. Sell Solanke and Richarlison ideally and buy 2 more.

You can’t keep senior players because although they’re not very good they might help a youngster make their game more complete.
 
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Dier Hard said:
Solanke’s game needs rounding out too.

There’s little value in telling a top academy prospect to learn from a mediocre senior player. Be no different from telling Moore to learn from Kolo Muani or Olusesi to learn from Gallagher. I’d rather send Lankshear back out on learn again.
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There legit is value in having an academy player learn from an average senior player

Forster was mentoring Kinsky last season, for a start
 
Left on the Shelf said:
Me neither. For the reasons you state. Looked a promising addition but has failed to develop at all and has probably regressed. The injuries haven't helped him for sure, but that brittleness is the final sraw.
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All our youngsters, this new batch we have acquired since Ange came in...Bergvall,Sarr, Udogie,Grey and the few I may have missed, deserve a shot at working with a real coach...since their arrivals they have all worked with managers that I believe are levels below De Zerbi regarding all aspects of the job in hand.
 
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Left on the Shelf said:
Me neither. For the reasons you state. Looked a promising addition but has failed to develop at all and has probably regressed. The injuries haven't helped him for sure, but that brittleness is the final sraw.
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The main issue Udogie's had is he's clearly a line-hugging LB, but he's either spent two seasons cutting inside when it made all the sense in the world to have him hug the line while Sonny cut inside, while this season he's spent most of his time running into the similarly line-hugging Odobert rather than having Xavi or Tel cutting inside

Wouldn't surprise me if he's been rushed back from injury way too many times in the last couple of years, too
 
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Spurlock said:
All our youngsters, this new batch we have acquired since Ange came in...Bergvall,Sarr, Udogie,Grey and the few I may have missed, deserve a shot at working with a real coach...since their arrivals they have all worked with managers that I believe are levels below De Zerbi regarding all aspects of the job in hand.
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I'm all for giving the youngsters chances to develop and acknowledge the limitations of the coaches he has had here, but Udogie was bought nearly 4 years ago, had a successful 2nd season on loan in Serie A with Udinese, and has had 72 appearances to his name with us. He may still only be 23 but he's a full Italy international and no fledgling professional.
Pape Sarr the same I would be sorry to say, as I had high hopes for him too. Another 23 year old with over 100 appearances for us over 3 years and a regular international with Senegal. he's contracted into the next decade FFS!
 
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humanbeingincroydon said:
The main issue Udogie's had is he's clearly a line-hugging LB, but he's either spent two seasons cutting inside when it made all the sense in the world to have him hug the line while Sonny cut inside, while this season he's spent most of his time running into the similarly line-hugging Odobert rather than having Xavi or Tel cutting inside

Wouldn't surprise me if he's been rushed back from injury way too many times in the last couple of years, too
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Points taken, particularly about the returns from injury which applies to quite a few of the squad, but a player surely has to be adaptable enough to be able to play in more than one formation. He's still a LB/LWB at the end of the day?
 
humanbeingincroydon said:
The main issue Udogie's had is he's clearly a line-hugging LB, but he's either spent two seasons cutting inside when it made all the sense in the world to have him hug the line while Sonny cut inside, while this season he's spent most of his time running into the similarly line-hugging Odobert rather than having Xavi or Tel cutting inside

Wouldn't surprise me if he's been rushed back from injury way too many times in the last couple of years, too
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I don't agree with that description.

In fact I don't recall him putting in a decent cross once in his whole career here. Having him out wide is a waste unless he's there to feed a more gifted technician further infield like Maddison or Simons. Anything more than a 10 yard pass appears beyond him.

Like many of our youngsters, I watch Udogie and still can't work out what exactly he is or does.
 
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Left on the Shelf said:
Points taken, particularly about the returns from injury which applies to quite a few of the squad, but a player surely has to be adaptable enough to be able to play in more than one formation. He's still a LB/LWB at the end of the day?
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Udogie can definitely play in more than one formation given Udinese played 3ATB when he was there, so he can play as both a LB and LWB, though as a more Conte-like WB who is there to provide width, while Porro's game is more fluid between staying wide like Conte's system required and cutting inside to overload the flanks for Ange's system

The problem with Frank's system was, much like Mourinho's, it was asymmetrical in the wrong way as it felt like 90% of our attacking moves were coded to the right flank so basically the LB was there for aesthetics
 
humanbeingincroydon said:
Definitely not the fault of Mickey Van bungling a clearance, Bentancur sleepwalking when his man was looking to break or Kolo Muani sending a through ball the wrong bloody way...
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Hence why I said partly to blame…

Should’ve saved from Fernandez and he must’ve thought booting the ball out for throw-ins was a good idea.
 
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